BERWYN, PENN. — The Pennsylvania Art Conservatory will offer several works of Anita Miller Smith (1893–1968) at the 2003 USArtists Show. This will be the first time her paintings will be shown in over 75 years.

Miss Smith, a refugee of Philadelphia’s crème de la crème (she had made her debut as one of the exalted inner Assembly – and rebelled, coming to Woodstock with money intended for a ball gown) joined the village’s fledgling Artists Colony in the summer of 1912.

She painted in both an impressionist and a post-impressionist style and exhibited at all the major US venues between 1916 and 1930. In 1919, her “Houses in the Dunes” was awarded the Lambert Purchase Prize by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, in 1930 a family tragedy engaged her entire attention and she ceased exhibiting her works.

In 1934 she became one of the East Coast’s premier herbalists and soon had over 60 herbs under cultivation at “Stonecrop,” her Woodstock home. Within a few short years she had customers in all 48 contiguous states, as well as such large commercial clients as H.J. Heinz. On September 1, 1940, the New York Herald Tribune wrote an account of her business and dubbed her the “Herb Lady of the Catskills.”

In 1959 Miss Smith wrote and independently published “Woodstock History and Hearsay,” the town’s first official history. A second edition of her book is being prepared for publication by Woodstock Arts and will be launched in 2004.

Local art dealer and historian Roy Wood, Jr, is assisting her heirs and our firm in bringing the outstanding artist’s work to the attention of collectors.

For more information, 610-644-4300.