#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 20 Travel: Marie Robinson Wright, Intrepid Explorer

Of all the people I have researched, certainly the most prolific traveler among them was Marie Louise Robinson, the wife of my 3X-great uncle, Hinton Wright. I have previously written about her reprobate husband Hinton and the tragic romance of her daughter Ida.

But, Marie certainly deserves her own story.

Marie's travels started in Newnan GA where she was born in 1853, the ninth of ten children of plantation owner, John Evans Robinson and his wife Sarah Ramey. Marie enjoyed the luxuries of a wealthy lifestyle and was educated at the College Temple in Newnan.

At the age of sixteen, she fell in love with the handsome son of prominent lawyer, William F. Wright, my 3X-great grandfather. Unfortunately, Hinton Wright and Marie's brother Edward quarreled, engaged in a duel (illegally) and Edward died after the fight. Marie and Hinton eloped and married in 1870,  and her family disowned her. As Hinton continued to practice law in Newnan, the couple had two children in quick succession, Ida Dent Wright in 1871 and Albert Spaulding Wright in 1873.

In 1879, Hinton was involved in a bribery scandal that started a long downward trajectory for him; by 1886 Hinton and Marie were divorced.

Chicago World's Fair

So, faced with earning a living for herself and her two children, Marie struck out on a new path.  She approached the editors of the Sunny South, a small literary magazine published in Atlanta, with a proposal that they should hire her to travel through the South soliciting subscriptions. They agreed and she was successful in materially increasing the magazine's circulation, so successful, in fact, that the New York World hired her to travel through the South and write up articles about Southern cities for their publication. In 1892, the World sent her to Mexico and she produced an eight-page descriptive article, for which the Mexican government paid the paper $20,000, the highest price ever paid for a newspaper article at the time. In 1893, the paper sent her to write for an illustrated edition on the Chicago World's Fair.  And again, her writing was spectacularly well-received.

At which point, Marie decided that she didn't need the World any more. "Why should I go on making enormous sums of money for other people?"  She had loved the country of Mexico and already had many contacts there, so in 1895 she decided to go back and explore it on her own, in order to write a more complete description.  She took her daughter Ida along as a companion, her son Albert having died in El Paso TX the previous year. As she noted:

"When, in 1892, I first visited Mexico for the New York World to collect material for their great special illustrated edition, … I realized how meagre is the knowledge of the general public outside of Mexico of the beauty and resources of that fair republic. "

Mexican president Diaz, already an admirer, furnished her with letters of introduction, a military escort, and special trains throughout the country.  Marie and Ida spent a year exploring the country, covering nearly 900 miles and penetrating regions where no other women had traveled. The result was Picturesque Mexico, published in 1897, dedicated to President Diaz, and still considered a standard reference for the country. Marie covered the history of Mexico as well as separate sections on each state and the industries and natural resources of the country.  President Diaz made her an honorary citizen. 

Here is a little sample of Marie's rather flamboyant style:

Mexico, fair Mexico; quaintest and most delightful spot in the whole world. A stranger within thy gates, I know thy hospitality, thy generous whole-souled kindness, thy inestimable character, and the true manly and womanly hearts with whom thy destiny rests. Again and again I have said Adios to thy sapphire skies and snow-crowned hills only to be drawn back by an irresistible impulse, an impulse of love and admiration. And by this impulse am I impelled to tell the world through these pages something of thy unrivalled charms. 

As the title suggests, the book also features hundreds of photographs: towns, natural features, local people and governors of each state. The pictures alone make her book still worth perusing as a fascinating glimpse into the past.

The Mexican government purchased 8000 copies and the government of Costa Rica promptly invited Marie and her daughter to create a similar book for them. 

Marie went on to write books about Brazil (1901), Chile (1904), Bolivia (1907), and Peru (1908), all published in handsome, gilt-edged quarto editions, all laced with illustrations she had gathered from the studios of leading photographers: churches, plantations, trains, llamas, museums, deserts and jungles.  In her travels she crossed South America four times and made a record trip over the Andes in 1904.  She was also one of the first women to write for National Geographic ("The Falls of Igauzu" 1906). 

 By the time of her death in 1914, she was recognized as one of the foremost authorities on Latin America, as the Pan American Union said, "recognized and greeted in every capital of the New World. " She had, the Union noted, "the gift of seeing the bright side of the peoples and countries she visited and of understanding with appreciation their natural and cultured character." 

Marie was elected to numerous learned societies and attended many international exhibitions as a special delegate.

Marie Robinson Wright Buenos Aires 1903

She died in Liberty NY February 1, 1914 at the age of sixty.

In her lifetime, she was held up as a model for women:

And so, tired, weary, young women, do not get discouraged, no matter how dark the outlook. . . . Only keep up courage and determine to do your best to develop the highest qualities of which you are capable, and you cannot fail. (Frances Willard. Occupations for Women. 1897. At the end of her section on Marie Wright.) 

Even to the present day, Marie Robinson Wright's books are highly sought after by those with an interest in Latin America.