Marvin Breckinridge Patterson

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Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson (1905-2002) , usually known as Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, or Marvin Breckinridge, was an American photojournalist, cinematographer, and philanthropist. She used her middle name, Marvin, both professionally and personally.

1 Family History and Early Life
2 Career
3 Philanthropy
4 References

[edit] Family History and Early Life

She was born Mary Marvin Breckinridge in 1905 in New York City, to John C. Breckinridge, of a prominent Kentucky family, and Isabella Goodrich Breckinridge, the daughter of B. F. Goodrich. Her grandfather, John C. Breckinridge, was Vice President of the United States under James Buchanan. Her godmother and cousin was Isabella Selmes Greenway, Arizona's first congresswoman.

While a student at Vassar, she helped found the National Student Federation of America, which was to make her acquaintance with Edward R. Murrow. In 1929 she became the first female pilot licensed in Maine.

[edit] Career

Marvin Breckinridge began her career making the acclaimed black and white silent film "The Forgotten Frontier", in 1930, which tells the story of the Frontier Nursing Service, a nurse and midwifery health service founded by her cousin, Mary Breckinridge, in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. She traveled extensively and published photographs from her world travels in magazines such as Vogue, National Geographic, Look magazine, Life magazine, Town and Country, and Harper's Bazaar, especially a 1932 Africa trip from Cape Town to Cairo.

During World War II she was hired by Edward R. Murrow as the first female news broadcaster for the CBS Radio Network. She reported 50 times, from 7 European countries, including reports from Berlin, Germany. She became the first woman among the original generation of the CBS reporting staff known as Murrow's Boys.

Her career ended when she married diplomat Jefferson Patterson in May, 1940. She willingly resigned from CBS, hoping to resume her original career in photojournalism, but was barred from publication by the United States State Department, who claimed that her activities would compromise her husband's work in Berlin.

[edit] Philanthropy

After her husband’s death in 1977, she devoted her energies to philanthropy. She served on the boards of many institutions, was a major financial supporter and donor of art and photography, many universities, schools, libraries, and several pro-choice organizations.

In 1974 she donated her family estate in York, Maine to Bowdoin College for use as the Breckinridge Public Affairs Center. In 1983 she donated her and her husband’s 550-acre farm in Maryland to the state to become the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, which includes extensive Native American and colonial exhibits. The MARPAT Foundation she founded in 1985 still donates to Washington, D.C. area museums, galleries, environmental and historical organizations, and cultural and social service groups.