Mary Josephs Fowler collection

Mary Josephs Fowler was born in New Orleans in 1883, the eldest child in a family of five. Her brothers included Devereux Josephs, a president of The Johns Hopkins Board of Trustees. Her youngest brother, Hugh, was a doctor who trained and then taught at The Johns Hopkins Medical School.. The Josephs family moved to Baltimore before the turn of the century, amd summered near Newport, Rhode Island. Mary Josephs went to the Bryn Mawr School, graduating in 1902. She made her debut in 1903 at the age of 19.

In 1917, she joined the American Red Cross, and was sent to France to serve as a canteen worker. She was soon promoted to assistant nurse, and worked at a field hospital near the front line at Soissons.

In 1926, Josephs married noted Baltimore architect Laurence Hall Fowler. He was in his early fifties, and she about 40 at the time of their marriage. They moved into a house at 10 West Highfield Road, in the Tuscany-Canterbury area of the city, in 1928. Her husband died in June, 1971. Mary Fowler moved to an apartment at 100 West University Parkway, where she lived until her death on January 1, 1981. The Fowlers had no children.