| Dorothy Sturm | |
| Birth Date: | August 2, 1910 |
| Birth Place: | Memphis, Tennessee |
| Death Place: | Shelby County, Tennessee |
| Field: | Illustration, Enameler, Educator |
| Alma Mater: | Grand Central School of Art, Art Students League of New York |
Dorothy Sturm (1910 – 1988) was an American artist and educator. She is known for her medical illustrations and her enamel work on metal.
Sturm was born on August 2, 1910, in Memphis, Tennessee.[1] In 1929 she moved to New York where she studied at the Grand Central School of Art and the Art Students League of New York.[2] In New York she became interested in blood cells through her friend Dr. Florence R. Sabin. She studied biology at Columbia University and began creating medical illustrations.[3] She provided the illustrations for the 1956 textbook Morphology of Human Blood Cells by Lemuel Diggs.[1]
In 1934 Sturm returned to Tennessee where she began her career at the Memphis Academy of Art. She was a faculty member until her retirement as a professor emeritus in 1975.[4] In the early 1950s Sturm began working with enamel on metal. She fired her pieces at a high temperature, giving the surface a unique cracked surface.[1] [3]
From 1934 through 1970 Sturm exhibited her work at the Betty Parsons Gallery. In 1956 her work was included in the exhibition Craftsmen in Contemporary Enamels.[1] In 1959 her work was included in the exhibition entitled Enamels at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts.[5]
Sturm died on March 9, 1988, in Shelby County, Tennessee.[1] Her papers are in the Archives of American Art.[6] In 1995 Sturm was honored by the Women of Achievement organization in Memphis.[7]