Katherine Sturges Dodge

Katharine Sturges or Katherine Sturges Knight (August 13, 1890 – January 12, 1979) was an American writer and illustrator. She illustrated books, ceramics and magazines as well as designing jewelry. She collaborated with a number of authors including her husband Clayton Knight. The artist Hilary Knight is her son and he says that his most famous image of Eloise was inspired by one of his mother's paintings.

Life

She was born in Chicago in 1890 Her early work included illustrating children's books for P. F. Volland Company of Chicago. Between 1913 and 1921, she created several examples including Short Stories of Musical Melodies. She was sent to Japan to study oriental art and she used this experience when she published Little Pictures of Japan in 1925.

Sturges married Clayton Knight, who was a World War One pilot that went on to become an illustrator and writer. They occasionally worked together as they did on fabric designs and on two "We Were There" books. Sturges illustrated a range of books, but she also created fashion drawings for Harper's Bazaar. She took on a range of work that included advertising artwork for McCullum hosiery and silver designs by Oneida Limited. Sturges also created fabric and jewellery designs that were inspired by Peruvian culture after she was sent by the department store, Macy's, to South America. Clayton Joseph died in 1963. Clayton, her husband, died in 1969.

Sturges died in New York City in 1979 after a long illness. She was buried in Umpawaug Cemetery in Redding in Connecticut, where her husband was also buried.

Works include illust.: Short Stories of Musical Melodies, 1915 illust.: How Sing Found the World is Round (Chicago: P. F. Volland, c. 1921), by Sydney Reid illust.: Tales of Little Cats (juvenile adaptation; New York: McLoughlin Bros., 1889), by Carrie Jacobs-Bond illust.: Winkle, Twinkle and Lollypop, by Nina Wilcox Putnam and Norman Jacobsen illust.: Why the Chimes Rang and Other Stories (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1924), by Raymond MacDonald Alden illust.: Little Pictures of Japan, 1925. illust.: The Rhymes of Goochy Googles and his Pollywog named Woggles, (McLoughlin Bros. Inc. 1926) by Andrew F. Underhill