Marian Spore Bush: Dentist, Artist, Author

To celebrate her October 22 birthday, we thought we’d share about School of Dentistry alumna, Michigan woman dentist, and later New York City philanthropist, psychic artist and author, Marian Spore Bush (1878-1946).

Photograph of F. M. Spore in 1899, cropped from the School of Dentistry composite class photo, SMD0292.1899 .

Born in Bay City, Michigan, she attended the University of Michigan School of Dentistry as Flora Mae Spore, then returned home and practiced dentistry for many years. She was the first female dentist in Bay City, where she employed two assistants and was known “for her progressive and excellent work in the day when she fabricated inlays, crowns, bridgework, and dental plates in her own laboratory. She was also a pioneer in the field of periodontal dentistry.”

A career as a dentist was already remarkable for a woman at the time, but this is not where her story ends. In 1922 Spore’s mother died, and Spore experienced a sudden, dramatic life change when she said she began receiving psychic messages from old master artists. This compelled her to dedicate herself to painting. 

Moving to New York City, she left dentistry behind and focused on philanthropy and her painting. A 1930 New York Sun article about her marriage to financier and Bush Terminal builder Irving Bush called her “The Angel of the Bowery” because of her charity work in the city, quietly giving out up to $40,000 worth of meal vouchers and clothing yearly throughout the Great Depression.

Photograph, Marian Spore Bush with painting at her easel, 1930. SMD0925.0003. The negatives of this photo and a series it came from, along with images of Spore Bush’s paintings, are preserved in the Peter A. Juley and Son Collection held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum Photograph Archives. The Smithsonian holds copyrights for these images.

Her paintings, called “psychic” or “naive” and often featuring birds or surreal figures, were shown in several New York City gallery shows in the 1930s. She also authored the memoir They, which was published in 1947, the year after her 1946 death.

Season’s Greetings card from Mr. and Mrs. Irving T. Bush, SMD0925.0006

Though access to the dental building is still currently limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a small 1933 holiday greeting card featuring a print of one of Marian Spore Bush’s paintings can be seen in one of our newest hallway exhibits, Dental Care All Year. 

This post has been compiled using research by Shannon O’Dell, Adam Johnson, and past museum assistant Krystal Thomas.