Margaret Armstrong : Biography

Margaret Neilson Armstrong was born in New York in 1867, the eldest daughter of the artist, David Maitland Armstrong. The family spent considerable time on the Hudson River in a 1750's house known as Danskammer. They lived for a time in Florence, Italy, where Margaret's younger sister Helen was born. In the 1880's they moved to`a house at 58 West 10th Street in New York City. There were other siblings, Marion and Noel, Edward, Bayard. The youngest child in the family was a brother, Hamilton.

In addition to his career as an artist, Maitland Armstrong served as a diplomat in Italy. His work as an artist brought the entire family in contact with his wide circle of friends which included included Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase, and Stanford White who re-decorated the house on West 10th Street for the Armstrongs. This residence is now owned by New York University.

Hamilton's memoir of his childhood reveals the Armstrong household was a happy one. Summer vacations were spent at a lake house in North Hatley, Quebec, Canada. A family photograph of the Armstrong children appears in his memoir, Those Days. Although the photo is uncaptioned, it may be fair to assume, from left to right, we are looking at Helen, Margaret, Noel, a governess or adult relative (dressed in white), and Hamilton.

Two of Miss Armstrong's siblings had significant careers as well. Helen was an illustrator and artist who often worked on projects with her sister, and Hamilton served as the managing editor of Foreign Affairs from 1928-1972.

After many years as a professional book designer, Miss Armstrong embarked on a new venture. She began writing books. Her most distinguished title was researched and written during the years 1911-1914 : Field Book of Western Wild Flowers. She did some 500 drawings for this book. In the course of researching this work, she and several friends became the first women to descend to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. 

   She published scholarly magazine articles, edited her brother's
 Day Before Yesterday and hisThe Book of New York Verse,
 wrote two biographies, Trelawny, A man's Life, and Fanny Kimble,
 and three mystery novels, Murder in Stained Glass, 
The Man With No Face, and The Blue Santo Murder Mystery.  
She had been educated at home by a governess and had become a woman of the
world in the best sense: engaged, creative, adventuresome. She lived most of her life in the house on
West 10th Street and died in New York in 1944.  
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