Emma Louise Dana, St. Petersburg. Oil on artist board 11.5 by 15 inches, signed on back, Emma Dana, Wharf at St. Petersburg, 1925.
Emma Dana was the daughter of Charles A. Dana, a prominent New York City attorney, businessman, philanthropist, and editor of the New York Sun. A prominent instructor in art in Vermont, Ohio, and New York City, Dana eventually retired to St. Petersburg, Florida about 1920. Louise Dana began teaching in the Cleveland Ohio school system in 1886. When she assumed the position as director of the art department of the Montpellier (Vermont) Methodist Seminary, the Argus and Patriot of Montpelier, August 8, 29, 1894, commented: “A special feature the coming year will be the art department in charge of Miss Emma Dana, in whom the management of the seminary believes it has secured probably the best art teacher who ever taught in a preparatory school in Vermont. Ten years ago, she was recognized as one of the best of her profession.” The Argus continued, “A lady of unusual culture and long experience, she was educated in the New England Conservatory at Boston, and afterwards under some of the best artists of New York and Paris. She has taught in the East Greenwich Academy of Art in New York, drawing many of her students from the Arti Students’ League.” Traveling between Vermont and New York, Dana had a studio in New York City, at 13 East 59th Street off Madison Avenue. In the Spring of 1897, Dana left Vermont to begin teaching drawing and painting in Fremont, Ohio and later in Cleveland. Dana and her sister, Mary, moved permanently to St. Petersburg, about 1920, establishing a residence at 228 Fourteenth Avenue North-East. The sisters visited New England briefly each summer. The St. Petersburg Times, December 26, 1935, noted her passing. “Miss Dana Dies; Well Known here For Her Art Work…. Miss Dana specialized in paintings of landscapes and flowers but never submitted her work to an exhibition, except privately to art lovers.” Born: 1862, New Lebanon, New Hampshire. Died: December 25, 1935, St. Petersburg, Florida. Education: Normal College of the City of New York, with honors, June 1894; New England Conservatory, Boston; In Paris. Exhibits: West Lebanon, New Hampshire, June 1892, at the public school; Vermont Church of the Messiah, Montpelier, Vermont, October 1894, oil and watercolor scenes from nature, still life and European scenes; Vermont Interstate Fair, Randolph Vermont, September 1895.
