Dora Wetherbee Erway (November 19, 1889 – December 5, 1976) was an artist and home economist on the faculty of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

from 1921 to 1958. She is best remembered today for the Dora Erway Doll Collection, a set of 37 dolls in elaborate historical costumes, made by her students in the 1920s.

Early life and education

Dora Ella Wetherbee was born and raised in

Fitchburg, Massachusetts Fitchburg is a city in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The third-largest city in the county, its population was 41,946 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Fitchburg State University is located here. History ...

, the daughter of Vernon Wetherbee and Iola E. Wetherbee (later Nutting). Her father was a contractor. Her parents divorced in 1894. She graduated from

Massachusetts Normal Art School Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a Public university, public art school, college of visual art, visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and t ...

in 1912, and attended summer programs at the Commonwealth Art Colony in

Boothbay Harbor, Maine Boothbay Harbor is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,027 at the 2020 census. It includes the neighborhoods of Mount Pisgah, and Sprucewold, the Bayville and West Boothbay Harbor villages, and the Isle of Sp ...

for several years. She traveled widely and made further studies as possible, ranging freely across disciplines and institutions.White, M. Vivian, and Ruth B. Comstock
"Dora W. Erway, November 19, 1889 – December 5, 1976)"
In memoriam files, Office of the Dean of the University Faculty, Cornell University. Her art teachers included

Cyrus Edwin Dallin Cyrus Edwin Dallin (November 22, 1861 – November 14, 1944) was an American sculptor best known for his depictions of Native Americans. He created more than 260 works, including the ''Equestrian Statue of Paul Revere'' in Boston; ''the Angel ...

and

Albert Henry Munsell Albert Henry Munsell (January 6, 1858 – June 28, 1918) was an American painter, teacher of art, and the inventor of the Munsell color system. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, attended and served on the faculty of Massachusetts Normal Art ...

Career

Erway taught art at the high school and college level as a young woman. She was a professor of color and design in the College of Home Economics at Cornell from 1921 to 1958. She was acting head of the Household Art Department in 1944 and 1945. She served on the advisory board of the ''Journal of Home Economics'', and chaired a national committee of the American Home Economics Association. She lectured on textile history and other subjects to community groups. She spent much of a sabbatical year in 1955 in South America, studying "Inca civilization and culture." She also made wood carvings, and painted in watercolors and oils, and exhibited her paintings and carvings in several gallery shows, including a one-woman show in New York City.

Personal life

Dora Wetherbee married insurance agent Edgar William Erway in the mid-1920s. Her husband was born in 1906, 16 years her junior. She died in 1976, at the age of 87, in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

. The Dora Erway Doll Collection at Cornell includes 37 dolls made in the 1920s by students in Erway's sewing classes, dressed in historical costumes using fabric scraps and, sometimes, their own hair.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erway, Dora 1889 births 1976 deaths Cornell University faculty American women artists People from Fitchburg, Massachusetts