Mary R. Markle, born Mary Estelle Robinson in the early 1860's, was a daughter of Mary Moore Robinson of Wilmington, Delaware, and J. Norris Robinson, a partner in Drexel, Morgan & Company, leading bankers and financiers in Philadelphia and New York. Widowed early with four children, Mrs. Robinson married J. Hood Wright--also a Drexel, Morgan partner--and the family moved to New York City.

They retained family and business ties in Pennsylvania, where Mary was introduced to young John Markle, manager of his family's coal mining operations. The couple married in Manhattan in 1884. They lived in Hazleton and Jeddo, Pennsylvania, then moved their principal residence to New York around 1902.

MARY'S CONNECTIONS IN NEW YORK
In New York, the Markles became deeply involved in the intricate web of interpenetrating connections which bound the city's--and in many cases the nation's--elite and their social, financial, industrial, and charitable interests.

Mrs. Markle's personal connections were centrally important to the couple's fortunes. For example her stepfather, J. Hood Wright, was a partner of J.P. Morgan at a time when Morgan's involvement in railroad finance, industrial "reorganization," and the establishment of powerful voting trusts of stockholders gave the firm a quasi-governmental hold on the U.S. economy. One of her brothers, Edward M. Robinson, was also a Drexel, Morgan partner, first in New York and later in Philadelphia.

MARY'S CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
Mrs. and Mr. Markle served, respectively, on the women's association board and the board of managers of an upper Manhattan voluntary hospital, joining a whole network of Wrights, Robinsons, and J.P. Morgan.

Originally the Manhattan Dispensary, this institution was renamed the J. Hood Wright Memorial Hospital in 1895. Mr Wright chaired the board while his wife led the women's association until his death, when Mrs. Wright and her sister-in-law Elizabeth Wright offered substantial building, endowment, and operating support. Later, Mrs. Markle honored her mother--through whom she inherited substantial shares of her father's and stepfather's estates--with a $200,000 bequest used to erect a hospital building known as the Mary Robinson Wright Memorial.

Mrs. John Markle driving a beautiful pair of bays. In the background is the villa in Hazleton, which the Markles later left for "The House that Jack Built" in Jeddo.

MARY'S ROLE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOUNDATION
Mary R. Markle's role in the establishment of the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation is somewhat obscured by both circumstance and the social conventions of the time. It is possible that a portion of the initial capitalization of $3 million was provided by Mrs. Markle, since she had received a significant inheritance after her mother's death in 1924. The foundation was incorporated in April 1927.

Though its charter was broad, Mr. Markle stated initially the Foundation's intent to continue assistance to certain charities to which he and Mrs. Markle had contributed. The hospital was certainly one of these, and indeed John Markle continued to support it, personally and through the foundation. Mrs. Markle died just a few months after the foundation was established, however, and during its early years allocations were decided by John Markle alone.

MARY AS SENTIMENTAL INSPIRATION OF PHILANTHROPY
From its inception, John Markle was celebrated as the Foundation's active philanthropist. A woman, by contrast, was still traditionally portrayed not as a philanthropist in her own right but as the sentimental inspiration of this masculine ideal.

The Salvation Army expressed this very view in 1928 when thanking Mr. Markle for a gift of $500,000 to build The Markle Evangeline Residence for women in Greenwich Village in his wife's memory:

Virtues that crown womanhood with an unfading wreath were embodied in Mary R. Markle... In associating her name with his own John Markle has borne witness not only to her worth, but, in his generous gift to womanhood, he has bequeathed a priceless bequest of the living to the dead.

Yet, in naming the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation for both partners, the Markles and their incorporating board (which included Mrs. Markle's nephew Edward M. Robinson, Jr., as well as J.P. Morgan) were indeed reflecting and recognizing in an important way the integration of financial and social interests, and the contribution of both husband and wife to their position in public and private life.

Mary R. Markle died in New York on September 4, 1927. Her husband survived her (he died in 1933); they had no children.

Biography by Susan Kastan, 1996.