Chronology Therese Bonney

 

1894
- Mabel Therese Bonney is born in Syracuse, New York

1900 
- She moves to California

1916 
- She graduates from the University of California

1917 
- She takes her M.A. in romance languages at Harvard

1921 
- Begins her PHD work at Columbia University
- She travels to France to finish her studies and becomes one of ten Americans to take the degree of Docteur es lettres at the Sorbonne in Paris

1923 
- She helps to establish the European branch of the American Red Cross correspondence exchange between the children of Europe and The United States

1924
- She has her first photo essay printed, on how chic French dogs dress

1924-1928 
- Therese Bonney would travel throughout Europe giving lectures and organizing Red Cross groups in other nations.  She also founded the first American illustrated press service in Europe, known as "The Bonney Express"

1929 
- Robert M. Mcbride and Company, publish a series of guide books written by Therese Bonney and her sister Louise.  These books include Buying Antique and Modern Furniture in Paris, A shopping Guide to Paris, Guide to The Restaurants of Paris, and French Cooking for American Kitchens.

1932 
- Therese puts on an exhibition of her photographs entitles "The Gay Nineties" at George Petit gallery in Paris.  This Exhibition shows a cross section of the lives of Europeans of different classes, most notably the Royalty.

1933 
- Her exhibit "The Gay Nineties" is made into a book entitled "Remember When?"

1934 
- Therese directs the Lafayette centenary exhibition in Paris to commemorate one hundred years after the death of Lafayette

1935 
- She becomes the director of a new Gallery at Rockefeller center for French art, in an attempt to create relations between the French the American people.

1938 
- Upset with the quality of photographs her employees are presenting her, Therese Bonney takes a trip to the Vatican to photograph life within the city.

1939 
- Her book "The Vatican" is published
- Later in 39 she travels to Finland to photograph the preparations for the Olympic games.  While there she gets caught up in the Russo-Finish war and is the only photojournalist present for two months, having the story exclusively to herself.  At the end of the conflict Therese Bonney is awarded the White Rose of Finland for her bravery.

1940 
- She is able to leave Scandinavia just before the Nazi invasion, and returns to France to continue her work with the Red Cross.
- She is made the official photographer of military headquarters of the French army.
- She is forced to leave France because of the impending Nazi threat and returns to the United States.  Upon her return she establishes an exhibition of her photographs for the library of congress entitled "To Whom Wars are Done" which showed the impact of war on the common people of Europe.

1941 
- Therese returns to Europe to continue taking photographs
- She receives the Croix de Guerre, with star, from the French ministry of war at Vichy for her work through the Red Cross and photojournalism.
 - She makes a record of blitzed England

1942

-Therese is received as a guest of Lord and Lady Astor at Clivenden.  This is where she first meets Bernard Shaw and took pictures which would contribute to the book written by B. F. Rattray entitled Bernard Shaw: A chronicle

1943
- At this point Therese had been taking photographs since her return to Europe in 1941, and she finally feels she has compiled enough.  At a Benefit of coordinating council of French relief societies Inc.. Therese Bonney shows enlarged photographs of what would become her best known work, Europe's Children.

1944

- She composes the book Europe's Children, but because of its content ten different publishers turn it down; so she decides to publish the book herself.  When the initial stock of two thousand copies sell out in record time, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, INC pick it up for publication.

Image from cover of Europe's Children

1950's - 1970's
- In her later years Therese Bonney sought to reveal the plight of the elderly around the world.  She takes up efforts lobbying to extend Medicare benefits it American citizens living over seas, and worked to raise the awareness of the situation of elderly people around the world.  She even wants to compose a book on the elderly much like Europe's Children but unfortunately never gets the opportunity.

1974
-  At the age of 80 Therese Bonney re-enters the Sorbonne to work on a doctorate in the field of gerontology.

1978
- on January 23, Therese Bonney dies in an American hospital in Paris, France of an arteriosclerosis heart disease.  She was laid to rest at Cimetiere Nouveau de Neuilly-sur-seine in France.