Adelia Sarah Gates

Adelia Sarah Gates (October 24, 1825 - September 21, 1912) was an American illustrator of botanical specimens.[1][2] After several years working as an elementary schoolteacher and amateur decorative painter and watercolorist, she began to expand into scientific illustration, especially of plants and flowers. She traveled, collecting and documenting specimens from her expeditions later in her life.[3][4]

Adelia Sarah Gates
Born(1825-10-24)October 24, 1825
Otego, New York
DiedSeptember 21, 1912(1912-09-21) (aged 86)
San Francisco, California
NationalityAmerican
EducationMadame Vouga’s school, Geneva, Switzerland
Known forBotanical illustrator

Early life

She was born in the Susquehanna Valley, specifically Otego, Osego County.[5] Gates worked as a governess, farm worker and teacher. At the age of 22, Gates moved to Lowell, Massachusetts to take up work in the cotton factories.[6] In her thirties, she attended Antioch College, only to leave after two years due to health issues.[7]

Career

She started painting in her fifties, after taking lessons from Emilie Vouga in Geneva.[5][8] Later in her life in San Francisco, she sought out further education in identification and naming of specimens from noted botanists Sara Plummer Lemmon and John Gill Lemmon, for which she traded lessons in "flower painting" and sketching.[9]

During her lifetime, a colorful biography of her life and travels including expeditions to paint specimens was written by Adela Elizabeth Orpen. Titled The chronicles of the Sid, or, The life and travels of Adelia Gates, it was published in New York by Fleming H. Revell Company[10] and in London by the Religious Tract Society.[11] In the book, Orpen describes Gates, who was her governess for 14 years, by saying that "Though an artist, she is not a great genius; though a traveller in many lands, she has had no thrilling adventures. She never did any horrid deed, nor suffered any hideous privations."[7] Orpen refers to Gates as "the Sid," rather than Adelia, throughout the book explaining that "Sid means lady or mistress, and is the title by which she was known in the Sahara."[7]

Gates died in San Francisco on September 21, 1912.[12] After her death, over 600 of her works were exhibited and donated to the United States National Museum, which later became the Smithsonian Institution.[13]

References
  1. "Record Unit 7312". Adelia Gates Collection. Smithsonian Institution Archives.
  2. Adelia Sarah Gates, AskArt
  3. Lockshin, Nora. "Adelia Gates—Flower Painter or Botanical Illustrator?". Smithsonian Institution Archives.
  4. Adela Elizabeth Richards Orpen (1897). The chronicles of the Sid: or, The life and travels of Adelia Gates. Ayer Publishing. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8369-9145-1. Retrieved March 30, 2012.
  5. "Adelia Gates Collection, 1879-1898 and undated". SIA RU007312. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  6. Orpen, Adela Elizabeth Richards (1897). The chronicles of the Sid: or, The life and travels of Adelia Gates. New York, Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company.
  7. Orpen, Adela (1893). "The chronicles of the Sid, or, The life and travels of Adelia Gates". Fleming H. Revell Company. p. 8.
  8. "Vouga, Emilie". Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00192924.
  9. Brown, Wynne (March 8, 2018). "A Friendship Revealed – and Revived?". The Bigger Picture. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  10. Orpen, Adela E. (1893). The chronicles of the Sid, or, The life and travels of Adelia Gates. Life and travels of Adelia Gates. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.
  11. Orpen, Adela Elizabeth Richards. (1893). The chronicles of the Sid: or, The life and travels of Adelia Gates. Life and travels of Adelia Gates. London: The Religious Tract Society.
  12. "Gates". The San Francisco Call. September 22, 1912. p. 20. Retrieved June 3, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Learned to paint at 50". The Washington Post. April 27, 1914. p. 4. Retrieved June 3, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
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