Emilie Benson Knipe was one of 6 children of Gustavus A. Benson and Emilie Therese Geisse Benson. She honed her skills in precise drawing of details and rendering of emotive interaction partly in Howard Pyle’s 1899 illustration classes at Drexel Institute, where she showed two works in that year’s exhibition of the School of Illustration. She continued her studies at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. She began her career as a magazine illustrator of children’s stories.
She was married to Davidson Kennedy from 1887 to 1902. She then married Alden Arthur Knipe, a football coach for the University of Iowa and an author. She illustrated several of his children’s books; she then collaborated with him as author on several books for children and adults for which she provided illustrations. As the decorative borders in The Happy-Day foretell, she later became known for her paintings of flowers.
Source:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10942617/emilie-knipe
https://www.illustration-art-solutions.com/gertrude-kay.html
