Early years The school, originally located at 200
West 23rd Street, was established in 1892. The school, with an extensive art library, taught historic art and design classes for the students' first two years at the school. It employed Henry L. Parkhurst of
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company to teach book cover design;
Paul de Longpré taught watercolor flower painting;
Daniel Carter Beard taught animal drawing. The school arranged for the sale of artworks by graduates and students. When constructed in 1909, it was criticized in an
Architecture magazine article as "drastically modern". The building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places on December 16, 1982. In 1986, the building no longer housed an art school. The building, purchased by Altro Health and Rehabilitation Services, was used as vocational training center.
Touro College purchased the building in 1990 and became the school's Lexington Avenue campus, It had ten classrooms, a library, two reading rooms, and a laboratory. The building retained its oversized windows and skylights. Classes began in September 1992.
Educational developments By 1910, 4,000 women had attended the school. Beginning that year, an affiliation with
Columbia University allowed the design school's students to take courses at Columbia for two years, and then enroll in Columbia. The affiliation continued until 1912 when the Atelier Columbia was established; Atelier Corbett was a forerunner of this organization.
Austin W. Lord was also an instructor of architecture courses. In 1915, architect James Monroe Hewlett and Anne Dornin were architecture instructors. For her role with the school, Dunlap Hopkins was awarded the Michael Friedsam Gold Medal. The citation stated, "Courageous leader in the education of women, student of the arts and friend of the artists, sympathetic teacher of young designers destined to improve by their work and their ideas the standards of art in industry, founder of the New York School of Applied Design and for 45 years its guide and counselor, devout adherent of the belief that the might of the fine design will make the right of successful industrial art." She died in 1939. Architect Corbett became President of the school in 1938, a position he held until his death in 1954.
Alumni •
Ruth Maxon Adams •
Ilse Bischoff •
Isabel Bishop •
Rosina Cox Boardman •
Bessie Marsh Brewer •
Minna Citron • Mary Gannon and Alice Hands, cofounders of
Gannon and Hands •
Minetta Good •
Dorothy Grider •
Martha Brookes Hutcheson •
Hildreth Meiere •
Eugenie Shonnard •
Nina Spalding Stevens ==Organizational changes==