Mary Whitall Smith (1864-1945) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died in Florence, Italy. She was an art historian who attended Smith College (1882-1884) and the Harvard Annex (later Radcliffe College) (1884-1885). She specialized in Renaissance art and wrote several works on the subject, including: Guide to the Italian Pictures at Hampton Court: with Short Studies of the Artists (1894), A Tentative List of Italian Pictures Worth Seeing (1908), and Across the Mediterranean (1935). In 1900, she married Bernard Berenson, an art historian who was considered the preeminent authority on Renaissance art. In early 1885, Smith became interested in Christian Science and met with Mary Baker Eddy to discuss enrolling at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College.

See more letters.