Nelly McKenzie Tolman

Born in Salisbury, North Carolina, Nelly McKenzie traveled to Washington, D.C. to study at the Corcoran School of Art.

[1] A specialist in miniature painting, she began working in the discipline around 1926,[2] and remained active for many years in local artistic circles.

She belonged to the Miniature Painters, Gravers and Sculptors Society of Washington, the Washington Water Color Club, and the Arts Club of Washington, and exhibited regularly with each; she also showed work at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and with the American Artists Professional League.

[1] A portrait by Tolman, of artist Bertha Jaques, is currently owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

[3] A portrait of Elizabeth C. Wickersham is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.