Description
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.
Background
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.
Restrictions
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.
Availability
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the
Reader Services Department. For more information, please go to following web
site.