A child holds a bowl of food for her cat, who looks up expectingly from foreground. Dating to about 1900, the photograph was titled A Mute Appeal by the artist.

Late in the same year, the following comment for her photograph appeared in a newspaper published in Spencer’s hometown of Newark, Ohio:

A request has been made of Miss Spencer, which she granted, by the publishers of one of the leading art journals of Europe, to reproduce in his journal one of her pictures now in the saloon. It is entitled “A Mute Appeal,” and will be remembered by those who were fortunate enough to visit the Newark Camera Club’s art exhibit. It represents a little girl holding a dish just out of the reach of her kitten.

Miss Spencer’s success will be a source of deep gratification to her many friends in Newark. (1.)

Ema Spencer: 1857-1941

Spencer was an American photographer, newspaper columnist, and teacher from Newark, Ohio. In 1898, alongside Clarence H. White, Spencer was one of the co-founders of the Newark Camera Club, an amateur photography club.

Early life: Ema Spencer was born to Dr. Benjamin Franklin Spencer and his wife, Susan Porter Spencer, in the Licking County, Ohio village of Gratiot. She had a sister, Carolyn, and a brother, Charles Hildreth. She attended Newark High School where she graduated Valedictorian and she went on to study at the Young Ladies’ Institute in nearby Granville.

Photography career: In early 1898 Spencer and Clarence H. White co-founded the Newark Camera Club, a group of fifteen amateur photographers from the city. That fall she served as the Secretary for the newly established Ohio State Association of Amateur Photographers. Spencer’s photography career continued until at least 1914 despite the Newark Camera Club’s dissolution in 1906 when White left for New York.

Newspaper career: Early in her life Spencer held a variety of jobs at the Newark Advocate. In the 1880s she was managing three of the departments at the paper. In 1916 Spencer began writing a daily column called “The Melting Pot” under the pen name “Aunt Ca’line.” She continued the column for 25 years, stopping only near the end of her life. – Wikipedia (2024)

1. Excerpt: Miss Ema Spencer | Meets With a Merited Recognition of Her Abilities, The Newark American-Tribune. (Newark, Ohio), December 14, 1900, p. 3