Mary Barr Munroe Explained

Mary Barr Munroe
Birth Date:January 5, 1852
Birth Place:Glasgow, Scotland
Death Place:Cocoanut Grove, Florida, USA

Mary Barr Munroe (January 5, 1852 – September 8, 1922) was a Scottish-born American clubwoman and conservationist, based in Miami, Florida. Munroe founded the Coconut Grove Audubon Society and library, and worked for the establishment of a state park that became part of the Everglades National Park.

Early life

Mary Barr was born in Glasgow, the daughter of Robert Barr and Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr.[1] Her mother was a prolific novelist and teacher, born in Lancashire; her father was a wool merchant. She moved to the United States as a baby, and spent her girlhood in Chicago, in Texas, (where her father and brothers died from yellow fever), and in New York.[2]

Career

Munroe moved to Florida with her husband in 1886, becoming one of the "pioneers" of the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami.[3] [4] She was the first elected president of the Woman's Club of Coconut Grove, started the Dade County Federation of Women's Clubs, was active in the Florida Federation of Women's Clubs.[5] [6] [7] She founded the Coconut Grove Audubon Society and was its first president in 1915.[8] She opposed the fashion of using egret feathers in women's hats, and was known to forcibly remove them from hats of other women in her company. She started a boys' club, Bird Defenders, to encourage children to protect Florida birds. She began the book collection that became the Coconut Grove Library in 1895.[9] [10] [11] With Edith Gifford and May Mann Jennings, she proposed the establishment of Royal Palms State Park,[12] which was dedicated in 1916 and became part of the Everglades National Park in 1947.[13]

Munroe wrote about Florida for several national publications, and was the author of Florida Birds are Worth Their Weight in Gold, a pamphlet of the Florida Audubon Society. She corresponded with John Muir.[14] [15] She started an interracial sewing club,[16] and attended services at a nearby black church.[17]

Personal life

Mary Barr married American writer Kirk Munroe (1850–1930) in 1883.[18] She died in 1922, aged 70 years, at "Scrububs", her home in Coconut Grove, Florida.[19] Her grave is in Miami's Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Park cemetery.[20] Her diaries are in the Kirk Munroe Papers at the Library of Congress.[21] The Mary Barr Munroe Society is a women's organization that raises funds for programs benefiting women and girls in Coconut Grove. Munroe's sponge cake recipe was so prized that, a century later, it is still promoted by the Munroe Society at baking events.[22]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Leonard, John William. Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. 1914. American Commonwealth Company. 585. en.
  2. News: Shroder. Lisa. 1999-03-14. 'Pioneer life hardest on a woman'. 90. South Florida Sun Sentinel. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  3. News: Blanchard. Brian. 1982-10-10. Historian is Hot on Pioneer's Trail. 254. The Miami Herald. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  4. News: Smith. Teresa. 1987-03-22. Women Tamed Miami, Speakers Tell Audience at UM Lecture Series. 49. The Miami Herald. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  5. Book: Davis, Jack E.. An Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century. 2009. University of Georgia Press. 978-0-8203-3071-6. 212–214. en.
  6. News: 1918-01-12. Miami Audubon Society for the Protection of Native Birds. 3. The Miami Herald. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  7. News: 1915-08-30. Mrs. Kirk Munroe Arranges a Tea Complimenting Mrs. W. S. Jennings. 5. The Miami News. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  8. Web site: Tropical Audubon Society Heritage. 2021-01-09. Tropical Audubon Society.
  9. http://www.miamigreenlab.com/pdfs/2011%20designation%20reports%20updates/CoconutGroveDesignationReport.pdf The Coconut Grove Library: Designation Report
  10. News: Sanchez. Sonia. 2001-07-25. Society has raised $20,000 for new 'Y'. 408. The Miami Herald. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  11. News: Hernandez. Evelyn. 1985-06-13. Library Celebrates 90th Anniversary. 47. The Miami Herald. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  12. Book: Kaufman, Polly Welts. National Parks and the Woman's Voice: A History. 2006. UNM Press. 978-0-8263-3994-2. 33–34. en.
  13. https://womansclubofcoconutgrove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/A-Dream-Come-True-reduced.pdf "A Dream Come True: Founded by Women"
  14. Web site: Letter from Mary Barr Munroe to John Muir, [ca. 1909 ?]]. 2021-01-09. Calisphere. en.
  15. Web site: Letter from Mary Barr Munroe to John Muir, [1896?]]. 2021-01-09. Calisphere. 1896 . en.
  16. News: 1994-04-05. Sinkhole yields pieces of the past. 114. The Miami Herald. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  17. News: Kleinberg. Howard. 1983-02-05. Black Church Predated City. 36. The Miami News. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  18. Web site: Coconut Grove Pioneer Kirk Munroe. 2021-01-09. Miami History Blog. en-US.
  19. Web site: Scrububs · HistoryMiami. 2021-01-09. HistoryMiami. en.
  20. News: Fichtner. Margaria. 1987-02-10. Grave Concerns. 17. The Miami Herald. 2021-01-09. Newspapers.com.
  21. Web site: Kirk Munroe papers, 1850-1940: Scope and content note. 2021-01-09. Library of Congress.
  22. News: 2002-03-21. Munroe Society Hosting Bake-off. 69. The Miami Herald. 2021-01-09.

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