Evelyn May Bargelt (September 9, 1877 – March 4, 1957) was an American artist and entertainer, known as a "cartoonist-reader" and "one of the Chautauqua queens" when she toured the United States with her live painting show on the Chautauqua and lyceum circuit before 1920.
Early life and education Bargelt was from Traverse City, Michigan, the daughter of Henry (Harry) Smith Bargelt and Mary Loisette Carter Bargelt. She attended the Cumnock School of Oratory and the Chicago Art Institute.
Career Bargelt's stage act involved giving literary readings, accompanied by music, while she drew the stories' scenes, in pastel on paper."Evelyn Bargelt" Evening Republican (April 7, 1915): 4. via Hoosier State Chronicles. "She is a reader of ability, and a cartoonist of unusual cleverness," reported one magazine in 1908."Evelyn Bargelt" The Lyceumite and Talent 1(1908): 46. She headed the Evelyn Bargelt Concert Company and toured the Chautauqua and lyceum circuit.Evelyn Bargelt Concert Company tour program for 1910-1911, University of Iowa. During World War I, she went to Belgium and France to entertain American troops there."Noted Cartoonist at Chautauqua" Lompoc Review (April 2, 1920): 5. via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Off stage, Bargelt painted portraits in Chicago. She had exhibits of her portraits at Marshall Field's in 1934, and at the Drake Hotel in 1939.
Publications
"Lyceum Course Free to Everyone" (1913) "The Young Girl in the Lyceum" (1913)
Personal life Bargelt died in 1957, at the age of 79, at her home in Chicago."Bargelt" Chicago Tribune (March 5, 1957): 22. via Newspapers.com
References