February 12, 2020

A Marker for Someone You Never Heard of.

Followers of this blog may have noticed that I like historical markers. A few days ago I saw this one in Upperville for the first time. I turned around and went back to get a photo. I was struck that the subject was a woman I knew nothing about but who had a last name that I recognize. The Mellon family is well known for their philanthropy, and not far from the sign is a beautiful church that was rebuilt in 1951 largely with gifts from the Mellon family.
Sharing with Signs, Signs.
Mary Elizabeth Conover Mellon
1904-1946
Mary E. Conover Mellon lived nearby with her second husband, the philanthropist Paul Mellon. Interested in the humanities and deeply influenced by the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, she was instrumental in establishing the Bollingen Series of books in 1943 to publish Jung’s writings in English and to disseminate works on anthropology, art, literary criticism, philosophy, and comparative religion. She was the series’ first editor and the first president of the Bollingen Foundation, founded by the Mellons in 1945 to support the publishing enterprise and to issue fellowships, grants, and prizes in the humanities. Mary Mellon died in 1946 and is buried here at Trinity Episcopal Church.
Mary Mellon is barely mentioned in an online bio of Paul Mellon. She died fairly young from asthma.

4 comments:

  1. ...I enjoy historical markers too and the ones in Virginia are very special. They seem to include more information than the ones in New York State. Thanks Linda for checking in, I hope that you are enjoying your week.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like historical markers too. Interesting about Mary but more interesting is that there is no more mention of her
    MB

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're right, I never heard of her, but the sign holds interesting information about her.

    ReplyDelete

The View from Squirrel Ridge features thousands of views of the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding area. I post frequently so please visit often.

Your comments are appreciated. If you are responding to a post older than a few days, your comment will be held until we have a chance to approve it. Thanks for your patience!

Sorry, anonymous comments cannot be accepted because of the large number of spam comments that come in that way. Also, links that are ads will be deleted.