Christopher P. Monkhouse family papers

Christopher Pruyn Monkhouse (CPM) was an accomplished museum curator, avid collector of art, antiques, books, ephemera, and architectural drawings, and a prolific researcher and writer. He was born in Portland, Me., in 1947, to William A. Monkhouse (WAM) and Agnes “Kittie” Pruyn Linder Monkhouse (ALM). He had two older brothers: William Allan Monkhouse, Jr. (WAM, Jr.) and Frederick Linder Monkhouse (FLM). The Monkhouse family lived in the historic Webb House on Bowdoin Street in Portland’s West End. A family of collectors, the Monkhouses showcased their pewter and decorative arts collections in their home and the three boys operated their own antique shop called Three Monks Antiques.

CPM attended Portland’s Waynflete School and Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. At Deerfield, CPM and a group of classmates mounted an exhibition on the artist James Wells Champney. CPM would later recall that from this first exhibit he knew he wanted to work as a museum curator. After Deerfield, CPM attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a degree in art history in 1969. During the summer of 1966, CPM participated in the Attingham Program in England studying country houses. During the summers of 1967 and 1968, he worked as an architectural historian for the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, respectively.

Following college, CPM moved to London and pursued a master’s in art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he wrote his thesis on British railway hotels. From 1969 to 1975, CPM worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum as a research assistant, before moving back to the US to accept the position of Curator of European and American Decorative Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum of Art, where he worked until 1991. From 1991 to 1995, CPM served as the founding Curator of Architecture at the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Architectural Center. In 1995, CPM moved to Minneapolis to be the James Ford Bell Curator of Design, Decorative Arts, Craft and Sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In 2007, CPM accepted his final curatorial position, as the Eloise W. Martin Curator and Chair of the Department of European Decorative Arts at Art Institute of Chicago.

CPM retired in 2017 and returned to Maine. He sold his long-time summer home in East Machias and purchased an historic home in Brunswick. CPM died in Maine in 2021.

In addition to CPM’s professional and personal papers, this collection includes the papers of various members of his immediate and extended family. Below are brief biographies of the primary creators of these papers.

Helen Barbara Monkhouse (HBM), 1907-1977. HBM, born in Toronto, Canada, in 1907, was the sister of CPM’s father. She served as a nurse in the Royal Canadian Army’s No. 14 Canadian General Hospital unit during WWII. She was stationed in England and Italy and survived the torpedoing of the SS Santa Elena during transport to the Italian front.

Agnes “Kittie” Pruyn Linder Monkhouse (ALM), 1917-1976. ALM was born in New York City, spending most of her childhood on Staten Island. In 1938, after her junior year at Vassar College, she married WAM, who she met near Lovell, Me., where he was working as a doctor and her family had maintained a summer home for decades.

William Allan Monkhouse, (WAM), 1905-1986. WAM was born in Toronto, Canada, and moved to Maine after receiving his MD. After marrying ALM, the two lived in Portland where they raised their three sons and WAM practiced family medicine. After ALM’s death in 1976, WAM married her sister, MLM, in 1977.

William Allan Monkhouse, Jr. (WAM, Jr.), 1940-2016. WAM, Jr., was the first child of WAM and ALM. WAM, Jr., served in the US Army from 1959-1962 and was stationed in Europe. In 1965, he had a daughter, Heather, and later became estranged from his family. Letters to MLM from the 1990s indicate that the two reconnected. At that time, he was living in Indiana and working various farm and industry jobs.

Frederick Linder Monkhouse (FLM), 1942-2006. FLM was the second son of WAM and ALM. In 1961, he withdrew from Syracuse University and joined the US Army. He was honorably discharged in 1964, but either re-enlisted or was drafted and served as a medic in Vietnam until 1968. FLM eventually settled in North Carolina.

Marjorie “Putty” Linder Monkhouse (MLM), 1921-2004. MLM was born in New York City and grew up on Staten Island. After graduating from Connecticut College, she joined the American Red Cross and was stationed in Italy and Germany from 1944-1948. After completing her time with the Red Cross, she returned to the states. MLM experienced a mental health crisis in the early 1950s and spent a few years in and out of institutional settings. Once recovered, she attended graduate school at Boston University, got a master’s degree in counseling, and worked as a rehabilitation specialist in Massachusetts. In 1977, after the death of her sister, she married WAM and moved to Scarborough, Me.

William Costello "W.C." Kennedy, 1868-1923. W.C. Kennedy was the brother of Mary Kennedy Monkhouse, mother of WAM and wife of Bertram L. Monkhouse. W.C. Kennedy was a prominent Canadian businessman and politician before his sudden death in 1923.

J. Maurice King, 1907-1972. Alice Kennedy, sister of Mary Kennedy Monkhouse and W.C. Kennedy, married James P. King. Their son, J. Maurice King, cousin of WAM, served as a judge on the High Court of Justice, Ontario, from 1950-1972.

Agnes Pruyn Chapman Linder (ACL), 1896-1973. ACL, the mother of ALM and MLM, was the daughter of J. Wilbur Chapman and Agnes Pruyn Strain Chapman. The family lived in and around New York state, as Chapman took positions at various churches, and eventually settled in Jamaica, Queens. ACL attended Mount Holyoke College before marrying FEL in 1915. After FEL’s death in 1949, ACL worked at the Ethel Walker School until her retirement in 1966.

Fred E. Linder (FEL), 1887-1949. FEL, father of ALM and MLM, was born in Staten Island, NY, and graduated from Williams College in 1912. He and ACL lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan until 1923, when doctors advised they move out of the city due to health considerations for MLM. An investment banker for much of his career, during WWII FEL moved to D.C. and worked on the rehabilitation of Mexican railroads under the auspices of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.

J. Wilbur Chapman, 1859-1918. J. Wilbur Chapman, father of ACL, was a Presbyterian reverend and evangelist. Born in Indiana, he led several churches in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York state prior to his full-time evangelistic efforts. Until 1918, Chapman traveled extensively, holding revivals in cities around the world. In May 1918, the Presbyterian General Assembly elected him moderator. However, his health deteriorated quickly, and he died on December 25, 1918.