Inkers and painters are often ignored in the histories of animation. It is high time to correct that mistake.
Evelyn Henry was born June 14, 1910, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her father, originally from Indiana, moved the family to San Diego in 1913 and later to Los Angeles, where his daughter studied art at Los Angeles High School. She gained skill as a silkscreen artist and produced advertising posters for several small businesses. Upon hearing that Disney was hiring women, she took art samples, primarily inking works of pen and brush, and was hired as an inker in 1931.
In a laborious part of the animation process that was solely the domain of women, Evelyn often spoke of her “steady hand”—necessary for the precision work of tracing the emotion and movements of the animators’ characters onto the cels. […]
