Jun 01, 2023 - Sale 2639
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Sale 2639 - Lot 44

Price Realized: $ 750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 700
Smith, Kathryn [aka Kittie] (1882-1967)
Drawing with Autographed Card, Photograph, and Biographical Pamphlet.

1) Two pencil drawings of cats on one wove sheet, featuring a cute cat in a boot, on the left, and two cats sharing an embrace over a fence, each standing on its back legs; with a small card inscribed by Smith tacked to the top, reading, "Kathryn M.R. Smith, Poynette, Wisconsin, Written and drawn with her toes, 1903, in the original grained wood frame, 11 1/4 x 8 1/2 in.

2) Black-and-white photograph of Smith taken later in life with Marie Van Atta, both sitters identified in ink on the verso, 5 x 7 in.

3) My Life Story, Smith's illustrated autobiography pamphlet, circa 1906, autographed by her on the back cover, "Miss Katie," in ink, 4 1/2 x 6 in. (3)

Smith sustained life-threatening burns to both arms and hands when she was nine years old. Her neighbors accused Smith's father of intentionally burning her in an abusive attack, but Smith defended her father, claiming that the burns occurred accidentally. After losing both arms and spending a year rehabilitating under the care of the Children's Home Society of Illinois, Smith's situation prompted Dr. Frank M. Gregg to set up a fund in her name. She was then kept at the Home for Destitute Crippled Children for four years, where she learned to write and sew with her feet. Around the time this drawing and card were made, Smith had nearly exhausted her fund, and was earning money selling signed cards and drawings. Illustrations in her autobiography show Smith drawing, doing needlework, combing her hair, sharpening a pencil, cutting with scissors, taking off her glasses, hammering a nail in a board, cutting wood with a hand saw, and further examples of her work, including drawings, embroidered doilies, a quilt, and a table that she built.
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