Angel De Cora was an artist, illustrator, and educator from the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. Around the age of 14, she was enrolled in the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute as a part of the U.S. Government’s cultural assimilation program for Indigenous American youth. While at Hampton, she found her love for art. She went on to study under notable artists such as Dwight W. Tryon at Smith College and Howard Pyle at Drexel Institute. De Cora was later featured in Harper’s Monthly Magazine when she wrote and illustrated the semi-autobiographical tales “The Sick Child” and “Gray Wolf’s Daughter.” She was published under her Thunderbird clan name, “Henook-makhewe-kelenaka.” From here, she continued to produce paintings and illustrations and began designing book covers that displayed Native American motifs and the Arts and Crafts style. In the Spring of 1905, she was hired to do the artwork for a chapter in The Indian’s Book by Natalie Curtis. But after designing a cover page for her chapter, the publishers requested she makes cover pages for the other eighteen chapters. De Cora took a job at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania and established the Native Indian Art Department and later played a part in the publication of ‘The Indian Craftsman’, Carlisle’s monthly magazine. She was known as a “Red Progressive” who advocated for Indian education and helped found the Society of American Indians, a pan-Indian progressive group dedicated to uplifting Native peoples.

TIMELINE

1868 or 1869 – b Angel De Cora, born in Thurston, Nebraska, on Ho-chunk (traditionally Winnebago) reservation land
1883 – Angel Decora was forced to go to Virginia to attend the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute
1891 – Graduated from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute
1896 – was the first Native American to graduate from Smith College
1898 – Spends summer studying with Howard Pyle at his renown Brandywine Illustration school
1900 – painted for the cover of Franci La Flesch’s The Middle Five: Indian Boys at School.
1901 – created several illustrations for Old Indian Legends by Gertrude Bonnin aka Zitkala-Sa as well as Wigwam Stories for Mary Catherine Judd.
1906 – Takes a job as an art instructor at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania
1907 – created several illustrations for ethnomusicologist Curtis’ project, The Indian’s Book
1907 – Elopes with William H. Dietz, a Sioux Indian, also known as “Lone Star”
1909 – begins working on the publication of Carlisle’s monthly magazine, The Indian Craftsman
1911 – De Cora helped found the Society of American Indians
1915 – De Cora resigns from Carlisle
1919 – D Angel De Cora dies from the flu during the Spanish Flu epidemic

REFERENCES

Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center. (n.d.). Dietz, Angel DeCora. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/people/dietz-angel-decora

Dragicevic, M. (n.d.). Angel De Cora. THE HISTORY OF PAINTING REVISITED. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://thehistoryofpaintingrevisited.weebly.com/angel-de-cora.html

Fay, E. (2021, March 1). Angel De Cora: Indigenous American and Pyle Student | Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art. Brandywine River Museum of Art. https://www.brandywine.org/museum/blog/angel-de-cora-indigenous-american-and-pyle-student

Gere, A. R. (2004). An Art of Survivance: Angel DeCora at Carlisle. American Indian Quarterly, 28(3/4), 649–684. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4138937

Kelly, M. (2018, March 9). Finding Angel de Cora. The Consecrated Eminence. https://consecratedeminence.wordpress.com/2018/03/09/finding-angel-de-cora/

McAnulty, S. (2010, November 20). Angel DeCora: American Artist and Educator; article by Sarah McAnulty. Traditional Fine Arts Organization. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://tfaoi.org/aa/4aa/4aa27.htm

Southall, N. (n.d.). AIGA Design Journeys: Angel DeCora – The Native Graphic Design Project. The Native Graphic Design Project. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://www.neebin.com/nativedesign/?p=426

Tiger, Y. (n.d.). Rediscovering Native American Illustrator and Designer Angel De Cora – Society of Illustrators. Society of Illustrators. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://societyillustrators.org/event/angeldecora/

Waggoner, L. (2008). Fire Light: the life of Angel De Cora, Winnebago artist. University of Oklahoma Press.

Waggoner, L. (2021). “Her Greatest Work Lay in Decorative Design”: Angel DeCora Ho-Chunk Artist (1869–1919). In B. Levit (Ed.), Baseline Shift: Untold stories of women in graphic design history (pp. 12–31). Princeton Architectural Press.