Anna Mary Robertson Moses

Posted by Marc Hodak on December 13, 2007 under History | 2 Comments to Read

Anna Mary Robertson was born on a small farm in rural New York in September of 1860. As soon as she was able to work, she hired herself out to help older couples in their homes. At the ripe age of 27, she married a farmer named Thomas Moses. They moved south, settling in Virginia on a 600 acre farm doing mostly dairy chores.

“Here our ten children were born, and there I left five little graves in that beautiful Shenandoah valley, coming (back) to New York state Dec. 15, 1905, with our five children to educate and put on their own footing.”

They bought a dairy farm, and raised their family. Twenty-two years later, with the oldest children having since struck out on their own, her husband died, and their youngest son and his wife took over the farm.

“Leaving me unoccupied, I had to do something, so took up painting pictures in worsted, then in oil…”

Anna Mary was 76 when she began to paint. By the time she passed away on this day in 1961, at the age of 101, she was one of America’s most famous artists, known around the world as Grandma Moses.


The greatest argument in favor of more people getting those extra twenty five years, or more!

  • Riemannian said,

    A small heads up – your posts aren’t formatting well in my RSS feed. Anything you can do change that? I really enjoy your blog as well, in case you need some motivational feedback.

  • Shakespeare's Fool said,

    Marc,
    Excellent as usual.
    Ronald Bailey’s comments remind me that when hearing “ethicists” of various varieties on television I often get the feeling that they are among the least ethical people engaging in public discourse. Perhaps that is because they often seem to be saying they prefer continued suffering to any scientific progress.
    John