Dorothy Newkirk Stewart

My name is Elizabeth Barr Bryant and this is my first blog. The source of inspiration for this project is my great grand aunt Dorothy Newkirk Stewart.

As I learn how to navigate this site , I will be adding posts about my journey to discover who she was.

My family history was shrouded in mystery. When I was 10, my mother divorced and she moved our family of women– two sisters and me– to another state. Soon after that, my paternal grandfather died and since we lived far away, our lives went in a different direction. As a result, I knew very little about my distant relatives.

In 1995, my mother died and in the process of cleaning out our childhood home, I discovered a steamer trunk in the basement which contained a series of wood block prints signed with the initials, DNS.

I had heard tales of an artist in the family but knew almost nothing about her. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Dorothy had been an important figure in Santa Fe, New Mexico’s art scene in the years between 1926 through 1954 when she died prematurely of a brain aneurysm.