Helena Smith Dayton
1879–1960 · American filmmaker, writer and sculptor, a pioneer of clay animation
Helena Smith Dayton (1879 or 1883-1960, depending on the source) was an American filmmaker, writer and sculptor who pioneered stop-motion animation with clay figures in the 1910s and 1920s. She is considered the first American woman to experiment with clay animation, and her humorous "clay caricatures" appeared in magazines such as Puck.
She began sculpting around 1914 in Greenwich Village, New York. Her figures, about 19 centimetres tall, were sold as "Caricatipos". In 1917 some of her short animated films were publicly screened, among them an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. During the First World War she worked in Paris and later wrote plays with Louise Bascom Barratt. Toward the end of her life she took up painting and exhibited at the Montross Gallery in 1943.
Very little of her animated work survives, so today it can only be studied through film stills and contemporary press descriptions.