Front side of historical marker for Natalie Clifford Barney

NATALIE CLIFFORD
BARNEY
Natalie Clifford Barney was born in Dayton on Octber 31, 1878.
Her family was wealthy and industrious, inclung her great
grandfather who founded the Dayton Academy, Cooper Female
Seminary and Dayton Car Works. Natalie, who knew she was a
lesbian by the age of twelve, lived an outspoken and independent life
unusual for a woman of this time period. Her openess and pride
about her sexuality, without shame, was at least one hundred
years ahead of its time. She published Some Portraits-Sonnets of Women,
a book of love poems to women under her own name in 1900.
American painter Romaine Brooks was Barney’s partner and com-
panion for fifty years.