Marie Goebel Kimball (June 7, 1889 – March 2, 1955) was an author, historian, and Jefferson scholar who served as the first curator of
Monticello
Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...
from 1944 until her death in 1955. During her career, she published more than 30 books, articles, and book reviews about Jefferson, Monticello, early America, and decorative arts.
Biography
Born in
, on June 7, 1889, to Julius Goebel (1857-1931) and Kathryn Vreeland (1861-1932), Kimball studied at
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
before taking her degree in literature and arts at the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
in 1911. She married
Fiske Kimball
Sidney Fiske Kimball (1888 – 1955) was an American architect, architectural historian and museum director. A pioneer in the field of historic preservation, architectural preservation in the United States, he played a leading part in the re ...
on June 7, 1913.
Early investigations into Thomas Jefferson's papers by Marie Kimball were later carried on by her husband and developed into his folio publication, ''Thomas Jefferson Architect'' (1916). During this time period, Kimball began publishing her own research into various aspects of Thomas Jefferson's life, including "A Playmate of Thomas Jefferson" (''North American Review'', 1921), and "William Short, Jefferson's Only 'Son'" (''North American Review'', 1926).
In 1924, Fiske Kimball was appointed to the restoration committee of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, whose mission was to preserve Monticello and operate it as a historic site. In 1927, Marie Kimball began
documentary research
Documentary research is the use of outside sources, documents, to support the viewpoint or argument of an academic work. The process of documentary research
Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of ...
to support the TJMF's interior restoration efforts; her research was published in a two-part article in ''Antiques'' later that year. Kimball continued to be involved in the restoration and running of Monticello until shortly before her death, and was named curator in 1944.
In addition to her work at Monticello, Kimball published a number of books and articles, including ''Thomas Jefferson's Cook Book'' (1938) and three volumes of a projected five-volume biography of Jefferson: ''Jefferson, the Road to Glory, 1743 to 1776'' (1943); Jefferson, War and Peace, 1776 to 1784 (1947); and Jefferson, the Scene of Europe, 1784 to 1789 (1950). She received two Guggenheim Fellowships, in 1945 and 1946.
[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. "Marie Kimball." https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/marie-kimball/]
Marie Kimball died on March 2, 1955 in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.
Works
*''Thomas Jefferson's Cook Book''. Richmond: Garrett & Massie, 1938.
*''The Martha Washington Cook Book.'' New York, NY: Coward-McCann, 1940.
*''Jefferson: The Road to Glory, 1743 to 1776.'' New York, NY: Coward-McCann, 1943.
*''Jefferson: War and Peace, 1776 to 1784.'' New York, NY: Coward-McCann, 1947.
*''Jefferson: The Scene of Europe, 1784 to 1789.'' New York, NY: Coward-McCann, 1950.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimball, Marie Goebel
1889 births
1955 deaths
American women historians
People from Hackensack, New Jersey
20th-century American historians
American curators
American women curators
Radcliffe College alumni
University of Illinois alumni
20th-century American women writers
American people of Dutch descent
American people of German descent
People from Monticello
American cookbook writers
Historians from Virginia
Historians from New Jersey