Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman (1842–1904) was an American artist and illustrator, stained glass designer, and author.[1]
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Sarah Wyman was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1842 to banker William Wyman, but by her third birthday the family moved her to Baltimore, Maryland in the aftermath of her father's involvement in a bank scandal,[2] where she spent her childhood with her wealthy Wyman relatives. When she turned 11, she moved back to Lowell, in 1853 where her education was through tutoring and self-education.[3][4] At the age of 24, she married Henry Whitman, a prosperous wool merchant, and moved to Cambridge, then lived above a lively salon in a spacious townhouse in the crest of Beacon Hill.[5] And, summered on the Beverly Farms, an exclusive section of Boston's North Shore.
A late start for a professional artist, Sarah, at age 26, was first trained in Boston by William Morris Hunt, then in 1877 she went to Paris for a year, to study with Thomas Couture at the Villiers-le-Bel. Within a decade, Sarah was well established, and had her studio; "The Lily Glass Works" set up at 184 Boylston Street, Boston[6] and traveled widely, exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
In the 1890s she focused on stained glass, and became one of the leading designer of stained glass windows, including two windows in Memorial Hall, Harvard side by side of three windows executed by Tiffany, as well as windows in the Schlesinger Library, and Trinity Church in Boston.
In the course of 20 years, she worked with many authors designing the illustrations and covers of over 200 books,[8] with authors such as;
In her 1894 book "Women Illustrators", Author Alice Cordelia Morse says;
Mrs. Sarah W. Whitman of Boston and Margaret N. Armstrong have taken a firm hold on the publishers, and won recognition from the public, by their appropriate, tasteful, well-studied book decoration.
According to the August 7, 1901, New York Times article called "Art Awards at Buffalo", Sarah was honored with a Bronze Metal for her submitted work in the Pan-American Exposition: 'Paintings in oil, water color, pastel, and other recognized mediums; Miniatures, cartoons' category. Artist, such as; Edwin Austin Abbey, John White Alexander and James Whistler took Gold in the competition.
Sarah's notable paintings include:
Among her other talents was writing, as she authored;
In the later years, Sarah, having no children, moved in with her sister Mary Rice, where they shared a home on Portland Street in South Berwick, Maine. Sarah died in June 1904, at the age of 62.
Before her own death, her friend and business partner finished a literary project called "Letters of Sarah Wyman Whitman" published in 1907, three years after Whitman's passing.[1]
Many of Sarah Whitman's papers are housed at the Houghton Library's Special Collections at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.[13]