Butler, Mary, active 1700 - Social Networks and Archival Context (original) (raw)

Epithet: wife of James, 2nd Duke of Ormonde

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001109.0x00012b

Epithet: niece of Samuel Butler

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001109.0x000125

Epithet: sister of Samuel Butler

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001109.0x000129

Epithet: Abbess at Dublin

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001109.0x0001ab

Epithet: of Add MS 40261

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001109.0x000128

Mary Butler was born on October 27, 1865 in Uwachlan, Pennsylvania, the daughter of James and Rachel M. (James) Butler.

Butler began her education at the Darlington Seminary. She studied painting at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now the Moore College of Art) under William Sartain and Robert Henri, graduating in 1894. Between 1896 and 1902, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under William Merritt Chase and Celia Beaux. From 1897 to 1898, she studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris with Gustave Courtois, René François Xavier Prinet, and Jean-Antoine Injalbert.

She attended a summer school conducted by William Merritt Chase at Shinnacock Hills, and later studied under Robert Henri and Edward W. Redfield. With Redfield, she spent a season at Centre Bridge, Pennsylvania. Butler was primarily a landscape painter and traveled widely in the United States and Europe to find unusual and inspiring views. She also spent summers in Ogunquit and on Monhegan Island, Maine.

In 1909, Butler joined the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and served as President of that organization from 1921 to 1937. During her tenure, she inaugurated traveling exhibitions, a picture purchasing fund and, in 1915, the Thouron Fund for aid of needy artists.

Throughout her career Butler exhibited extensively and promoted the arts in Philadelphia.

Mary Butler died on March 16, 1946.

From the guide to the Mary Butler papers, 1853-1946, bulk 1884-1946, (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)