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Alice Jones MacMonnies Papers
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Title: Alice Jones MacMonnies
Papers
Dates: c.1874-1952
Bulk dates: 1917-1929
Collection Number: Consult
repository.
Creator:
MacMonnies, Alice Jones.
Extent:
65 items
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2203
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: manuscripts@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The collection mainly consists of
incoming correspondence to Alice Jones MacMonnies and Frederick MacMonnies from
Alice's mother, Georgina Sullivan Jones. Georgina's diary from an 1896 European tour
and a variety of photographs of Alice, her sisters, and Frederick MacMonnies are
also included.
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the
Reader Services Department. For more information, please go to following
web
site
.
In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual
materials, researchers must obtain formal permission from the office of the
Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as
owner of the physical property rights only, and researchers must also obtain
permission from the holder of the literary rights. In some instances, the
Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights.
Researchers may contact the appropriate curator for further information.
[Identification of item], Alice Jones MacMonnies papers, The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
Purchased from Mary Smart, June 28, 2011.
Alice Jones MacMonnies (1875-c.1963) was the eldest daughter of Nevada Senator John
P. Jones (1829-1912) and his second wife Georgina Sullivan Jones (1853-1936), also
called Bonnie. Alice had a half-brother, Roy, from her father’s first marriage and
two full-sisters, Marion (sometimes spelled Marian) Jones Farquhar (1879-1965), a
renowned tennis player who won the U.S. Championship in 1899 and 1902 and was an
Olympic medalist in 1900, and Georgina Jones Walton (1882-1955), who was also an
Olympic tennis player (she also joined the Vedanta Society as Sister Daya, was a
close confidant of Swami Paramanada, and wrote the play The Light of Asia, which was
turned into a show choreographed by Ruth St. Denis). Alice graduated from Bryn Mawr
College in 1896. Like her mother, who had been raised in France, Alice had an
affinity for music and the arts, and moved to Paris to train her voice. In her late
twenties she began studying art with American sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies
(1863-1937). The two were married in Switzerland in 1910 (MacMonnies divorced his
first wife, artist Mary Louise Fairchild, in 1909) and lived in Giverny, France,
until the outbreak of World War I, when they returned to the United States and
settled in New York. Alice spent part of 1917 in California to help settle disputes
over her father’s estate. The MacMonnies lost most of their assets in the 1929 stock
market crash, and lived primarily off of Frederick MacMonnies’ sculpture commissions
until his death in 1937. Alice never remarried and died in the early 1960s.
The correspondence in the collection almost entirely consists of letters sent to
Alice Jones MacMonnies from about 1917 until 1929. The bulk of the correspondence is
from Alice’s mother Georgina Sullivan Jones, and the letters focus on news regarding
family members and acquaintances, including General George Pershing. Georgina
admonishes Alice for not writing to her more often and praises Frederick effusively
for sending her letters. She also writes of sculptor Prince Paul Troubetzkoy’s
commission to create a bust of Henry E. Huntington in 1917 and of her hatred of
Troubetzkoy, of whom she writes “it is sickening…the way that man advertises himself
– he is so coarse and vulgar too and his wife is unspeakable.” She also relates
being angered by a discussion that rated Troubetzkoy and Auguste Rodin as the
greatest living sculptors with no mention of MacMonnies. Other letters describe
events related to World War I, such as the raising of funds for French orphans and
news of a friend’s brother who was killed in an “aeroplane accident” in France. An
undated letter from Alice’s nephew Gregory Jones (the son of her half-brother Roy)
describes war conditions in St. Rhomble, France, and the “defiant” attitude of
German prisoners-of-war toward the French and American soldiers. A series of 1925
letters recount Georgina’s trip through Spain and France, and other topics covered
throughout the correspondence include Georgina Jones Walton’s play (1927), the
Jones’ mining interests in Alaska, Alice’s interest in New York real estate, and
memories of John P. Jones, whom Georgina wished had “lived to see the wonders that
science has accomplished and what has been done in the film world” (1933). few
letters from Alice regarding the Jones estate before and after Georgina’s death,
including a notebook of property values from 1924, are also included. The diary
volume was kept by Georgina Sullivan Jones during her 1896 European tour with Alice
following her graduation from Bryn Mawr, and chronicles their voyage across the
Atlantic on board the St.Paul of the American Line, as well as their travels through
London, Paris, Berlin, Beyreuth, Munich, Innsbruck, Venice, Milan, Rome, and
Zurich.The photographs of Alice MacMonnies and her sisters Georgina and Marion range
from her childhood to adult years, including her 1896 class photo from Bryn Mawr
College.
Notes accompanying some of the correspondence were included by the donor, Mary Smart,
who is the author of A flight with fame: the life and art of Frederick William
MacMonnies (Sound View Press, 1996).
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in two series, correspondence and photographs. Each
series is arranged chronologically. Also included is one diary volume.
A detailed container list is available through the Manuscripts Department.
Farquhar, Marian.
Jones, Georgina Sullivan, 1853-1936.
MacMonnies, Alice Jones, 1875-c.1963).
MacMonnies, Frederick William, 1863-1937.
Pershing, John J. (John Joseph), 1860-1948.
Trubet︠s︡koĭ, Pavel Petrovich, kni︠a︡zʹ, 1866-1938.
Domestic relations.
Sculptors--United States--20th century.
Transatlantic voyages.
World War, 1914-1918.
Berlin (Germany)--Description and travel.
Beyreuth (Germany)--Description and travel.
Cadiz (Spain)--Description and travel.
France--Description and travel.
Innsbruck (Austria)--Description and travel.
London (England)--Description and travel.
Milan (Italy)--Description and travel.
Munich (Germany)--Description and travel.
Paris (France)--Description and travel.
Rome (Italy)--Description and travel.
Spain--Description and travel.
Venice (Italy)-_Description and travel.
Zurich (Switzerland)--Description and travel.
Black-and-white photographs--19th century.
Black-and-white photographs--20th century.
Diaries--19th century.
Letters (correspondence)--19th
century.
Letters (correspondence)--20th
century.