Harriet Sartain was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Henry Sartain and Anna Maria Toby Sartain.[2] Her mother was born in England. Her father was a printer and engraver, as was her grandfather, John Sartain, and her uncle William Sartain.[3][4][5] Another uncle, Samuel Sartain, was married to Harriet Judd Sartain (1830–1923), an early woman physician in Philadelphia.[6][7] She trained as an artist at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women,[8] with further studies at Teachers College, Columbia University.[9]
Sartain taught art from her own studio, and was director of the art studio at Swarthmore College beginning in 1902.[2][11] She was a founding member of the Plastic Club,[12] and president of the club from 1913 to 1916.[13][14] During World War I, she was first dean of the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy.[15][16][17] She succeeded her aunt Emily Sartain to become dean of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women in 1920.[8][18][19] When that school merged with the Moore Institute in 1932, she was dean of the joint institution until her retirement in 1946.[9][10][20]
"Definite Training in the Appreciation of Beauty and its Function in Human Happiness" (1926)[23]
Death and legacy
Sartain died in 1957, at a hospital in Philadelphia, at the age of 83.[9] Moore College of Art and Design offers a Harriet Sartain Fellowship to fund student travel.[24] Moore College also has a dormitory named Sartain Hall, in honor of the Sartain family, including Harriet and Emily Sartain.[25] Her papers are part of the Sartain Family Papers collections at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania[4] and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[3]
^Blankenburg, Lucretia L. and Sartain, Paul J.. "Harriet Judd Sartain (1830–1923)". Notable Women of Pennsylvania, edited by Gertrude Bosler Biddle and Sarah Dickinson Lowrie, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016, pp. 171-172.
