Woman of the Century/Laura Ann Fry

FRY, Miss Laura Ann, artist, born in White county, Ind., January 22nd, 1857. She is of English descent. Her father and grandfather are artistic designers and wood-carvers in Cincinnati, Ohio. Miss Fry, when still a child, was sent to the Art School in Cincinnati, to develop the LAURA ANN FRY. talents for drawing ami modeling which she had already displayed. She remained in the institution for twelve years, studying drawing under Professor Noble and modeling under Professor Kebisso. She then went to the Art Students" League in New York City. She learned the art of carving from her father and grandfather. One of her productions, a panel showing a bunch of lilies and dedicated to Mendelssohn, took the first prize, a hundred dollars in gold, when the Cincinnati women had oilers of prizes for designs to decorate the organ screen of Music Hall. Miss Fry has made good use of her talents and training. She has had charge of the wood-carving school at Chautauqua Assembly for three years. The work done by her pupils there is quite equal to work done in the same line by the pupils of the best school in London. Miss Fry has worked much in china and pottery. She was one of the original members of the Cincinnati Ladies' Pottery Club, organized in April, 1878, to make original experiments and researches in the work of underglaze coloring and decorations. That club existed for ten years, and to it is due the credit of having set many good styles and methods, which have been meritorious enough to l»e adopted by the regular profession, and without credit acknowledged to the originators. Miss Fry's present home is on a farm in Ohio, but most of her work has been done in Cincinnati. She has been connected with Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. Although she is the daughter of an Englishman, she is proud to call herself an American. She glories in being a Hoosier and in living in a land where she enjoys the privilege of doing the work for which her inclinations and talents best fit her.