Mary Newell DePalma Papers

Mary Newell DePalma is the author/illustrator of several children’s books and the illustrator of more than a dozen books for other authors. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mary is the second oldest of seven. She and her four brothers and two sisters attended Cathedral Grade School, within walking distance of the Carnegie Library, Museum of Art and Museum of Natural History. Mary attended Gloria Casey’s Saturday art classes at the Museum throughout grade school, and pre-college summer sessions at Carnegie Mellon University where she particularly enjoyed Arnold Bank’s calligraphy class. She began freelance work in high school, earning money lettering invitations and signs, and knitting sweaters for a local designer.

Mary has a BFA in Medical Illustration from Rochester Institute of Technology, where she also became an interpreter for the deaf. After a short stint as an engrosser in Chicago, Mary worked as a freelance medical, editorial, educational, advertising, children’s book, and semi-technical illustrator.

Mary gives presentations about the creative process in grades pre-K through high school and has taught several semesters of Picture Book Illustration at the New England School of Art and Design/Suffolk University. Intrigued by their use of Visual Thinking Strategies, Mary trained as a Museum Teacher at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and then joined their staff as gifts processor. Mary and her husband Alphonse have two children, Kepley and Alphonse. They live in Boston, Massachusetts.