Ethel Earle Wylie (1881 - 1962) was a Canadian American artist and teacher. Born in Canada, Wylie immigrated to the United States in 1889. Very little is known about her life and career, but we do know that she spent some time as a teacher in Oakland, California. It appears that she was also an extensive traveler, spending as much as six months in Europe at once. More by this mapmaker...

Ella Lillian Wall Van Leer (November 11, 1892 - August 8, 1986) was an American architect, artist, and women's rights activist. Born in Berkeley, California, Wall graduated from Berkeley High School in 1910 and then attended the University of California Berkeley. She received her M.A. in Art and Architecture from U.C. Berkeley in 1915. Even after earning a master's degree, she was not able to become a professional architect and was relegated to teaching both subjects at the high school level later in life. One of her first jobs after graduation was as an artist for Rand McNally. She enlisted in the Army Nursing Corps at Letterman Army Hospital on the Presidio in San Francisco in July 1918. She was mobilized for overseas servicer four months later. She served overseas until March 1920, then had a position at the U.S.A. General Hospital. Eventually she made her way back to California and found a teaching position. She became the first woman to hold an office in the American Legion in California in 1923 when she became second vice commander of Berkeley Post No. 7. Wall married Blake Ragsdale Van Leer in 1924 and continued pursuing her career as an artist during her marriage. She worked as an illustrator for Rand McNally (perhaps she had a position waiting for her after her Army service?) and Wall worked in the office of the Quartermaster General during World War II as a principal draftsman and technologist of the research and development branch in Washington, D.C. Wall's husband became president of the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1944 and she became the 'backbone of women' and their 'unofficial dean' not long after arrival. She tirelessly campaigned for women's rights and even successfully petitioned to overturn a statute barring women from enrolling at Georgia Tech. After the first women enrolled at the school, Wall helped establish the first scholarship for female students, along with an official chapter of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, the first sorority at an engineering school. Her husband died in 1956 and Wall bought a house near Georgia Tech and turned it into 'an unofficial women's dormitory'. She retired in 1976. Wall died in Arlington, Virginia, and is buried at the Marietta National Cemetery in Cobb County, Georgia. She and her husband had two children. Learn More...