Mrs. Taylor was very artistic. She was adept at painting, and when the family faced severe financial problems in 1906, Taylor decided to improve her photography skills to earn income. She studied photography magazines and was probably influenced by photographic exhibitions held at the nearby John Herron Art Institute. Her photography work is classified as “pictorialist” style, an artistic photographic genre characterized by its soft-focus appearance. Family and friends posed for her in her upstairs drawing room parlor, and eventually she traveled to the sitters’ homes. Taylor’s models, usually women and children, were posed artistically, often holding open books, or flowers. Diffused light from a window highlighted the lace gowns, plumed hats, and beaded shawls. She developed the negatives in her darkroom. Once dried, she used a graphite pencil on the negatives to soften lines on the faces of her older models. In 1911 her photograph of Ruth Fletcher Hodges holding a camera won first place in the Kodak Advertising Competition.

During the 1910s, the Taylors owned three cottages on Lake Maxinkuckee in Culver, Indiana. Mrs. Taylor and her sons spent the summer months there, with Mr. Taylor visiting on the weekends. In 1921 the Taylors bought Orchard Hills Addition, a thirty-five acre plot of land on Millersville Road near Brendonwood, north of Indianapolis, and tried to run a dairy farm. A talented musician, Mary played the piano and began publishing sheet music while she lived at Orchard Hills. Her music was played on local radio stations and performed by the Indiana Theatre Orchestra, Indianapolis Athletic Club Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Biltmore Concert Orchestra. In 1930, when the Depression came, the Taylors moved to California to be near their sons. Mr. Taylor passed away in 1934. Mary returned to Indianapolis with her son Heber in 1950, and developed the old dairy farm, known as Orchard Hill, into a residential project. She died in Indianapolis in 1956.

For more information on the Mary Lyon Taylor Collection see collection guides P0178 and P0281 in the Indiana Historical Society library.