Florence White Williams (1888-1953)

Florence White Williams was born October, 24, 1888 in Putney, Vermont.

Miss Williams was a member of the All-Illinois Society of the Fine Arts which awarded her its Silver Medal in 1932; the Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors; South Side Art Association (past Vice-President and Exhibition Chairman); American Artists' Professional League and represented her profession in Zonta International.

Exhibitions include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran in Washington, the Baltimore Museum, the All-Illinois Society of the Fine Arts, Detroit, Milwaukee, etc., and won various prizes. One painting was owned by Rufas Dawes, President of the Century of Progress Fair.

She died on May 17, 1953 in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Sources:
Catalog: Century of Progress exhibition by artists of Illinois. 1933. Additional information from the Illinois Historical Art Project.

Submitted by Edward P. Bentley, researcher from Lansing, Michigan

A painter, teacher, wallpaper designer, and illustrator of children's books, Florence Williams was born in Putney, Vermont and lived in Chicago, Illinois, and Greenfield, Massachusetts. She studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with Henry Snell, John Carlson, and Ames Aldrich.

Williams was active in the South Side Art Association in Chicago and the Illinois Academy of Fine Arts and exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. In Boston, she was a prize-winner in the Boston Line Greeting Card Contest.

In 1924 Williams did illustrations for Black Beauty, and these illustrations were copyrighted by the Saalfield Publishing Company of Akron, Ohio.

Sources:
Peter Hastings Falk (editor), Who Was Who in American Art
Stella Halpern, Note about Black Beauty