SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.- The Frye Art Museum presents "Pioneer Women Photographers: Myra Albert Wiggins, Adelaide Hanscom Leeson, Imogen Cunningham, and Ella E. McBride," on view through March 2, 2003. As part of the Frye Art Museum’s program, Celebrating Women in the Arts, this exhibition features the work of four women who made significant contributions to the field of art photography. Internationally recognized for their talents, Imogen Cunningham, Myra Wiggins, Ella McBride, and Adelaide Hanscom were all associated with Seattle at one point in their distinguished careers.

 

A major figure in the history of photography, Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) graduated from the University of Washington and later worked for Edward S. Curtis. She eventually opened her own portrait studio in Seattle. Myra Wiggins (1869-1956)pioneered Dutch genre photography. She also joined with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Clarence White and Gertrude Kasebier, to form the Photo-Secessionist group. Ella McBride (1862-1965) met Edward Curtis in 1897 while on a mountain climbing expedition up Mount Rainier. After working for Curtis, McBride eventually opened her own studio in Seattle. Adelaide Hanscom’s (1876-1932) photographically illustrated Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam made her an instant celebrity. After her studio was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, she relocated her business to Seattle.