MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, N.H.)
Dates
- Existence: 1907
Biography
In 1896, the composer Edward MacDowell and Marian, his wife, bought a farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire, where they spent summers working in peaceful surroundings. There, MacDowell said, he produced more and better music. MacDowell, a founder of the American Academy in Rome, knew that artists from different disciplines enriched each other's artistic lives, and he and Marian dreamed of making a community on their property where artists could work in an ideal place in the stimulating company of peers. In 1906, prominent citizens of his time, among them Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, and J. Pierpont Morgan, created a fund in his honor. The fund enabled Edward and Marian to carry out their plan. Although MacDowell lived to see the first Colonists arrive, he died in 1908. It was under Marian's leadership that most of the 32 studios were built. Until her death in 1956, she traveled across the country giving lecture-recitals to raise funds and gain support for the Colony.
Source: MacDowell Colony website. 25 June 2008. http://www.macdowellcolony.org/
