At the death of her husband in 1906, Mary Muhlenberg Emery (1844\u20131927) became one of the richest women in the United States. Recognizing her “vast responsibility,” as she wrote in a letter to the American author, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, she embarked on a philanthropic program that endowed or initiated children’s programs, hospitals and medical institutions, orphanages, colleges and universities, an art museum, a zoological park, various cultural agencies, and other causes that benefited humankind.<\/p>\n
Mary Emery’s most costly benefactions were directed to the founding of Mariemont, Ohio, a planned community near Cincinnati, and to the formation of a major collection of paintings. Her paintings by such old masters as Titian, Mantegna, Van Dyck, Gainsborough, and Hals were bequeathed to the Cincinnati Art Museum.<\/p>\n
Although she was a member of Newport, Rhode Island, and Cincinnati society during the nineteenth century’s “Gilded Age,” she lived apart from the conspicuous consumption so characteristic of her times.<\/p>\n
This well-illustrated biography explores her gifts and life from its beginnings in New York City through family tragedies to the legacy she left behind.<\/p>\n
Rogers has used an impressive array of primary sources, including Mary Emery’s unpublished papers, records of the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the correspondence of Mary Emery’s advisor, Charles Livingood.<\/i>
\n\u2014M. Christine Anderson, Xavier University<\/b><\/p>\nAbout the author<\/h3>\n