Margaret Armstrong : American Book Designer
Her Professional Life
Miss Armstrong's career begin at the age of sixteen when she sent some menus and
place cards that she had made to the Women's Exchange in New York City
to be sold. She was encouraged at this point to design a series of Christmas
cards. Her first cover design was published in 1890. She so feared
being exposed as a woman working in what was
at that time a man's profession that she submitted her work under the name
M.N. Armstrong. That first book was Sweet William by Marguerite Bouvet.
Both Margaret and her sister Helen were credited on the title page as the illustrators
of this book. From that modest beginning she went on to design for a number of
publishers, Scribner and Putnam becoming her most important sources of assignments.
Beyond her obvious talent, events conspired to further her work. In 1893 the Chicago World's
Columbian Exposition provided an entire building for exhibits relating to women. Several major
exhibitions devoted to book design and bindings at about the same time directed more
attention to Miss Armstrong's work. One of these was at the Grolier Club in New York in 1894. By the
turn of the century she was undoubtedly the most important woman working in
book design in this country.
In the years 1900 and 1901 she undertook two major projects, a complete series in uniform
blue cloth for the works of Henry Van Dyke and a similar series in lavender for the works
of Myrtle Reed. These designs reveal many common elements in her work: a compartmentalized
"stained glass" technique which boxed in elements in the designs; the use of botanical designs;
symmetry; and the use of her own lettering and alphabets. By 1913 her book design career was largely over other than designing for her
brother's books. Her work as a writer and botanist filled her time till her death
in 1944.
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