One of the projects during my internship at the Vertebrate Paleontology (VP) Archives was to write a blog post about Elisabeth R. Fulda, a woman who has had a resurgence in institutional memory due to recent discussions about the legacy of female paleo artists at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). My interest in Fulda was sparked by her preparatory paintings for an unrealized mural titled "History of Life on Earth," commissioned in 1945 by Childs Frick and William Gregory. [1] My initial research aimed to uncover more about this mural and Fulda. However, I found limited information in the archives of the American Museum of Natural History, and no additional correspondence about the mural project's cancellation and only a few records about Fulda herself, such as an obituary and a brief newspaper article.
Despite these difficulties, I continued my research and discovered that the Archives of American Art (located in Washington, D.C.) held a valuable collection of her papers, including records from her time at AMNH and additional personal and professional details. Through secondary sources like biographies of her brother Carl Rungius (also an artist and the creator of the background for the moose diorama in the Museum’s Hall of North American Mammals) and materials from the Society of Animal Artists, I gained deeper insights into her life. This research highlighted Fulda's significant, but overlooked contributions to paleo artistry, and her unique experiences as a German immigrant in New York City’s art world, underscoring her pioneering role in a male-dominated field.
I realized I wanted to write about Fulda to help fill the gaps within AMNH’s archives and memory, highlighting a woman who defied societal norms in pursuing paleo artistry at a time when women were discouraged from studying paleontology or pursuing higher education.
Fulda’s story began in 1879 in Berlin's Britz district (formerly Teltow) as Martha Elizabeth Rungius, one of the nine children of Heinrich Rungius (a local minister) and Leuchen Fulda (the superintendent of a diocese). Biographers describe the childhood of the Rungius's as idyllic thanks to their access to gardens and animals [2], which likely began her budding relationship with the nature and visual arts. The influence of her eldest brother, Carl, particularly guided her toward becoming a professional artist. She would recall later that his proverb “never praise your own work” stayed with her throughout her life. [3] Throughout her time in Germany, Elisabeth received private lessons from her brother and other artists who were associates of Carl, such as August Gaul and Richard Friese.
Unfortunately, she, like many women, struggled to receive formal education from Berlin art institutions due to gender-specific barriers and biases. However, that did not deter her, and after marrying an American named Carl Fulda on August 15, 1905, she immigrated to the United States and studied at the Cooper Union (one of the first co-educational schools) [4] in New York City. Fulda received a certificate of completion in the course "Drawing from Life and in Anatomy" in 1913 from Cooper Union and attended classes in landscape painting at the Art Students League in Woodstock, New York. By 1916, she divorced her husband but kept her name professionally as Elisabeth R. Fulda or Elisabeth Fulda.
Based on the staff records at the AMNH, she was employed as an artist and then as a photographer for the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology between 1917 and 1926. Her absence from employment records during the 1940s means she was a resident or freelance artist when creating the preparatory paintings for “History of Life on Earth.” Some of her other work held at the museum includes drawings of a scene at a Mammoth Pit and a sculpture of Protoceratops hatchlings used in an exhibit. Many of the photographs she created are invaluable in documenting the processes of specimen collection and exhibit preparation within the department.
Fulda’s work outside of AMNH included projects for the Library of Congress and the New York Zoological Park, and her art was shown in spaces like the Burr Galleries and the Village Art Center in NYC. Fulda was also part of a small collective of NYC-based artists who would paint at the Bronx Zoo. [5] Eventually, this group developed into the Society for Animal Artists, where she served as the organization's first president in 1960 and was a board member until 1967. [6]
Similarly, she was an active member of The Artists Union and the National Association of Women Artists. She also made a name for herself as a poet in Greenwich Village circles, writing “Alas! Poor Dodo,” a children’s poem about the extinct bird. It was published in 1928 under the name Lise Fulda and reflects some influences from her time at AMNH (where the book is preserved in the Research Library) and the Bronx Zoo.
On Fulda’s death in 1968, the New York Times (NYT) published an obituary, summarizing her life into four scant sentences. [7]
While this post is undoubtedly more extended than the NYT article, it still does not tell a complete story about Fulda as an artist and person. However, this journey in researching Fulda has brought me closer to newer spaces within art, paleontology, and the archival field. Similarly, it has made me more aware of the realities for women artists in the 20th century, especially regarding employment uncertainty and lack of professional acknowledgment. Yet, despite these circumstances, Elizabeth Fulda is one of many who have made space for themselves within their professions yet get a fraction of the acclaim. This project will hopefully be a part of a substantial movement to generate more visibility for her and bring more related stories to the public.
References:
See Beyond Charles Knight: Women paleoartists at the American Museum of Natural History in the early twentieth century by Reitmeyer, Morgan, and Baione and a poster presented at the Research Forum of Society of American Archivists
Elisabeth Rungius Fulda papers, 1893-1968. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
[1] Quoted from a letter from Childs Frick to William K. Gregory, 1945, VPA 111, Frick Laboratory Administrative and Personnel Records, Series 7
[2] Whyte, Jon, and E.J. Hart. Carl Rungius: Painter of the Western Wilderness. Salem House Press, Salem, New Hampshire, 1985, p. 7.
[3] Ibid, p. 12.
[4] The Cooper Union. “History.” https://cooper.edu/about/history.
[5] “About the Society of Animal Artists.” The Society of Animal Artists.
[6] Siegrist, Wes and Rachelle. “Society of Animal Artists: Highlighting SAA Inaugural Members of 1960.” Society of Animal Artists (blog), March 1, 2020.
[7] The New York Times. “Elisabeth Fulda, 88, Dies; Artist and Nature Painter.” January 25, 1968, sec. Archives.