Blanchard, Mary Warner 1934-

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BLANCHARD, Mary Warner 1934-

PERSONAL: Born August 9, 1934, in Milwaukee, WI; daughter of Raymond C. (an eye surgeon) and Twila (a nurse; maiden name, Swartzfager) Warner; married William C. Blanchard (a building contractor), January 30, 1960; children: Cecily Chase Easley, William, Clifford. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Attended Milwaukee-Downer Seminary, 1952; Vassar College, B.A. (with honors), 1956; Rutgers University, M.A., 1989, Ph.D., 1994. Politics: Republican. Religion: Episcopalian. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, skiing, golf, gardening.

ADDRESSES: Home—42 Glen Alpine Rd., Morristown, NJ 07960; fax: 973-539-9894. Office—Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, Rutgers University, 88 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08903. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer and historian. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, associate fellow and member of the advisory board at Center for Historical Analysis, 1991–. Speaker at educational institutions, including Fudan University and the University of Bologna; conference participant. Morven, member of board of trustees, 1996; Friends of the New Jersey State Museum, member of board of trustees, 1996–2002; consultant to U.S. Treasury Restoration Program for U.S. Capitol, 1990–91, Connecticut Historical Society, and Newark Museum.

MEMBER: American Historical Association, American Studies Association, Costume Society of America, Organization of American Historians, Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Victorian Society in America, Coordinating Council for Women in History, William Morris Society, Harding Township Historical Society, Garden Club of Somerset Hills, Jersey Hills Vassar Club (president and member of board of directors).

AWARDS, HONORS: Fellow at National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, 1989; Wise-Susman Prize, 1991, 1993; Annette K. Baxter travel grant, 1992.

WRITINGS:

Oscar Wilde's America: Counterculture in the Gilded Age, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1998.

Contributor to books, including A Fatherland for Women, Stichting beheer IISG/VVG (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2000; Oscar Wilde: The Man, His Writings, and His World, AMS Press, 2003; Historical Dictionary of the Gilded Age, M.E. Sharpe, 2003; Americans at War: Society, Culture, and the Homefront, Macmillan, 2004; and The Importance of Being Misunderstood: Homage to Oscar Wilde, Patron Editore (Bologna, Italy), 2003. Contributor of articles and reviews to magazines and newspapers, including Journal of American Studies, Journal of American History, Diplomatic History, American Quarterly, Journal of Women's History, Nineteenth Century, Reviews in American History, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and American Historical Review.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A biography of Bertha Honore Palmer (1849–1918) of Chicago, Illinois.

SIDELIGHTS: Mary Warner Blanchard once told CA: "My interest in writing was part of the process of getting my doctorate. This was my second career. I had raised three children in the suburbs of New Jersey when I was introduced to the history program at Rutgers University. Entering the doctoral program shifted my life abruptly. When I began my research on the decorative arts movement after the Civil War, the aesthetic movement, I pondered, 'How would I have reacted had I lived then?' Thus I looked at the middle class and the domestic sphere through women like myself. I became quite involved with my lady 'visionaries' and took a personal interest in their struggles. These were unknown women to historians, but they were ones who deserved their share of attention. The writing process became part of a discovery of my own goals—like the aesthetic women I profiled."