Starr, Eliza Allen (1824–1901)

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Starr, Eliza Allen (1824–1901)

American writer, lecturer on art and religion, poet, and teacher of art. Name variations: Eliza Ann Starr. Born Eliza Ann Starr on August 29, 1824, in Deer-field, Massachusetts; died on September 7, 1901, in Durand, Illinois; daughter of Oliver Starr (a dyer and farmer) and Lovina Allen Starr; aunt of Ellen Gates Starr (1859–1940), socialist reformer and co-founder of Hull House; educated at the Deer-field Academy, Massachusetts; studied painting under Caroline Negus Hildreth; never married; no children.

Wrote verse and articles on Christian art published in periodicals; works on Christian art include Patron Saints (1st series, 1871, 2nd series, 1881), Pilgrims and Shrines (2 vols., 1885) and The Three Archangels and the Guardian Angel in Art (1899); collected poems published as Songs of a Lifetime (1887); awards include Notre Dame University's Laetare Medal (1885) and medallion from Pope Leo XIII (1899).

Eliza Ann Starr, who adopted Allen as a middle name in adulthood, was born in Deer-field, Massachusetts, in 1824, the daughter of Oliver Starr, a dyer and farmer, and Lovina Allen Starr . Eliza was encouraged by her parents to pursue her early interests in art and literature, and she studied painting under Caroline Negus Hildreth , a well-known miniature painter and wife of the historian Richard Hildreth. In 1845, Starr moved to Boston to continue her studies with Caroline Hildreth, where the seeds for her conversion to Catholicism were sown. After teaching privately in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Natchez, Mississippi, Starr returned to Boston and was baptized as a Catholic in 1854.

In 1856, Starr moved to Chicago, establishing her own studio and launching a career as an art teacher and lecturer on Christian art. She combined groundbreaking teaching techniques with conservative, religious art appreciation, both of which proved widely influential in the cultural life of Chicago. Adopting Hildreth's dictum "never copy," Starr was the first teacher of drawing and painting in the Midwest who worked exclusively from nature and casts. She was also one of the first Americans to use photographs and slides in her popular lectures, conducting influential talks on "The Literature of Art" in Midwestern and Eastern cities throughout the 1870s and 1880s.

A writer of verse and essays on Christian art, Starr published numerous books of art appreciation informed by her devout faith. Her best-known work, Pilgrims and Shrines (1885), was inspired by a European trip of 1875–77, paid for by admirers. Her collected poems were first published in 1867 and updated in 1887 as Songs of a Lifetime. She was honored for her service to the Catholic Church with Notre Dame University's Laetare Medal in 1885 and a medallion from Pope Leo XIII in 1899. Starr never married and was deterred from a religious vocation by persistent poor health, although she became a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic. She died at the age of 77 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Chicago, wearing a Dominican habit.