Louise Emerson Ronnebeck
Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (25 August 1901 – 17 February 1980) was an American painter now best known for her work as a muralist. She submitted entries to 16 competitions for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), winning and completing two WPA commissions. Although her body of work included a significant number of both commissioned frescoes as well as easel paintings, few are known to have survived. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Emerson grew up in New York. She married artist Arnold Ronnebeck (1885–1947) in 1926 and they settled in Denver, Colorado. In Denver and later in Bermuda she built up a successful career as an artist and teacher. Through her work in the 1930s and 1940s, she documented western American history and social issues. Early life Mary Louise Harrington Emerson was born in 1901 in Philadelphia. Louise was the third daughter of Mary Crawford Suplee and Harrington Emerson (1853–1931). Her father was an efficiency engineer who established the Emerson Institute in New York City in 1900. Louise Emerson's great grandfather, Samuel D. Ingham (on her mother's side), was Secretary of the Treasury under Andrew Jackson, the U.S.'s seventh President (1829–1837). In 1922 Louise Emerson graduated from Barnard College. She went on to