Mary Dent, daughter of prominent Chicago attorney Thomas Dent and his wife Susan, participated in many of the activities common to her counterparts on Prairie Avenue and in other late nineteenth-century elite Chicago neighborhoods, despite her ill health. Included in these activities were trips to Europe. In 1881, she left Chicago for another European trip that was meant to provide both cultural enrichment and a healthy respite from her life in Chicago. These letters, published in 1911 by her parents, capture a sense of her excitement about the trip. Unfortunately, Mary Dent's health worsened and she died before returning home.

Author: Mary Dent
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-38247)