Coah Henry

Coah Henry was a painter and educator who dedicated her life to cultivating the arts in Missouri. 

Coah Henry was born on a farm in Hamilton, Missouri, in 1876. In 1902, Henry was hired as Supervisor of Art for the public school district in Independence, Missouri. She remained there for the next eight years, until she was hired to teach in the Kansas City public schools in 1910. Surrounded by the arts community concentrated in Kansas City, Henry's artistic practice soon blossomed.

Coah Henry's occupation as a teacher gave her the freedom to pursue an artistic career equal to her male peers. She spent her summers traveling the country, producing large bodies of work that she exhibited throughout the year. Henry and a group of other female artist-teachers, including Delle Miller, Ilah Marion Kibbey and Floy Campbell, worked together to exhibit their work professionally while using their positions within the public schools to create new opportunities for young artists. Many artists of the next generation found their beginnings in the classrooms of these pioneering women artists.

In 1923, Coah Henry helped establish the Kansas City Society of Artists, one of the first professional artist groups in the region. In 1928, Henry was elected vice president and worked with president Ilah Marion Kibbey to expand the society's reach and membership, collaborating with local organizations to host their annual exhibitions. The same year, Henry and a group of public school teachers organized a nation-wide scholarship competition for high school artists.

Coah Henry devoted her free time to her prolific practice as a painter. She spent time studying at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art and the University of Colorado. She graduated with a degree in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1934. Henry held solo exhibitions at the Conrad Hug Galleries and exhibited her work nationally at the Newark Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the New York Water Color Club. Henry participated in many Society of Artists' exhibitions and the Midwestern Artists' Exhibitions held at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Coah Henry retired from teaching in 1947. She continued painting for the next fifteen years, and later organized art exhibitions at the nursing home where she lived during the 1950s. In recognition of her achievements, Henry was listed in the Who's Who of American Artists for many years. Today, her work hangs in homes across the country.