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Mary Millicent Abigail Rogers (February 1, 1902 – January 1, 1953), better known as Millicent Rogers, was a
socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...
, heiress, fashion icon, jewelry designer and art collector. She was the granddaughter of
Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...
tycoon
Henry Huttleston Rogers Henry Huttleston Rogers (January 29, 1840 – May 19, 1909) was an American industrialist and financier. He made his fortune in the oil refining business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil. He also played a major role in numerous corporations a ...
, and an heiress to his wealth. Rogers is notable for having been an early supporter and enthusiast of Southwestern-style art and jewelry, and is often credited for its reaching a national and international audience. Later in life, she became an
activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...
, and was among the first celebrities to champion the cause of Native American civil rights. She is still credited today as an influence on major fashion designers.


Early life

Rogers was born February 1, 1902. Her mother was Mary Benjamin, and her father was Henry Huttleston Rogers II, whose father was one of Rockefeller's partners in Standard Oil. She grew up in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, Tuxedo Park, and
Southampton, New York Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stre ...
. When Rogers contracted rheumatic fever as a young child, doctors predicted she would not live past the age of 10. She suffered from poor health for the rest of her life, having multiple heart attacks, bouts with double pneumonia, and a mostly crippled left arm by the time she was 40 years old.


Career

In the 1920s, as a young woman Rogers became well-known on the social scene, and photographs of her were often featured in ''Vogue'' and ''Harper's Bazaar''. Newspaper gossip columns, such as the one in the Hearst's ''
New York Journal-American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 ...
'', regularly detailed her personal life. Rogers lived as an expatriate from 1932, settling in St. Anton, Austria in 1934, and remaining in Europe until World War II began. In 1947, Rogers retreated to a small adobe home in Taos, New Mexico, which she referred to as Turtle Walk. While living there, she purchased more than 2,000 Native American artifacts. In addition to collecting, Rogers created designs for jewelry pieces, some of which she had commissioned, and some of which she herself made. Her pieces are noted for being bold, modern, and abstract, but also draw upon motifs from Europe, Africa, and America. In 1951, Rogers and several prominent friends (including authors Frank Waters, Oliver La Farge, and
Lucius Beebe Lucius Morris Beebe (December 9, 1902 – February 4, 1966) was an American writer, gourmand, photographer, railroad historian, journalist, and syndicated columnist. Early life and education Beebe was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, to a prom ...
) hired lawyers and visited Washington, D.C. to promote the issue of Indian rights and citizenship. She successfully lobbied for Native American art to be classified as historic, and therefore protected. File:Millicent_Rogers-Winter_Silver-Craft_Horizons_1949.jpg, Winter Silver File:Millicent_Rogers-Figures_of_Growth-Craft_Horizons_1949.jpg, Figures of Growth File:Millicent_Rogers-Cold_Sea_and_Earth-Craft_Horizons_1949.jpg, Cold Sea and Earth


Personal life

Rogers was married three times during the course of her life. Her first marriage was in January 1924 when she eloped with Austrian Count Ludwig von Salm-Hoogstraeten, and they were married in a New York courtroom; she was 21 years old, and the groom was 38. A professional tennis player and an aspiring film actor through most of their short marriage, Salm-Hoogstraeten was characterized by ''The New York Times'' as "a gold-digging Austrian count" and ''Time'' called him "penniless." The couple had one son together: Peter Salm (1924–1994), but legally separated before the boy was born. Their divorce was finalized in April 1927. On November 8, 1927, she married Arturo Peralta-Ramos. They were married in the parish house of the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary in Southampton, Long Island, with only Rogers' father and a few friends in attendance. Approving of the marriage, Henry Huddleston Rogers II gave the couple a $500,000 trust fund, with the provision that Peralta-Ramos "lay no future claim to the Rogers fortune, estimated at $40,000,000." The couple had two children together: Arturo Henry Peralta-Ramos Jr. (1928-2015) and Paul Jaime Peralta-Ramos (1931-2003) Peralta-Ramos filed for divorce on December 6, 1935, with both parties citing "extreme cruelty." Rogers' third and final husband was Ronald Balcom, an American stockbroker. They were married in Vienna on February 26, 1936, and were divorced in February 1941. They had no children together. Rogers was romantically linked to a number of notable men throughout her life, including author
Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...
, actor
Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American actor often referred to as the "King of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". He appeared in more than 60 Film, motion pictures across a variety of Film genre, genres dur ...
, the author
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...
, the
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
, Prince Serge Obolensky, and Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, an heir to the Italian throne. She died in Santa Fe, New Mexico on January 1, 1953. Her legal full name at her time of death was Mary Millicent Abigail Rogers.


Legacy


Millicent Rogers Museum

In 1956, her youngest son, Paul Peralta-Ramos, founded the
Millicent Rogers Museum The Millicent Rogers Museum is an art museum in Taos, New Mexico, founded in 1956 by the family of Millicent Rogers. Initially the artworks were from the multi-cultural collections of Millicent Rogers and her mother, Mary B. Rogers, who donated ...
in
Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...
. The museum houses a large collection of Native American, Hispanic, and Euro-American art, with a specific emphasis on northern New Mexico and Taos pieces. It first opened in a temporary location in the mid-1950s, later moving to its permanent location in the late 1960s, a home built by Claude J. K. and Elizabeth Anderson. It was later remodeled and expanded by architect Nathaniel A. Owings.


Fashion

Fashion designer
John Galliano John Charles Galliano (born 28 November 1960) is a British fashion designer. He was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior. From 2014 to 2024, Galliano was the creative director ...
credited Rogers as an influence on his Spring 2010
Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior, is a French Multinational corporation, multinational luxury goods company that is controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH. , Dior controlled around 42% of ...
collection.


References


Further reading

* * * Essay by former MRM director. * * *


External links

*
American women of style : an exhibition / organized by Diana Vreeland
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Millicent 1902 births 1953 deaths American art collectors Philanthropists from New York (state) American socialites Collectors of indigenous art of the Americas Deaths from aneurysm People from Manhattan People from Taos, New Mexico