May King Van Rensselaer

May King Van Rensselaer (née Maria Denning King) (May 25, 1848 – May 11, 1925), was an American author, historian and prominent member of the New York Historical Society. She was instrumental in the founding of the Museum of the City of New York.

Black and white portrait of an older woman with her hair in an updo.
Portrait of May King Van Rensselaer that appeared in The Evening World in 1920.

Early life
Ink drawing of a woman with dark hair in an updo. She is wearing a beaded choker necklace.
1898 sketch of May King Van Rensselaer

May was born Maria Denning King in New York City on May 25, 1848. Her parents were Archibald Gracie King, a prominent banker, and Elizabeth Denning King (née Duer).[1][2] Van Rensselaer was born into a prominent New York family; her relatives and ancestors included Edward King, John Alsop, William Alexander Duer, Rufus King, and Katherine Duer Mackay.[3]

Career

In 1882, her first book on crochet lace was published followed by The Devil's Picture Book in 1887, a "wittily presented treatise on playing cards."[4] Her first genealogical book, The Van Rensselaers of the Manor, a study of her husband's family, was published in 1889. This was followed by The Goede Vrouw of Mana-ha-ta, a "description of the housewives of old New York."[4]

Founding of the Museum of the City of New York

In 1917, Van Rensselaer delivered a speech to at the annual meeting of the New York Historical Society in which she criticized the Society's lack of passion and organization.

The New York Times quoted her as saying, "I have been attending the meetings of the New-York Historical Society for nearly three years, and have not heard one new or advanced scientific thought, although many distinguished scholars have visited the city."[5][6] She continued by remarking that "instead of an imposing edifice filled with treasures from old New York, what do we find? Only a deformed monstrosity filled with curiosities, ill arranged and badly assorted."[5]

Some scholars credit Van Rensselaer's speech as spurring on the founding of the Museum of the City of New York,[5] which officially opened six years later in 1923.[7] The Museum was initially housed in Gracie Mansion,[8] the former country home of her father, Archibald Gracie.[9][5] Today, Gracie Mansion is now the official residence of the Mayor of New York City.[9]

Van Rensselaer was also a founding member of the Colonial Dames of America.[10]

Personal life

On October 4, 1871, she married John King Van Rensselaer, president of the Stirling Fire Insurance Company.[5] He was a son of U.S. Representative Henry Bell Van Rensselaer and grandson of Stephen Van Rensselaer III.[11] The couple had two sons:[1]

  • John Alexander Van Rensselaer (b. 1872),[12] who married Helen F. Galindo in 1896,[13] and who was arrested in 1908 for attempting to extort $5,000 from his mother.[14]
  • Frederick Harold Van Rensselaer (1874–1903),[15] who married Josephine Lucy Grinnell, a daughter of Robert Minturn Grinnell and Sophie Van Alen, in 1898.[16]

She died on May 11, 1925, at 70 East 92nd Street, her residence in New York City.[4] After a funeral at Grace Episcopal Church in Jamaica, Queens, she was buried in the surrounding cemetery where five generations of the King family were buried.[17] At her death, her estate was worth $19,129, of which $3,843, along with some silver worth $503, was left in trust to her surviving son, and the remainder, $14,873, was left to her granddaughter, Sylvia Grinnell (née Van Rensselear) Sewall.[18]

Bibliography

Sources
  1. "Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Van Rensselaer". www.schenectadyhistory.org. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  2. "LINKS CAESAR HEAD TO 1830 RIVER FIRE; Mrs. John K. Van Rensselaer Recalls That Her Grandfather Lost Similar Piece. IT WAS BOUGHT IN ROME Sculpture Was Being Taken to Weehawken Home When Blaze Destroyed Ferryboat". The New York Times. 19 January 1925. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  3. Virkus, Frederick Adams; Marquis, Albert Nelson (1925). The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy: First Families of America. A.N. Marquis.
  4. "NOTED AUTHORESS DIES AT HOME HERE; Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer Was Authority on History and Society. CAME OF 2 OLD FAMILIES Controversy With New York Historical Society Recalled--Funeral at Jamaica Tomorrow". The New York Times. 12 May 1925. p. 23. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  5. ""The presentation of the civic and commercial life of the city": May King Van Rensselaer and the founding of the Museum of the City of New York". The Gotham Center for New York City History. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  6. "OpenStax CNX". cnx.org. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  7. "About the Museum | Museum of the City of New York". www.mcny.org. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  8. "MEMORIAL ROOM PLANNED; Committee to Honor Mrs. John Van Rensselaer Will Meet Today". The New York Times. 16 March 1936. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  9. "Gracie Mansion". www.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  10. "FRANKLIN'S SKIRTS CLEAR; Colonial Dames Send Regrets to His Descendant, Mrs. Humphreys. ALWAYS CONSIDERED HER A MEMBER A Lawyer's Statement of the Trouble -- Mrs. Van Rensselaer's Action -- Opinions by the Secre- tary Pro Tem". The New York Times. 1896-01-22. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  11. Sullivan, Robert G. (1911). "Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Van Rensselaer Vol. IV". www.schenectadyhistory.org. Schenectady County Public Library. pp. 1814–1821. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  12. Lewis, Cecil Day (1970). The Whispering Roots. Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-61817-5. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  13. Bergen, Tunis Garret (1915). Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  14. "J.A. VAN RENSSELAER ACCUSED BY MOTHER; Arrested for Writing a Letter Demanding Money and Threatening to Kill Her. ADMITS THAT HE WROTE IT Mother Is Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer, Prominent in Society Here and in Newport". The New York Times. 21 July 1908. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  15. "Frederick H. Van Rensselaer". The New York Times. 7 August 1903. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  16. "Van Rensselaer -- Grinnell". The New York Times. 1 May 1898. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  17. "MRS. VAN RENSSELAER IS MOURNED BY MANY; Society Largely Represented at Funeral -- Burial in Plot Where Five Generations Rest". The New York Times. 14 May 1925. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  18. "Mrs. Van Rensselaer Estate $19,129". The New York Times. 25 June 1926. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  19. "Image 7 of The Van Rensselaers of the manor of Rensselaerswyck". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  20. Rensselaer, John King Van (2022-06-21). The Devil's picture-books.
  21. Van Rensselaer, John King (1898). The goede vrouw of Mana-ha-ta at home and in society, 1609-1760. New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
  22. "Prophetical, Educational And Playing Cards, by Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer—A Project Gutenberg eBook". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  23. Van Rensselaer, John King; Van de Water, Frederic F. (1924). The social ladder. New York: Holt.
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