The Red Rose Girls: Introducing Edith Emerson

"When Jessie and Henrietta had moved out of Cogslea, Violet Oakley enlarged the studio to an expansive room fifty feet square and twenty-four feet high. Her young friend and protégé, Edith Emerson, often frequented the newly renovated space. Like her mentor Howard Pyle, Oakley believed that the opportunity to work professionally could be a valuable experience for students. When she heard that Philadelphia's Little Theater needed refurbishing, she encouraged her class at the Academy to compete for the assignment of designing the mural decorations, assuring the theater's board that she would personally supervise the work. Emerson won the job. 

One day in 1916, designs in hand, she stopped at Cogslea unexpectedly to show her drawings to Violet. In the front hall she came upon an odd tableau. Cornelia Oakley, resplendent in an elaborate hat and veil, was stationed on a chair in the hall, posing for the painter John McLure Hamilton, who busily assigned her image to canvas, while Violet, off to one side, sketched an informal portrait. Not wanting to interrupt the concentration of the two noted artists, Edith quickly reported on her progress and turned to leave. Violet called her back and whispered, 'When are you going to finish them so you can come and help me in the studio?'

Emerson regarded this brief interchange as the turning point in her life. It was then that she officially became Oakley's assistant. The Cogslea studio must have provided an inspirational atmosphere for the young apprentice. Violet's magnum opus, the huge 'Unity' painting, dominated one wall of the studio, counterbalanced by iron weights. 

For the next ten years, with Edith assisting, Violet worked on the last portion of her task for the Pennsylvania capitol. On May 23, 1927, Oakley completed the sixteen panels for the Supreme Court Chambers, which she called 'The Opening of the Book of the Law.' That same year she published a limited-edition folio, 'The Holy Experiment,' which contained reproductions of her murals for the Governor's Reception Room and the Senate Chamber. Emerson once told a friend that when Oakley dispatched all her obligations tot he State of Pennsylvania, dismantled the scaffolding, and straightened her studio after the completion of the monumental assignment, she survey the clean, empty space and declared, 'this makes me feel like working!'"

(The video is of Violet Oakley explaining her murals for the state of Pennsylvania. Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)