Walcott, Mary Vaux, 1860-1940

Mary Morris Vaux Walcott was born on July 31, 1860. She was educated at the Friends Select School of Philadelphia. In 1914, she married Charles Doolittle Walcott, an invertebrate paleontologist who discovered fossils in Burgess Shale in British Columbia, and served as the secretary of the Smithsonian Institute from 1907 to 1927. In 1927, both her brother, George Vaux, Jr. and her husband died. Following her brother’s death, Mary M.V. Walcott was appointed to the Board of Indian Commissioners, serving until 1932. Mary M.V. Walcott was an artist and naturalist known for her watercolor paintings of wildflowers. An avid mountain climber, in 1900 she was the first woman to climb Mt. Stephens in British Columbia. She also joined the Society of Woman Geographers, and was elected president in 1933. She died on August 22, 1940 in New Brunswick, Canada at the age of 80.