Margaret Evans Price (March 20, 1888 – November 20, 1973) was a

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

toy manufacturer. With her husband, Irving Price, and

Herman Fisher Herman Guy Fisher (November 2, 1898 – September 26, 1975), was born in Unionville Pennsylvania. He is best known as the co-founder of the famous toy brand Fisher-Price. Biography Herman G. Fisher was born in Unionville, Pennsylvania in 1898. ...

, she co-founded Fisher-Price Toys in 1930. Margaret Evans was a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

. She became the first Art Director of

Fisher-Price Fisher-Price is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. The company was founded in 1930 during the Great Depressio ...

and designed push-pull toys for the opening line, based on characters from her children's books.

Family

Margaret was a member of the wealthy

Evans Evans may refer to: People *Evans (surname) *List of people with surname Evans Places United States *Evans Island, an island of Alaska *Evans, Colorado *Evans, Georgia *Evans County, Georgia *Evans, New York *Evans Mills, New York *Evans City, ...

family of New York who for a time had an effective monopoly on the

building material Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rock (geology), rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materia ...

industry in the City. Margaret's Brother Heathcliff expanded his Father's business operations to include a book binding business which at its peak encompassed a complex of buildings on East 12th Street in Manhattan. Margaret's Cousin was Republican Politician and Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court

Charles Evans Hughes Charles Evans Hughes Sr. (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was an American statesman, politician and jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the ...

. After getting married, she lived with her family in

East Aurora, New York East Aurora is a village in Erie County, New York, United States, southeast of Buffalo. It lies in the eastern half of the town of Aurora. The village population was 5,998 per the 2020 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metr ...

. In 2014, her former residence is being considered for demolition or historical preservation.

Career

Margaret Evans began her art career at an early age, and sold her first illustrated story to the ''

Boston Journal ''The Boston Journal'' was a daily newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1833 until October 1917 when it was merged with the '' Boston Herald''. The paper was originally an evening paper called the ''Evening Mercantile Journal''. Whe ...

'' in 1900. She attended high school in

Charlestown, Boston Charlestown is the oldest Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from dow ...

, and went on to study at the Massachusetts Normal Art School. From there, she went on to study at the Boston Academy of Fine Arts under the tutelage of

Joseph DeCamp Joseph Rodefer DeCamp (November 5, 1858February 11, 1923) was an American painter and educator. Biography Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he studied with Frank Duveneck. In the second half of the 1870s he went with Duveneck and fellow students ...

and Vesper George.Meibohm Fine Arts
Accessed online, September 11, 2008 Before she married Irving Price, Evans worked as a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

artist in New York City, publishing with

Rand McNally Rand McNally is an American technology and publishing company that provides mapping, software and hardware for consumer electronics, commercial transportation and education markets. The company is headquartered in Chicago, with a distribution c ...

Harper & Brothers Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

and Stecher Lithography ochester, NYref name="miller">Luke, Tim & Solis-Cohen, Lita: Miller's American Insider's Guide to Toys & Games: American Insider's Guide to Toys & Games, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2002. After the formation of Fisher-Price, Margaret went on to exhibit her work in many galleries nationally. She was also published in ''

Nature Magazine ''Nature'' is a British weekly scientific journal founded and based in London, England. As a multidisciplinary publication, ''Nature'' features peer-reviewed research from a variety of academic disciplines, mainly in science and technology. It ...

'', the ''

Women's Home Companion ''Woman's Home Companion'' was an American monthly magazine, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s. The magazine, headquartered in Springfield, O ...

'', and ''

Pictorial Review The ''Pictorial Review'' was an American women's magazine published from 1899 to 1939. Based in New York, the ''Pictorial Review'' was first published in September 1899. The magazine was originally designed to showcase dress patterns of German i ...

''.

Notes

External links

* 1888 births 1973 deaths Fisher-Price Toy inventors American women illustrators American illustrators People from East Aurora, New York {{toy-designer-stub