Gertrude Alice Kay (January 30, 1884 – December 17, 1939) was an American children's literature illustrator and author best known for her work in fairy tales and beginner novels.

[2] While at Drexel University she studied under Howard Pyle for several years, alongside many other prominent female illustrators including Jessie Wilcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Violet Oakley.

[3] At different points throughout her life, she was a member of organizations such as The Plastic Club of Philadelphia, the Association of Women Painters and Sculptors of New York, and the Authors' League of America.

[5] She began her career illustrating children's books with Down Spider Web Lane, A Fairy Tale, written by Mary Dickerson Donahey in 1909.

This period of time was significantly influential on Kay's art, which was later praised for its ability to accurately and sensitively portray a wide variety of cultures and ethnicities.

Adventures in Geography is a 160-page book with nearly fifty full-color reproductions of Kay's gouache paintings that tell the story of a young boy and his uncle's travels around the world.

Her most popular characters were two children named Polly and Peter Perkins introduced in the early 1930s, who she regularly illustrated to be cut out and played with in a variety of scenarios.

Popular pages of Kay's Adventures of Polly and Peter Perkins paper doll series included themes of wedding fashion, gardening, the old woman who lived in a shoe, Valentine's Day, and Christmas.

The various chapters recount such simple and joyful doings as - parties, picnics, first and last days at school, rides on merry-go-rounds, bonfires in October, games in haylofts, and all the adventures that children like best to hear about.

Prominent authors whose work was accompanied by Gertrude's illustrations include George MacDonald, Mary Dickerson Donahey, and Frances G. Wickes.

Addington's series depicting life on an imagined "Pudding Lane" was especially popular, known for Kay's illustrations of fairy tale characters growing up alongside a young Santa Claus.

Through the end of her career, Gertrude Kay regularly contributed illustrations for covers and features in popular magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal, The American Girl, Woman's World, and Good Housekeeping.

[2] Notably, Gertrude Kay is credited with convincing prolific children's book illustrator and author Brinton Turkle (1915–2003) to pursue an education in the arts.