Agnes Sims (1910-1990)

Artist and lesbian Agnes Sims (1910-1990) is known for paintings and sculptures inspired by prehistoric rock art of New Mexico. Born in Devon, Pennsylvania, she attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. She managed a traveling marionette theater before establishing herself as a textile and needlework designer in Philadelphia. After a visit to New Mexico in 1938, Sims returned to Philadelphia, packed her belongings, and returned to make Santa Fe her permanent home. In 1949 she received a grant from the American Philosophical Society to further her research, and in 1950 she published a portfolio of selected rock at drawings in her monograph, San Cristobal Petroglyphs. Mary Louise Aswell (1902-1984), the fiction editor at Harper’s Bazaar was her long-time partner. The two had met through East coast lesbian circles. In 1990, Agnes Sims died Alzheimer’s disease.