Margaret Johnston Bard

Peirce, D.S.

Portrait

Margaret Johnston Bard poses for a formal portrait, wearing a long velvet dress. Though few of her personal papers remain, Margaret Bard was known for her intelligence and religious devotion. Her family fortune brought wealth to John Bard through their marriage in 1849, and her dedication to religious and social causes was clearly a spur to the legacy of philanthropic activity for which the Bard name is remembered. She made a personal appeal to James Starr Clark to build Trinity Church and School in neighboring Tivoli (then Myersville)--a cause to which he subsequently devoted almost three decades of his life. Her name is also included among the first Board of Trustees for St. Stephen's College. This was an unusual role for a woman in 1860, and it stands as a testament to her own gifts, as well as to the strength of her partnership with John Bard. She is memorialized by a headstone in the Bard cemetery, and by St. Margaret's Well, which stands next to the Chapel of Holy Innocents, erected a year after her death in 1875.

Bard College Archives

hrvh.org

1861?-1864?

Bard College Archives

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Formal Photograph Portrait

Photo

4 x 2.5 in. (10 x 5.5 cm.)