An artist specializing in highly decorative flower paintings, Cora Smalley Brooks

was born in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, and from 1902 to 1904 studied at the Philadelphia

School of Design for Women with Elliot Daingerfield (1859‑1932) and Henry B. Snell (1858‑1943). She became a member of the National Arts Club and National Association

of Women Artists in New York; the Plastic Club, the Art Alliance, the Ten Philadelphia Painters, and the Delaware County Art Association, all in Philadelphia; and the American Federation of the Arts. Brooks exhibited with the Plastic Club, the Ten Philadelphia Painters,

and the National Association of Women Artists. She served as director of the Delaware County Arts Association in 1930. Works by Brooks are in the collections of the Pennsylvania State University in State College and the Twentieth Century Club in Lansdowne.

 

The Ten Philadelphia Painters was organized in 1919 by women artists in the area to exhibit their work. The members all received their training in Philadelphia and held an annual

exhibition in the same city. Other members of the Ten Philadelphia Painters included Fern I. Coppedge (1888‑1934), Theresa Bernstein (1896‑living), Isabel Cartwright (1885‑1934),