Archival Adventures: Jessie Willcox Smith's Advertising Illustrations
Archival Adventures: Jessie Willcox Smith's Advertising Illustrations
It's time for an adventure! As with any artform, advertising has evolved over time with distinctive stylistic periods. This week we're heading to the turn of the 20th century to visit the iconic advertising illustrations of Jessie Willcox Smith. Smith, was born in 1863 and died in 1935. She was an illustrator for magazines such as "Ladies' Home Journal", "Harper's Weekly", "Good Housekeeping", and more. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Drexel Institute. Smith never married, and primarily lived with three friends in her adult years: Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, and Henrietta Cozens. She lived with Cozens until until her death in 1935. She resided in Cincinnati, Ohio, but primarily lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Join our community collections archivist, Anthony Wright de Hernandez, for a livestream on Twitch! Every week we explore and discuss materials from Special Collections and University Archives covering topics including university history, NASA pioneers, architecture, science fiction, cooking, LGBTQ+ history, Black history, urban legends, and more. Recordings of previous streams are available on the Libraries' Youtube page.
If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, welcome! Please email library-event-accessibility@groups.office365.vt.edu at least 10 days prior to the event.
- Date:
- Wednesday, February 11, 2026 Show more dates
- Time:
- 3:00pm - 5:00pm
- Audience:
- Advanced Alumni Beginners Faculty/Staff Graduate Students Postdoc Public Undergraduates
- Categories:
- Event > Livestream
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Contact:
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Community Collections Archivist
Special Collections and University Archives (0434)