Dora Erway Explained

Dora Erway
Birth Name:Dora Ella Wetherbee
Birth Date:November 19, 1889
Birth Place:Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Death Date:December 5, 1976
Death Place:Ithaca, New York
Occupation:Home economist, college professor, artist
Spouse(S):Edgar W. Erway

Dora Wetherbee Erway (November 19, 1889 – December 5, 1976) was an artist and home economist on the faculty of Cornell University from 1921 to 1958. She is best remembered today for the Dora Erway Doll Collection, a set of 37 dolls in elaborate historical costumes, made by her students in the 1920s.

Early life and education

Dora Ella Wetherbee was born and raised in Fitchburg, Massachusetts,[1] the daughter of Vernon Wetherbee and Iola E. Wetherbee (later Nutting). Her father was a contractor.[2] Her parents divorced in 1894.[3]

She graduated from Massachusetts Normal Art School in 1912,[4] and attended summer programs at the Commonwealth Art Colony in Boothbay Harbor, Maine for several years. She traveled widely[5] and made further studies as possible, ranging freely across disciplines and institutions.[6] Her art teachers included Cyrus Edwin Dallin and Albert Henry Munsell.[7]

Career

Erway taught art at the high school and college level as a young woman. She was a professor of color and design in the College of Home Economics at Cornell from 1921 to 1958.[8] She was acting head of the Household Art Department in 1944 and 1945. She served on the advisory board of the Journal of Home Economics, and chaired a national committee of the American Home Economics Association. She lectured on textile history and other subjects to community groups.[9]

She spent much of a sabbatical year in 1955 in South America, studying "Inca civilization and culture."[10] She also made wood carvings,[11] and painted in watercolors and oils,[12] [13] and exhibited her paintings and carvings in several gallery shows,[14] including a one-woman show in New York City.

Personal life

Dora Wetherbee married insurance agent Edgar William Erway[15] in the mid-1920s. Her husband was born in 1906, 16 years her junior.[16] She died in 1976, at the age of 87, in Ithaca, New York.[17] The Dora Erway Doll Collection at Cornell includes 37 dolls made in the 1920s by students in Erway's sewing classes,[18] dressed in historical costumes using fabric scraps and, sometimes, their own hair.[19] [20] [21]

Notes and References

  1. News: 1913-04-02 . High School Notes . 3 . Fitchburg Sentinel . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  2. News: 1938-07-05 . Vernon Wetherbee . 9 . Fitchburg Sentinel . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  3. News: 1894-06-14 . Mismated Couples . 1 . The Boston Globe . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  4. Web site: Lang . Susan S. . February 21, 2008 . An 80-year-old student project revealed in the guise of dolls . 2023-06-28 . Cornell Chronicle . en.
  5. News: 1930-01-28 . Mrs. Erway Leaves to Tour the World . 7 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  6. White, M. Vivian, and Ruth B. Comstock, "Dora W. Erway, November 19, 1889 – December 5, 1976)" In memoriam files, Office of the Dean of the University Faculty, Cornell University.
  7. News: December 6, 1976 . Mrs. Erway, 87, Cornell Professor Emeritus, Dies . 7 . Ithaca Journal . Newspapers.com.
  8. News: 1929-02-12 . Good Aids Taste in Wise Spending Says Dora Erway . 9 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  9. News: 1937-01-08 . Textile History Traced in Talk . 5 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  10. News: 1955-06-17 . Professor Erway to Make Trip . 7 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  11. News: Thomas . Dorothy Welty . 1957-02-13 . Ithaca Artists; White Art Museum . 4 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  12. News: 1933-10-18 . Works of 22 Ithaca Artists in Exhibit at Hill Gallery Sponsored by Garden Club . 3 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  13. News: 1957-02-09 . Ithaca Artists . 10 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-29 . Newspapers.com.
  14. News: 1957-05-31 . Museum to Show Water Colors . 4 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-29 . Newspapers.com.
  15. Book: Erway, Edgar William . A Study of the Lumber Industry and Its Merchandising Problems . 1927 . Cornell University . en.
  16. News: 1977-10-17 . Obituary for Edgar W. Erway . 5 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  17. News: 1976-12-07 . Mrs. Erway Dies; CU Prof Emeritus . 26 . The Post-Standard . 2023-06-29 . Newspapers.com.
  18. News: Schoch . Deborah . 1979-04-24 . These dolls are clothed in history . 3 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.
  19. Web site: Guide to the Dora Erway doll collection, 1924–1928. . 2023-06-28 . Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
  20. Web site: Iacchei . J. M. . March 17, 2020 . Rehousing the Dora Erway Doll Collection: A custom-fitting . 2023-06-28 . Cornell University Library Conservation.
  21. News: 2008-12-20 . Library displays historically costumed dolls . 11 . The Ithaca Journal . 2023-06-28 . Newspapers.com.

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