Today we’ll learn more about the photographer Emma Derwent, aka Mrs. Luther Derwent, the photographer from the last post. It seems that in the newspaper and elswhere she most often goes by “Mrs. Luther Derwent” or just “Mrs. Derwent”, so I will use one of those variations to refer to her in the rest of this post.
In my last post, I talked about how Mrs. Luther Derwent took a famous photo of the suffragist Alice Paul, the founder of the National Women’s Party in the US in the mid 1910s. As it turns out, Alice Paul wasn’t the only notable person that Mrs. Derwent photographed, and that’s what I want to talk about today.
Before we talk about her photos, though, let’s get to know Mrs. Derwent as a person. Born Emma Wilder in 1858, she married Luther Derwent in 1888, and they settled down to raise their daughter in Rockford, Illinois. Mrs. Derwent ran a studio there called “The Attic Studio”, at least that was the name of her studio used in ads and elsewhere, including in the name of a talk she gave in 1924, called “My Lena and I, Tales of an Attic Studio.”
Unfortunately, not many directories from Rockford, IL, in the period 1913-1924, are available online, so I can’t say with any certainty it she ever listed the studio as “The Attic Studio” in the Photographers listings in the city directory. In the directories from 1915-1917 at least, her studio is listed under her own name and not as the “Attic Studio.”
BTW, Luther Derwent was never a photographer, as far as we can tell.
The earliest mention of Mrs. Derwent’s career as a professional photographer comes from a description of a photography exhibition in Rockford in 1915. A newspaper article about that exhibit says that the “portraits by Mrs. Luther Derwent” were a highlight of the show. [Rockford Register, April 19, 1915]. Another article in the newspaper in 1915 mentions that Mrs, Derwent has been running her studio for ~2 years.If that’s an accurate estimate, that would mean that the start of Mrs. Derwent’s professional photography career was in 1913, when she was 55 years old. Most of the early women artisan photographers (EWAPs) who have been profiled here on Photographs, Pistols & Parasols started their career at a much younger age, making Mrs. Derwent somewhat unique for becoming a very successful — and much sought-after – portrait artist later in life.
Anyway, in September 1915 the Rockford newspaper covers a visit by the songwriter Carrie Jacobs-Bond. Mrs. Bond was a famous composer at that time, since she was the composer of several extremely popular songs. For example, the sheet music for her song I Love You, Truly sold over one million copies, making her the first woman composer to reach that milestone. Another song, A Perfect Day, was even more popular, selling over five million copies (of the sheet music) and earning her over $1 million dollars in royalties in 1910 alone! The fact that she is not well known today is really a shame – she had an incredibly successful career. She also had quite an interesting life, overcoming many personal and professional obstacles along the way. You can read more about her career here. and more about her life in general here.
But getting back to the events in Rockford, Illinois in 1915… The newspaper article about Mrs. Bond’s visit says she came to Rockford for the purpose of having her portrait taken by Mrs. Luther Derwent. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Even though she hadn’t been in business for very long, her skill as a portrait photographer was already well-known!
Later that same month, an article in the Rockford Daily Republican (on September 25, 1915) describes Mrs. Derwent’s photography in more detail, in addition to giving more details about Mrs. Bond’s visit to Mrs. Derwent’s Attic Studio. Not only did Mrs. Bond get her portrait taken, she also bought an “art study” photograph by Mrs. Derwent. That photo was later used by Mrs. Bond to grace the cover of the sheet music for Mrs. Bond’s song A Little Bit O’Honey.
It’s worth noting that there are many photos by Emma Derwent used in the newspaper over the years of famous people. Here’s just one example:
Mrs. Derwent was also active politically. For instance, not only did she take that photo of Alice Paul, she was also very active as a suffragist with Alice Paul’s National Women’s Party.
Mrs. Derwent was also very prominent in the DAR, serving as the regent of that organization’s Rockford chapter for many, many years. The growth of her local DAR chapter was attributed to her organization and influence. This role gave her many political contacts, both locally and nationally.
Moreover, she eventually became a much sought-after photographer among her political contacts in Washington, DC, where she started operating a studio for at least part of the year, every year, between 1917-1924. Mrs. Derwent took photos of many prominent politicians, including a photo of first lady Grace Coolidge. Mrs. Coolidge called the photo one of her favorites. Here’s a copy of that photo that appeared in a newspaper (it’s not a great scan, but unfortunately I haven’t yet been able to track down a better copy):
In general, Mrs. Derwent’s photography career turns out to be filled with many accolades for her work taking portraits all across the country!
One final thing to note about Mrs. Derwent; it’s kind of a “side story” since it doesn’t have anything to do with photography. In 1913 Emma and Luther Derwent’s daughter, Lucy, won a DAR-sponsored contest to redesign the state flag of Illinois. Lucy Derwent’s design was adopted as the official flag of Illinois in 1915. With only a small modification, the flag is still the official Illinois state flag today.
Mrs. Luther Derwent design credit, instead of her daughter
In 1923, Emma and Luther Derwent — who sold their home in Rockford years before — embarked on their customary months-long trip to the east coast, stopping first in Washington, DC and then traveling to an artists’ colony in Provincetown, MA. Sadly, Mrs. Derwent became ill and died in Provincetown in July 1924. Her obituary in a Rockford newspaper summarized her many accomplishments as well as providing a glimpse of the photographer herself:
The photographer Mrs. Luther Derwent found success in many different areas, both in photography and beyond. So, here on Photographs, Pistols & Parasols today, we celebrate the multi-faceted life and accomplishments of Emma (Mrs. Luther) Derwent: artist, photographer, and activist.
