Mildred Bryant Brooks

Mildred Bryant Brooks was born on July 21, 1901, in Maryville, Missouri.^[2] She was the daughter of Millie (née Davis), and J. Jay Bryant.^[3] The Bryant family moved in 1907 to Long Beach, California.^[3] She attended Long Beach High School (now Long Beach Polytechnic High School).^[4]

Brooks graduated with a bachelor's degree in art from the University of Southern California (USC);^[3] and continued studies after her graduation at the Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design), and Chouinard Art Institute.^[3] She studied under Arthur Millier,^[5] Frank Tolles Chamberlin,^[6] and Earl Stetson Crawford.^[7]

She was married to Don J. Brooks.^[8]

Starting in 1929, Brooks learned etching,^[5] and began teaching at Stickney Memorial Art School in Pasadena, California.

The Six Print Club was a fine art prints subscription service, founded in 1932 by Brooks, Arthur Millier, Margaret Kidder, A. Simon, Jane McDuffle Thurston, and Martha Simmons.^[9] In the 1930s, she became known as the "best etchers of trees" nationally, after it was stated a 1936 article in the Los Angeles Times.^[7][10] In 1936, Brooks had a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C..^[4] During World War II, she left printmaking and started focusing her work in mural painting.

She died on July 3, 1995, in Santa Barbara, California.^[3] Her work can be found in museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum,^[11] the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.,^[12] the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art,^[6] the New York Public Library Print Collection, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,^[13] the Dayton Art Institute, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, and the Laguna Art Museum.^[14]