In an undated letter to her friend and fellow artist Helena de Kay Gilder (1846–1916), Mary Nimmo Moran wrote, “I have been trying to make little carpets fit big rooms and new dresses out of old ones for the children until I hardly know what I am about.”[1] The correspondence indicates one challenge faced by women who sought work outside the home—there is still work to do at home. Nimmo Moran, besides pursuing an artistic career, still fulfilled her duties as wife, mother, and homemaker. Yet, Nimmo Moran performed all of her roles well and seemingly with pleasure. A variety of hardships defined her early life, which perhaps made her a resourceful individual and helped her find joy managing both her career and family responsibilities.

Born in Strathaven, Scotland, Nimmo Moran (1842–1899) immigrated to the United States at age ten, along with her father Archibald Nimmo and older brother Archibald Nimmo Jr. Her mother had died five years earlier during a cholera epidemic.[2] Her father was a handloom weaver, but as Europe industrialized, he found himself without work and brought his family to America in search of a brighter future. The three settled in an area northeast of Philadelphia called Crescentville, and Nimmo and his son found work in the textile mills of Philadelphia. We know little about this period in Mary’s life. There are no records of her attending grammar school, and her father may have left her alone at home while he was at work. Mary was probably kept busy with housekeeping chores that the mother in the family typically performed. When Mary was sixteen, a young aspiring artist, Thomas Moran (1837–1926), began courting her, and they married four years later, on February 9, 1863. A little over a year after that, Nimmo Moran gave birth to the couple’s first son, Paul Nimmo, on April 11, 1864. A daughter, Mary Scott, followed on June 16, 1867, and then on August 20, 1870, a third child, Ruth Bedford, arrived.[3]

According to Nimmo Moran, her husband encouraged her to pursue an artistic career. Art historian Shannon Vittoria suggests the decision may have been an economic one, as they had a growing family to support.[4] Moran taught his wife the fundamentals of drawing and painting, but much of the work of becoming an artist was up to her. Nimmo Moran had to find the time to practice her artistic skills, create finished artworks, and market them while simultaneously caring for the children and the home. Since her husband was often away for months on field trips gathering materials for his work, she often faced these challenges alone.[5] Youngest daughter Ruth, however, remembered a bucolic childhood in a warm, welcoming home that was always filled with laughter.[6] Moreover, Ruth’s memories indicate that artistic production was an enjoyable activity for her mother, which she skillfully combined with her other duties. The daughter reported nothing made her mother happier than sitting under a tree to etch or sketch directly from nature, often bringing the children along on these excursions.[7]

Besides caring for the children, the home, and pursuing her career, Ruth noted it was Nimmo Moran who dealt with the finances. As Ruth put it, “The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, someone must see them, and that someone” was her mother.[8] Additional duties included acting as hostess, for when Moran returned from his field trips, the couple held informal weekly get-togethers. The practice began at their residence in Philadelphia, then at their home in Newark, New Jersey, and eventually at their home in East Hampton, Long Island. Ruth remembered it was her mother’s hospitable nature that drew “people together,” making their home a popular “gathering place for men and women of brains and ability.”[9] Although Nimmo Moran functioned as hostess at these gatherings, she was also a participant, which made these important networking events for both Morans as they pursued their artistic careers.

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

Click on any of the images below for more on Nimmo Moran’s early artistic efforts. For more on her career as an artist, see Mary Nimmo Moran: A Woman Artist in the Nineteenth Century and Thomas Moran and Mary Nimmo Moran: Partners in Art.

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[1] Quoted in Peet, American Women of the Etching Revival, 31, 40n49. Helena de Kay Gilder was the wife of Scribner’s Monthly editor Richard Watson Gilder, who was a childhood friend of Thomas Moran’s.

[2] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 26–28. See also Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 47. Wilkins states Mary was five when the family immigrated. Vittoria points out Scotland’s 1851 census states the family was still living in Strathaven in 1851. The records for the 1900 United States census include Archibald Nimmo Jr., noting he arrived in the United States in 1852, when Mary was ten.

[3] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 26–28, 34–35, 39, 54.

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

[5] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 46–49.

[6] Wilkins, Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains, 50–51.

[7] Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 160.

[8] Ruth Moran, “Mary Nimmo Moran,” undated, p. 3, A 59, Thomas Moran Biographical Art Collection, East Hampton Library, Long Island Collection, quoted in Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 60.

[9] Ruth Moran, “Mary Nimmo Moran,” undated, p. 3, A 59, Thomas Moran Biographical Art Collection, East Hampton Library, Long Island Collection, quoted in Vittoria, “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimmo Moran,” 62.