Scope and Contents
Biographical Note
Acquisition Information
Preferred Citation
Conditions Governing Use
Conditions Governing Access
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Mary Hallock Foote Papers
creator:
Foote, Mary Hallock
Identifier/Call Number: M0115
Physical Description:
6 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1863-1924
Date (bulk): bulk
Abstract: Correspondence with Helena Gilder, spanning their friendship of fifty years (1868-1916), and with other friends, family, and
business associates. Also includes typed copy of Foote's work entitled, "Reminiscences".
Scope and Contents
The papers include correspondence, literary manuscripts, and artwork. The 613 letters to Helena De Kay Gilder, span a period
of about fifty years (1868-1916). There are 65 letters from Foote to Richard Gilder, Helena's husband. There are also approximately
137 letters from Foote, her family, friends and business associates to each other, and finally, approximately 90 letters from
Betty Foote Swift to her mother, Mary Hallock Foote, spanning the years 1911-1915.
The papers contain approximately 300 pages of the typescript for Foote's
Reminiscences, 2 Foote manuscripts, and approximately 446 items of graphic material.
Biographical Note
Mary Hallock Foote was born Mary Haviland Hallock on November 19, 1847, at Milton-on-Hudson, N.Y., the youngest of four children.
Her close-knit farming family were Quakers, Free-Soil Republicans of English stock, sympathetic to anti-slavery, temperance,
and women's rights.
Nathaniel Hallock, Mary's father, unfortunately not an astute businessman in his farming practices, was keenly interested
in literature and early influenced Mary in her admiration of Browning, Tennyson, Rossetti, and other Victorians.
Mary's mother, Ann Burling Hallock, affected Mary's development in the social graces. Charming and lady-like, she taught her
children strict obedience, at the same time encouraging independence of thought and supporting Mary's decision to attend art
school in New York City at the age of 17.
From 1860-64 Mary attended Poughkeepsie Female Seminary (later Vassar) and in Fall 1864 entered the Cooper School of Design
for Women in NYC, the only institution at the time when anything approaching an art education could be had for a girl. There
she met Helena de Kay, daughter of a prominent New York family and later wife of the distinguished poet and editor of Century
Magazine, Richard Watson Gilder, beginning a life-long friendship and a transcontinental correspondence spanning 50 years.
New York teachers included Samuel Frost Johnson, with whom she studied color, John A.E. Whitney, Charles H. Burt, Wm. Rimmer,
and Wm. J. Linton. Linton, a well-known English artist, was especially helpful to Foote, teaching her to draw directly on
wood rather than on thin paper which then had to be placed face down onto a wood block, with the image transferred to the
block by tracing on the paper from the reverse side. Under the tutelage of this exceptional teacher, Foote became one of the
America's best designers on the wood.
Through Linton, she met A. V. S. Anthony, art editor for Tichnor and was commissioned in 1874 to work with Thomas Moran on
works by Longfellow and Whittier. Quick to catch shadings of character and precise in her detailed representations, she was
soon established as one of America's pre-eminent illustrators.
Because of her friendship with Helena de Kay at Cooper Union, she had met Helena's future husband, Richard Watson Gilder,
the de facto editor of Scribner's Monthly, committed to securing the best artistic and literary talent in America for his
magazine. He became the most important editor in her life, encouraging her to submit her illustrations to the magazine and,
later, to write articles and stories accompanying them.
In 1873, Mary Hallock met Arthur De Wint Foote, son of a member of the Connecticut legislature. An engineering student at
Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, he found that the best opportunities for engineers were opening up in the West, so he
went west to work on the Southern Pacific system at Tehachapi Pass, then on the Sutro Tunnel in Virginia City, and finally
the New Almaden quicksilver mine near San Jose where he became resident manager. He and Mary were married in Milton on February
9, 1876 but established their first home in the West at New Almaden. Their first child, Arthur Burling Foote was born there
in April 1877.
Because of her husband's changing professional fortunes, Mary Hallock Foote moved with him from New Almaden to Santa Cruz,
California, to Deadwood, Colorado, to Boise, Idaho, and finally to Grass Valley, California. When conditions made family residence
impossible, Mary stayed with her family in Milton where her second child, Elizabeth Townsend Foote, was born in September
1882. A third child, Agnes, was born in Boise in June 1886.
Although she found material for her stories and illustrations wherever she was, it was the Leadville experience in 1879 that
gave Foote some of the richest characterizations for her fiction. Stories based on the Leadville characters, especially her
first novel, The Led-Horse Claim (1883), established Foote's reputation as a Western writer.
Recognized as one of America's best illustrators, she was chosen a juror on Chalk, Charcoal, Pastel and Other Drawings for
the Chicago World's Fair Columbian Exposition in 1893. In 1894 she was elected to the National Academy of Women Painters and
Sculptors and acclaimed as the "dean of women illustrators."
Because of her ability to examine the essence of Western life and the impact of specific locale on its residents, her work
belongs to the late nineteenth century tradition known as "local color" and was accepted by Gilder and other editors as an
important voice from the West.
In the last phase of their lives, Mary and Arthur returned to the East to live with their daughter Betty. Arthur died there,
in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1933. Mary Hallock Foote continued to reside in Hingham, dying on June 25, 1938.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Rosamond Gilder and Janet Micoleau, 1968. Some material purchased, 1977.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item] Mary Hallock Foote Papers , M0115, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford,
Calif.
Conditions Governing Use
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Women authors.
Mines and mineral resources -- History.
Women.
California -- History -- 1850-1950.
Authors.
American literature -- 20th century.
Illustrators.
Perry, Bliss
Savage, Ernest Albert
McMurray, George H. (George Harold)
Wiley, A. J.
Ives, Halsey C.
Holden, Edward Singleton
Gilder, Richard Watson
Foote, Mary Hallock
New Almaden Mining Company
Gilder, Helena de Kay