Elsie J. Mistie
About the Artist
Elsie Josephine Mistie (1907–1960) was born on December 28, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois, to Pierina and Matthew Mistie. She studied art in her hometown at both the Art Institute of Chicago and the Vogue Commercial Art School. In 1949, Mistie told the Joplin Globe that she "practically lived at the Art Institute of Chicago during her childhood days." She also took watercolor and oil painting classes at Chicago's Hull House, a settlement house that offered social, educational, and artistic programs.
After marrying Richard A. Sterling, a retired physician, in 1928, the couple led a nomadic life, moving from city to city before settling in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1942. Mistie was able to support the couple through commissions, including a cover illustration for the Bystander of Cleveland in 1928 and stamp designs for the National Recovery Act in the 1930s. She, along with sisters Pauline and Lottie Mistie, also assisted Richard Sterling in compiling the first Rogers city directory. Sterling's Rogers Arkansas Business Directory was published in Rogers in 1951.
In 1934, the Public Works of Art (PWA) sent Mistie to the Virginia State Commission on Conservation and Development's Division of History and Archaeology to produce illustrations for a book the division planned to publish "as part of the state's publicity program." She was sent again by the local relief agency to continue her work, but was only given seventeen hours a month. Division director Hamilton J. Eckenrode wrote to the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) requesting that she be given additional hours. ERA administrator William A. Smith responded by recommending that Mistie apply for relief through the City Relief Bureau, "since under the resumed relief program employment can be given only to those persons eligible to relief." Mistie worked for the commission for only a year, producing more than thirty drawings.
Elsie Mistie was an accomplished artist, receiving commissions for a variety of art projects throughout her life. Mistie's collection of about 500 drawings and paintings of wildflowers is now in the collections of the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, and the remainder of her work is at the Rogers Historical Museum in Arkansas.
After Mistie's death in March 1960, her family continued to support the arts in Arkansas. In 1962, Richard Sterling was elected as an officer of the Council of Ozark Artists and Craftsmen, and her sister Lottie Mistie was elected secretary.
View more drawings by Elsie Mistie
References
Ozark Artists Name Officers for Year. (1962, September 18). Northwest Arkansas Times, p. 8.
Miss Pauline Mistie (Obituary). (1960, March 1). Joplin Globe, p. 6B.
Rogers Woman Possesses Huge Collection of Water Color Botanical Studies. (1949, April 10). Joplin Globe, p. 15.
Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Sterling and Lottie Mistie. (1951). Sterling's Rogers Arkansas Business Directory.
Letter, H. J. Eckenrode to William A. Smith, 29 March 1934, William Smith Folder, Virginia Department of Conservation and Development, Division of History, Records, 1927–1950. Accession 24806a-c, 25913, and 41571, State Records Collection, the Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Letter, H. J. Eckenrode to William A. Smith, 6 August 1934, William Smith Folder, Virginia Department of Conservation and Development, Division of History, Records, 1927–1950. Accession 24806a-c, 25913, and 41571, State Records Collection, the Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Letter, William A. Smith to H. J. Eckenrode, 31 March 1934, William Smith Folder, Virginia Department of Conservation and Development, Division of History, Records, 1927–1950. Accession 24806a-c, 25913, and 41571, State Records Collection, the Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.