Ethel Franklin Betts

Betts was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 6, 1877,[1] the daughter of the physician Thomas Betts and Alice Whelan. She was the younger sister of the illustrator Anna Whelan Betts.[2] Betts studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, with the noted illustrator Howard Pyle at Drexel Institute, now Drexel University, and then at the Howard Pyle School in nearby Wilmington, Delaware.[3]

Betts first gained work illustrating magazines including St. Nicholas Magazine, McClure's, and Collier's. Beginning in 1904, she was commissioned to illustrate several books including James Whitcomb Riley's The Raggedy Man, While the Heart Beats Young, and Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess. Betts commercial work declined after her marriage to Edward Bains in 1909, occasionally creating cover art for magazines such as House & Garden, but she continued to exhibit her portfolio. She received a bronze medal for her illustration of The Six Swans at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition.[4] Along with Jessie Willcox Smith and Sarah Stilwell Weber, Betts was one of the "familiar" magazine and book illustrators in the early 20th century.[5]

Betts died at her home in Philadelphia on October 9, 1959.[1] She was buried at Solebury Friends Cemetery in Solebury, Pennsylvania.[1][6]

Illustration by Ethel Franklin Betts in The Orphan Annie book, "While the Heart Beats Young" by James Whitcomb Riley

• 1901 -- Captain Ravenshaw, or, The Maid of Cheapside : a Romance of Elizabethan London, Robert Neilson Stephens; L.C. Page & Company
• 1903 -- Kings & Queens : Being the Poetical Works of Beulah, Belinda, John and David, Florence Wilkinson Evans; McClure, Phillips & Company
• 1904 -- Babes in Toyland, Glen MacDonough and Anna Alice Chapin; Fox, Duffield and Company
• 1904 -- The Little Grey House, Marion Ames Taggart; McClure, Phillips & Company
• 1905 -- A Little Princess : Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe, Now Told for the First Time, Frances Hodgson Burnett; Charles Scribner's Sons.
• 1905 -- The Heart of Lady Anne, Agnes Castle and Egerton Castle; F.A. Stokes Co.
• 1905 -- The True Story of Humpty Dumpty, How He was Rescued by Three Mortal Children in Make Believe Land, Anna Alice Chapin; Dodd, Mead & Co.
• 1906 -- Mother Goose: Favorite Nursery Rhymes, Ethel Franklin Betts; F.A. Stokes Co.
• 1906 -- The Runaway Boy, James Whitcomb Riley; Bobbs-Merrill Company
• 1906 -- While the Heart Beats Young, James Whitcomb Riley; Bobbs-Merrill Company.
• 1907 -- The Raggedy Man, James Whitcomb Riley; Bobbs Merrill Company.
• 1908 -- The Orphan Annie book, James Whitcomb Riley; Bobbs-Merrill Company
• 1909 -- Fairy tales from Grimm, Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm; E. Stern & Co.
• 1909 -- The Complete Mother Goose with Illustrations in Colors and in Black and White[7] Ethel Franklin Betts

• Works by Ethel Franklin Betts at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Ethel Franklin Betts at Internet Archive