City Of Fort Worth: Women's History Month: Arts And Sciences Pioneers

Press release from City of Fort Worth:

March 16, 2022

Women’s History Month is a celebration of women’s contributions to history, culture and society and has been observed annually in March in the United States since 1987. In the spirit of that mission, each Wednesday this month, we’ll feature female history-makers from all walks of life in hopes that their stories will inspire you all year long to learn more about and celebrate the accomplishments of other women.

This week’s history-makers are women who excelled in arts and sciences.

Mary Blair was a prolific artist during the 1950s and ’60s, best known for her eye-appealing flair to children’s books, advertisements, theatrical set designs and largescale theme park murals and attractions such as Disneyland’s “It’s A Small World.”

She trained at the Chouinard Art Institute of Los Angeles during the Depression and joined the Walt Disney Co. in 1940, where she created concept paintings for projects related to “Fantasia” (1940), “Dumbo” (1941) and “The Lady and the Tramp” (1955).

Blair developed a distinct look to her concept art by using vivid colors from gouache and tempera to create swirling, highly imaginative images that influenced many of Disney’s feature films of the 1940s and 1950s. Her unique designs led Walt Disney to assign her work on the films “Song of the South” (1948), “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” (1949), “Cinderella” (1950), “Alice in Wonderland” (1951) and “Peter Pan” (1953).

Blair left Disney in 1953 to concentrate on illustrating children’s books and raising a family. She painted images for a series of Little Golden Books, of which her most popular was titled “I Can Fly,” illustrated by Blair with text by Ruth Krauss.

In 1963, Walt Disney convinced Blair to work on Disney’s contribution to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Her concept art on this project would be her final major designs for Disney. The “It’s a Small World” ride proved extremely popular at the World’s Fair and was later adapted for use in Disneyland and Disney World.

Source: Illustration History 

Gyo Fujikawa was born and raised in Berkeley, California, by her Japanese farming father and her mother, who was a social worker. She attended school at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1926. She later worked for Walt Disney Co. in California and worked in studio production and as a commissioned artist, which included promotional work for the movie “Fantasia.”

Throughout her career, she illustrated five books, wrote and illustrated 45 others and designed six U.S. postage stamps. Fujisawa was the first illustrator to command royalties on her images rather than a flat fee.

Throughout her career, her most popular books were “Babies” and “Baby Animals,” which sold a combined 1.3 million copies and are still in print today.

Many people view Fujisawa as the first children’s author to include multiculturalism in her works. Her works featured a multiethnic cast of characters, almost all of whom were exclusively children. She also tended to focus on exploring the emotions of children. Upon her death, the Los AngelesTimes wrote that despite her not having children of her own, “she had a gift for speaking to young children at their level.”

Source: Gyo Fujikawa Biography 

Ada Lovelace was the daughter of the famous poet Lord George Byron and his wife, Lady Anne Byron. Her father left the family just weeks after Lovelace’s birth, but her mother insisted that her daughter have expert tutors to teach her math and science.

When she was 17, Lovelace met mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage and became fascinated by his Difference Engine, an early version of the calculator. He became her mentor.

In 1835, Lovelace married William King, who became the Earl of Lovelace three years later, making her the Countess of Lovelace. They had three children, and even though most wives and mothers of the time worked only in the home, Lovelace continued her work with Babbage, which included translating and adding notes that aided in developing the Analytical Engine, a more complicated version of the Difference Engine. Babbage never received enough funding to complete the Analytical Engine, and Lovelace’s notes were forgotten.

But in 1953, her notes were republished in a book about digital computing that showed how computers work by following patterns. It turns out that long before the first computer was invented, Lovelace had come up with the idea for a computer language. Although Lovelace died more than a hundred years before her notes were rediscovered, because of her advanced way of thinking, she’s often considered the first computer programmer. In fact, in 1979, the U.S. Department of Defense named a new computer language “Ada” in her honor.

Source: National Geographic Kids

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This press release was produced by City of Fort Worth. The views expressed here are the author’s own.