Anna Maria Fox
Anna Maria Fox was a promoter of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society and the artistic and cultural development of Falmouth in Cornwall, UK.
Family links
Anna Maria Fox was the eldest child of Robert Were Fox FRS and Maria Barclay, his wife.Her father was a member of the Quaker Fox family of Falmouth and her mother of the Quaker Barclay family of Bury Hill, near Dorking. Her maternal grandmother was a first cousin of Elizabeth Fry.
Her siblings were Barclay Fox and Caroline Fox. The family lived at Rosehill and Penjerrick
She never married. With her sister, Caroline, she raised the four sons of her brother, Barclay, after the death of their parents.
Anna Maria outlived her sister by sixteen years, which Thomas Hodgkin described as a "widowhood". She died aged 81 on 18 November 1897 and was buried at the Quaker Burial Ground in Budock, in the same plot as her sister, Caroline
The ''Journals''
In their teenage years, Robert Were Fox challenged his children to keep journals, offering a guinea reward for the first year completed. All three kept journals for many years.Anna Maria commissioned a relative by marriage, Horace Pym, to edit and publish her sister's journal. The book Memories of old friends was published by Smith, Elder & Co. ten years after Caroline Fox's death. It sold well. Before her death, Anna Maria arranged for all the original volumes of Caroline's journals to be burnt.
A further selection from Memories of old friends, edited by Wendy Monk, was published in 1972.
Barclay Fox's journal, edited by Raymond Brett, was published in 1979.
Anna Maria gave instructions that "no word of my journal is to be published".
Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society
The idea for the foundation of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society was created by Anna Maria, Barclay and Caroline Fox, in 1832, when they were 17, 16 and 13, respectively. Their parents, uncles and aunts and their friends took up the idea with enthusiasm.In 1896, Anna Maria Fox was elected as Vice-Patroness of the Poly, sharing this role with the Prince of Wales.
The Poly is based in Church Street, Falmouth and operates as a cultural venue.
Painting and art education
Fox was a good amateur painter and organised of the Art section of the Annual Exhibition at the "Poly". The Cornwall Art Union was formed in 1852, associated with the Poly. Art classes run by the Poly were a precursor of the Falmouth School of Art.Commemoration
The first purpose-built building of the Falmouth School of Art, in Arwenack Street, was given in memory of Anna Maria Fox. The building, officially opened in August 1902 was refurbished in 2007.In 2016 a year of community-centred events celebrated Fox's 200th birthday. Led by Scary Little Girls, the project gathered oral testimonies from members of the Fox family, local residents with ties to Anna Maria's legacy, and people associated with the gardens, arts school buildings and societies she founded. These histories were then commemorated with special blue fox plaques, linked together into a heritage trail by an app developed in partnership with Falmouth Arts School and University. Scary Little Girls collaborated with The Poly, Falmouth University, Falmouth School of Art, Mawnan Church of England VA Primary School, the Fox family, Falmouth History Group and heritage volunteers to document Anna Maria Fox.