1908-96
Elizabeth Schaeffler was a noted artist, teacher, judge, and lecturer in the fields of sculpture and pottery, and a long-time Nantucket resident.
Miss Schaeffler was executive secretary of the Artists Association of Nantucket from the mid-1950s to April, 1965.
Coming to Nantucket for the first time with her grandmother in 1917 at age nine, Miss Schaeffler returned annually for summers from the mid-1940s.
She moved permanently to the island from New Rochelle, N.J. in 1965.
She established her home and a working/teaching studio at 6 Lily Street.
Showing aptitude at an early age, she developed her professional art skills at the Pratt Institute, the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League, all in New York City.
Professionally known as Lizbeth, she was renowned for her miniature pottery and sculptures of children, and sculptures for the outdoors of subjects ranging from St. Frances of Assisi to ancient Chinese Taoist “good fortune” three-legged frogs.
The bronze memorial plaque commemorating Will Gardner in the Atheneum garden was designed and cast by her in 1965.
Schaeffler was a member of the Unitarian Church of Nantucket, serving as chair of the selection committee that called the Rev. Ted Anderson to Nantucket in 1972.
She was also a member of the Abiah Folger Franklin Chapter of the Daughters of the American, and Artists Association of Nantucket since the 1940s.
The Franklin Chapter had Schaeffler, sculptress and member of the Chapter, design and make a sea gull flying in over the waves in memory of Miss Ruth Sutton, artist and former DAR member.
AAN gives an annual sculpture award in Schaeffler’s name.
She held an exhibition of works at AAN’s Little Gallery in August of 1958.