photographer and carver, was the eldest child of Frank and Margaret White of Saumarez, Armidale. Her father’s family, the Hunter Valley Whites, controlled a chain of sheep properties throughout New South Wales and Mary (like her young cousin, Patrick White) grew up in a hard-working and wealthy household where little value was placed on artistic aspirations or creative talents. As the eldest daughter, it was Mary’s role to supervise her six younger siblings and assist her mother in offering hospitality and making neighbourhood visits. At seventeen she escaped this secure but narrow country life to a 'finishing’ period of three years at Ascham, a small Sydney boarding school. Under the leadership of the German principal, Miss Wallis, Mary encountered the wider world of art and European culture, the example of independent women artists such as Ellis Rowan and the stimulation of the city with a burgeoning awareness of 'Australian’ art and design.
During this time, she developed an interest and skill in woodcarving, designing and carving panels to be incorporated into pieces of furniture. Exhibiting with modest success in Sydney craft shows, she was on the fringes of the developing Arts and Crafts movement. But social expectations and family responsibilities required her return home, where she took over the running of the household while her mother and younger sister left for a year’s Grand Tour of Europe. Amid her domestic duties, Mary continued with her chip-carved furniture and extended her interests to dress and interior decorative design. She also embarked on new projects: photography, including developing her own glass plate negatives, and the creation of a cottage garden. Although tied to her country home, she maintained contact with those her sisters called her 'arty friends’; she used her independent income to acquire a modest collection of etchings, paintings and craft works, encouraging others with minor commissions.
Approaching middle age, this shy, retiring countrywoman fulfilled her artistic needs more through the encouragement of others than in her own creative work. Increasingly, she channelled her energies into the development needs and education of other women. In 1926 she was Founding President of the first branch in the north of the Country Women’s Association and worked towards establishing hostels and meeting rooms for women. This led her to a place on the state executive and a representative voice at international women’s conferences. In 1936 she was awarded the King’s Jubilee medal for her services to women.
In 1939 Mary White was appointed to the foundation Council of the New England University College and established and monitored its first residential hostels for women students. On her death in 1948, the Council resolved that the first college for women at the University of New England should bear her name. The Mary White College stands as a memorial to her work. So too does the small collection of carved furniture in her Armidale home, Saumarez, reminding us of her artistic interests.
- Writers:
- Philp, Anne
Note: Heritage biography.
stokel
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
