{{short description|American writer}} {{Infobox person | name = Rose Fay Thomas | image = RoseFayThomas1911.png | alt = A middle-aged white woman with dark hair, wearing a dark dress with a high lace-trimmed collar | caption = Rose Fay Thomas, from a 1911 publication | birth_name = Rose Emily Fay | birth_date = September 4, 1852 | birth_place = St. Albans, Vermont | death_date = April 19, 1929 (age 76) | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts | other_names = | occupation = Writer, clubwoman, arts patron | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | spouse = Theodore Thomas | relatives = Amy Fay (sister)<br>Melusina Fay Peirce (sister)<br>Charles Jerome Hopkins (uncle)<br>Charles Sanders Peirce (brother-in-law)<br>John Henry Hopkins (grandfather) }}
'''Rose Fay Thomas''' (September 4, 1852 – April 19, 1929) was an American writer and advocate for animals. She was also founder and first president of the National Federation of Music Clubs.
==Early life and education== Rose Emily Fay was born in St. Albans, Vermont, one of the nine children of Rev. Charles Hopkins Fay and Charlotte Emily Hopkins Fay.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQnhIJhYbbMC&dq=Alice+Balch+Abbot&pg=PA33 |title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914–1915 |date=1914 |publisher=American commonwealth Company |page=812 |language=en}}</ref> She was from a musical and intellectual family: her older sister Amy Fay was a noted pianist; another sister was Melusina Fay Peirce, a feminist writer and wife of scholar Charles Sanders Peirce. Her maternal uncles included journalist John Henry Hopkins Jr., and musician Charles Jerome Hopkins, and her grandfather was John Henry Hopkins, an Episcopal bishop.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McCarthy |first=S. Margaret W. |date=1985 |title=Amy Fay: The American Years |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052117 |journal=American Music |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=52–62 |doi=10.2307/3052117 |jstor=3052117 |issn=0734-4392|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-03-26 |title=Fay Family Papers |url=https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/contagion/feature/fay-family-papers |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=Contagion - CURIOSity Digital Collections |language=en}}</ref>
==Career== Rose Fay moved to Chicago as a young woman, and lived there with her brother Charles Norman Fay<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 11, 1944 |title=Charles N. Fay, Oldest Graduate, Dies at 96 |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1944/4/11/charles-n-fay-oldest-graduate-dies/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=The Harvard Crimson}}</ref> until she married his friend, orchestra conductor Theodore Thomas, in 1890.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Otis |first=Philo Adams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Gf0AAAAMAAJ&dq=Rose+Fay+Thomas&pg=PA24 |title=The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Its Organization, Growth, and Development, 1891–1924 |date=1924 |publisher=Clayton F. Summy |isbn=978-0-8369-6742-5 |pages=24, 54, 157 |language=en}}</ref> While her husband was responsible for the musical programs at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, she organized the National Federation of Music Clubs, and served as the organization's first president.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horowitz |first=Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WH6qoRP2UNgC&dq=Rose+Fay+Thomas&pg=PA171 |title=Classical Music In America: A History Of Its Rise And Fall |date=2005-03-15 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-05717-1 |pages=171 |language=en}}</ref> After the Chicago World's Fair, the couple bought a farm in New Hampshire, and she took charge of the remodeling of the house and gardens, which she called "Felsengarten". She published a book about the experience, ''Our Mountain Garden'' (1904).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Rose Fay |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002012662 |title=Our mountain garden |date=1904 |publisher=The Macmillan company |location=New York, London}}</ref>
In Chicago in 1899, Thomas organized The Anti-Cruelty Society, against the abuse of animals; she was the society's first president. She argued with Jane Addams in a 1901 forum about the best way to protect young boys working as messengers in the city.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 8, 1901 |title=Statement on Using Boys as Messengers |url=https://www.digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/16142 |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=Jane Addams Digital Edition}}</ref>
After her husband's death, she donated his extensive library of marked scores to the Newberry Library<ref>{{Cite news |date=1908-10-17 |title=Thomas Scores Gift to Library; Music Used by Famous Director Donated to Newberry Institution |pages=7 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-thomas-scores-gift-to-li/131335128/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and the Chicago Orchestral Association,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1913-03-06 |title=Mrs. Rose Fay Thomas Enters Strong Protest; Objects to Changing Name of Theodore Thomas Orchestra |pages=12 |work=Chattanooga Daily Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chattanooga-daily-times-mrs-rose-fay-th/131334951/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and edited his memoirs; they were published in 1911, and are considered a useful record of the founding of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Middleton |first=George |date=January 1912 |title=Eight Books of the Month |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_VUeAQAAIAAJ&dq=Rose+Fay+Thomas&pg=PA530 |journal=The Bookman |volume=34 |issue=5 |pages=530–533}}</ref> In 1922, her seventieth birthday was marked with a celebration at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, hosted by the California Federation of Music Clubs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ussher |first=Bruno David |date=September 16, 1922 |title=The Week's Music Events in Los Angeles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WH6qoRP2UNgC&dq=Rose+Fay+Thomas&pg=PA171 |journal=Pacific Coast Musical Review |volume=42 |issue=25 |pages=8|isbn=978-0-393-05717-1 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ussher |first=Bruno David |date=1922-09-05 |title=Wife of Thomas, Noted Orchestra Leader, is Feted |pages=3 |work=Los Angeles Evening Express |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-express-wife-of-thom/131334823/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Publications== * ''Our Mountain Garden'' (1904, 1915)<ref name=":0" /> * ''Memoirs of Theodore Thomas'' (1911)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Rose Fay |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001457774 |title=Memoirs of Theodore Thomas |date=1911 |publisher=Moffat, Yard and company |location=New York}}</ref>
==Personal life and legacy== Fay married conductor Theodore Thomas in 1890. Her husband died in 1905, and she died in 1929, at the age of 76, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1929-04-21 |title=Theo. Thomas' Widow Dies in East; Aged 76 |pages=16 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-theo-thomas-widow-dies/131335251/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1929-04-24 |title=Mrs. Rose Fay Thomas Buried in Cambridge |pages=7 |work=St. Albans Daily Messenger |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-albans-daily-messenger-mrs-rose-fay/131335403/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Her papers are part of the Theodore Thomas Papers at the Newberry Library.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Theodore Thomas Papers |url=https://archives.newberry.org/repositories/2/resources/267 |access-date=2023-09-06 |website= Modern Manuscripts & Archives at the Newberry}}</ref>
The Anti-Cruelty Society offers membership in the Rose Fay Thomas Society to benefactors who include the society in their estate planning.<ref>The Anti-Cruelty Society, [https://anticruelty.org/sites/default/files/ACS-Documents/Rose%20Fay%20Brochure%202022.pdf "Rose Fay Thomas Society"] (brochure).</ref> The National Federation of Women's Clubs calls major donors "Rose Fay Thomas Fellows", in her memory.<ref>{{Cite web |title=VFMC Rose Fay Thomas Fellows |url=https://vfmc-music.org/rose-fae-thomas-fellows |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=Virginia Federation of Music Clubs |language=en-US}}</ref> The Musicians Club of Women and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra offered a Rose Fay Thomas Award for winners of a competition for women instrumentalists.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Margaret |date=1990-07-22 |title=Musical competition salutes history |pages=74 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-musical-competition-salu/131335493/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> In 2016, Joan Bentley Hoffman gave a lecture on Rose Fay Thomas's life and work, at the Glessner House Museum.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-03-21 |title=Rose Fay Thomas |url=https://www.glessnerhouse.org/story-of-a-house/2016/3/21/rose-fay-thomas |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=Glessner House |language=en-US}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/nby_chicago/id/3439 Rose Fay Thomas's guest book], a scrapbook of clippings, photographs and autographs, many from noted musicians, at CARLI Digital Collections * [https://calisphere.org/item/e74f6365cad8136d85f5bd9fc0041d27/ A 1922 publicity photograph of Rose Fay Thomas], from the Bessie Bartlett Frankel Collection of Travel and Early Los Angeles Music, Claremont College, via Calisphere {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Rose Fay}} Category:1852 births Category:1929 deaths Category:Clubwomen Category:American women writers Category:People from St. Albans, Vermont