Barbara Latham Papers

Barbara Latham was born in Walpole, MA in 1896. Both her father and mother were teachers and the family moved to Connecticut when Barbara was six for her father’s new job. As a self-described tom-boy, Barbara remembers her childhood as a happy, idyllic time full of outdoor activities, reading and art. She was encouraged to develop her artistic abilities as a child, and after high school she attended the Norwich Academy and the Pratt Institute in New York City. She graduated from Pratt in 1919 and after a few summers of studying with noted painter Andrew Dasburg at the Art Students League Summer School in Woodstock, New York, Barbara got a job as a greeting card designer in New York City. Eventually, after taking a vacation there in the fall of 1925, Barbara moved to Taos, NM where she met her future husband, artist Howard Cook. After marrying in 1927, the couple spent the first decade of their married lives traveling the globe, living in Europe, Mexico and the southern United States. Her experiences living in these places greatly influenced her art, though none so much as the American southwest, where the couple eventually settled. Her first children’s book Pedro, Nina and Perrito (1939) is a perfect example of this. After many decades of creating highly-renowned artwork, Barbara passed away in 1989, still residing in her adopted home state of New Mexico.

Biographical Source: Cunningham, E. J. (2013). : Remarkable women of Taos: a yearlong community-wide celebration honoring outstanding Taoseña: a printed version of a web project. Taos, New Mexico: Nighthawk Press, [2013].