Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton

Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton (March 25, 1889 – July 26, 1971) was an American artist, author, educator, ethnographer, and curator. She is one of the principal founders of the Museum of Northern Arizona. She was a member of the Philadelphia Ten, exhibiting at the group's annual shows from 1926 to 1940. She was also a member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, the American Watercolor Society, and the American Federation of Arts. She is known for her advocacy of the arts, Native American rights, and women's rights. For her advocacy of Native American arts, she received a certificate of appreciation from the United States Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board in 1935. In 1982, she was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame. Personal background Mary-Russell Ferrell was born on March 25, 1889, in Louisville, Kentucky. She is the daughter of Joseph and Elise (née Houston) Ferrell. Her father was known as one of the first Anglo-Americans to explore the Tenaya Canyon in what is now Yosemite National Park. After he died in 1904, Elise Ferrell remarried businessman Theodore Presser. In 1904 at age 15, Mary-Russell Ferrell enrolled at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, graduating in 1909 with honors. After her graduation, she opened a studio in Philadelphia. Her projects included art restoration and commercial art projects. In addition to the commercial art her studio produced, Mary-Russell Ferrell showed as a member of the Philadelphia Ten's annual exhibit in Florida, the Midwest, the Eastern States of the US and Europe. On May 23, 1912, Mary-Russell Ferrell married Harold Sellers Colton, a zoology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. They had two sons, Ferrell, born in 1914, and Sabin born in 1917. Sabin died of valley fever in Tucson in 1924. Their marriage lasted until her death.