Kitty MacCormack
{{short description|Irish designer and owner of the Dun Emer Guild}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kitty MacCormack
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = 1892
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1975|06|26|1892}}
| death_place = Ireland
| nationality =
| other_names = Katherine MacCormack, Kathleen MacCormack
| occupation = designer
| years_active =
| known_for = owner of Dun Emer Press
| notable_works =
}}
Kitty MacCormack (1892 – 1975) was an Irish designer with the Dun Emer Guild, theatre set designer, actress and author.
Early life and family
Kitty MacCormack (sometimes spelt McCormack) was the daughter of Constance MacCormack, and niece of Evelyn Gleeson. She was born in 1892, and after the death of her father in 1902, the family lived with Gleeson at her home, at Runnemede, Sandyford Road, Dublin{{cite book |last1=McCoole |first1=Sinéad |title=Easter widows |date=2014 |publisher=Random House |location=Dublin |isbn=9781448171033}} with her mother and siblings, Grace (1898-1982) and Edward (1889-1906).{{cite web |title=Papers of Evelyn Gleeson and the Dun Emer Guild |url=http://www.iar.ie/Archive.shtml?IE%20TCD%20MS/10676 |website=Irish Archives Resource |access-date=21 October 2020}} With her sister, McCormack worked in the Dun Emer Guild from a young age, particularly after the Yeats sisters left Dun Emer to form Cuala Industries.{{cite journal |last1=Paterson |first1=Elaine C. |title=Crafting Empire: Intersections of Irish and Canadian Women's History |journal=Journal of Canadian Art History |date=2013 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=243–267 |doi=10.2307/jcanaarthist.34.2.243 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jcanaarthist.34.2.243 |access-date=21 October 2020 |issn=0315-4297|url-access=subscription }}
Theatrical work
MacCormack also did some acting, theatre set design and was an author. She appeared in Joseph Plunkett's 1912 play The Dance of Osiris at the Hardwicke Theatre, and designed the sets. She often acted under the name Catia or Caitia Nic Cormac.{{cite book |last1=McCormack |first1=W. J. |title=Enigmas of sacrifice : a critique of Joseph M. Plunkett and the Dublin Insurrection of 1916 |date=2016 |publisher=MSU Press |location=East Lansing |isbn=9781628952513}} She also designed sets for the Irish National Theatre Society, Theatre Company of Ireland and the Dublin Drama League.{{cite book |title=Catalogue 105 |date=2013 |publisher=De Burca Rare Books |location=Dublin |page=60 |url=http://www.deburcararebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Click-here-to-Download-Catalogue-105.pdf}}
Career at Dun Emer
Some of her most notable works are the tapestries for the Honan Chapel, Cork{{cite web |title=Poetry Day Ireland: A Moving House by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin |url=https://www.rte.ie/culture/2020/0429/1135588-poetry-day-ireland-a-moving-house-by-eilean-ni-chuilleanain/ |website=RTÉ Culture |publisher=RTÉ |access-date=21 October 2020 |language=en |date=30 April 2020}}{{cite journal |last1=Raguin |first1=Virginia |title=An Túr Gloine (Tower of Glass) at the Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart |journal=Interfaces. Image Texte Language |date=1 January 2017 |issue=38 |pages=39–64 |doi=10.4000/interfaces.310 |url=https://preo.u-bourgogne.fr/interfaces/index.php?id=310 |access-date=21 October 2020 |language=en |issn=1164-6225|doi-access=free }} in 1917, the vestments for St Patrick's church, San Francisco in 1923, and a carpet presented to Pope Pius XI in 1931. The carpet commissioned in an effort by Ireland's ambassador to the Vatican, Charles Bewley, to secure Ireland as the host of the 1932 International Eucharistic Congress. It was designed by MacCormack, took workers in the Guild almost 4 months to hand weave and cost £450. As "The Pope's Carpet" it was exhibited in Clerys from 19 to 30 January 1931.{{Cite web|last=Shortall|first=Billy|date=2020-06-25|title=The story behind Ireland's 1931 gift of a carpet to the pope|url=https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0625/1149550-popes-carpet-ireland-1931/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-10-22|website=RTÉ Brainstorm}}
She designed the poster for the 1927 "Grand Pageant of Dublin History".{{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=Joan Fitzpatrick |title=All dressed up : modern Irish historical pageantry |date=2014 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |location=Syracuse, New York |isbn=9780815652847 |page=97 |edition=First}}{{cite journal |last1=Dean |first1=Joan FitzPatrick |title=Rewriting the Past: Historical Pageantry in the Dublin Civic Weeks of 1927 and 1929 |journal=New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua |date=2009 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=20–41 |jstor=25660844 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25660844 |access-date=21 October 2020 |issn=1092-3977}}{{cite news |last1=Lyons |first1=Eoin |title=His collected works |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/his-collected-works-1.1039154 |access-date=21 October 2020 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=15 April 2006 |language=en}} She also developed a set of designs for judicial robes for W. T. Cosgrave in 1924, drawing on the Brehon style{{cite journal |last1=Holland |first1=Ailsa C. |title=The Papers of Hugh Kennedy: A Research Legacy for the Foundation of the State |journal=Irish Jurist (1966-) |date=1989 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=279–304 |jstor=44027749 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44027749 |access-date=21 October 2020 |issn=0021-1273}} sketches of which are held in University College Dublin Archives.{{Cite web|title=Watercolour sketch of robes for Chief Justice of the Irish Free State by Kitty MacCormack Dun Emer Guild 1925-26 UCDA P4 1169 Papers of H – UCD Decade of Centenaries|url=http://centenaries.ucd.ie/events/art-and-reality/watercolour-sketch-of-robes-for-chief-justice-of-the-irish-free-state-by-kitty-maccormack-dun-emer-guild-1925-26-ucda-p4-1169-papers-of-h/|access-date=2020-10-22|website=centenaries.ucd.ie}} In 1911 and 1920, she exhibited at the Oireachtas Art Exhibitions, and with the Water Colour Society of Ireland throughout the 1920s. MacCormack was also an illustrator, beginning with Christmas card designs for Dun Emer in the 1910s. She illustrated John Hackett Pollock's 1919 The wisdom of the world: A book of wonder-tales published by Colm Ó Lochlainn's Candle Press under Pollock's pseudonym An Philibín. MacCormack edited a volume for Ó Lochlainn in 1920, The Book of St Ultan; a collection of pictures and poems by Irish artists and writers, proceeds of which went to St Ultan's Hospital. As well as editing, she contributed illustrations and two poems to the volume.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=MacCormack, Katherine|url=https://dttp.tcd.ie/artist/31|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-10-22|website=Drawn to the Page : Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland}}
After her aunt's death in 1944, MacCormack continued to run Dun Emer Guild until its store on Harcourt Street closed around 1964.{{cite book|last1=Devine|first1=Ruth|editor1-last=McGuire|editor1-first=James|editor2-last=Quinn|editor2-first=James|title=Dictionary of Irish Biography|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|chapter=Gleeson, Evelyn}}{{cite web |title=Learn: Cuala Press |url=https://www.yeatssociety.com/yeats-and-family/learn/ |website=Yeats Society Sligo |access-date=21 October 2020}}
Death and legacy
MacCormack died in 26 June 1975.{{Cite book |last=Snoddy |first=Theo |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50624017 |title=Dictionary of Irish artists : 20th century |date=2002 |publisher=Merlin |isbn=1-903582-17-2 |edition=2nd |location=Dublin |pages=370 |language=en |oclc=50624017}} A large collection of theatre ephemera collected by MacCormack was sold in 2008.{{cite web |title=1903-1920 The Theatre Company Of Ireland And The Dublin Drama League including material relating to Thomas MacDonagh, Pádraig and Willie Pearse, Joseph Mary Plunkett, and other revolutionaries |url=https://www.whytes.ie/art/1903-1920-the-theatre-company-of-ireland-and-the-dublin-drama-leagueincluding-material-relating-to-thomas-macdonagh-pdraig-and-willie-pearse-joseph-mary-plunkett-and-other-revolutionaries/128131/?SearchString=&LotNumSearch=&GuidePrice=&OrderBy=&ArtistID=&ArrangeBy=list&NumPerPage=15&offset=112 |website=Whyte's |access-date=21 October 2020}} The Kitty MacCormack Archive is held by the Jackie Clarke Archive, and the National Library of Ireland also holds a collection of her theatre ephemera and letters.{{cite web |title=Kitty McCormack archive |url=http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000261390?ui=standard |website=catalogue.nli.ie |access-date=21 October 2020 |language=English}} A dress designed by MacCormack for Clare Kennedy, the wife of Hugh Kennedy, is on display as part of The Way We Wore an exhibition in National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks.{{cite web |title=The Way We Wore - The Costume Society |url=http://costumesociety.org.uk/blog/post/the-way-we-wore |website=costumesociety.org.uk |access-date=21 October 2020}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=CLARE KENNEDY WEARING CELTIC REVIVAL COSTUME|url=https://www.inspiring-ireland.ie/object-detail/9593x140t|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-10-22|website=Inspiring Ireland}}
References
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