Juliet Faunteroy

(1871 – 11 October 1955)

Special thanks to Nancy McAndrew, Education Coordinator of the Avoca Museum, for providing information about Ms. Fauntleroy and the Avoca Museum.

 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) curates about 24 vascular plant specimens collected by Juliet Fauntleroy.  All were collected in Virginia, most are Crataegus, and most date from 1918-1919.  Most have labels of the W. W. Ashe Herbarium or the T. G. Harbison Herbarium, indicating that they were bought/given to NCU from these collections.  Ms. Fauntleroy’s specimens are few and far between and not helped by the fact that she provides scanty information on the label, often failing to note the date and locality of the collection as well as failing to attribute the collection to her efforts.   As of 2022, the following herbaria have cataloged but a single specimen in their collections:  Auburn University Museum of Natural History (AUA), Harvard Herbaria (GH), Missouri Botanical Garden (MO), New York Botanical Garden (NY), University of Michigan (MICH), and Louisiana State University (LSU).

Juliet Fauntleroy (1871-1955) collected plants in Campbell County, Virginia. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium curates about two dozen vascular plant specimens collected by her. Portrait courtesy of Nancy McAndrew, Avoca Museum

Juliet Fauntleroy was born at “Oakley” in Gloucester County, Virginia, and educated at Powell School, a Richmond school for young ladies. The 1910 US census shows the extended Fauntleroy family all living together:  Thomas FauntLeRoy (age 72, head of household, occupation “farmer);  Mary A. (age 67, wife);  James D. (age 40, son,  civil engineer for government); Juliet (age 38, daughter, teacher at public school); Mary B. (age 36, daughter, no occupation); Ethel C. (age 34, daughter, no occupation); Walter (age 32, son, farm manager); Gladys D. (age 24, daughter, no occupation); Fannie H. (age 36, daughter-in-law – wife of James D., no occupation); Mary H. (age 5, granddaughter, born in Philippines Territory, presumably to Fannie & James); Frances D. (age 4, granddaughter, born in Philippines Territory, presumably to Fannie & James); and Martha L. (age 11 months, granddaughter, born in Washington, presumably to Fannie & James).  By the 1920 US census the household had reduced in size to Walter (now head of household, age 46, farmer & postmaster), his wife, Eva (age 27), their daughter, Margaret (age 1), and sisters Juliet (age 48, high school teacher), Ethel (age 44, no occupation), and Gladys (age 33, grade school teacher).  By the 1930 US census, Juliet Fauntleroy is listed as age 58, head of household, and no occupation, and the only other people in the household are sister Ethel and servant Kate Douglas.

Juliet Fauntleroy taught Latin at the Altavista High School, but is best known as a folklorist. She was a contributor to scholarly journals on topics of geneology and history, as well as a major contributor to collections of ballads and folk music. As a founding member of the Virginia Folklore Society, Ms. Fauntleroy was a major contributor to their seminal work, Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Harvard Press, 1929).

Ms. Fauntleroy lived in “Avoca,” an American Queen Anne-style house built in 1901 that is now a Virginia Historic Landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It currently houses the Avoca Museum, whose mission is “to promote awareness and facilitate understanding of American history, especially as it relates to local and Virginia natural and cultural history. It maintains a collection of Native American artifacts and Confederate memorabilia.”

One item in the Avoca Museum’s collection is a letter by poet John Keats. This letter was found in Ms. Fauntleroy’s bedroom when Avoca became a museum. For a discussion of the letter, see “A John Keats Letter Rediscovered” by Dearing Lewis, a nephew of Ms. Fauntleroy’s.

Miss Fauntleroy was intensely interesting in the natural world and spent a portion of each day walking in woods surrounding her home. Her nephew remembers that she never returned with out a basket of berries or nuts or an arrowhead, “she always came back with something, didn’t matter what the season. She knew where to look.”

 

Publications:
Julia [sic] Fauntleroy, Julia [sic] (1908) Some notes regarding the Chiles family. The William & Mary Quarterly Historical Magazine. 16(4): 285-288.
Fauntleroy, Juliet (1909) Some notes on the Chiles family. William & Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine 18(2): 106-108.
Fauntleroy, Juliet and William B. Marye (1936) Bushrod. The William & Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, 2nd series. 16(2): 319-321.
Fauntleroy, Juliet and Mary Hope West (1936)  Foxall, Vaulx, Elliott.  The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 44(1): 61-67.
Fauntleroy, Juliet and Mary Hope West (1936)  Foxall, Vaulx, Elliott.  The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 44(2): 151-159.
West, Mary Hope and Juliet Fauntleroy (1936) Sturman family notes. William & Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, 2nd series. 16(4): 635-649.
West, Mary Hope and Juliet Fauntleroy (1937) Sturman family notes. William & Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, 2nd series. 17(1): 99-115.
West, Mary Hope, Juliet Fauntelroy and Mary N. West (1945) The Muse (Mewes) Family of the Northern Neck of Virginia.  The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 53(2): 132-138.
West, Mary Hope, Juliet Fauntelroy and Mary N. West (1945) The Muse (Mewes) Family of the Northern Neck of Virginia.  The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 53(3): 221-227.
West, Mary Hope, Juliet Fauntelroy and Mary N. West (1945) The Muse (Mewes) Family of the Northern Neck of Virginia.  The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 53(4): 312-323.