Mildred Barnes Bliss

Mildred Barnes Bliss (September 9, 1879 – January 17, 1969) was an American art collector, philanthropist, and one of the cofounders of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C.

Bliss was born in New York City on September 9, 1879, the daughter of U.S. Congressman Demas Barnes (1827–1888), and Anna Dorinda Blaksley Barnes (1851–1935). She was the stepsister of Cora (Kora) Fanny Barnes (1858–1911). When Anna Barnes remarried in 1894, Mildred Barnes became the stepdaughter of William Henry Bliss (1844-1932) and the stepsister of Robert Woods Bliss (1875–1962) and Annie Louise Bliss Warren (1878–1964). Mildred Barnes was educated at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, and, reportedly, at private schools in France. She was fluent in French and was proficient in Spanish, German, and Italian. She acquired a working farm in Sharon, Connecticut, in 1898, which she sold in 1909. Mildred Barnes married her stepbrother, Robert Woods Bliss, on April 14, 1908. Because of his diplomatic postings, they lived in Brussels (1908–1909), Buenos Aires (1909–1912), Paris (1912–1919), Washington, D.C. (1919–1923), (1923–1927), and Buenos Aires again (1927–1933) before returning, in retirement, to Washington, D.C. (1933).

Mildred Barnes Bliss was the principal beneficiary of the estates of her stepsister, Cora Barnes, in 1911, and of her mother, Anna Barnes Bliss, in 1935. This wealth was largely based on Demas Barnes’s investments in The Centaur Company, the manufacturers of the laxative Fletcher’s Castoria, the success of which had made him a wealthy man.

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