This article is about Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf. For other uses, see
Helen Metcalf
.
Helen Adelia Metcalf
(
nee
Rowe; July 17, 1830 ? March 1, 1895) was a founder and director of the
Rhode Island School of Design
(RISD) in
Providence, Rhode Island
.
Early life and personal life
[
edit
]
Helen Adelia Rowe was born in
Providence, Rhode Island
on July 17, 1830.
[1]
[2]
On November 22, 1852, she married Jesse Metcalf Sr.
[3]
Jesse Metcalf was a
cotton
buyer in the
South
for several years prior to the
Civil War
, later becoming a
textile
manufacturer in Providence and co-founding the Wanskuck Company in 1862 in the
Wanskuck
area of Providence.
[4]
Metcalf taught at Sunday school and was an organist.
[5]
Founding of RISD
[
edit
]
Helen Metcalf helped to found RISD in 1877 after she and a group of Rhode Island women traveled to the
1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
celebration, the first worlds fair held in the United States. The Rhode Island Women's Centennial Commission, chaired by Helen Metcalf, consisted of 34 prominent Rhode Island women who were partially responsible for fundraising for Rhode Island’s state exhibit at the Exposition.
[6]
[7]
While at the fair the Commission visited the Women's Pavilion where the inventions of 75 women were displayed. Metcalf was particularly impressed by this display. When the Exposition ended the RI Commission had $1,675 in left over funds (about $43,000 in 2021 dollars). Upon returning to Rhode Island, Metcalf proposed "that this sum, augmented by a generous family donation, should go toward the establishment of a school for the training of designers for the “art industries” of the area, art teachers for the area's schools, and?because the Metcalfs were ardent collectors with a larger than merely pragmatic view as to what art education should be?for artists as well."
[8]
An alternative option was to build a fountain in
Roger Williams Park
.
[6]
At the time, Providence was a center for decorative arts and industry. Home of the
Gorham Manufacturing Company
, which produced silverwares, Providence also housed over 100 jewelry companies employing over 2500 workers by 1875, making the concept of a design school quite desirable. This enthusiasm for art, art education and the
Aesthetic Movement
was rampant across the nation at the time. Both the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City and the
Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston were established in 1870.
[6]
In 1873, the president of
Brown University
,
Ezekiel Gilman Robinson
, had written that
"many intelligent citizens of our State are now desirous that a Scientific School of high order--a school that which, in addition to its more immediate aims shall not fail to provide also for sub-schools of Design, of Drawing, of Civil Engineering, of Architecture, of the Fine Arts--may speedily be established in Rhode Island."
[9]
RISD's first class was mostly composed of women, who received education in "useful arts, as, for example, designing for calico printers, for jewelers' designs, for carriage and furniture making."
[5]
The first building built specifically for RISD, the Waterman Building was a gift of Jesse & Helen Metcalf.
[8]
Metcalf directed the school until her death in 1895.
[3]
Her involvement was direct and hands-on, and she took a keen interest in everything from teaching methods of the faculty, encouraging the students in their work, arranging the furniture in the most effective ways, and driving school fundraising efforts.
[5]
Today, RISD Alumni include many notable creators such as "designer
Nicole Miller
,
New Yorker
cartoonist
Roz Chast
,
Family Guy
creator
Seth MacFarlane
and three members of the
Talking Heads
".
[6]
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
She is buried at
Swan Point Cemetery
.
[10]
- Metcalf's daughter,
Eliza G. Radeke
, served as president of the school after her mother's death.
- Metcalf's other son, Stephen Olney Metcalf, became the school's treasurer in 1884.
[6]
His daughter
Helen Metcalf Danforth
served as President of the Corporation of RISD and as the Board of Trustees chair.
The Jesse + Helen Rowe Metcalf Society, an organization at RISD that recognizes "donors who have demonstrated their generosity and commitment to RISD by incorporating the college and/or museum into their estate plans" was named in their honor.
[12]
She was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1996.
[2]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Fame, Dr Patrick T. Conley, With Contributions by the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of (2019).
Leaders of Rhode Island's Golden Age, The
. Arcadia Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-4671-4148-2
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
a
b
"Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, Inducted 1996"
.
Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame
. Archived from
the original
on 2016-03-04
. Retrieved
2016-03-08
.
- ^
a
b
Cutter, William Richard (1920).
American Biography: A New Cyclopedia
. Pub. under the direction of the American historical society.
- ^
Dunn, C. (2010, September 12). A mill-village heritage woven in.
The Providence Journal
.
- ^
a
b
c
McCabe, C. (1994, Mar 14). WOMEN IN R.I. HISTORY making A difference expo inspires school for 'useful arts' HELEN A. R. METCALF 1830-1895.
Providence Journal
. Accessed March 10, 2024.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Helen Metcalf, The Mom Who Founded RISD With Some Leftover Dough"
.
New England Historical Society
. 2015-11-21
. Retrieved
2021-11-14
.
- ^
"RISD History and Tradition | RISD"
.
www.risd.edu
. Retrieved
2021-11-14
.
- ^
a
b
pls4e (2018-07-17).
"Waterman Building, Rhode Island School of Design"
.
SAH ARCHIPEDIA
. Retrieved
2021-11-14
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
In pursuit of beauty : Americans and the Aesthetic movement
. Doreen Bolger, Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1986.
ISBN
0-87099-467-0
.
OCLC
13820767
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: others (
link
)
- ^
"Notable Persons Interred at Swan Point Cemetery"
.
Swan Point Cemetery
. Retrieved
2016-03-08
.
- ^
"Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame: Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, Inducted 1996"
.
riheritagehalloffame.org
. Retrieved
2021-11-14
.
- ^
"Donor Recognition | RISD"
.
risd.edu
. Retrieved
2021-11-14
.
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