Nellie Cornish

Nellie Cornish

Nellie Centennial Cornish (1876 - 1956) was a pianist, teacher, writer, and founder of the Cornish School (now Cornish College of the Arts) in Seattle, Washington. She was influenced by the pedagogical ideas of Maria Montessori as well as Calvin Brainerd Cady's ideas about teaching broader values through music education. Martha Graham described her as "a small, round, plump little lady with the dynamism of a rocket". She founded the Cornish School in 1914 and served as the school's director for the next 25 years. Within three years it had enrolled over 600 students, and was the country's largest music school west of Chicago.

Her middle name reflects the year of her birth, the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.