227:, she was a very well established Seattle music teacher, with a suite of five studio rooms and two assistants. (She would later hire Cady as a faculty member at the Cornish School.) She returned to Seattle and modified her approach to teaching to incorporate Cady's ideas about using music education to impart a broader spiritual approach to life in general. However, the combination of disappointment in romance and a reconciliation with her father led her to turn over her studio to one of her assistants, Martha Sackett, and join her father in
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in turn was rather heavily mortgaged by the group of supporters who owned it. In 1923, the entire financial arrangement nearly came crashing down, and only some last minute donations prevented the school from having to move to Los
Angeles. The next year, the realty company that owned the building converted itself into a foundation to support the school, and took on its debts. However, there was no
25:
262:, which they closed in 1917. The department, with its incorporation of scenic design, music, and dance in its productions, became central to Cornish's plans to ally the arts. Within three years it had enrolled over 600 students, and was the country's largest music school west of Chicago. The curriculum soon expanded to include subjects as diverse as
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Although she often moved among the rich and famous, Cornish did not have any particularly large sum of her own money, and was at times totally broke. Neither
Cornish nor the school itself owned the custom-built 1921 building now known as Kerry Hall: the school was a tenant renting the building, which
188:, where her mother died two years later; Nellie stayed in Blaine much of that time, teaching fourth grade although still in her teens. Her father remarried to a woman she did not like, leading to a break with him. In her early twenties, she gave music lessons and did other tutoring in northwestern
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described her as "a small, round, plump little lady with the dynamism of a rocket." She founded the
Cornish School in 1914 and served as the school's director for the next 25 years. Within three years it had enrolled over 600 students, and was the country's largest music school west of Chicago.
314:, and finances remained precarious even through what Cornish called the school's "golden years" in the mid-1920s. This remained the case even after the mortgage was paid off and the building donated to the school in 1929, and financial difficulties inevitably grew during the
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She moved to
Seattle in 1900, and took a studio in 1902 in the Holyoke Building (the center of Seattle music instruction at the time), which gave her a chance to meet nearly all of the city's leading music teachers. In 1904, she traveled to
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After leaving her school, Cornish spent three years of "rest and gardening" in
California; spent half a year in an unsuccessful New York-based venture to improve children's radio programming; and then spent four years as head of the
318:. The Board neither raised an endowment nor otherwise put the school on a financial footing that would allow it to do more than "tread water." Ultimately, this led Cornish to resign her position as head of the school in 1939.
184:, where she studied piano under Ebenezer Cook, a teacher of strong local reputation. Shortly after, her father's fortunes and her mother's health began to fail. Her parents moved to
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Cornish never married. According to Nancy Wilson Ross, "Twice she was deeply in love and lost the men to other women…" She adopted the orphaned
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231:, where he had somewhat recovered his fortune. A plan for father and daughter to travel together to Europe was scotched by the outbreak of
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For more biographical info see entry for
Cornish School at HistoryLink.org, The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History.
180:, as the daughter of the town's first mayor, lawyer Nathan Armfield Cornish. In her early teens, she lived about half a year in
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132:(1876 – 1956) was a pianist, teacher, writer, and founder of the Cornish School (now
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spent time teaching at the
Cornish School during the early part of their careers.
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620:"Awaken Drama Idea Interest in Theatrical Art Growing Among Residents of Tacoma"
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399:, p. 269; part of "A Tribute from Martha Graham" included as an afterword.
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to found a theater department at her school. The
Brownes were founders of the
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Nate
Lippens, short item on Cornish as part of "People Who Shaped Seattle",
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862:, foreword by Nancy Wilson Ross, Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press,
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Seattle 1900-1920: From Boomtown, Urban Turbulence, to Restoration
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esp. p. 252–261. The reference to "treading water" is on p. 255.
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In 1921, Cornish led a successful fundraising drive to save the
152:'s ideas about teaching broader values through music education.
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also fell through, as did an effort to establish herself in
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Miss Aunt Nellie. The autobiography of Nellie C. Cornish
172:Born July 1876 in Nebraska, she grew up first in
144:. She was influenced by the pedagogical ideas of
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324:Pittsfield Community Music School
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47:secondary or tertiary sources
223:to study for six weeks with
208:for the summer to learn the
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219:By 1911, when she left for
134:Cornish College of the Arts
16:American artist (1876–1956)
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150:Calvin Brainerd Cady
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341:Other achievements
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99:January 2021
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385:Berner 1991
264:eurhythmics
233:World War I
148:as well as
892:Categories
832:References
761:, p.
746:, p.
682:, p.
666:2024-05-13
630:2024-03-26
292:Mark Tobey
214:Montessori
142:Washington
69:newspapers
36:references
312:endowment
304:John Cage
272:painting
763:passim,
748:passim.
464:et.seq.
449:et.seq.
434:et.seq.
288:theater
286:), and
248:Seattle
138:Seattle
83:scholar
866:
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684:passim
284:ballet
206:Boston
190:Oregon
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353:Notes
276:dance
136:) in
90:JSTOR
76:books
864:ISBN
844:ISBN
302:and
282:and
280:folk
62:news
212:'s
38:to
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