Revolutionary artist Mary Rogers Williams (1857-1907), a baker's daughter from Hartford, Connecticut, biked and hiked from the Arctic Circle to Naples, exhibited from Paris to Indianapolis, trained at the Art Students League, chafed against art world rules that favored men, wrote thousands of pages about her travels and work, taught at Smith College for nearly two decades, but sadly ended up almost totally obscure. The book reproduces her unpublished artworks that capture pensive gowned women, Norwegian slopes reflected in icy waters, saw-tooth rooflines on French chateaus, and incense hazes in Italian chapels, and it offers a vivid portrayal of an adventurer, defying her era's expectations.

Eve M. Kahn

Preface . Notes on Methodology . Chapter 1: Why She Matters . Chapter 2: A Cosmopolitan Emerges . Chapter 3: No Salvation but by Hard Work . Chapter 4: Conveying the Rudiments of Art . Chapter 5: Her Boss's Jealous Mistress . Chapter 6: A Rare Dear Overseas . Chapter 7: Wholly in Pale Tints . Chapter 8: He Certainly Is Unregenerate . Chapter 9: Strange and Beautiful Things . Chapter 10: Misfit in this Workaday World . Chapter 11: A Pastel Every Five Minutes . Chapter 12: To Exhibit in the Provincial Towns . Chapter 13: My Own Femme de Ménage . Chapter 14: The Most Magic House in the World . Chapter 15: Crisp and Free in Treatment . Chapter 16: A Serene and Confident Air . Chapter 17: I'd Like to Run Away . Chapter 18: Old Friends and Some New Ones . Chapter 19: I Feel Like Thirty Cents . Chapter 20: Light So Exquisite . Chapter 21: Nervous Energy Spent Teaching . Chapter 22: Out of the Harness . Chapter 23: Pangs of Loneliness . Chapter 24: A Peaceful Comfortable Feeling . Chapter 25: Wild to Go Out on a Comet Hunt . Chapter 26: How Hard It Is for My Sisters . Chapter 27: Exquisite and Unerring Artistic Taste . Chapter 28: Logical Custodians in Chaotic Days . Chapter 29: The Resurrectionists . Appendix . Acknowledgments . Notes . IndexPreface . Notes on Methodology . Chapter 1: Why She Matters . Chapter 2: A Cosmopolitan Emerges . Chapter 3: No Salvation but by Hard Work . Chapter 4: Conveying the Rudiments of Art . Chapter 5: Her Boss's Jealous Mistress . Chapter 6: A Rare Dear Overseas . Chapter 7: Wholly in Pale Tints . Chapter 8: He Certainly Is Unregenerate . Chapter 9: Strange and Beautiful Things . Chapter 10: Misfit in this Workaday World . Chapter 11: A Pastel Every Five Minutes . Chapter 12: To Exhibit in the Provincial Towns . Chapter 13: My Own Femme de Ménage . Chapter 14: The Most Magic House in the World . Chapter 15: Crisp and Free in Treatment . Chapter 16: A Serene and Confident Air . Chapter 17: I'd Like to Run Away . Chapter 18: Old Friends and Some New Ones . Chapter 19: I Feel Like Thirty Cents . Chapter 20: Light So Exquisite . Chapter 21: Nervous Energy Spent Teaching . Chapter 22: Out of the Harness . Chapter 23: Pangs of Loneliness . Chapter 24: A Peaceful Comfortable Feeling . Chapter 25: Wild to Go Out on a Comet Hunt . Chapter 26: How Hard It Is for My Sisters . Chapter 27: Exquisite and Unerring Artistic Taste . Chapter 28: Logical Custodians in Chaotic Days . Chapter 29: The Resurrectionists . Appendix . Acknowledgments . Notes . Index