24. Getta Skotchdopole Driscoll

Life Dates1926-1979
Place of BirthKiev, Russia (now Ukraine)
Place of Deathunknown
Birth NameGertrude Skotchdopole

Born Gertrude Skotchdopole (alternate spellings Skocdopole or Skott) in Kiev to parents of Ukrainian-Russian heritage, she immigrated with her family to the United States as a two-year-old. Settling in Brooklyn, her father worked as an automobile repair mechanic and became a naturalized citizen in 1935.1 In May 1949, she briefly attended drawing class with John Groth at the Art Students League.2 She married Donald J. Driscoll sometime before working at Atelier 17 for one month in April 1952 (her name appears as Driscoll in the Grippe student ledger book), though no prints by the artist are known to exist.3 In 1956, the couple divorced in the state of Florida. In the early 1970s, she returned to the Art Students League for two months of evening painting classes. Nothing else is known about Getta Driscoll, including what her work looked like.

Notes

  1. A ship manifest of the Aquitania records Getta Skotchdople’s family’s arrival into New York on April 7, 1928. The family appears again in public record for the 1940 census: New York, Kings, New York; Roll: T627_2621; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 24-2842. Her father John’s Petition for Citizenship also contains useful information about the family. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: RG 21. ↩
  2. Student registration card for “Getta Skott/Skotchdople,” Art Students League of New York. ↩
  3. Student ledger book, p. 16, Allentown Art Museum/Grippe Collection, Allentown, Penn. A record of the couple’s marriage has not yet been found, but the state of Florida registers the divorce of Donald. J. Driscoll from Getta Driscoll in July 1956. Florida Department of Health, Florida Divorce Index, 1927-2001 (Jacksonville, FL, USA: Florida Department of Health). ↩