author
Winifred H. (Winifred Harrington) Mills
b. 1885
A teacher and writer who helped bring puppetry, masks, and shadow theater into the classroom, she co-created practical, imaginative books for children, teachers, and makers. Her work opens a window onto early 20th-century arts education, where craft and performance were closely linked.
1 Audiobook
Marionettes, masks and shadows
by Winifred H. (Winifred Harrington) Mills, Louise M. (Louise Morrison) Dunn
About the author
Born in 1885, Winifred H. Mills is best known for books on puppetry, shadow plays, and dolls written for creative work with children. Records for Marionettes, Masks and Shadows identify her as Winifred Harrington Mills, and contemporary references describe her as a teacher at Fairmount Junior High School in Cleveland, Ohio.
She collaborated with Louise M. Dunn of the Cleveland Museum of Art on books including Marionettes, Masks and Shadows (1927), Shadow Plays (1938), and The Story of Old Dolls and How to Make New Ones (1940). These works combined history, hands-on instruction, and performance ideas, showing a strong interest in art education and in helping young people learn through making and play.
Reliable biographical detail about her life beyond her teaching and publications appears to be limited in the sources I could confirm. Even so, her surviving books suggest a lively, practical author who wrote to make theater, craft, and storytelling feel accessible.