Miss Meikelham sat before the fire

Miss Meikelham sat before the fire
Miss Meikelham sat before the fire

Miss Meikelham sat before the fire

Date1908
Artist (American illustrator, 1873–1949)
Illustration CitationNot published.
MediumInk and graphite on illustration board
Dimensionssheet: 10 7/16 × 14 1/2 in. (26.5 × 36.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1987
Object number1987-126
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThis 1908 drawing, and a similar one on the reverse which is marked "rejected," may have been designed for but not used in a planned version of John Corbin's novel The Edge, which appeared in book form in 1915. A label, also on the reverse, gives the title The Blight of Charity, a chapter in The Edge. In the novel, Miss Meikelham is an educated woman whose reduced circumstances force her to seek work as a maid.

May Wilson Preston attended the Art Students League in New York from 1892 through 1897 but left when, as a woman, she was not allowed to attend life drawing classes, an experience that led to her activity in the struggle for women's rights. An illustrator for many major magazines, she was one of the few early female associate members of the Society of Illustrators in New York. Women were not admitted to full membership until the 1920s.
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