Bertha B. Lum was born Bertha Boynton Bull in may 1869 in Typton, Iowa.
Her father was Joseph W. Bull (1841-1923) and her mother Harriet Ann Boynton (1842-1925).
Bertha had two brothers ((Karl and Emerson) and one sister (Clara).
She studied art at the Institute of Art at Chicago from 1895-1900.
In 1903 she marries Burt F. Lum, a lawyer from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Their honeymoon takes them to Japan, which captivates Bertha.
Whilst there, she spends much time trying to find wood block printers, in vain. Shortly before returning home (on the day of their departure), she finds a small shop selling the tools for making prints. She paid a high price for low-quality tools. She managed to get some basic information about how to use them and left for home. Back in the U.S. she produced some lovely prints like "China Boy" or "Lanterns".
She returns to Japan in 1907 to learn how to make wood block prints with Japanese craftsmen. On this journey, she had with her an introduction letter allowing her this time to find craftsmen to teach her their craft. Her apprenticeship was long. First, she went to an engraver ( Iagmi Bonkotsu) and she had to watch him work a long time before being allowed to cut herself.After having learned how to cut, she went to the printer ( Nishimura Kamakichi) and there again she stayed many weeks watching young apprentices colour in her own prints.
For some years, she cut and printed her prints herself. Later she employed one, then several printers to colour in her works.
She had two daughters: Catherine Balliet Lum and Eleanor Peter Lum.
Very early her daughters followed in her footsteps; Catherine continued for quite a while to create original art works. As for Peter, she improved her colouring in technique on her mother's works before taking up sculpture. To learn more about their works, I suggest you go to the following page.
Catherine got married and quickly left public life behind her; Peter, however continued, writing travel accounts and collections of fairy and other tales from different countries.
Bertha Lum illustrated quite a few of the articles written by Peter (and Catherine).
Bertha Lum held a few exhibitions that allowed her to make herself known and sell her works. She was an artist who lived well off her art; the sale of her works in a Californian art gallery brought her in 500 $ a month, which was a considerable sum at the time. For a little she lived in Japan, before settling in Peking in 1922, near the Forbidden City. She lived in a house that had formerly belonged to the Prince Tzu, son of the Emperor Tao Kuang.
She returned to California (from 1924 to 1927) and used that time to diversify her art. She started creating screens. As far as I know, there is only one trace left of this part of her work: this screen. On her return to China, she settled in a different house, this one also close to the Forbidden City.
Her works sold so well in Asia and in California mainly thanks to her connection with the Grand Hôtel des Wagons Lits, which received Western visitors to Peking. In the other Hotel's lobby , the Grand Hôtel de Pékin, was Mme Helen Burton's souvenir boutique: the Camel Bell. And it was here where you could buy Bertha Lum's works. Every now and then, the boutique would house an exhibition of her original works (her drawings and paintings).
There are no traces of her work after 1937. Her eyesight was at this time deteriorating.
She left China in 1947 to live in the United States, but returned in 1948. She left China definitively in 1953, and went to live with her daughter Catherine at Genoa, Italy where she died in February 1954.