Kate Cameron Simmons (1880 — April 9, 1978), later known as Kate C. S. Cornell, was an American artist and arts educator. She was the first teacher hired by the Pacific Northwest College of Art when it was organized in 1909.
Early life Kate Cameron Simmons was born in Saint Thomas, Danish West Indies"Kate Cornell, 98, Retired Newton Teacher" Boston Globe (April 10, 1978): 33. via Newspapers.com and raised in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of diplomat Waldemar Moe Simmons and Mary E. Langthorne Simmons."W. M. Simmons Dies; Former Vice Consul" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (September 29, 1915): 20. via Newspapers.com Her father was also born on Saint Thomas."Simmons" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (September 29, 1915): 20. via Newspapers.com She graduated from Miss Whitcomb's Seminary for Young Ladies, in Brooklyn."Miss Whitcomb's Seminary" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 4, 1898): 7. via Newspapers.com She earned degrees from Columbia University in 1912 and 1915,Columbia University, Annual Commencement (1912, 1915) 21, 47. and from Pratt Institute, with training as both a teacher and an artist.
Career In 1909, Simmons was chosen by the Portland Art Association to help curator Anna Belle Crocker organize the Art School of Portland (now Pacific Northwest College of Art)."Art Association to Have School" The Oregon Daily Journal (July 3, 1909): 12. via Newspapers.com Simmons was the school's first teacher.Sarah Munro, "Portland Art Association" The Oregon Encyclopedia. Her salary was underwritten by arts patron Julia Christiansen Hoffman."A History of the Pacific Northwest College of Art" (August 2005): 1.
Simmons spoke at the 1914 meeting of the Women's Federation of the Photographers Association of America, in Atlanta, Georgia, on the topic of "the art principles that underlie portrait composition".Pearl Grace Loehr, "The Women's Federation of the P. A. of A." Bulletin of Photography (April 29, 1914): 526. Simmons traveled in Europe with her sister later in 1914."Experiences of Americans Abroad as Noted in Recent Letters" Brooklyn Life (October 3, 1913): 15. via Newspapers.com She returned to New York to teach art at Girls' High School until her marriage in 1920. In the 1930s and 1940s she taught high school art and English, in Newton, Massachusetts, where she was also adviser to the Puppeteers Club.Newton North High School, Newtonian (1943): 12, 68. She was president of the Newton Women's Club, and was elected to the town's School Committee as a "sticker candidate" in 1930."Newton" Boston Globe (December 8, 1930): 11. via Newspapers.com"Recount in Newton for School Board" Boston Globe (December 10, 1930): 15. via Newspapers.com"Little Change Due in Newton Tax Rate" Boston Globe (January 2, 1931): 18. via Newspapers.com She resigned from the board in 1934, soon after her husband died."Report Card Hearing Planned in Newton" Boston Globe (June 18, 1934): 24. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Kate Cameron Simmons married Ward Ireland Cornell in 1920."Weddings from Apr. 1920 to Mar. 1921" Brooklyn Blue Book (1921): xvii. They lived in MassachusettsUntitled social item, New-York Tribune (July 15, 1920): 11. via Newspapers.com and had a son, Ten Broeck Cornell (1924-2008)"Tenbroeck Cornell" Boston Globe (May 28, 2008): 35. via Newspapers.com and a daughter, Mary Langthorne Cornell, who died in infancy in 1922. Kate Cornell was widowed when her husband died in 1934."Death in Newton of Ward I. Cornell" Boston Globe (February 7, 1934): 13. via Newspapers.com As Kate C. S. Cornell she donated a rowboat named "Uncas" to the Adirondack Museum.Hallie E. Bond, Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks (Syracuse University Press 1998): 284. In 1947, she was the victim of an armed home invasion robbery in her home in Newton, Massachusetts."2 Held in $50,000 for Robbery of Newton Woman" Boston Globe (March 17, 1947): 7. via Newspapers.com"Newton Woman Attacked in Home" Boston Globe (March 16, 1947): 1. via Newspapers.com
Kate Cameron Simmons Cornell died in 1978, aged 98, at a nursing home in York, Maine.
References
External links An ex libris bookplate for Kate Cameron Simmons, by Frances W. Delehanty, in the Maria Gerard Messenger Collection of Women's Bookplates, at The Grolier Club. Patrick A. Forster, "'Art Feeling Grows' in Oregon: The Portland Art Association, 1892-1932" (M. A. thesis, Portland State University 2011).