Woman of the Century/Emily Watkins Wakefield

WAKEFIELD, Mrs. Emily Watkins, singer, educator and lecturer, was born in London, England. Her father, Henry George Watkins, was an artist of great ability, being one of the old line engravers, for Landseer, Herring and other celebrated painters. Emily early turned to books and lived in an atmosphere 01 art, and in her father's studio her pastime was to read and act the stones of the heroes of ancient Greece and Rome. At fifteen she entered Queen's College, London, where she excelled in history, literature and composition. Her first field of work was in St. Johns, N. B., where her artistic ability was soon recognized, and she received for an original painting the highest award from the Dominion Exhibition. In 1873 she removed to Halifax, N. S., where her soirees, her musicales, her examination days, and her school exhibitions were of great renown. EMILY WATKINS WAKEFIELD. Reverses compelled her to close her school, and she came to the United States. After two years of successful administration in Patapsco Seminary, Maryland, she was invited to Titusville, Pa., in which place she has been since 1882. Mrs. Wakefield has been a teacher, a singer and a musical director. She has rendered seventeen operas, leading and training the voices of novices and the parts of amateurs, and in addition to all that work she has been the leading spirit in the intellectual advancement of the city, organizing literary clubs and teaching hundreds. Invited to the Chautauqua platform in 1892, she gave a series of lectures that secured her wide reputation and recognition, her success being assured and complete. "The Literature of the Far East." one of her subjects, attests her scholastic research, and the other, "A Day In London," abounded in the same traits and touches that distinguished Cough's performances. She is devoted to her musical and literary labors.