Amelia R. Coats

Who is Amelia R. Coats?

Amelia R. Coats was an American printmaker known for her small, detailed etchings, mostly from the first quarter of the twentieth century. They consist primarily of Hawaiian landscapes featuring idyllic settings. They are typically undated and without information about the size of the edition.

Miss Coats definitely lived and worked in Honolulu in the 1930s, though she appears in arriving passenger rolls as early as August 1903, when she was aboard the SS Aorangi from Vancouver to Honolulu, and she purchased land in the Palolo Valley in 1905. In 1915, she was part of a large party from Honolulu's Trail and Mountain Club that traveled to Maui to hike up Haleakala, led by Alexander Hume Ford.

Her artwork was part of a group show of Honolulu Printmakers at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in November 1930, along with works by Alexander Samuel MacLeod, Huc-Mazelet Luquiens, John Melville Kelly, and Kate Kelly. "Miss Amelia Coats" donated two prints to the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1933. In a 1934 Hawaii directory, Amelia R. Coats is listed as a clerk for the United States Geological Survey at Spreckelsville on Maui.

Two prints by Amelia Coats are in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs collection of the New York Public Library.