Mary Nimmo Moran (1842–1899) became an artist at an extraordinary moment in the history of the arts in the United States. In the years after the American Civil War (1861–65), women sought entrance into the art world in record numbers, vying for critical recognition and competing for sales with one another and with male artists. By 1890, according to the United States census, 11,000 women listed their profession as artist, in contrast to the 414 women who stated they worked in the fine arts just twenty years earlier. The increased ratio of female to male artists is equally remarkable. In 1870, women accounted for a mere 10 percent of the artists in the United States; by 1890 they accounted for 48 percent—nearly one-half![1] Historian Kirsten Swinth attributes the burgeoning numbers of women in the arts primarily to economic circumstances. Upper- and middle-class Americans thought artistic careers were suitable for women widowed or single after the Civil War. Moreover, to attain and sustain a middle-class lifestyle could require both partners in a marriage or a daughter in a large family to seek employment outside the home. The arts provided an appropriate opportunity for women. The public perception of women at the time was that they were the guardians of culture, and what better way to fulfill this role than to produce culture via the fine arts.[2]

Art historian Shannon Vittoria likewise suggests it was economic concerns which led Nimmo Moran to pursue a career in the arts. When she married Thomas Moran (1837–1926) in 1863, he was beginning his career and not yet a financial success. There were ever increasing responsibilities as the family grew to include three children. Both Thomas and Mary had seen their parents forced to immigrate to the United States from Europe to pursue economic opportunities. Once the couple had achieved some financial success in the 1870s, largely because of Moran’s western imagery, they most likely wanted to maintain the middle-class lifestyle they had achieved.[3] This would take a continued commitment to the arts by both of them. They would encourage each other in those endeavors, but as with most artists, they would also have to establish an extended support network. Family played an important role for both Morans in this respect, but for Nimmo Moran, although family was supportive, they could not open every door.

Although Nimmo Moran learned to draw and paint from her husband, she became best known for her etchings, a medium she began to pursue while he was away in 1879. That year, Thomas Moran traveled to the western United States on a sketching trip with his younger brother, artist and printmaker Peter Moran (1841–1914).[4] Emily Kelley Moran (1841–1903), Peter’s wife, was also left alone that summer. Under the tutelage of her husband, Kelley Moran learned to etch in 1875 and made her professional debut two years later, exhibiting her work at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). An experienced etcher, she could have provided some instruction for Nimmo Moran during the summer of 1879.[5] In 1882, both women displayed their etchings at the first annual exhibition of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers held at PAFA. Although the two women exhibited their work with the group, and both Moran brothers were members of the organization, the Philadelphia Society of Etchers would not grant the women membership.[6]

Women struggled to achieve professional acceptance in the fine arts during this era, in part because male artists who were members of fine arts organizations denied women membership. Membership was an acknowledgment of professional status based upon an artist’s exhibition record, critical reception, and sales. Generally, there were no rules against women exhibiting their work with these groups. Since men denied women membership, however, the women were often not aware of exhibition opportunities. Thus, female artists formed their own informal societies to keep one another up to date about potential exhibitions.[7]

Although both Kelley Moran and Nimmo Moran most likely benefited from the Moran family name and their husbands’ connections, that alone did not guarantee membership in art organizations such as the Philadelphia Society of Etchers. Thus, we could infer it was on the strength of Nimmo Moran’s etchings, exhibition record, critical reception, and sales that both the New York Etching Club and London’s Royal Society of Painter-Etchers eventually elected Mary as their first female member.[8] Moreover, the election of Nimmo Moran to membership in the New York Etching Club in 1881 was a major achievement for all women artists in the United States.

—Sandra Pauly, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Moran Collection Research, 2021

To learn more about Nimmo Moran’s artistic endeavors and achievements, click on any of the images below. For more background information on Nimmo Moran, see Mary Nimmo Moran: Wife, Mother, Homemaker, Hostess, and Artist. For more on artistic collaborations between Nimmo Moran and her husband, see Thomas Moran and Mary Nimmo Moran: Partners in Art.

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[1] Swinth, Painting Professionals, 1–3.

[2] Swinth, Painting Professionals, 17–19.

[3] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 38–40.

[4] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 102–4, 145–46.

[5] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 155–57.

[6] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 1–2, 189, 266. Nimmo Moran presented seventeen etchings at the event, and Emily Kelley Moran presented six. Three other women exhibited their etchings: Harriet Frances Osborne (1846–1913), five works; Blanche Dillaye (1851–1931), one etching; and Anna Lea Merritt (1844–1930), one work. Peter Moran was one of the founding members of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers. For more, see Wright, Domestic and Wild, 1:95–104.

[7] Swinth, Painting Professionals, 68–71. There were a few formal women’s art associations such as the Ladies’ Art Association in New York City, founded in 1867, and the National Association of Women Artists Inc., formed in New York City in 1889. For more, see Graham, “American Women Artists’ Groups: 1867–1930,” 9–10.

[8] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 4, 184–87. Nimmo Moran exhibited her etchings with the New York Etching Club until 1893. In 1882, she was elected a member of the recently formed Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in London and she exhibited with them until 1894, when she stopped creating etchings and returned to painting. Vittoria suggests that Nimmo Moran returned to paintings as the market for etchings was no longer profitable.