Harkness, Mary Stillman (1874–1950)

American philanthropist. Born Mary Emma Stillman on July 4, 1874, in Brooklyn, New York; died on June 6, 1950, in New York City; third of four daughters of Thomas Edgar (a lawyer) and Charlotte Elizabeth (Greenman) Stillman; married Edward Stephen Harkness (1874–1940, a capitalist, benefactor of Harvard University, and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art), on November 15, 1904 (died 1940); daughter-in-law of Anna M. Richardson Harkness (1837–1926); no children.

Born into considerable wealth, Mary Emma Stillman married into the Harkness family in 1904, and from that time on devoted herself to philanthropic concerns. Her husband Edward Harkness derived his own fortune from his father Stephen V. Harkness, whose early investment in John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company yielded sizable dividends through the years. Before his marriage, Edward had made a number of substantial charitable contributions, and it was a habit he continued with the support of his wife. The fact that the couple had no children made them even more committed to their philanthropic ventures.

Edward's own philanthropic interests centered on medicine and education. In 1922, he and his mother, Anna M. Richardson Harness , gave the first of several gifts to help build the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, and after Anna's death in 1926, Edward made a series of grants to Harvard and Yale universities as well as to a number of independent preparatory schools, including St. Paul's and Phillips Exeter Academy. Mary Harkness, in addition to counseling her husband, made her own independent contributions. She also came up with the name "Pilgrim Trust" for the large British endowment Edward set up in 1930. In 1935, she gave $1 million for a convalescent facility in Port Chester, New York, to be operated in conjunction with Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Other gifts included several buildings for Connecticut College for Women in New London, and a contribution to the restoration program of the Marine Historical Association at Mystic, Connecticut.

Following her husband's death in 1940, Harkness continued to support their combined interests until her own death in 1950. She made monetary gifts of over $3 million to the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Bennett Junior College, and Oberlin College, and also supported local charities, including the New York United Hospital Fund, the Red Cross, Y.W.C.A., and the Boy Scouts. The Metropolitan and Cleveland museums also benefited from her largess, receiving gifts of books and art objects, while she contributed her copy of the Gutenberg Bible to Yale Library. Mary Stillman Harkness' summer mansion on Long Island Sound, known as Eolia, with grounds landscaped by Beatrix Jones Farrand , now comprises Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, Connecticut.

sources:

James, Edward T., ed. Notable American Women 1607–1950. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts