Emily Howard

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Artist Details

  • Emily
  • Aminta
  • Howard
  • Howard
  • October 30, 1836
  • Burma
  • June 10, 1914
  • Louisville, Kentucky
  • 1836-1850: Maulmain, Burma

    1850-?: New York

    1858-1909: Bloomington, Illinois:

    1883: 403 East North Street

    1903: East Monroe Street

    1909-1914:  Louisville, Kentucky (living with sister, Louisa H. Cleland because she was blind)
  • Bloomington, Illinois
  • Painter-Oil
  • Student of A W Kenney
    student of Freer, Chicago, Illinois
  • Array
  • February 1883: artworks and painted china by Miss Howard and her students, her home, Bloomington, Illinois

    1886: Exhibition of Painting by Pupils of A W Kenney, Bloomington, Illinois

    1898: Art exhibition, YMCA, Bloomington, Illinois
  • McLean County Museum of History
  • 1869-1871: Music teacher, Conover's Female Academy, Bloomington, Illinois
  • page on McLean County Museum of History website

    student research paper for McLean County Museum of History
  • She was the first of seven children born to Baptist missionary parents, Reverend Hosea and Theresa Howard, in the former nation of Burma (now Myanmar) in the city of Moulmein. The Howards conducted their work at the Missionary High School in that city for the first 16 years of Emily’s life, until the parents’ ill health necessitated the family’s return—or first voyage, in the case of the children (Emily, sisters Mary and Louisa, and brothers David, Hosea, Jr., and Charles)—to the United States.

    The months-long journey by ship from southeast Asia to the eastern coast of the United States was very difficult for the family. The ship encountered hurricane-force winds and waves that ultimately sank their ship the Madura, with much of the cargo still onboard. Rev. Howard wrote a letter about the events on the ship to fellow missionaries of his who remained in Burma. Rev. Howard wrote about how, having been on the sea since March 1, the ship with its crew of 24 and 12 passengers, entered turbid waters with waves “high, irregular, and often conflicting with one another.” These conditions persisted from roughly March 11 until March 20, when a “heavy lurch” of the ship sent a cask of water through a sky light immediately above the cabins below. Broken glass and bent metal rained down on the passengers—mildly injuring Rev. Hosea and Charles Howard, and water flooded the cabins. However, the worst was yet to come. Three days later on March 23, the Madura found itself in the middle of a hurricane and without a mast, sails, rigging, and bulwarks—which had all been carried away by the storm. Fortunately, two U.S. ships—the Blanche and the Columbus—came upon the damaged Madura and saw to its rescue. The Howards eventually arrived in Bloomington, Illinois eight years later in 1858 by way of New York City and Massachusetts.      Emily Howard attended school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She then taught classes in piano, vocal performance while living in New York City with her family. Not long after her arrival in Bloomington, she began recruiting students in piano, voice, melodeon, and organ. By the mid1860s, Howard had expanded her class offerings to include oil painting, crayon drawing, and guitar.

     

    Good friend of Almira Burnham