(MYRTLE) MARY BATTERMAN BOOTH

(1879-1951)

Wife of Ralph Harman Booth, born in Chicago, was a vivacious, young, ambitious and aspiring socialite, who was often mentioned in the Chicago newspapers for her adventures and travels, especially to London where she was introduced to the London social scene even before her engagement to Ralph. Mary was the daughter of John Henry Batterman and Mary (Schuster) Batterman. Both of her parents were German-American, her mother having been born in Germany. Mary spoke German and studied classical piano in Chicago, becoming a concert level pianist. Her love of travel made her prefer living in Europe to the States. She traveled to Europe as a very young woman, and when the couple were planning their honeymoon in the late summer of 1906, it was Mary who chose their destination… Cairo, Egypt! [“Mary and Ralph in Egypt, 1906″].

Mary’s influence on her husband Ralph cannot be overstated. She is the one who pushed Ralph to leave the newspaper business in Detroit for a three year sabbatical in Berlin, Germany. Mary is also the one who preferred to spend every summer traveling Europe. She can also be credited with pushing Ralph’s final career as a foreign American diplomat in Europe. In hindsight, it is obvious that Mary’s desire to be in Europe and European society dovetailed perfectly with Ralph’s assignment to build, the new Detroit Institute of Art and purchase a collection for the museum. Indeed, their European travel and extended stays could even be considered the foundation of their marriage.

Observations: The photos of Mary Batterman before her marriage reveal an extremely attractive young woman. Following her marriage to Ralph in May 1906, their honeymoon was postponed until September. Their son JOHN LORD BOOTH was born 9 months after their honeymoon. Their daughter VIRGINIA KINGSWOOD BOOTH (VOGEL) was born barely 13 months after the birth of their son. The couple never had any more children. Ralph Booth’s newspaper career caused him to spend a lot of time away from his family. The time that Mary and Ralph really shared together was traveling.

After Ralph’s early death in June 1931, Mary assumed Ralph’s place on the governing board of the Detroit Institute of Arts. In Ralph’s will he left a bequest to the DIA in trust for any art acquisition approved by Mary Batterman for the permanent collection. At the time of his gift the $500,000 corpus of this Ralph Booth Trust was the largest bequest received to date by the DIA. Because the trust agreement allowed the trustees to spend both principal and interest for art purchases, in the 1930’s and 1940’s this trust was instrumental in the purchase of many important additions to the DIA permanent collection. In addition, to honor her husband Mary Booth negotiated with the City of Detroit to reimburse the City treasury for the cost of the purchase and installation of the French gothic house chapel installed in 1927 when the museum opened. Once this gift in reimbursement was accepted, Mary Booth proceeded with the help of Henry Lee Willet of Willet Stained Glass Studios in Germantown, PA, to install suitable new gothic style stained glass windows to replace the original stained glass windows below the stone tracery work which had been blown out and destroyed in World War I when the Chateau in Lorraine near Verdun to which it had been attached was largely destroyed by bombardment.

Mary Booth as the surviving co-owner of the Ralph and Mary Booth art collection oversaw the dispersal of this collection from their house at 315 Washington Road in Grosse Pointe. Mary donated major European pictures, sculpture and decorative arts to the D.I.A late in life including for example the large double portrait of “Eleanor of Toledo and Her Son” by Agnolo Bronzino, the wife and son of the first Cosimo de Medici which she displayed in her drawing room. Following a strong disagreement with the then director of the DIA Edgar Richardson (1945-1962), whose expertise and interest was American Art, Mary decided against donating the majority of the collections most important old master European pictures to the DIA. Instead, because of her son-in-law William D. Vogel’s close connection to the first director of THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART in Washington, D.C., John Walker, Bill’s roommate at Harvard, Mary decided in 1948 to donate her best remaining North German and Italian Renaissance pictures to the National Gallery. At the time of Mary’s gift this was one of the most significant additions to the capitol art museum which had been the personal collection of Andrew Mellon prior to his donating it to the nation. The Booth gift was published in LIFE MAGAZINE, issue of January 26, 1948, and the presentation of the gift was celebrated in a grand Washington ceremony at the museum with a fanfare by the U S Marine Corps band.