This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Only two of three known works by this Michigan artist have so far been located, with "Lemons and Lace" in the permanent collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art.
The following was submitted by Graham C. Boettcher, Ph.D. The Luce Foundation Curatorial Fellow of American Art Birmingham Museum of Art, as part of his ongoing research about this artist:
In the catalogue Images of America: The Painter's Eye, 1833-1925 (Birmingham Museum of Art, 1991), Frederick Baekeland identified Kate E. Bissell as "Mrs. Alonzo Bissell" of Jackson, Michigan (see p. 136, no. 54). According to the 1870 U.S. Census, Alonzo Bissell of Jackson, Michigan, was married to a woman named "Hannah." Indeed, the U.S. Census records show that "Bissell" was the maiden name--not the married name--of the painter. She appears in the 1880 U.S. Census record as "Kate Bissell," a teacher, boarding with Frank and Etta Hall in Rives Township, Jackson County, Michigan. The census records indicate that she was born in Michigan, her father was born in New York, and her mother born in Massachusetts.
Looking back at previous records, there is only one Kate (or variation of that name) in the entire state of Michigan who fits the aforementioned criteria. Michigan-born Catherine Bissell, daughter of John Bissell of New York and Catherine Bissell of Massachusetts, first appears in the 1860 U.S. Census, where her age is given as 6 ½ months (since the census was taken on July 27, 1860, she was born in January of 1860). She is listed in the 1870 Census as "Katie." As previously stated, in the 1880 Census, she is listed as "Kate Bissell." While the rest of her family appears in the 1900 U.S Census., there is no record of "Kate Bissell" or "Catherine Bissell," aged forty, suggesting that between 1880 and 1900, she either died, or married and took her husband's name.
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