The "A Woman Illustrator For 'The Saturday Evening Post'" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading another online issue of The Saturday Evening Post when I came across a story about a woman named Sarah Stilwell-Weber who was an artist that at one time was considered to do the artwork for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.  In the days before Norman Rockwell, the Post's editor, George Horace Lorimer, studied dozens of established artists who illustrated the stories inside the Post, but none of them seemed right to create the covers for the Post.  That was until he came across the artwork of a young woman - one of a few woman illustrators of that era - Sarah Stilwell-Weber.  Sarah was born in Concordville, Pennsylvania in 1878 and loved to draw.  She happened to live down the road from an art school where the famous teacher, Howard Pyle, taught illustration. Pyle was impressed with the artwork of Stilwell and admitted her to his class when she was a teenager.  Her father was a harness maker and did not have the financial ability to send her to school, but Pyle was so impressed that he awarded her a scholarship to his school in 1897.  Within a year she had illustrated her first book: A Children's Story by Ellen Only Kirk.  Mr. Pyle's classes were rigorous, usually starting at 8:00 a.m. and lasting until 5:00 or 6:00 p.m.  Pyle's students were taught to dedicate themselves wholly to art.  He was especially demanding of Stilwell and a few other women in his class.  He felt she should devote her life to being an artist and give up all thoughts of marriage.  

Sarah Stilwell-Weber

Sarah finished art school in 1900 and was commissioned by Century Magazine to illustrate a poem called the "Christmas Hymn of Children."  In 1903 her artwork appeared in the St. Nicholas magazine which solidified her reputation as an artist with a special knack for children.  In 1904 she illustrated her first cover for The Post.  Post's editor Lorimer liked her fresh style which proved popular for customers of The Post.  Mr. Lorimer offered her a contract to paint covers which was the opportunity of a lifetime for any illustrator.  But...Stilwell turned him down!  She never gave a clear reason for her decision, but in 1907 she did marry an English teacher named Herbert S. Weber.  It is said that if Stilwell had signed the contract, Norman Rockwell might never have become The Post's cover artist.  Sarah Stilwell-Weber was eventually elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

A few of her covers