Mary Carter Skipwith Buie and Kate Anderson Skipwith were half-sisters from Oxford, Mississippi, who, because of their shared love of history, art, and travel, built what would become the University of Mississippi Museum. Their foundational collection included over 300 fans from Europe
an and Asian cultures, decorative art of fine porcelain and silver, Mary Buie’s paintings, and their family’s historical memorabilia from the American Revolutionary War,the American Civil War, and WWI.
Their family settled in Oxford, Mississippi, in about 1870 after living in New Orleans, Virginia, and Tennessee. Mary Skipwith married Henry T. Buie in 1883, and the couple moved to Chicago shortly thereafter. In Chicago, Mary continued to study art and found employment as a copy artist at the department store, Marshall Field’s Company. She also kept a studio where she would make miniature portraits.
Kate Skipwith remained unmarried and deeply devoted to her family, faith, and charitable work. After their parents passed, Kate continued to live with their eldest sibling, Cornelia Greene Skipwith. The two made a modest income selling cakes and pies from their home. Their brother John Adair “Adair” provided additional support and later bought them a house with five acres on University Avenue, where the Museum is now situated. When he died in 1915, he left his sizable fortune entirely to Kate Skipwith.
Following her husband’s death in 1922 and a decline in her health, Mary Buie returned to Oxford in about 1930 to live with her only remaining sibling, Kate. In her later years, Mary shared with her sister her wish to create a museum in Oxford to display her art and their family’s historic Memorabilia.
When Mary died in 1937, Kate built the Mary Buie Museum next to their house and gifted it to the city in 1939. Kate continued to dedicate her time and money to the Museum until she died in 1961, leaving substantial wealth in a trust to expand the Museum. The University of Mississippi received the deed from the city in 1974 and named the 1977 building addition the Kate Skipwith Teaching Museum.
