Margaret Talbot Jackson papers, 1898–1917, undated

Full finding aid (pdf) | Digitized material

Collection Scope and Content

The Margaret Talbot Jackson papers are dominated by over 650 letters. The majority of these letters are between Margaret and her mother (Edith T. Jackson of Sorrento Maine), her aunt Marion, who was dean of women at the University of Chicago, and her fiance, L. Earl Rowe who spent many years at the Rhode Island School of Design. There are also letters from a family member in California, her financial advisors, and friends she met during her museum career at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum and the Minneapolis Art Museum. Additionally the papers include clippings and a number of formal family portraits.

Biographical/Historical Note

Margaret Talbot Jackson was born February 5, 1888 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. She attended Newton High School and graduated from Radcliffe College in 1910. While at Radcliffe, Jackson spent her junior year at the Sorbonne in Paris. After graduation she studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Rome (1910-1913). In 1914 she began her long career in museum work as an assistant at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum (1913-1914). She later worked at the Minneapolis Art Museum as a director’s assistant and then as an assistant director (1914-1916). In 1917, she wrote The Museum: A Manual of the Housing and Care of Art Collections.