Florence Scovel Shinn

“Specialized in Metaphysics—Also Known as an Illustrator”

Florence Scovel Shinn was born on September 24, 1871, in Camden, New Jersey. She was born into quite a legacy. Her great-great-grandfather, Francis Hopkinson, signed the United States’ Declaration of Independence. Hopkinson is also described as being the earliest-documented American music composer.

Shinn was educated in Philadelphia in a manner befitting her family’s wealth, status, and privilege. After attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts—where she met her husband, the artist, Everett Shinn—she moved to New York City. Shinn’s first apartment was a studio at the newly-constructed (1900) 112 Waverly Place in Greenwich Village. For inquiring minds, that address is now a five-bedroom townhouse that was recently listed at $13,500,000.

In the early years of Shinn’s marriage, her husband designed and built a theatre next to their apartment; and he wrote several plays for which he cast Shinn in leading roles. Not all was well with the newly betrothed, however, as they divorced in 1912.

Before the divorce—and before her somewhat controversial work as a “New Thought” spiritual teacher, and writer of metaphysics—Shinn spent her non-acting time as… an illustrator.