Hildreth Meiere
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Hildreth Meiere (1892 New York City – 1961), American artist, architectural artist, muralist and mosaicist.
After studying at New York's Convent of the Sacred Heart, the Art Students League of New York, San Francisco and Florence as a young woman, and after a stint in the U.S. Navy, Meiere became well-known for contributing well-integrated public art mosaics to many landmark buildings. Among many awards, she was the first woman honored with the Fine Arts Medal of the American Institute of Architects.
Asked how to say her name, she told The Literary Digest (which spelled the name Meière) "It is of French origin and I pronounce it mee-AIR. My father's family anglicized the pronunciation to meer, but I have always used the more proper form." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
Meiere and sculptor Lee Lawrie were members of the loose "repertory company" of artists hired assembled by architect Bertram Goodhue. Some of Meiere's best work is very visible in Manhattan, although reportedly she was proudest of her work on the Nebraska State Capitol.
Significant projects include:
- mosaics for the Great Hall dome of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC (with Goodhue)
- extensive evolution-themed floor and ceiling art within the Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska (with Goodhue)
- mosaics and four stained glass clerestory windows for St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York City (with Goodhue)
- the 75-foot mosaic arch over the sanctuary, and mosaics surrounding the Torah-shaped bronze ark, for the 1930 Temple Emanu-El, New York City
- the three metal rondels called "Song", "Drama" and "Dance" on the 50th Street facade of the Radio City Music Hall building at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, designed by Meiere with metalwork executed by Oscar Bach
- also at Rockefeller Center, the recently installed 13 by 17 ft wall sculpture in the underground concourse called "Radio and Television Encompassing the World" that was inspired by a drawing by Meiere,
- extensive mosaic work for the Red and Gold Banking Room on the ground floor of Bank of New York Building (formerly the Irving Trust Company Building, also known as One Wall Street), New York City
- mosaics at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis (New Cathedral), St. Louis, Missouri, one of 20 artists engaged in assembling the largest collection of mosaics in the world
