Calligraphy: A Few Details About Elisabeth Holden Webb, Manuscript Illuminator

March is Women’s History Month.

Elisabeth Holden Webb was born on September 24, 1876 in Geneva, Switzerland. The birth date was recorded on two passenger manifests from 1912 and 1914. The 1900 United States Census asked for the birth month and year; September 1877 was recorded for her. Most publications spelled Webb’s first name with a Z. Her American parents were Charles Henry Webb (New York, 1834–1905) and Elizabeth Wall Shipman (New Jersey, 1844–1908). Webb’s maternal grandmother was Harriet Holden.

The 1880 census counted Webb (line 19), her parents, older brother and paternal grandmother in Manhattan, New York City at 76 East 53rd Street. Webb’s father was an author.

American Women: The Official Who’s Who Among the Women of the Nation (1937) said Webb attended Miss Graham’s School in New York City.

At some point, the Webbs moved to Nantucket, Massachusetts where Webb was a member of the Nantucket Historical Association. She and her parents were listed in the 1895 Massachusetts state census. The 1900 census (lines 58 to 61) said their Nantucket address was 76 Main Street.

Webb wrote poetry. An early work, “He and She”, appeared in the New-York Daily Tribune, January 31, 1897. The Youth’s Companion printed “Leaves Droppers”, in 1904, and “The Road That Meets the Sky”, in 1905.

Webb was twenty-eight-years-old in the 1905 New York state census. Her mother, a widow, was head of the household which included, Webb’s brother, a servant and visitor (lines 37 to 41). Their Manhattan address was 328 West 57th Street.

Field and Stream, February 1907, published Webb’s story, “We Go Fishing with Brother”.

In London, Webb studied calligraphy with Edward Johnston who was a student of William Morris. The 1980 exhibition catalog, 2,000 Years of Calligraphy, said she was Johnston’s first American pupil.

Webb in 2,000 Years of Calligraphy

 

Webb sailed to London at least three times. Apparently, her first visit was in 1909. She was aboard the ship Minnewaska when it departed London on May 1, 1909. Webb arrived at the Port of New York nine days later. On Webb’s next trip, she was on the ship Minneapolis when it arrived on April 5, 1910 in London. (Webb was not counted in the 1910 census which started ten days later.) It's not clear how long Webb stayed during this visit but it may have been over two years.

Priscilla Johnston, the daughter of Edward Johnston, mentioned Webb in her 1976 book about her father. In the chapter, Hammersmith, 1905–1912, Johnston wrote about events in 1912.

... they stayed for five weeks in May and June, Edward going to London for his classes and returning again. Olof again joined them and an American student and dear friend, Elizabeth Webb, stayed at the hotel in the village, as also did Anna Simons, who came to talk about the German edition of the Portfolio. ...

On November 7, 1912, Webb (line 12) sailed on the Minneapolis from London. She was in New York ten days later.

 

Webb’s calligraphy and Alice Boughton’s photographs were exhibited at the Newark Public Library from February 9 to March 8, 1914. A catalog of Webb’s works was produced by the Newark Museum Association.

The exhibition was noted in American Art News, February 28, 1914.

Miss Elizabeth H. Webb and Miss Alice Broughton have on exhibition at the Newark Public Library, under the auspices of the Newark Museum Association, the former, copies of the more beautiful styles of handwriting used by European Scribes from the IV–XV centuries, and the latter, a group of photographs of famous people of our own times.

The Dial, March 6, 1914, said

The revival of a vanishing art, one to which literature owes an incalculable debt, was attempted by William Morris when he made a diligent study of the best examples of calligraphy and illumination that have come down to us on parchment and vellum and papyrus, and turned these researches to account in the making of some beautiful printed books and some choice manuscripts. More recently another Englishman, Mr. Edward Johnston, of London, has been doing his part toward restoring this declining art to favor. And now, on this side of the ocean, the officials of the Newark (N. J.) Public Library—or, more particularly, of the Museum Association connected with the library and using a part of its building—have interested themselves in this branch of art, and are at present exhibiting some examples of it as executed by the deft hand of Miss Elizabeth H. Webb. In a brief printed announcement of the exhibition, sent out by the Newark Museum Association, we read of Mr. Johnston’s work in restoring this neglected craft: “He is teaching it by the direct method instead of by the laborious and indirect method of copying the texts of old MSS. His theory is that with the same tool which the old writers used, a quill pen so cut as to gives strokes like those found in old MSS., and by a careful study of each stroke made in forming letters, and by long and patient practice, present-day writing can disclose the same freedom and feeling, can be as sensitive to the writer’s power and mood, and can possess the same beauty, as did the old. These results are obviously impossible by the indirect method of blocking out the letters with a pencil and then filling in with ink.” That we are not yet incurably corrupted by the type-writer and the printing press is evidently Miss Webb’s and Mr. Johnston’s hope. A list of forty-two historic styles of lettering illustrated by Miss Webb, and of seven “books written” by her, follows the introductory matter.

Once again the ship Minneapolis brought Webb to London on May 12, 1914. After three months, she returned to New York, aboard the Adriatic from Liverpool, on August 29, 1914. The manifest said her address was 15 Gramercy Park, New York, New York.

The 1915 New York state census said Webb (line 1) was a writer who resided at  119 East 19th Street in Manhattan.

Webb had an exhibition in Indianapolis, Indiana from February 3 to March 17, 1915.

Webb’s manuscript lettering was shown in the 1916 book, Applied Drawing.

Webb had the same address in the 1920 census (line 21). She was an artistic worker in the illustration field. She was listed in the New York Social Register 1920.

Webb’s books include The Lotus Leaf (1921), Shining Grass (1926), In Gramercy Park (1928).

The New York Social Register 1925 included Webb.

The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts), August 8, 1929, reviewed the work of the Society of Mystic Artists and said

... Elizabeth Holden Webb’s illuminated manuscripts are a delight. Her copies of eighth and tenth century calligraphy treasured in the British Museum and her own scholarly work are alone worth going far to see.

Webb has not yet been found in the 1930 census. The American Art Annual, Volume 28 (1931) and Who’s Who in American Art Volume 1, 1936–1937 said Webb’s address was 15 Gramercy Park, New York City. American Women: The Official Who’s Who Among the Women of the Nation said she lived at 25 Clift Street in Mystic, Connecticut.
 

The Day (New London, Connecticut), July 21, 1931, covered the Mystic artists’s exhibition and said

... Elizabeth Holden Webb adds one of the most distinctive notes in the exhibition, with a series of illuminated poems. The Twenty-third Psalm, in gold, is a modern equivalent of the great art of the scribes in centuries past. ...

The New York Times, August 6, 1933, reviewed the Mystic Art Association exhibition and said

... The exhibition contains also a bright assortment of small paintings; a room devoted to prints, drawings and water-colors; decorated textiles by Katherine Forest and Frances Hill Jones (Miss Jones has also done some very attractive hand-wrought jewelry); miniatures by Elsie Dodge Pattee and Sarah Eakin Cowan, and a group of illuminated manuscripts by Elizabeth Holden Webb.

The death of Webb’s brother was noted in The New York Times, August 3, 1937.

Webb—Carl, on Aug. 1, at Mystic, Conn., son of the late Charles Henry and Elizabeth Shipman Webb and beloved brother of Elizabeth Holden Webb. Funeral private.

The 1940 census counted Webb (line 18) in Groton, Connecticut at 30 Clift Street. The self-employed artist had four years of high school education. Her house was valued at $7,000.

 

Webb passed away on August 14, 1942. The next day, an obituary appeared in The Day.

Elisabeth Webb, Noted Artist, Dies Suddenly
Elisabeth Holden Webb, prominent artist noted especially for her work illumination, died suddenly yesterday at her home in Clift street. She was stricken while shopping in New London and not wishing to drive her own car called a neighbor in Mystic to drive her home.

On arriving at her residence, assisted by the neighbor, Miss Webb was preparing to retire and call a physician when she died. Death was reported due to a coronary thrombosis.

She was the daughter of the late Charles Henry and Elisabeth Shipman Webb and was born in Geneva, Switzerland. Miss Webb had made her home here since 1927. Her closest survivor is a cousin who lives in Greenwich.

Last rites will be private and will be held at Harry O. Williams’ funeral home tomorrow at 2 o’clock with burial in Champlain, N. Y.

A remembrance was published in The Day, August 17, 1942.

Mystic Woman One of Few Who Knew Rare Art
Mystic—Miss Elisabeth Holden Webb, who died suddenly at her Mystic home Friday was one of the few artists in this country who worked as an illuminator of manuscripts.

She completed her first book for her father, the late Charles Henry Webb, who was literary editor of the New York Times from 1860 to 1863, and this was signed by such notables as Mark Twain, Thomas Bailey Aldrich and William Dean Howells.

Miss Webb learned the medieval art of illuminating from Italian nuns in England. She worked in the manner of the ancient scribes and wrote beautifully on half transparent vellum in lapis lazuli, gold or vermilion, and bound the leaves together into books.

She illuminated a baptismal book on parchment for the Protestant Episcopal cathedral of John the Divine, New York, and also painted scrolls on the walls of the chapel of St. George’s Protestant Episcopal church, New York.

For a time, before coming to Mystic, she maintained a studio in the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park, New York city.

Miss Webb wrote lyrics, printed them on her own hand press in her studio in Mystic, illuminated them herself, and bound them with her own binding machine.

Miss Webb’s father, who died in 1905, was also affiliated with The Californian in San Francisco from 1863 to 1866 and later, returning to New York, he worked for The New York Tribune, writing parodies and humorous articles in prose and verse.

Further Reading
Handicrafts of New England (1949), profile and photograph
“The Art that is Life”: The Arts & Crafts Movement in America, 1875–1920 (1998)
Who Was Who in American Art (1999)


(Next post on Monday: A Few Details About George Ward, Cartoonist and Letterer)