Iris Woolcock (February 3, 1896 in Wisconsin – July 21, 1979 in Sarasota, Florida[1]) was an American artist, photographer, and writer. She traveled with husband Charles Morrow Wilson, a freelance writer, and made photographs and drawings illustrating his books and articles. Woolcock wrote her own book about driving to Alaska in 1947; it was published after her death.

Woolcock was born in Wisconsin, and spent summer in Enterprise, Wisconsin with her parents.[2] In 1933, she married Charles Morrow Wilson.[3][4] They lived in Putney, Vermont until their divorce in 1939.[3] Woolcock traveled with Wilson, both in the U.S. and Central America, and contributed to his magazine articles and books with photographs and drawings that she produced. The New York Times said of her work in Central America: Challenge and Opportunity, "Iris Woolcock's photographs ... are quite as beckoning as if this were a travel book."[5]

In 1948, Woolcock bought a Liberty trailer in Bremen, Indiana and drove to Fairbanks, Alaska on the Alaska Highway that had opened in 1942.[6] She wrote about her experience in a book titled The Road North: A Woman's Adventure Driving the Alaska Highway 1947-1948.[7] The book was published in 1990, approximately ten years after her death in 1979.

References

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  1. ^ "Florida Death Index, 1877-1998". FamilySearch. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  2. ^ "To study Oneida people". The Rhinelander Daily News. August 10, 1936. p. 5. Retrieved July 28, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b "Charles Morrow Wilson (1905–1977) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas". www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  4. ^ "C.M. Wilson Weds Iris Woolcock". New York Times. March 22, 1935. p. 28. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  5. ^ "Central America: Challenge and Opportunity. By Charles Morrow Wilson. With photographs by Iris Woolcock, and decorative maps". New York Times. May 11, 1941. p. 63. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  6. ^ "Trailer traveler returns from long, cold trek to far north". The Bremen Enquirer. February 10, 1949. p. 1. Retrieved July 28, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Woolcock, Iris (1990). The road north : one woman's adventure driving the Alaska Highway, 1947-1948. Bovy, Edward. Anchorage: Greatland Graphics. ISBN 9780936425108. OCLC 22892388.