This following biography was researched, compiled, and written by Geoffrey K. Fleming, Executive Director, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV. 

BARBARA SPURR (August 6, 1888 – March 4, 1963)

Artist and painter in watercolor. Barbara Spurr was a prolific illustrator of children’s books from the 1920s through the 1940s. Though she is often mistaken as being an American artist, she was in fact British. 

Barbara Spurr was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, the daughter of Ethel Mary Cropper (1858 – 1934) and George Edmondson Spurr (1858 – 1933). Her father was a milliner, dressmaker, draper and clothier based in Hitchin. 

She attended the Royal Academy School in London, where she received her certificate in 1910, and the following year was still listed in the census as an art student. In 1914 her watercolor painting The Dream of Che-Yin was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, where it was noted as being admirable alongside works by several other women artists. Sadly, shortly thereafter three of her younger brothers were killed during World War I (1914 – 1918). 

By the 1930s, Spurr had become one of the principal illustrators working for the publisher Renwick of Otley in Great Britain. As their books were often reissued with different covers and illustrations, it is hard to provide exact dates for the examples that were originally illustrated by Spurr. Among the books she appears to have either partially or fully illustrated are the following: The Lovesome Book for Little Folk (The Epworth Press, 1920s); Our Kiddie’s Fairystar (Renwick, c. 1929); Our Girls’ Tip Top (Renwick, c. 1930); Our Boys’ Best of All (Renwick, c. 1930); Tales of Adventure (Renwick, c. 1931); Our Girls’ Brightest (Renwick, c. 1936); Adventure (u.d.); Away We Go (u.d.); Country Days (u.d.); Growing Up (u.d.); Our Treasures (u.d.); Play With Us (u.d.); The Magic Flame (u.d.). 

By 1939 Spurr was residing at 25 Field Lane, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England where she was listed as an artist and painter working on her own account. Later in her life she moved back closer to her hometown of Hitchin, settling, by 1960, in the nearby hamlet of Gosmore. 

Barbara Spurr died at 2 High Street, Gosmore, Hertfordshire, England on Wednesday, the 6th of March 1963 at the age of seventy-four years. It is presently unclear from where her services were held or where she was eventually buried. Based on the value of her estate – which totaled nearly $15,000 pounds – she appears to have been successful at her chosen profession.