Mary "May" Elizabeth Cook, 1863 – 1951

Mary Elizabeth Cook—often known as May or sometimes Mae—was recognized in her time as an accomplished ceramist and sculptor, yet her contributions to American art have since received little sustained attention. Even less recognized are her critical efforts in the field of facial reconstruction during World War I. As an artist working alongside surgeons in maxillofacial surgery, Cook played a role as vital as that of her better-known contemporary, sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd. Through her creation of plaster casts, wax models, and detailed visual records, Cook helped pioneer techniques that not only supported surgical procedures but also restored a sense of identity and dignity to disfigured soldiers. Her work bridged the worlds of art and medicine at an important moment in the development of American medical practices.

As a sculptor, she was best known for her public monuments, portraiture, and medical modeling. Based in Ohio and trained in Paris, she exhibited across the U.S. and had a strong regional impact in the Midwest, leaving a lasting legacy in public and institutional spaces. She was also a teacher, public speaker, specialist on Chinese porcelain, musician, and writer.

The Early Years

Born on December 31, 1863, in Chillicothe, Ohio, Cook was the daughter of Anna Sappington Cook and  Corporal William Alexander Cook, financier and the founder and president of Chillicothe’s First National Bank. A biographical sketch published in the 1944 Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society offers insight into her formative years:

Both parents were of the Virginia aristocracy. Mr. Cook was a financier. He organized and for many years was president of a bank in Chillicothe. With a farm where riding and carriage horses were raised, and with a sumptuous town home, May was brought up in luxury and culture. Always an individualist, May followed her passion for animals, music, art, and literature. When not racing her horses she spent her leisure hours perched in a favorite tree reading poems, prose, history, and art. In this tree, she would sketch, color, or paint in oil. Often she would make models of things and of persons in whom she was interested. In this happy freedom from dictation and want, her talents and her practical, inquisitive mind developed in an unusual and individualistic fashion to a fruition that became May Cook, an artist with unbounded love and sympathies for her fellows and for nature (vol. 23, no. 12, December 15, 1944, 452).

The sketch reproduces in full an article originally published in the Columbus Citizen on June 24, 1943, which offers additional insight into her other artistic inclinations:

Casual acquaintances have not realized that May Cook was a versatile and accomplished musician. Before her teen ages May had had piano lessons, and so apt was she that in her pigtail years she could play the piano for social sings at home, in school, and in church. The family physician enjoyed playing the violin and often the doctor and the ten-year-old May played duets. The inquisitive, ambitious May soon learned to play the violin (456).

According to the same article, Cook later gave thirty broadcasts for the Symphony Club of Ohio, many especially to children (455). 

Cook's father died in 1869 when she was only 6 years old. She and her three siblings, together with their mother, moved to Columbus, Ohio.

In the early 1900s, May Elizabeth Cook taught sculpture at the Columbus Art School, founded in 1879. In 1903, she authored an article titled “Art School of the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts,” published in the October issue of Sketch Book (vol. 3, pp. 57–58). One of Cook's colleagues was the watercolorist Alice Schille, a former student at the school from 1891 to 1893 who later joined the faculty, teaching there from the late 1890s until 1948. At different times, both Cook and Schille were affiliated with the Girls’ Art Club in Paris, and they frequently exhibited their work together in the U.S. (Gerdts, 15). 

During this period, Cook was also working as a lithographer and designer at Roseville Pottery in Zanesville, Ohio. Founded in 1892, Roseville Pottery quickly rose to national prominence for its high-quality art pottery and decorative wares. By 1901, the company had grown substantially, employing more than 300 workers and earning a reputation for innovative design and craftsmanship. It seems she worked in Zanesville in the early 1900s. In 1906, she penned an article for The Sketch Book entitled "Our American Potteries—Weller Ware," in which she provides a comprehensive technical overview of Weller’s innovative pottery techniques—particularly the chemistry of glazes and kiln operations—emphasizing the artistic evolution of Weller Pottery under under French artist Jacques Sicard’s leadership (vol. 5, May 1906, 340-346, reproduced in The Kovels’ collector’s guide to American art pottery).

No specific records have been found that link Cook to any particular Roseville pottery lines or clarify the duration of her employment with the company.

At the age of 46, she was the first woman to enroll in ceramic engineering at Ohio State University, but was not awarded a degree because she was a woman (Ross County Historical Society). 

Paris

In 1912, Cook moved to Paris in order to study with sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett. A resident of the Girls' Art Club at 4 rue de Chevreuse, she also attended the Académie Colarossi and the École des Beaux-Arts, where it seems she took anatomy classes. She first showed her plaster cast, "Joyeuse Rencontre," in the exhibition organized by the American Woman's Art Association at Girls' Art Club. The jury for sculpture included Jean Antoine Injalbert and Paul W. Bartlett. She then showed the same sculpture in the 1913 Salon des artistes français at the Grand Palais (Catalog # 3357). The sculpture depicts a young boy in quiet contemplation of a turtle and is widely considered one of Mary “May” Cook’s finest works. Interestingly enough, a similar sculpture attributed to Elsie Ward was exhibited in 1900 at the 22nd Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Artists under the title of Boy and Frog (see last image above).

• The piece was gifted to Jeffrey Mansion in the 1950s, where it has remained ever since, becoming a beloved fixture of the Bexley, Ohio community. According to Barb Jenks Triffon—a longtime Bexley resident, volunteer with the Bexley Recreation & Parks Department, and former local news reporter—the sculpture has had a profound and lasting impact on the community:

  They sit with it. They talk about it. Older people come in and they talk about their life and their experiences when they were a child [...] The neat thing about that sculpture is that it never gets old, and it reminds people of their childhood, it reminds them of their childhood in Bexley, and children… still gravitate to it… They just love to come and touch it and sit with it (Williams, n.p.).

• Over the decades, however, the sculpture has suffered significant damage and deterioration. As Triffon explained: “The turtle is missing a head, it’s missing fingers on the little boy. The nose has been knocked off. Its head has been completely severed and pasted back on with not a good cement.” In response, Triffon launched a fundraising campaign to restore the sculpture, aiming to preserve this cherished piece of local history for future generations. It was fully restored by the Summer of 2021 and proudly commemorated in the Summer 21 brochure of the Bexley Rec:

  Good As New: Bexley’s Little Boy Sculpture Is Back Welcome Home! After completing a full makeover at Columbus Art Memorial, Bexley’s Little Boy Sculpture (Joyeuse Rencontre) created by internationally recognized local artist May Elizabeth Cook is back and just like new. Originally sculpted in Paris, France in 1912, we are beyond happy to announce its return to Jeffrey Mansion, where it has been displayed since the early 1950s. In addition, Joyeuse Rencontre now has its own special display area on the first floor of the Mansion where it will be showcased on a beautiful wood pedestal created by Brooke Smith, local woodworking craftsman and pedestal maker. It is with deep gratitude, we thank everyone who helped make this restoration possible through word, deed, donations and funding. In appreciation, your names will be displayed on a plaque near the sculpture (31).

Return to the U.S.

Passport records indicate that May Cook returned to the United States on August 12, 1914. She immediately showed her works in various exhibitions in the U.S.

• November 1914: Shared an exhibition with her Columbus Art School colleague, Alice Schille, sponsored by the Columbus Art Association at the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts.
• February – March 1915: Showed two sculptures, Portrait of Mary Andrews (#753) and Happy Meeting (# 786), in the One hundred and tenth annual exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine arts.
• December 1915, 27 of her sculptures were displayed in the sculpture court at the Toledo Museum of Art in December 1915 (Museum News, Toledo Museum of Art, no. 28, December 1915), including:
  258. Portrait — George W. Stevens, director of the Toledo Museum 259. Portrait Sketch — Mrs. William McClellan Ritter, Washington, D. C.
  260. "Joyeuse Rencontre" — Paris Salon 1913
  261. Dancing Pan — Exhibition Internationale, Paris 1913
  262. Crystal Gazer — Exhibition Internationale, Paris 1913
  263. Repos — Exhibition Internationale, Paris, 1913
  264. Nude-Study — Exhibition Internationale, Paris 1913
  265. Lucette — Lent by Mrs. William McClellan Ritter
  266. Diana — Replica of statue owned by Prof, and Mrs. Edward Orton, Jr.
  267. Bertric — son of Mr. and Mrs. Bert F. Mull, Los Angeles
  268. Viela
  269. Le Chanteur — Portrait of Mr. Cecil Fanning
  270. The Composer
  271. The Street Sweeper
  272. Charcoal Carrier
  273. Peggy
  274. Marie Andrews — daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frame Brown
  275. Louise — daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Karl Burr
  276. A Summer Friend
  277 —Mr. Emilius 0. Randall, Columbus
  278. Portrait Study—Mrs. Robert Duncan
  279. Hermes—Replica of statue owned by Mrs. William Fields, Columbus
  280. Pan—Replica of statue owned by Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Ritter
  281. Cupid—sketch for garden statue
  282. Sketch for Bird Fountain
  283. "Thunder Cloud"
  284. Henrietta—Lent by Mrs. Charles Cunningham, Toledo
  285. Karl—son of Mr. and Mrs. E. N. Poston

It seems that at the time, she was also represented at the: Panama-Pacific Exposition (though the catalogue does not figure her name); Exhibition of Women Sculptors in New York; American Federation of Arts show in Washington, D.C. (The Christian Science Monitor, December 18, 1915, 20). 

In 1916, she was one of seventy American sculptors represented at the Gorham Galleries in New York City—a show hailed as one of the finest decorative sculpture exhibitions ever staged in the city. She exhibited at the Gorham Galleries once again in 1917, and was reported to be living and working on marble sculptures in New York City at the time.

In December 1916, Cook was featured in the inaugural issue of The Potter, a short-lived monthly magazine for potters and ceramists edited by Frederick Hurton Rhead. The article, titled 'May Elizabeth Cook, Architectural Potter,' included photographs of Cook in her studio alongside examples of her work (The Clay Worker, February 20–26, 1916, p. 542). Rhead, a descendant of a long line of Staffordshire potters, had likely met Cook during his tenure as art director at Roseville Pottery from 1904 to 1908.

WWI

During the final months of World War I, Cook joined the Army’s Women’s Volunteers in October 1918, reporting for duty at Evergreen, an inpatient vocational rehabilitation facility for war-blind soldiers, where she assisted Mrs. Mayhew Wainwright at the Red Cross House. According to a brief notice in the Piqua Daily Press, Cook appears to have traveled to Paris in October 1918, serving as a relief worker at 4 rue de Chevreuse—where the former Girls’ Art Club had been converted into a military hospital, initially for French soldiers and in 1917 for the American Expeditionary Forces (October 8, 1918, p. 2). Although further details of her time in Paris remain scarce, it appears she was invited by U.S. Army Surgeon General William C. Gorgas to assist in the plastic surgery department at Fort McHenry. Her official report—reproduced in the biographical sketch referenced above (455-456)—states that she “reported for duty” there on January 21, 1919, first working under "Colonel Blair and later with Lieutenant Colonel Schaffer [sic]."

For 15 months, she served in the maxillofacial reconstruction unit at Fort McHenry Hospital in Baltimore, where approximately 500 men were treated using techniques developed by Dr. Vilray P. Blair, one of the pioneers of plastic surgery in the U.S who was serving as chief consultant in maxillofacial surgery to the American Expeditionary Forces. According to an article written by Harriet Kirkpatrick for the Ohio State Journal:

The French system of using artificial chins, noses, eyes, etc. electroplated and tinted to match the skin, was not popular with the American soldier. As one surgeon said, "They wanted real noses to blow, not tin ones," and were willing to suffer any amount of pain and endure any number of operations to obtain them (18).

Surgeons were therefore tasked with reconstructing chins, noses, lips, and foreheads by transplanting and grafting skin, tissue, and bone from the patients themselves. Before surgical intervention could take place, Cook played a critical role in creating likenesses of soldiers as they appeared prior to their injuries. She detailed her process in a report to the Surgeon General, covering her work from October 18, 1918, to June 7, 1921:

Live Masks. These were made over wounded faces before surgeons had touched them as follows: The wound was filled carefully with gauze which I dipped in melted cocoa butter; covered this by red gum modeled in warm water to thinnest possible sheet; vaseline painted round edges. Then mixed plaster of Paris quickly and painted it over the face. After making one or two, I could prepare face, mix plaster, and lift it from face in about 25 minutes or less. In this life mask pressed clay, thus securing model of face in clay. Next morning patient would pose for me and would remove clay to exact size and depth of wound; model exact size and shape of bone missing (for shaping and size of bone graft); in a gelatin-glue compound (for-mula for which was given me by a French surgeon) would cast exact size for skin graft required to cover hole in face. This gelatin-glue compound had same elasticity as skin; also would tint it when melted exact color of pa-tient’s skin. Over clay model pressed in life mask made a plaster mask in which to cast wax model for record now in Medical Museum; after which would remodel clay as face should be completely reconstructed; then made plaster cast over this, in which cast plaster model showing face as it should be reconstructed for surgeon’s study. For every life mask listed, five models and masks were made (456).

In a 1919 interview with the Sandusky Register, Cook praised the extraordinary resilience of the wounded soldiers she worked with. She expressed deep admiration for their endurance and remarkably unshaken spirits:

No one can appreciate the patience of those fellows, their fortitude and courage nor the suffering they have endured. Just imagine 23 operations to rebuild a lower jaw and chin with a dozen more in prospect before the man can be discharged. But despite the mini operations and long months of confinement in hospital wards, their spirit is wonderful. They are cheerful and plucky and typical Americans (December 30, 1919, 8).

It seems that Cook was working with other women artists who assisted surgeons with drawings. One such person was Helen Ely Richardson whose drawings are featured above. According to the National Museum of Health and Medicine: 

Richardson initially began training as an occupational therapist during World War I, she was quickly tasked with providing medical illustrations for the U.S. War Department. She documented facial reconstruction surgery carried out at Fort McHenry Hospital in Baltimore, Md. After the war, those illustrations were placed in the custody of the Army Medical Museum (now NMHM). Richardson also had an interest in sculpture, and some of her work was placed in the Academy of Fine Arts, a rare privilege for a non-member at that time (Publication de National Museum of Health and Medicine).

As for Cook, she used photographs, family descriptions, and anatomical standards to recreate pre-injury facial features. Using a combination of plaster casts, wax models, and anatomical charts, she provided surgeons with visual references that guided the complex and delicate work of facial reconstruction:

In the beginning Miss Cook made drawings and watercolor sketches but shortly got into the important work of helping to produce a likeness of a patient to his former self. By means of her artist's knowledge of anatomy and sculpturing the missing part could be drawn or modeled if the operating surgeon desired. Sometimes the photo of the patient himself or of one of his family would help determine the form but more often the result would be from the artist's study. In most cases the soldier would agree that the likeness was correct. Sometimes a working model was made for the surgeon, showing the exact amount of cartilage necessary to restore a missing member. [...] Casts are made of the patients; these are made of wax and afterwards tinted and colored the exact color of the scars showing the conditions of the wounds after different operations. Sometimes two or three models are enough, but often several models are made, the final one showing the normal conditions of the nose, chin, or eye socket [...] (Kirkpatrick, 18).

When the remaining 50 soldiers were transferred from Fort McHenry to the U.S. Barracks Hospital in Columbus, Ohio in November 1919 (later renamed Fort Hayes Hospital), Cook assisted surgeon George C. Schaeffer, bringing with her the photographs, physicians diagrams, plaster casts, and wax models. 

In addition to assisting surgeons, Cook taught the soldiers modeling and carving to occupy their time between operations. According to an article that appeared in several Ohio newspapers, Cook “[...] mothered and big-sistered the boys as well as modeling them for the surgeons and to them she is ‘our mother’ […] she has mingled with them, read to them, helped them pass the long hours of the day, and at their request, stood at their sides when they were up upon the operating table having skin and bone grafts completed (Akron Evening Times, December 28, 1919, p. 2). Her great-nephew claimed that "Much of the work was done at her own expense and she was never repaid by the U.S. Government" (AskArt).

In July 1919, the Baltimore Sun reported on an exhibition at the Medical and Surgical Faculty building in Baltimore that highlighted the new methods in maxillofacial surgery. Spread across two large rooms, the exhibit demonstrated the techniques used to reconstruct the faces of maimed soldiers. Two walls were covered with plaster and wax casts of soldiers’ faces, some showing the severe injuries they had sustained upon entering the hospital. The exhibition also featured a “re-education” section with examples of handicrafts created by wounded soldiers during their recovery at Fort McHenry Hospital. On display were beautifully woven wicker lamps, carved cabinets, watercolor paintings, baskets, rugs, scarves, beaded purses and necklaces, fine carpentry pieces, and photographs that soldiers had taken, developed, and printed themselves (July 22, 1919, 10).

Cook's contributions to the war effort are widely regarded as unique—the only work of its kind during that era. Her detailed visual reconstructions not only supported pioneering surgical procedures but also set a precedent for the integration of art and medicine in the treatment of traumatic injuries. She created hundreds of plaster casts, wax models, and detailed charts that documented patients' original injuries and each step in the rebuilding process. According to the Chillicothe Gazette, among its 1951 holdings, the Ross County Historical Society possessed a medal and a letter of recommendation recognizing Cook's service at Fort McHenry, including a carbon copy of her report to the Surgeon General detailing her work with disfigured soldiers. The museum also had three of her sculptures, her sculpting tools, collections of figurines and tiles, photographs of her ceramic and sculptural work, and a triptych (April 7, 1951, 1). Yet none of these items appear to be part of the collection today—at least, they are not referenced on websites related to Ohio artists.

The Later Years

After Cook completed her work at the Columbus Barracks, she resumed her personal endeavors at 1550 Clifton Street—a property that had been transferred to her by Gertrude Adelaide Divine Ritter, who served as President of the Columbus Art Association and the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts from 1911 to 1921:

There was a "Agreement of Indenture" noted to in the deed in March 1910 to allow for the construction of May's art studio. (The original deed specified that a house costing no less than $3,000 be built on the lot, and no business establishments.) After May bought the studio in 1922, she added living quarters. The home and former studio was torn down about 1958, though you can still see the outlines of the foundations of the large kiln and studio on the lot.

The Ross County Historical Society noted that, "Her work was exhibited all over the country. Much of her work is in the form of statues, fountains, terra cotta panels, and bas reliefs which can still be found in major cities such as New York, St. Louis, Washington, and Columbus, Ohio." She created bronze bas-relief sculptures and designed the bronze portraits of Presidents Hayes, Garfield, and Harding, as well as Supreme Court Justices Swayne, White, and Woods for the Grand Concourse of the Ohio Judicial Center. She also made a drinking fountain and a sculpture of a young girl kneeling for Mack Hall at The Ohio State University, along with a marble sculpture of a boy at a fountain for Columbus Children’s Hospital—both of which were still on view in 1958 (Woodland Park's Domberg House and Dornberg house Blog).

Outside of her Joyeuse rencontre sculpture, she is perhaps best known for her 1927 bronze Peter Pan sculpture set on a Georgia marble base in the fountain outside the Main Library in Columbus, Ohio. Designed by architect Otto C. Darst, it is also known as the Munson Memorial Fountain, commissioned by Charles E. Munson, president of the Columbus Pharmacal Company, and dedicated on May 18, 1928, in memory of his six-year-old son, George Peabody Munson, who had died of scarlet fever. A bronze plaque at the base of this 15-foot fountain bears the inscription: “For the children of Columbus. In memory of George Peabody Munson, aged 6.”

According to the Chillicothe Gazette, she broke her hip in January 1943 and was admitted to Saint Anthony Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where she relearned how to walk. She had hoped to leave the hospital and join the staff at Fletcher General Hospital in Cambridge, resuming the kind of work she had done following World War I (September 25, 1943, 2). However, the fall from a scaffold—whose heavy structure caused the fracture—proved more serious than initially believed. She remained hospitalized at Saint Anthony’s for the greater part of the rest of her life, and was ultimately unable to contribute to the war effort as she had intended.

Mary Elizabeth Cook never married. She died on April 4, 1951 at the age of 87. 

In an effort to be comprehensive—at the risk of some repetition—below is a list of the exhibitions and locations referenced in the Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society summarizing Cook's artistic contributions (vol. 23, no. 12, 1944, 454-455):

Exhibitions:

• National Sculpture Society, New York, N.Y.
• Ferargil Galleries (one-man show), New York, N.Y
• Grand Central Galleries, New York, N.Y.
• National Arts Club, New York, N.Y.
• Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia, Pa.
• Plastic Club, Philadelphia
• Art Alliance, Philadelphia
• Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.
• Toledo Museum (one-man show), Toledo, Ohio
• Cleveland Museum, Cleveland, Ohio
• Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio
• Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Ill.
• World’s Fair (sculpture exhibition), San Francisco, Calif.
• World’s Fair, San Diego, Calif.

Represented:

• Bronze garden statue (life-size), New York, N.Y.
• Two marble portraits, New York, N.Y.
• Architectural terra cotta, Manchester, Vt.
• Architectural terra cotta, Phoenix, Ariz.
• Architectural terra cotta (memorial), Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Mr. Galbreath, Ohio State Museum (memorial bronze), Columbus, Ohio
• Dr. Starling Loving, Ohio State University memorial, Columbus, Ohio
• Mack Hall, Ohio State University, marble drinking fountain
• Gothic arch of glazed and lustered tile (15 by 8½ feet), Washington, D.C.
• Garden statue, Kasota stone, St. Augustine, Fla.
• Memorial fountain, bronze and marble, in plaza of Public Library, Grant Avenue, Columbus, Ohio
• Memorial in bronze, Mr. Joseph Andrew Jeffrey (7½ by 5½ feet), Jeffrey Mfg. Co., Columbus, Ohio
• Portrait in marble, Mr. Jeffrey, Bexley, Columbus, Ohio
• Metropolitan Museum, photographs and slides, New York, N.Y.
• Bronze fountain figure in pool, Bexley, Columbus, Ohio
• Bronze figure in garden, Bexley, Columbus, Ohio
• Bronze fountain figure in pool, Upper Arlington, Columbus, Ohio
• Medical Museum, Washington, D.C. (war work: watercolors, drawings, pencil sketch from life—afterwards outlined in ink for Museum Record—wax and plaster life-size models showing method of reconstruction of 500 facial cases of the World War; also classified records of the cases; models for bone and skin grafts made for facial surgeons)
• Memorial in Caen stone (bas-relief) in Broad Street Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
• Memorial in bronze of founder of Tuberculosis Society
• Children’s Hospital: memorial of founder in marble, fountain figure in marble with pool in terra cotta, two bambinos (terra cotta), and two marble seats, Columbus, Ohio
• Memorial portraits in bronze of Amelia and Julius Marks in the new Memorial Wing of Columbus Children’s Hospital
• Memorial portrait in bronze of Dr. Schonthal, Columbus synagogue
• Memorial portrait in bronze of Mr. John McCune, 33rd degree, Masonic Temple, Columbus, Ohio
• Bronze portraits in State Office Building of Chief Justice Swayne, Chief Justice Waite, Chief Justice Wood, President Hayes, President Garfield, President Harding
• The “Four Seasons” in terra cotta (half life-size)
• “Pan” (life-size) in garden of Mrs. Walter Martin, Mountain Lake Park, Florida

Member of:

• Société Internationale des Beaux-Arts et des Lettres, Paris
• National Sculpture Society, New York
• National Arts Club
• The American Museum of Natural History, New York
• American Federation of Arts, Washington, D.C.
• Symphony Club of Ohio
• American Ceramic Society, where she was the first woman admitted to the group
• National Pen Women of America

Sources

• A’Becket, John J. “The Spring Exhibition,” Harper's Bazaar, vol. 33, no. 15 April 14,1900, p. 325. Internet Archive.
• “American Women Artists Hold Exhibition in Paris.” The New York Herald, February 2, 1913, p. 3. Gallica.
• “Elizabeth Cook.” Ancestry.com
• Bournea, Christ. “Campaign to fund Jeffrey Mansion sculpture’s makeover begins,” ThisWeekNews.Com, August 29, 2018
• Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society, December 15, 1944, p. Internet archive.
• Catalogue of the 110th annual exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine arts, February 7, 1915 to March 28, 1915, p. 76, p.79. HathiTrust
• “Collection: Metalwork, the Supreme Court of Ohio.” Artwork archive.
• Domberg House, Stories of Woodland Park
• “Exhibition of Sculpture.” The Toledo Museum of Art News, no.28, December 1915, p. n4. Internet archive.
• “Facing the Great War: World War I and the Beginnings of Modern Rehabilitation.” Maryland Center for History and Culture.
• Gerdts, William H. Alice Schille. New York, Hudson Hills press, 2001. Internet archive.
• Kirkpatrick, Harriet, “Art and Artists: May Cook,” Ohio State Journal, December 21, 1919, p. 18.
• Kovel, Ralph & Terry. 110 The Kovels’ Collector’s Guide to American Art Pottery, 1974, p. 290-296. Internet archive. Includes a reproduction of Cook’s article on Weller ware.
• “May Elizabeth Cook.” AskArt.
• Neely, Ruth Ed. Women of Ohio: a record of their achievements in the history of the state, vol. 3. S.J. Clark publishing company. circa 1900, p. 903. Internet archive.
• “Potter.” Clay Worker February, vol.  LXVI, no. 5, november 1916, p. 542. Internet Archive.
• Ross County Historical Society.
• Wilson, Sonata. “Bexley campaigns to restore beloved sculpture,” The Chimes, n.p.
• Richardson, Helen Ely. Drawings. Publication de National Museum of Health and Medicine, March, 2019
• Talbot-Stanaway, Susan. Presented the Stories of Ohio women during WWI. October 24, 2018. Internet archive.
• “Toledo Art Notes.” The Christian Science Monitor (1908-); Dec 18, 1915, p. 20. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
• “Vision.” Catalogue of the Exhibition of Sculpture Under the Auspices of the National Sculpture Society, April 3 to May 2, 1940, Whitney Museum of American Art, p. n43. Internet archive.
• Yates, Christopher A. “Bicentennial display toasts Columbus-area talents of the past”The Columbus Dispatch,  February 5, 2012.

Consulted on Newspapers.com

• Chicago Daily Tribune, June 16, 1914, p.11
• Chillicothe Gazette, 27 March 27,  1916, p. 7
• Chillicothe Gazette, April 16, 1917, p. 5
• Chillicothe Gazette, October 7, 1918, p. 5
• Piqua Daily Press, October 8, 1918, p. 2
• Baltimore Sun, July 22, 1919 p. 20
• Springfield News-Sun, November 16, 1919, p. 41
• Akron Evening Times, November 30,  1919, p. 5
• Akron Evening Times, December 28, 1919, p. 2
• The Sandusky Register, December 30, 1919, p. 8
• Orlando Evening Star, March 28, 1925, p. 5
• Chillicothe Gazette, September 25, 1943, p. 2
• Chillicothe Gazette, October 9, 1943, p. 4
• Chillicothe Gazette, 7 Apr 1951, p. 1