Beulah Hyde

Beulah Hyde was an important figure in Tacoma as both a contemporary artist and patron. Hyde attended Annie Wright School, the Abbott Academy (a woman’s preparatory school, in Andover, Massachusetts) and studied privately with Mark Tobey. She was a gifted painter who brought modernist ideas about art to Tacoma, focusing on broad shapes and color rather than details. She preferred everyday subjects and was particularly interested in industrial settings and port scenes. She showed frequently with the Tacoma Art League and Women Painters of Washington.

Hyde focused most intently on her painting during the 1940s and early 1950s. As a patron she was a staunch advocate of the Tacoma Art Museum in its early days and a passionate collector and supporter of Northwest artists.