Artists

Lucille Douglass
Della Dryer
Hannah Elliot
Carrie Hill
Caroline Lovell
Alice Edith Rumph

Before women could vote in Birmingham, a small group of artists used their art to make a mark of lasting significance on their community and the world. Painters, sculptors, illustrators, and teachers, these women created an environment that nurtured the arts in their rough and tumble steel city and shaped the beginnings of the arts in Birmingham.

In a time when men worked in factories, mines or offices and wives stayed home to raise children and run the house, these artists broke the mold and set off for Europe, New York, and the art colonies of the world to explore, study, and create. It was a bold stroke.

Back home they drew on their talent and enthusiasm to form art studios, clubs, and associations that would lead to the establishment of an art museum that is today the largest municipal art museum in the southeast.