Louise Mackay

On April 1, 08 I had the opportunity present a Chautauqua of Louise Mackay. For those of you who are wondering Chautauqua?? it is a first person presentation of the individual you are portraying, you become that person for 30-40 minutes, answer questions for 15 min in first person, then answer questions as yourself about the person you portrayed. Now that we have the Chautauqua question cleared up, who was Louise Mackay? Louise was married to John Mackay, one of the Silver Kings from Virginia City. He and his partners hit the big bonanza of silver mining in the 1870's and became one of the richest men in the world. John's job was to master the business world and Louise's job was to master the wealth that would open doors of society for her children. Louise lived in New York as a child, grew up in a mining town in California, gain wealth in Virginia City, lived in San Francisco, then lived abroad for more than 40 years off the wealth of the Comstock mines. She became on of the most important and respected hostesses of Paris and London in the late 1870-the early 1900's. Above are a couple pictures of "Louise" (me) in a gown of 1886 at the height of her popularity. LC