Margaret Evans Price

Margaret Evans Price was an American illustrator, writer, painter, muralist and toy designer. She is most known for writing, illustrating and collaborating on several children’s books throughout her career, as well as completing notable murals, still life paintings and portraits. Price was also the first art director for Fisher-Price toy company, which was co-founded by her husband Irving Price.

Price was born March 20, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois. She was a member of the wealthy Evans family of New York; at the time her family held a monopoly on the building material industry in New York City.[1] She was also the cousin of Charles Evans Hughes Sr., a lawyer and prominent Republican political figure who held several offices including 36^th Governor of New York (1907-1910) and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1930-1941).[2]

Price spent her early childhood living in Nova Scotia and relocated to Boston at the age of 9.[3] She began studying art at the Massachusetts Normal Art School. She went abroad to Europe for six months, where she traveled to Paris, Ireland, Wales and Holland.[4] When Price returned to the United States, she studied at the Boston Academy of Fine Arts, studying portraiture under Joseph DeCamp and design under Vesper George.[5]  

In 1908, Price moved to New York City where she worked as a freelance illustrator. Her works were published in magazines like Rand McNally and Harper and Brothers.[6]On February 23, 1909, Margaret Evens married her husband Irving L. Price.[7] The couple had three children, Harriet Elizabeth Price, William Price, and David Sutherland Price. The family spent time living in Rochester, NY and Cleveland, OH before settling down in East Aurora, NY in 1920.[8] Price began to establish herself in the art scene in East Aurora and throughout Western New York. In 1925 she painted two murals, Imagination and Memory, for the newly built East Aurora Theater. The following year her portraits and drawings were featured in a one-person exhibition at the Garrett Club in Buffalo, NY.[9] In 1928 she became a charter member of the East Aurora Paint and Varnish Club, which included other artists like Alexis Jean Fournier, Robert North and Charles Rohrbach.[10]

In 1930, Irving Price, along with his wife Margaret, Herman G. Fisher and Helen Schelle co-founded Fisher-Price Toy Company. Margaret Price was appointed as the company’s first art director, and designed toys for the opening line.[11] The push-pull toys were designed based off characters from her assorted children’s books.[12] That same year the Prices purchased the 1825 Millard Fillmore Honeymoon Cottage. They relocated the site it to its present address at 24 Shearer Avenue in East Aurora and restored it, adding a porch and a wing in the back to accommodate Margaret Price’s studio needs.[13] In 1975 the Aurora Historical Society purchased the cottage and returned it to its 1825 appearance; the cottage is now a National Historic Landmark.[14]

Price continued to paint and exhibit her works nationally after the founding of Fisher-Price. She was featured in exhibitions at the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, and the New York Historical Society in New York City, which maintains a permanent collection of her works.[15] She also exhibited with the Ferargil Galleries in New York City (1949), the Grand Central Art Gallery in New York City (1953-1956), and the Bermuda Art Association (1956-1957).[16] Her work was also featured in multiple publications, including Nature Magazine, the Women’s Home Companion and the Pictorial Review.[17]

Margaret Price died on November 20, 1973 in East Aurora after battling a long illness.