Katharine Sturges or Katherine Sturges Knight (August 13, 1890 – January 12, 1979) was an American writer and illustrator. She illustrated books, ceramics and magazines as well as designing jewelry. She collaborated with a number of authors including her husband

Clayton Knight Clayton Knight OBE (March 30, 1891 – July 17, 1969) was an American aviator during World War I. He was also an aviation artist and illustrator, and is known for being one of the founders of the Clayton Knight Committee and the illustrator of t ...

. The artist Hilary Knight is her son and he says that his most famous image of ''Eloise'' was inspired by one of his mother's paintings.

Life

She was born in Chicago in 1890 and she studied at the

School of The Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

.Katherine Stuges
, AskArt, retrieved 9 April 2015 Her early work included illustrating children's books for

P. F. Volland Company P. F. Volland Company of Chicago, Illinois published poetry books, greeting cards,''The American Stationer and Office Outfitter'', Volume 90, page 8. music, children's books, calendars, cookbooks, and children's occupational games, between 1908 a ...

of Chicago. Between 1913 and 1921, she created several examples including ''Short Stories of Musical Melodies''. She was sent to Japan to study oriental art and she used this experience when she published ''Little Pictures of Japan'' in 1925.and many more
JVJPunlishing, retrieved 9 April 2015 Sturges married

, who was a World War One pilot that went on to become an illustrator and writer. They occasionally worked together as they did on fabric designs and on two "

We Were There The ''We Were There'' books are a series of historical novels written for children. The series consists of 36 titles, first released between 1955 and 1963 by Grosset & Dunlap. Each book in the series is a fictional retelling of an histori ...

" books. Sturges illustrated a range of books, but she also created fashion drawings for ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

''. In 1929, she was amongst a group of artists and designers like her husband,

Ralph Barton Ralph Waldo Emerson Barton (August 14, 1891 – May 19, 1931) was a popular American cartoonist and caricaturist of actors and other celebrities. His work was in heavy demand through the 1920s and has been considered to epitomize the era, but hi ...

and

Helen Dryden Helen Dryden (1882–1972) was an American artist and successful industrial designer in the 1920s and 1930s. She was reportedly described by ''The New York Times'' as being the highest-paid woman artist in the United States, though she lived in ...

who were offering "message prints" on silk for "flappers" to wear at Palm Beach. She took on a range of work that included advertising artwork for McCullum hosiery and silver designs by

Oneida Limited Oneida Limited () is an American manufacturer and seller of tableware and cutlery. Oneida is one of the world’s largest designers and sellers of stainless steel and silverplated cutlery and tableware for the consumer and foodservice industries ...

. Sturges also created fabric and jewellery designs that were inspired by Peruvian culture after she was sent by the department store,

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, to South America. The British ceramic company

Spode Spode is an English brand of pottery and homewares produced by the company of the same name, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Spode was founded by Josiah Spode (1733–1797) in 1770, and was responsible for perfecting two extremely ...

employed Sturges to create designs. One of the more unusual commissions was a toile decorated with pictures from the career of President

Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

which is used at the US Presidents guest residence

Blair House Blair House, also known as The President's Guest House, is an official residence in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The President's Guest House has been called "the world's most exclusive hotel" because it is primarily used ...

Family

Katherine Sturges and Clayton Knight had two sons, Clayton Joseph Knight, born in 1924 and Hilary Knight, born in 1926. Hilary was also to become a writer and illustrator. He is best known for illustrating the '' Eloise'' books. Hilary says that he based the image for Eloise on a painting that his mother had made in the 1930s.Barnes & Noble: Meet the Writers series
, retrieved 8 April 2015 Clayton Joseph died in 1963. Clayton, her husband, died in 1969. Sturges died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1979 after a long illness. She was buried in Umpawaug Cemetery in Redding in Connecticut, where her husband was also buried.

Works include

* illust.: ''Short Stories of Musical Melodies'', 1915 * illust.: ''How Sing Found the World is Round'' (Chicago: P. F. Volland, c. 1921), by Sydney Reid * illust.: ''Tales of Little Cats'' (juvenile adaptation; New York: McLoughlin Bros., 1889), by

Carrie Jacobs-Bond Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond (August 11, 1862 – December 28, 1946) was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular music from the 1890s through the early 1940s. She is perhaps best remembered for writing t ...

* illust.: Winkle, Twinkle and Lollypop, by

Nina Wilcox Putnam Nina Wilcox Putnam (November 28, 1888March 8, 1962) was an American novelist, screenwriter and playwright. She wrote more than 500 short stories, around 1000 magazine articles, and several books in addition to regular newspaper columns, serials ...

and Norman Jacobsen * illust.: ''Why the Chimes Rang and Other Stories'' (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1924), by Raymond MacDonald Alden * illust.: ''Little Pictures of Japan'', 1925. * illust.: ''The Rhymes of Goochy Googles and his Pollywog named Woggles'', (McLoughlin Bros. Inc. 1926) by Andrew F. Underhill

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturges, Katharine 1890 births 1979 deaths People from Chicago 20th-century American women writers American illustrators School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni