Alice Martha Murphy

Alice Martha Murphy was born in 1871 near Independence, Missouri. In 1880 her family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where she attended high school. Afterward she attended Kirkwood Seminary and enrolled in Forest Park University in Kirkwood, Missouri. Murphy studied art at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, where she was mentored by Halsey Ives.

Beginning in 1897, Murphy taught art at Manual Training High School in Kansas City. She organized a drawing class in 1897, and Manual became the first high school west of the Mississippi with a comprehensive art curriculum. Murphy became the director of the art department, and during her tenure it became the largest high school art department in the West. Murphy taught at Manual High School until 1908. She also taught private lessons in her studio at her home. 

During her lifetime, Murphy undertook various travels. In the summer of 1899, Murphy traveled and painted in California, Oregon and Colorado, in watercolor and pastel. From 1902-1904, Murphy took a sabbatical from Manual High School to travel to Europe. She visited Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Spain, and studied art in Paris during the winter. In 1904, Alice studied with William Merritt Chase in London, where she won a scholarship to the Chase School of Art in New York City, which she declined to return to teaching.

Murphy was known for painting landscapes, seascapes and figures; she was also known for her European landscapes from her travels.

Murphy married Herman W. Gross, a St. Louis lithographer, in the spring of 1908. They traveled in Europe, and after their return home, Alice became ill. She died on April 26, 1909, in Kansas City.