Mitzi Melnicoff

Mitzi Melnicoff (1922-1972) was born in Philadelphia and attended classes at the Graphic Sketch Club (now the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial) and the Settlement Music School. She studied at the Temple University’s Tyler School of Art from 1939 to 1943, and it was there that she first met Doris Staffel. Upon leaving Tyler she worked as a professional illustrator at N. W. Ayers, Inc., in Philadelphia. In the 1950s she worked as a freelance illustrator for Columbia Records and a number of magazines, including Fortune, Sports Illustrated, and Cosmopolitan. She was an instructor at the Philadelphia College of Art from 1962 until her death in 1972.