Kate Allen Tryon (March 18, 1865 – 1952) was a journalist, artist and lecturer.

Early life

Kate Allen Tryon was born in the village of

Naples, Maine Naples is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. The population was 3,925 at the 2020 census, and it is home to part of Sebago La ...

, on March 18, 1865. She was the daughter of Charles A. Allen, of Portland, Maine. She attended the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Career

For three years after their marriage, Tryon's husband was local editor of Portland and Bangor newspapers, and Tryon, as his associate, gained a wide experience in journalism. In the fall of 1889 Tryon's husband was able to fulfill his long-cherished plan of studying at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and they moved to

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. As member of the staff of the ''

Boston Advertiser The ''Boston Daily Advertiser'' (est. 1813) was the first daily newspaper in Boston, and for many years the only daily paper in Boston. History The ''Advertiser'' was established in 1813, and in March 1814 it was purchased by journalist Natha ...

'' and its allied evening paper, the '' Boston Record'', Tryon's name became well known to the newspaper-readers of New England. In 1891 she lectured upon the subject of New England's wild song-birds, her field being mostly in the scores of literary and educational clubs which abounded in Massachusetts. She supplemented her lectures by illustrations in the shape of water-color drawings of each bird made by herself, showing its characteristic attitude and background. When not actively engaged in newspaper work in Boston, she was especially happy as an interviewer. She first visited

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

, Wiltshire, in 1910, and she returned 5 other times: "The lark, the nightingale and Richard Jefferies – those are the three things that brought me to England"; the output of these visits is a vast array of paintings.

Richard Jefferies John Richard Jefferies (6 November 1848 – 14 August 1887) was an English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influ ...

(1848–1887) was a Swindon poet.

Personal life

In school in Portland she met James Libbey Tryon and became his wife in

Massena, New York Massena is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. Massena is along the county's northern border, just south of the St. Lawrence River and the Three Nations Crossing of the Canada–United States border. The population was 12,8 ...

. She died in 1952.

Legacy

In 1963 her daughter Sylvia Kramer donated 35 paintings of her mother to the Richard Jefferies Museum at Coate Farmhouse; some of these paintings are now in the

Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is a mothballed museum in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, which is currently closed while a new venue is sought. Collections The Swindon Art Gallery collection was established in 1944 by a local benefactor, H. J. P. ...

Collection. In 1997 her granddaughter Kate Schneider donated to the Richard Jefferies Society an unpublished typed manuscript based on Tryon's visits to Swindon. It was published in 2010 as ''Adventures in the Vale of the White Horse "Jefferies Land": Featuring Kate Tryon's Original Paintings and Photographs from Her Visits to the Area''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tryon, Kate 1865 births 1952 deaths 20th-century American women journalists Journalists from Maine People from Naples, Maine 19th-century American journalists 19th-century American women journalists 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women painters 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters Painters from Maine School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni Journalists from Boston Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century