Léonie Gilmour
| Léonie Gilmour | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
June 17, 1873 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 31, 1933 (aged 60) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | educator, editor, journalist |
| Partner(s) | Yone Noguchi |
| Children | Isamu Noguchi, Ailes Gilmour |
Léonie Gilmour (June 17, 1873 - December 31, 1933) was an American educator, editor, and journalist. She was the lover and editor of the writer Yone Noguchi and the mother of sculptor Isamu Noguchi and dancer Ailes Gilmour. She is the subject of the feature film Leonie (2010) and the book Leonie Gilmour: When East Weds West (2013).
Léonie Gilmour was born in New York City on June 17, 1873, and grew up in the East Village, Manhattan. At the time of her birth, her father, Andrew Gilmour, a clerk, and mother, Albiana Gilmour (née Smith, daughter of one of the co-founders of the Brooklyn Times-Union), were living "in one room in a rear house" in St. Bridget's Place, the alley behind St. Brigid's Church on the east side of Tompkins Square Park. Léonie was among the first students at the Free Kindergarten organized by Felix Adler's Ethical Culture Society and became a member of the first class of the Workingman's School (later Ethical Culture School). After her graduation in 1887, Adler found a place for her at the recently opened Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. As one of the few students to pass the Bryn Mawr School's rigorous graduation requirements, she was awarded its first four-year college scholarship, funded by school president Mary Garrett.
As was expected, Gilmour enrolled at Bryn Mawr College in the fall of 1891. Despite an early interest in Chemistry, she eventually chose to major in History and Political Science as her major fields. In her third year, following the example of many students preparing for the school's rigorous foreign language exams (which required students to translate on sight from Greek, Latin, French and German), Léonie decided to spend a year abroad studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. Upon her return in the fall of 1894, she was assigned to the same residence hall dining table as incoming student Catharine Bunnell (niece of future Yale benefactor John William Sterling), and the two became lifelong friends. In January 1895, an illness leading to hospitalization led to Gilmour's withdrawal from the college, her transcript citing "reasons of health," although Gilmour's biographer speculates that the expiration of her four-year scholarship the previous year may have been a contributing factor. She never completed her degree. Her friend Catharine Bunnell also withdrew from the college at the end of the year.
...
Wikipedia