Painter, educator.
Born at Winnipeg on 9 November 1904, daughter of Sarah Estelle “Sadie” Harper (1875-1915) and Frank Allen, she graduated in Arts from the University of Manitoba in 1926, then attended the Winnipeg School of Art until 1928. She taught there in the Saturday morning classes in 1927-1928. Much influenced by Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, she went to Toronto and attended the Ontario College of Education. Allen eventually returned to the University of Manitoba, teaching housing and design, until retirement in 1971. She helped to found the Volunteer Committee of the Winnipeg Art Gallery and was given a YWCA Woman of the Year (1980). He died at Victoria, British Columbia on 13 November 1994. Her papers are held at the University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections.
Birth registration [Lillian Beatrice Allen], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Professor ends family tradition with retirement from U. of M.,” Winnipeg Tribune, 15 May 1971.
The Winnipeg School of Art: The Early Years by Marilyn Baker, University of Manitoba Press, 1984, page 86.
Death registration [Lillian Beatrice Allen], British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, December 1999, 288 pages.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 11 October 2025
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