Background
Born Blanche Ames in Lowell, Massachusetts, Ames was the daughter of Civil War General and Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames and Blanche Butler Ames.
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Born Blanche Ames in Lowell, Massachusetts, Ames was the daughter of Civil War General and Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames and Blanche Butler Ames.
Ames attended the Rogers Hall School in Lowell.
Ames held a lifelong passion for women"s rights. From 1915 to 1918 she was Treasurer of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage League. In 1916 she helped found the Birth Control League of Massachusetts, an affiliate of Margaret Sanger"s group, and served as first President.
In this role Ames helped to form The Doctors Bill to Clarify the Law, which regulated the ability of doctors to provide birth control counseling to married women with health problems, and later helped establish universal access to birth control.
Ames held patients for inventions which included a hexagonal lumber cutter and a method for entrapping enemy aircraft. The Ames Color System In the early 1910s Ames" brother, Adelbert Ames, Junior., a scientist particularly interested in vision, moved into her studio for painting lessons.
With her brother"s influence Ames began the development a color notation system more extensive than the Munsell color system. Together the two created coded color swatches which corresponded to particular tubes of paint.
The artist would use these swatches to select the most realistic colors and the codes would be mapped out on a drawing before the paint was applied.