Woman of the Century/Frances Elizabeth Fryatt

FRANCES ELIABETH FRYATT. FRYATT, Miss Frances Elizabeth, author and specialist in art as applied to the house, was born in New York City, but spent her girlhood in the country. In her childhood she wrote for pleas re and chiefly in verse, taking up literature as a life-work on the death of her father, Horatio N. Fryatt, who had written able articles on science, law and finance during the intervals of his busy life as a New York merchant. After the death of her father, the family removed to the city. She commenced to write for New York newspapers, the "Evening Post," the "Commercial Advertiser," the "Tribune" and the " Daily Graphic," a line of work soon relinquished for the more congenial field of magazine literature. An article entitled "Lunar Lore and Portraiture." written for the "Popular Science Monthly" and published in August, 1881, involved extended reading and research. About 1S79 she became a contributor to "Harper's Magazine," the "Independent," the "Churchman," the "Illustrated Christian Weekly." the "Art Age" and later to "Harper's Young People" and "Wide Awake." In 1881 she commenced the work which, carried up to the present day. has made her a specialist, writing articles for the "Art Interchange " on art applied to the house, including monographs on embroidery, glass painting and staining, wood-carving, painting on china, designing for carpets and wall-paper, schemes of exterior and interior coloring and decoration from architects' plans and sketches. She wrote all the answers to queries on house-furnishing and decoration published by the "Art Interchange" during the last ten years, as well as the answers to numberless queries on a great variety of subjects. In 1886 Miss Fryatt became editor-in-chief of the " Ladies' World," a monthly devoted to the home, conducting eight of its departments, and writing all the editorials and most of the technical articles up to the present day. Miss Fryatt had previously occupied the positions of assistant editor and art-editor of the "Manhattan Magazine" of New York. Among other work not mentioned may be included Miss Fryatt's articles on art-industry and notes on the fine arts. A few years ago she retired to a suburb of Brooklyn, on account of failing health, and built "Fairhope," the cottage in which she now resides. There she has her private editorial office and library. She keeps up her interest in various humanitarian movements. A lover of children, old people and animals, she delights in their companionship, their helplessness and responsiveness appealing strongly to her emotional nature, and her pen is active in the humanitarian movements in their behalf. In 1891 Miss Fryatt was elected president of the Ladies' Art Association of New York, and she was reelected in May, 1892.