Sarah Noble Ives

Early life Ives was born in Grosse Ile, Michigan, near Detroit, in March 1864, to S. William and Sarah Mana Hyde Ives. She attended Port Huron High School, where she first began studying art, When she returned to the United States she began work as a freelance author and illustrator in New York under the name "Noble Ives", She was proficient in black and white pen and ink drawings as well as watercolors and oil painting.

Works for children Songs of the Shining Way, written and illustrated by Ives, was published in 1899 and featured poems paired with black ink drawings. Ives dedicated the book to her mentor, Edna Chaffee Noble.

Many of Ives' illustrations feature animals, and several of her self-penned publications include them prominently. The Key to Betsy's Heart, in 1916 tells the story of a girl and her dog.

Ives created colorful illustrations for books like The Wonderful Story of Teddy the Bear, published by the McLoughlin Brothers, who often commissioned female artists. She also illustrated fairy tales and rhymes for them, including many popular illustrations for one of their editions of Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes.

Landscapes In addition to her freelance work illustrating, Ives also painted and exhibited landscapes for her own enjoyment. She said of these oil paintings, "To work in oils, that is what I love. The black and white [commercial illustration] is bread and butter work." She also experimented with early color photography.

Later life Ives lived and worked in New York for some time, then returned to Port Huron, Michigan in 1921.

Ives was recruited by the local historical society to compile a history of the town, which was published in 1938 by the Star-News Publishing Company. A resident of the town remembered her as "a very lovely little old lady" who "trudged up and down the streets of Altadena ringing doorbells. ... Her house-to-house canvassing was not to sell books, but to gather information to write a book." in private collections and on display in museum exhibits.