Katherine Milhous - Life

Life

Katherine Milhous was born Nov. 27, 1894 to Osborn and Katherine Daly Milhous of Philadelphia, Quakers who made their living as printers. When she was young they moved to Pitman, a small camp-meeting town in New Jersey. She returned to Philadelphia to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art. Milhous helped support her schooling by illustrating magazines. In 1934, while at the Academy of Fine Arts, she won the Cresson Traveling Fellowship, which allowed her to study overseas. She then returned to Philadelphia where, for forty years, she shared a studio with friend and fellow-artist Frances Lichten.

From 1935 to 1940 Milhous was a supervisor for the Philadelphia Federal Art Project (FAP), a branch of the WPA. Among her duties was the creation of posters promoting Pennsylvania. She incorporated familiar Pennsylvania Dutch designs into her distinctive posters, some of which are still available for sale. Alice Dalgliesh, head of the Children's Book division of Charles Scribner's & Sons, saw Milhous' posters during an exhibition in an FAP gallery, and hired her as a staff designer. Milhous co-wrote and illustrated several books with Dalgliesh, who was also an award-winning children's writer. She also illustrated for others, as well as writing and illustrating her own books.

Milhous was a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. She died in Philadelphia on December 5, 1977. Her papers are held at the University of Minnesota and the Free Library of Philadelphia.