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In Lady Bountiful Revisited, author Kathleen D. McCarthy states that “philanthropy lies at the heart of women’s history.” In Mary Muhlenberg Emery (1844-1927), we find an embodiment of that truth.
When she became one of the richest women in the United States upon the death of her husband, Thomas, Mary Emery quickly recognized her “vast responsibility.” With no surviving children, she consequently set out to spend the rest of her life disseminating her inheritance. The story of her life and her generous acts of philanthropy are told in a new book, Rich in Good Works*, by Millard F. Rogers, Jr.
Mary Emery’s life epitomized the philanthropist dedicated to humanity’s welfare. Devoted to her husband and children as wife and mother, and to good works after their deaths, she shied from public acclaim. Even after her husband’s death, when many of Mary Emery’s philanthropies were initiated, she deferred to his memory and most often attached his name, not hers, to the various projects or institutions she supported.
Her philanthropies and gifts date primarily from 1906, when Thomas Emery died, until her own demise in 1927. She did not have any organized, systematic plan for her benevolence. As opportunities arose, and supplicants sought her help, she responded. However, she was not casual in her giving and several causes appealed particularly to her. These were medical programs for children, educational and other initiatives for the benefit of young people and the Episcopal Church, in particular Cincinnati’s Christ Church, long before being named a Cathedral.
When the Church’s congregation outgrew its Parish House, Mary Emery rebuilt it in 1909. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Church, she donated the land for the construction of the Centennial Chapel in 1917. Earlier, in 1902, she, with her husband, donated a vacation home in New Richmond, Ohio, to the Christ Church chapter of the Girls Friendly Society.
She contributed $7,000,000 to the development of the community of Mariemont, one of America’s most important examples of town planning.
And her world-class collection of old master paintings, hers to enjoy during her lifetime, was formed expressly as a future bequest to the Cincinnati Art Museum. A painting by Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), which once hung in the entranceway of her East Walnut Hills home, now hangs in the Centennial Chapel, a bequest to the Church following her death.
Although a legal resident of Middletown, Rhode Island (located near Newport), Mary Emery considered Cincinnati her true home. For Christ Church, a beneficiary of so much of her generosity, she will long be remembered as Lady Bountiful. *Published by The University of Akron Press
Mariemont Community Church has no official affiliation with Christ Church save for the precious relationship in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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