Thursday, October 04, 2018
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Lillian Steinert
Lillian Currier Steinert was born on July 26, 1878, in Manhattan, New York City, according to Find a Grave. Her full name was published in History of the Mohawk Valley, Gateway to the West, 1614–1925: Covering the Six Counties of Schenectady, Schoharie, Montgomery, Fulton, Herkimer, and Oneida, Volume 4 (1925). Her parents were Howard Gray Steiner and Fannie Beers.
Steinert has not yet been found in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census.
The 1900 census recorded the family trio in Manhattan at 1966 Seventh Avenue. Steinert’s father was a customs inspector. Information about Steinert’s art training has not been found.
Steinert was a contributor to the International Syndicate’s illustrated humor page. Her illustrations appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal (Kentucky), on October 12, 1902. It’s likely her drawings appeared in other publications.
Steinert may have been a public school teacher. A “Lillian Steinert” was listed in the Estimates of the Departments: Board of Education, Judiciary and Officers of the City of New York for the Year 1906.
In 1906 Steinert married Nelson Beach Greene who was also an artist and historian. Their daughter, Sarah, was born April 4, 1907. (Steinert should not be confused with artist Lillian S. Greene who was also born in New York but in 1856. Her husband was William Greene.)
According to the 1910 census the family of three were Manhattan residents at 617–619 West 144 Street. Steinert and her husband were self-employed artists.
At some point they moved upstate. The 1915 New York State census listed Steinert and her family in her father’s household on Piermont Avenue in Orangetown, Rockland County, New York.
The quintet were in Manhattan at 633 West 148 Street in the 1920 census. Steinert was no longer working. Her husband was a poster artist with the United Cigar Company.
Steinert’s mother was the head of the household in the 1925 New York state census. The family of four resided in Fort Plain, Montgomery County at 5 West Street. Steinert’s husband was an author and newspaperman.
Steinert has not yet been found in the 1930 census.
Steinert contributed to her husband’s publication, 34 Poems: 21 Poems with Fort Plain and Mohawk Valley Themes. The publishing date in not known.
The 1940 census said Steinert and her husband, a newspaper editor, lived at the same address recorded in the 1925 state census. Their house was valued at six-thousand dollars. The census said Steinert completed four years of high school education and did not attend college.
Steinert passed away December 8, 1945, in Fort Plain, New York, according to the New York Death Index at Ancestry.com. She was laid to rest at the Fort Plain Cemetery.
Steinert’s husband passed away November 11, 1955 in Fort Plain. Greene knew the author Stephen Crane and they shared a studio with others.
Greene’s illustrations appeared in many publications including Collier’s Weekly, Puck, and New York Tribune. Maybe Steinert lent a hand in some of Greene’s work.
Greene was mentioned in The Sun and the New York Herald. As a historian he wrote about Mohawk Valley. The New York Times, May 5, 1963, reported the Fort Plain restoration and said the dedication of the Nelson Greene Memorial house occurred almost two years earlier.
—Alex Jay
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
