May Todd Aaron (1879-1967)Primary WorkNative American genre, landscape. Early LifeAaron was born on July 13, 1879 in La Celle, Indian Territory and grew up in La Celle and Gray Horse (where her father became a physician to the Osage in 1890). She was the daughter of Dr. William Henry and Mary E. Todd. She was surrounded by the Native American culture and recorded her observations in sketches. In 1901 she opened a studio in Pawhuska, and in 1904 she married William H. Aaron who was a physician in the town. After a hiatus from art, she began her career again in the mid-1920s. EducationShe took a correspondence course from a Chicago school shortly after finishing high school.Studied briefly at a college in Wichita, KSArt Institute of Chicago 1900-1901TravelAaron lived in Pawhuska most of her life (46 years), but traveled once to San Antonia during World War I. In 1950, after her husband’s death, she traveled to New York, Chicago, and Paris (studying with Andre Lhote). In 1957 she settled in Chicago.ExhibitionsKansas City Art Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; America Watercolor Society; Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; Tulsa University; Second Annual Exhibition of American Art, New York; American Embassy, Paris; La Galaerie d’Art du Faubourg, Paris (1956, one person show). Organizations and AwardsRecognition from the Alumni Association of the Art Institute of Chicago 1966Member of National Association of Women ArtistsMember of Oklahoma Artist AssociationMember of Arts Club of ChicagoMember of Philadelphia Print ClubMember of Southwest Artist AssociationMember of Wichita Artist AssociationPublicationsIllustrations for J.J. Mathew’s Wah’Kon-Tah, 1931. Works in Collection1427.196