The Life and Times of Mary Vaux Walcott

by Marjorie G. Jones

Overview

Known as the "Audubon of Botany," Philadelphia, Quaker Mary Morris Vaux Walcott (1860–1940) was a gifted artist whose stunning watercolors comprise a catalog of North American wildflowers. Walcott was catapulted to the highest levels of society and national politics by a late and bold marriage to the secretary of the Smithsonian. Along with an early (1887) transcontinental travelogue, never-before published correspondence with fellow Quaker and First Lady Lou Henry Hoover, and Commissioner Mary Walcott’s reports for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, this biography reveals rich intersections of history, religion, politics, women’s studies, science, and art during the transformative times in which she lived. Walcott, and other intrepid women like her, who sought escape from Victorian social conventions and opportunity for adventure and self-expression in the American West, were gifted artists, writers, and historians.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780764349720
Publisher:	Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Publication date:	12/28/2015
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

A graduate of Wheaton College, Norton, MA, the Rutgers School of Law and the New School, NYC, Marjorie G. Jones is the author of Frances Yates & the Hermetic Tradition and currently teaches history at Villanova University at Graterford Prison, PA.

Table of Contents

Foreword 8

Preface 11

Author Note 11

Introduction: Youthful Giantess 13

Chapter 1 City of Women 23

Chapter 2 Bowling Along 31

Chapter 3 This Wild Spirit 47

Chapter 4 Thy Affectionate Daughter 57

Chapter 5 With Mary 69

Chapter 6 Splendid Wife 91

Chapter 7 Audubon of Botany 105

Chapter 8 My Dear Ladye 117

Chapter 9 New Order of Things 135

Conclusion: Her Forceful Life 145

Acknowledgments 156

Endnotes 159

Bibliography 164

Index 173