Gertrude Robinson Smith
| Gertrude Robinson Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Gertrude Robinson Smith July 13, 1881 New York City |
| Died | October 22, 1963 (aged 82) New York City |
| Residence | New York City, Paris & Stockbridge, Mass. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Arts patron, philanthropist |
| Known for | a founder of the Berkshire Symphonic Festival now known as Tanglewood |
Gertrude Robinson Smith (July 13, 1881 – October 22, 1963) was an arts patron, philanthropist and a founder of the Berkshire Symphonic Festival, which came to be known as Tanglewood. At the height of the Great Depression, Smith gathered the human resources and secured the financial backing that supported the festival’s early success. Her leadership from the first concerts in August 1934 through the mid-1950s has been recognized as foundational to assuring the success of one of the world’s most celebrated seasonal music festivals.
Gertrude Robinson Smith was the daughter of Charles Robinson Smith and Jeannie Porter Steele. She was born in New York City on July 13, 1881. Her father was a prosperous corporate lawyer and director of Allied Chemical. Her father was an active member of the New York Bar Association and was active in helping to write what is today's corporate law. After World War I, Charles Robinson Smith wrote many articles advocating the forgiveness of war debts for which he received the French Legion of Honor. Other material relates primarily to United States Tax laws. Her mother was the child of wealthy American parents and raised primarily in Paris. She had two sibling, sisters Elsa, who died in childhood, and Hilda, who married Lyman Beecher Stowe, the grandson of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Gertrude’s childhood was spent largely between New York City and Paris.
As World War I raged in Europe, the Smith family moved their summer vacations from France to the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. During the Gilded Age, the region had been highly favored by families of prominence and wealth. The Great Depression had taken its toll on the Berkshire’s summer colony, but it was still popular with families whose fortunes were intact. Her father purchased an estate in the Glendale section of near Chesterwood the home of his friend sculptor Daniel Chester French.
By now in her mid-thirties, Smith would not sit out the War in the safety of her family's new estate. She and Edith Wharton joined forces to organize medical supplies for the troops in France. Traveling to Europe in a blacked-out ship, she flew over the front lines to help deliver the supplies. She also took some of the first aerial photographs of active combat which were published by the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune. In recognition of her fund raising to buy Ice Trucks to deliver blood to wounded soldiers, Smith was made a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. In 1919 with the help of her friend Miriam Oliver and a few local artisans, Smith constructed her own residence on the family’s Stockbridge property. With her cultured background and formidable presence, she became a well known personality among the region’s rich and famous summer residents.
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