Violet Oakley, Muralist of the Capitol

When Pennsylvania's new State Capitol was being decorated in the early nineteen hundreds, the commission to paint its interior murals went to Violet Oakley, making her one of the first women in American history to receive a major government mural contract. Oakley filled the Governor's reception room and the State Senate chamber with sweeping paintings that drew on William Penn's founding ideals of justice, conscience, and peace. She lived and worked at Cogslea, a home in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia that she shared from nineteen oh six with two fellow women artists, Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green.

In addition to her murals, Oakley was acclaimed for her stained glass work and her book and magazine illustrations. She remained at Cogslea until her death in nineteen sixty-one.