It took me weeks to find information on Miss Virginia Bowie, a member of the Women’s Literary Club of Baltimore from 1909-1920. To be honest, I feel her biography and discovery is still unfinished. While I’ve located article, poem, and essay names by Bowie, the texts themselves still remain a mystery.

That being said, here is some basic biographical information about Miss Virginia Berkeley Bowie…

She was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 8th, 1880 to Dr. Howard Stafford Bowie and Laura Berkeley Bowie. She had two brothers and one sister, Eleanor Howard Turner (Bowie). She married Major Frederick Schoenfeld, U.S.A,  in Ellicott City, Maryland on June 23rd, 1928. Some of her more well-known works include: “Dilemma of Patrolman Redmund” (written for the Sunday Sun’s short-story contest), “Curious Happenings in Old Maryland”, “The Human Side of

Washington”, and “Our German Spy”, and “Dark River”. She served on many committees and clubs throughout her life, and she died in Baltimore on December 30th, 1976 at the age of 96.

I first found information on this Baltimore debutante and socialite through old newspaper articles. They mostly reviewed her performances in plays put on by the local chapter of the Daughter’s of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), mentioned as Washington-Custis Chapter, Frederick Scott Key Chapter, etc. I found that Miss Bowie performed in numerous plays for not only the D.A.R.–including “Pwang Lu”, “Castles in Spain”–but for other groups as well. What I found most interesting about her involvement in the theater was actually her duties off stage. She served as Secretary & Treasurer and on the Board of Governors for Stagecraft Studios, a theater located at 3 West Centre Street in the 1920s. She performed and helped put on “The Countess Cathleen”, “Sister Beatrice”, and “The Beaux’ Stratagem” for Stagecraft Studios, all mentioned in the Baltimore Sun.

Miss Bowie attended the Bard-Avon School of Expression, so it’s no surprise that she excelled in drama and performance. In addition to her artistic abilities, however, Bowie served as Historian for her D.A.R. chapter. She wrote numerous articles concerned with Maryland colonial history, biographical information on George and Martha Washington, and Revolutionary War history. She clearly proved a prominent member of her D.A.R. chapter, as she is mentioned throughout Baltimore Sun and Evening Sun articles concerning the group. I found all of this fascinating, but one question still remained: how was she involved in the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore?

Not until my discovery of her marriage to Major Frederick Schoenfeld did my research really boom. I found articles reviewing the meetings of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, and Miss Virginia B. Bowie was all over them. I discovered that she read poems, articles, and essays at the meetings, including translations from Italian and French. She served as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Languages in 1916, and she was a member of the Committees of Unfamiliar Records, Foreign Languages, and Colonial and Revolutionary History throughout her time in the club. I also found that she won numerous awards within her clubs and organizations, including a D.A.R. prize for her essay “Margaret Brent of St. Mary’s Court” and third place for her lyrical poem, “Dark River” mentioned in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, “Pen Women Award Prizes For Poetry” (January 19 1933, pg. 13).

Now that I’ve found the names of roughly 19 works by Virginia Berkeley Bowie Schoenfeld, I am on the chase to track down the texts. She’s proven a prolific individual and a window into Baltimore society during the early 20th century. I fully expect to fall deeper into the rabbit hole of research, discovering more information about this talented Baltimore native. What I find daunting, however, is that the search will never be over; years from now I will be searching for the name “Virginia Bowie Schonefeld” (in its many variations), fully expecting to make new discoveries.

*Photo and information found in The Baltimore Sun from 1880-1930, on newspapers.com