Mary Lee Tate

{{Infobox person

| name = Mary Lee Tate

| image = Mary Lee Tate 1911.jpg

| caption = Tate in 1911

| birth_date = September 16, 1893

| birth_place = Maysville, Kentucky, United States

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1939|07|15|1893|09|16}}

| death_place = Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

| burial_place = Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

| education = University of Cincinnati (BA),
Cincinnati Art Academy,
University of Chicago

| occupation = Visual artist, teacher

| known_for = Painting

}}

Mary Lee Tate (1893–1939), was an American visual artist and teacher.{{Cite magazine |last=Harley Jr. |first=Ralph L. |date=December 1970 |title=Checklist of Afro-American Art and Artists |magazine=The Serif |publisher=Kent State University Press |location=Kent, Ohio}} She was known for her landscape and decorative paintings,{{Cite news |last=Beasley |first=Delilah L. |date=1930-11-20 |title=Negro Artists Lauded |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune/35317219/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |work=Oakland Tribune |pages=43 |via=Newspapers.com}} which exhibited nationally. Tate was African American, and had also worked as an art teacher at local Black schools in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Early life and education

Mary Lee Tate was born on September 16, 1893, in Maysville, Kentucky into an African American family, her parents were Anna (née Ramey) and Harry Tate.{{Cite web |date=May 30, 2023 |title=Tate, Mary Lee |url=https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/index.php/items/show/93 |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=Notable Kentucky African Americans Database |publisher=University of Kentucky Libraries}}{{Cite book |title=Exhibition of the Work of Negro Artists presented by the Harmon Foundation at the Art Center, February 16–28, 1931 |date=1931 |publisher=Harmon Foundation at the Art Center |pages=46}}{{Cite web |date=July 18, 1939 |others=Genealogical Society of Utah |title=Mary Lee Tate, Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X89D-JFX |website=FamilySearch.org}} Some sources have her date of birth as 1890. Tate graduated from Walnut Hills High School.{{Cite web |date=1911 |title=The Cincinnatian [1911] |url=https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll3/id/39426 |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=Cincinnati and Hamilton Public Library |language=en}}

She attended the University of Cincinnati, and graduated with a BA degree in 1911;{{Cite news |date=June 4, 1911 |title=Applause Greeted: Dr. Dabney, At Commencement Exercises in Music Hall When He Made a Strong Plea For the University |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-1911jun04enqu/65337920/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |pages=17 |via=Newspapers.com}} she continued her studies at the Cincinnati Art Academy (now Art Academy of Cincinnati), and at the University of Chicago.{{Cite book |last= |url=http://archive.org/details/whowaswhoinameri0003unse |title=Who Was Who in American Art, 1564–1975: 400 Years of Artists in America |date=1999 |publisher=Sound View Press |others= |isbn=978-0-932087-55-3 |editor-last=Falk |editor-first=Peter H. |location=Madison, CT |pages=3252 |chapter=Tate, Mary Lee |via=Internet Archive}} The entire family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio by 1920.

Career

After graduation in 1911, Tate worked as a public school art teacher at the Fredrick Douglass School (formerly the Douglas School for Negro Children) in Cincinnati.{{Cite news |date=July 3, 1915 |title=Cost of the Public Schools |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-cost-of-the-publ/145459580/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} She and another teacher at the Douglas School were sued by a student in 1918, for allegations of a physical assault.{{Cite news |date=June 4, 1918 |title=Negro Child Sues Teachers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-negro-child-sues/145456678/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} In the 1930s, Tate taught art classes at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Junior High School (also known as the Harriet Beecher Stowe School, or the Stowe School) in Cincinnati.

Tate exhibited her artwork at the New York Public Library, in 1921; with the Harmon Foundation, between 1928 and 1931; and with the Smithsonian Institution, in 1930.{{Cite book |last=Cedarholm |first=Theresa Dickson |url=https://ia601200.us.archive.org/9/items/afroamericanarti00cede_0/afroamericanarti00cede_0.pdf |title=Afro–American Artists, a Bio–bibliographical Dictionary |publisher=Trustees of the Boston Public Library |year=1973 |isbn=9780890730072 |editor-last=Cedarholm |editor-first=Theresa Dickson |volume=10 |location=Boston, MA |pages=276 |chapter=Tate, Mary Lee |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite news |date=1930-10-17 |title=Harmon Art Exhibit Is Carried To The South |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-st-louis-argus-harmon-art-exhibit-i/145459277/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |work=The St. Louis Argus |pages=13 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her notable works include Summer; Twilight; A Mountain Trail; In the Canyon; and Morning Mist.

Death and legacy

She died in Cincinnati on July 15, 1939, in a car accident.{{Cite news |date=September 9, 1939 |title=Two Men, Indicted in Killing |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-two-men-indicte/145455139/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |pages=22 |via=Newspapers.com}} The driver that hit Tate's car was convicted after the incident of second degree manslaughter, and by May 1940, the driver was on probation.{{Cite news |date=May 29, 1940 |title=Probation Is Granted |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-probation-is-gra/145456890/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |pages=15 |via=Newspapers.com}}

She has work that is part of the Thomas J. Watson Library, the main research library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her profile was included in the books Negro Artists: an Illustrated Review of their Achievements, by the Harmon Foundation (1991 reprint edition); and Afro-American Artists. A Bio-bibliographical Directory (1973), authored and edited by Theresa Dickson Cederholm.{{Cite web |title=Tate, Mary Lee. (b. KY; active Cincinnati, OH, 1931) |url=http://216.197.120.164/artistbibliog.cfm?id=1814 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/4472/20210306080658/http://216.197.120.164/artistbibliog.cfm?id=1814 |archive-date=March 6, 2021 |website=African American Visual Artists Database (AAVAD)}}