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Rose Fay Thomas

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Rose Fay Thomas
A middle-aged white woman with dark hair, wearing a dark dress with a high lace-trimmed collar
Rose Fay Thomas, from a 1911 publication
Born
Rose Emily Fay

September 4, 1852
St. Albans, Vermont
DiedApril 19, 1929 (age 76)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Occupation(s)Writer, clubwoman, arts patron
SpouseTheodore Thomas
RelativesAmy Fay (sister)
Melusina Fay Peirce (sister)
Charles Jerome Hopkins (uncle)
Charles Sanders Peirce (brother-in-law)
John Henry Hopkins (grandfather)

Rose Fay Thomas (September 4, 1852 – April 19, 1929) was an American writer and advocate for animals. She was also founder and first president of the National Federation of Music Clubs.

Early life and education

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Rose Emily Fay was born in St. Albans, Vermont, one of the nine children of Rev. Charles Hopkins Fay and Charlotte Emily Hopkins Fay.[1] She was from a musical and intellectual family: her older sister Amy Fay was a noted pianist; another sister was Melusina Fay Peirce, a feminist writer and wife of scholar Charles Sanders Peirce. Her maternal uncles included journalist John Henry Hopkins Jr., and musician Charles Jerome Hopkins, and her grandfather was John Henry Hopkins, an Episcopal bishop.[2][3]

Career

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Rose Fay moved to Chicago as a young woman, and lived there with her brother Charles Norman Fay[4] until she married his friend, orchestra conductor Theodore Thomas, in 1890.[5] While her husband was responsible for the musical programs at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, she organized the National Federation of Music Clubs, and served as the organization's first president.[6] After the Chicago World's Fair, the couple bought a farm in New Hampshire, and she took charge of the remodeling of the house and gardens, which she called "Felsengarten". She published a book about the experience, Our Mountain Garden (1904).[7]

In Chicago in 1899, Thomas organized The Anti-Cruelty Society, against the abuse of animals; she was the society's first president. She argued with Jane Addams in a 1901 forum about the best way to protect young boys working as messengers in the city.[8]

After her husband's death, she donated his extensive library of marked scores to the Newberry Library[9] and the Chicago Orchestral Association,[10] and edited his memoirs; they were published in 1911, and are considered a useful record of the founding of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.[5][11] In 1922, her seventieth birthday was marked with a celebration at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, hosted by the California Federation of Music Clubs.[12][13]

Publications

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  • Our Mountain Garden (1904, 1915)[7]
  • Memoirs of Theodore Thomas (1911)[14]

Personal life and legacy

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Fay married conductor Theodore Thomas in 1890. Her husband died in 1905, and she died in 1929, at the age of 76, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[15][16] Her papers are part of the Theodore Thomas Papers at the Newberry Library.[17]

The Anti-Cruelty Society offers membership in the Rose Fay Thomas Society to benefactors who include the society in their estate planning.[18] The National Federation of Women's Clubs calls major donors "Rose Fay Thomas Fellows", in her memory.[19] The Musicians Club of Women and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra offered a Rose Fay Thomas Award for winners of a competition for women instrumentalists.[20] In 2016, Joan Bentley Hoffman gave a lecture on Rose Fay Thomas's life and work, at the Glessner House Museum.[21]

References

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  1. ^ Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914–1915. American commonwealth Company. 1914. p. 812.
  2. ^ McCarthy, S. Margaret W. (1985). "Amy Fay: The American Years". American Music. 3 (1): 52–62. doi:10.2307/3052117. ISSN 0734-4392. JSTOR 3052117.
  3. ^ "Fay Family Papers". Contagion - CURIOSity Digital Collections. 2020-03-26. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  4. ^ "Charles N. Fay, Oldest Graduate, Dies at 96". The Harvard Crimson. April 11, 1944. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  5. ^ a b Otis, Philo Adams (1924). The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Its Organization, Growth, and Development, 1891–1924. Clayton F. Summy. pp. 24, 54, 157. ISBN 978-0-8369-6742-5.
  6. ^ Horowitz, Joseph (2005-03-15). Classical Music In America: A History Of Its Rise And Fall. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-393-05717-1.
  7. ^ a b Thomas, Rose Fay (1904). Our mountain garden. New York, London: The Macmillan company.
  8. ^ "Statement on Using Boys as Messengers". Jane Addams Digital Edition. April 8, 1901. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  9. ^ "Thomas Scores Gift to Library; Music Used by Famous Director Donated to Newberry Institution". Chicago Tribune. 1908-10-17. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Mrs. Rose Fay Thomas Enters Strong Protest; Objects to Changing Name of Theodore Thomas Orchestra". Chattanooga Daily Times. 1913-03-06. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Middleton, George (January 1912). "Eight Books of the Month". The Bookman. 34 (5): 530–533.
  12. ^ Ussher, Bruno David (September 16, 1922). "The Week's Music Events in Los Angeles". Pacific Coast Musical Review. 42 (25): 8. ISBN 978-0-393-05717-1.
  13. ^ Ussher, Bruno David (1922-09-05). "Wife of Thomas, Noted Orchestra Leader, is Feted". Los Angeles Evening Express. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Thomas, Rose Fay (1911). Memoirs of Theodore Thomas. New York: Moffat, Yard and company.
  15. ^ "Theo. Thomas' Widow Dies in East; Aged 76". Chicago Tribune. 1929-04-21. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Mrs. Rose Fay Thomas Buried in Cambridge". St. Albans Daily Messenger. 1929-04-24. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Collection: Theodore Thomas Papers". Modern Manuscripts & Archives at the Newberry. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  18. ^ The Anti-Cruelty Society, "Rose Fay Thomas Society" (brochure).
  19. ^ "VFMC Rose Fay Thomas Fellows". Virginia Federation of Music Clubs. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  20. ^ Carroll, Margaret (1990-07-22). "Musical competition salutes history". Chicago Tribune. p. 74. Retrieved 2023-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Rose Fay Thomas". Glessner House. 2016-03-21. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
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