Willoughby Ions (1881–1977) was an American composer, artist, poet, dramatist, designer, and suffragist.

Early life

Estelle deWilloughby Ions was born in 1881 in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

to Cecile (nee Goodman) (1840-1930) and Robert Nevins Ions (1855 - 1949). At the age of 4, her family settled in Fairfax, Virginia, on family land called Innisfail Farm. Her grandmother was a student of

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

, and gave Ions her first training in art. She never attended any formal schooling. She was briefly married twice as a young woman, but retained the use of her own surname both times.

Career

In the 1910s she was living in Washington DC, composing and performing on the piano, and being active in suffragist circles. She joined the

Equal Suffrage League of Virginia The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia was founded in 1909 in Richmond, Virginia. Like many similar organizations in other states, the league's goal was to secure voting rights for women. When the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constituti ...

and the Anthony League of Washington, DC. In 1916 she moved to Greenwich Village in New York City and started a career as a costume and textile designer. She designed for

Bonwit Teller Bonwit Teller & Co. was an American luxury department store in New York City, founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, and later a chain of department stores. In 1897, Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the partnership a ...

and achieved some success as the original designer of the hostess gown (including for nationwide productions of Lawrence Langner's ''Pie''). During this period she was known to have socialized with

Sokei-an Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki (佐々木指月 (曹渓庵); March 10, 1882 – May 17, 1945), born Yeita Sasaki (佐々木栄多), was a Japanese Rinzai monk who founded the Buddhist Society of America (now the First Zen Institute of America) in Ne ...

. After her cousin Adèle Clark's partner, artist Nora Houston died, Ions left New York and was Clark's partner. In the 1930s she moved to Fairfax, Virginia and ran the Fairfax Gallery, which taught art classes to local children, and held exhibitions of their work. This led to her associations with the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

in Virginia, and contributions to the

Index of American Design The Index of American Design program of the Federal Art Project produced a pictorial survey of the crafts and decorative arts of the United States from the early colonial period to 1900. Artists working for the Index produced a collection of 18, ...

. Besides composition and textile/costume design, Ions worked in a wide variety of other styles and media. Ions and Adèle Clark helped prepare the transcriptions of Ora Canter's contributions to folklorist

Richard Chase Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was an American serial killer, cannibal, and necrophile who killed six people in Sacramento, California, from December 1977 to January 1978. He was nicknamed The Vampire of Sacramen ...

's 1956 book ''American Folk Tales and Songs.'' In 1941 she produced a series of hand-painted plates honoring

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Folk music, folk music during the Romantic music, Romantic period. He wr ...

. She created

batik Batik is a dyeing technique using wax Resist dyeing, resist. The term is also used to describe patterned textiles created with that technique. Batik is made by drawing or stamping wax on a cloth to prevent colour absorption during the dyein ...

gowns, stained glass art, murals, painted tapestries, and children's toys.

Legacy

Some of her artworks are held at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

. Her papers are held at the

Virginia Historical Society The Virginia Museum of History and Culture founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history. It is a private, ...

. In 1964, she was interviewed as part of an oral history project by the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

Selected works

* ''The Age of Innocents'' (musical satire) * ''All in a Golden Springtime'' (Victorian satirical opera in 3 acts, 1934) * ''A Frawg Went Courtin (play in 2 acts) * ''To The Victors'' (poem) * ''Sweet is Tipperary in the Spring'' (song, words by Dennis A. McCarthy) * ''The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls'', (song, setting of

Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to complet ...

's poem, 1913)

References

External links

Waste Not, Want NotA history of Innisfail farmArchives of American Art interview transcript
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ions, Willoughby 1881 births 1977 deaths American arts administrators American women arts administrators American women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers Federal Art Project artists 20th-century American composers Writers from New Orleans Musicians from New Orleans American lesbian musicians American lesbian writers 20th-century American women composers 19th-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American LGBTQ people