Alice Barber Stephens

Alice Barber Stephens (1858-1932) studied art at the School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art) and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she was a member of the first class that admitted women, which was taught by Thomas Eakins. She also studied at the Academie Julian in Paris.

She married Charles H. Stephens in 1890 and in 1897, she helped found the Plastic Club, which was an art club for women that met at the Philadelphia School of Design. By 1904 when she and her husband moved to Rose Valley, she was a nationally acclaimed illustrator. Their house and studios, “Thunderbird Lodge” had been a bank barn that was converted for them by Will Price.

 

Sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica, “Women In American History”
A History of the Plastic Club
History of Rose Valley, Vol.1
Brandywine River Museum, Catalogue of the Collection, p.103