Kingsmill Marrs Photographs ca. 1850-1915 Guide to the Photograph Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketch Collection Description Related Material Acquisition Information Organization of the Collection Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketch

Kingsmill Marrs (d. 1912) was the son of Dana Francis Marrs (b. 1826) and Jane Van Poelien (b. 1832) of Saxonville, Mass. Late in his life, Kingsmill Marrs married Laura Norcross (see below). From 1896-1905, the pair lived at "South Park," the Marrs family home in Wayland, Mass. They also spent time at their other home, "Maitland Cottage," in Maitland, Fla., where they were active in the Florida Audubon Society, established in 1900. Laura Norcross Marrs served as an executive committee member for the Society during the early 1900s and was instrumental in creating a National Association of Audubon Societies. For many years, Kingsmill Marrs also wrote the Florida Audubon Society's annual reports for Bird-Lore, the first official magazine of the National Audubon Society. He was also an amateur photographer. After 1905, the Marrses went abroad to Europe and Egypt, where they devoted their time to travel and the collection of books and European prints and artwork. They were often accompanied in the United States and on their travels by members of the Marrs family, as well as their friend, photographer William Wilson Barker. The Marrses eventually settled in Florence, Italy, where Kingsmill Marrs died in 1912 after a prolonged illness.

Kingsmill Marrs had a sister, Evangeline Marrs (1857-1930). She was married first to Michael Simpson of Saxonville, Mass. and second in 1896 to Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822-1901), Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota. Among Evangeline's close friends was Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, sister of President Grover Cleveland, with whom she lived in Bagni di Lucca, Italy after the death of Bishop Whipple and until her own death in 1930.

Laura Norcross Marrs (1845-1926) was the daughter of Otis Norcross (1811-1882), mayor of Boston in 1867, and Lucy Ann Lane (1816-1916). She had two siblings: Otis Norcross (b. 1848) and Grenville H. Norcross (1854-1937).

Collection Description

This collection mostly contains 547 photographs in 1 box, 1 oversize box, and 8 volumes. These photographs were collected by Kingsmill Marrs and his wife, Laura Norcross Marrs, and date from ca. 1850-1915.

1 box and 1 oversize box contain loose photographs. Most of these photos consist of portraits of various European royalty from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These photographs were collected by Kingsmill and Laura Norcross Marrs. Other portraits include photographs of Kingsmill and Laura Norcross Marrs, various other Marrs family members, and of their friends William Wilson Barker, Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, and the novelist Julia C. R. Dorr. The loose photographs also contain various views of the Marrs family homes in Wayland, Mass. and Maitland, Fla., as well as a trip to Colorado and California taken and photographed by Kingsmill Marrs and William Wilson Barker, among other subjects. The oversize photograph also contain several photographs of European artwork, collected by Laura Norcross Marrs during her travels abroad.

There are also 8 volumes of photographs in the collection. Three volumes contain photographs collected by the Marrses of portraits of European royalty and Roman artwork and architecture. Two additional volumes contain photographs that were possibly taken by Kingsmill Marrs or William Wilson Barker, ca. 1896-1910; these depict "South Park," the Marrs family home in Wayland, Mass.; various Marrs family members at home; and Jan Van Poelien Marrs's travels in Europe and Egypt. A fifth volume contains snapshot landscape and portrait photographs taken by Kingsmill Marrs, ca. 1896-1910.

This collection also includes two volumes of photographs of Native Americans of the American Southwest and their pueblos that were taken by Adam Clark (A. C.) Vroman between 1895-1904. Vroman was a Pasadena, Calif. photographer and bookseller who made many trips to the Southwest, especially to New Mexico, to photograph American Indian pueblos. These photographs were collected by Kingsmill Marrs, probably during his travels to California during 1901-1902. They also include landscape photographs by Vroman of New Mexico and Arizona.

This collection contains cartes de visite, cabinet cards, one tintype, photochromes, platinotypes, and other paper-based photographs. Photographers represented in this collection include Kingsmill Marrs, William Wilson Barker, Schemboche (Florence, Italy), and Montabone (Rome and Torino, Italy), among many others.

Two daguerreotypes are stored apart from this collection by format in the Daguerreotype collection (Photos. 1.322-323) .

Related Material

The Massachusetts Historical Society holds the following monograph and manuscript and art collections relating to Kingsmill and Laura Norcross Marrs:

T. G. H. James. "Howard Carter and Mrs. Kingsmill Marrs." Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson 1(1996): 415-428.

Kingsmill Marrs papers (Ms. N-158).

Miniature portrait of Kingsmill Marrs, painted by Carlota St. Gaudens. NOTE: Appointments must be made in advance to view museum collections. Please contact the Curator of Art.

Acquisition Information

This collection was removed from the Kingsmill Marrs book collection, which was given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Laura Norcross Marrs in May 1919, with additions to the photographs in 1920, 1921, 1923, and 1924.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series. The series and subseries title links lead to the corresponding series or subseries in the Detailed Description of the Collection.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Kingsmill Marrs photographs, Photo. Coll. 165, Massachusetts Historical Society Photo Archives.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.