A Life in Art and Industry
Natalie Smith Henry was an American artist who spent much of her career in Chicago. Her journey into the visual arts began at age twelve, following the death of her mother, and evolved into formal studies in illustration at the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pennsylvania. After attending Galloway College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she earned a degree from the Hubert Ropp School of Art. Throughout her professional life, she balanced her creative pursuits with various roles, including serving as a recordkeeper, a typist at the Ryerson Library, and eventually the manager of the Art Institute of Chicago School Store.
Her artistic recognition grew through exhibitions at the Chicago Society of Artists and the Art Institute of Chicago. Notably, in 1939, the Section of Painting and Sculpture of the United States Department of the Treasury commissioned her to create a mural for the Springdale, Arkansas Post Office. This work, titled Local Industries, was a response to the era of the Great Depression. Her portfolio also includes works such as Man with Shells and the watercolor Rowena Washing Her Hair.
