Mildred Barnes Bliss (September 9, 1879 – January 17, 1969) was an American art collector, philanthropist, and one of the cofounders of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C. Bliss was born in New York City on September 9, 1879, the daughter of U.S.

This wealth was largely based on Demas Barnes’s investments in The Centaur Company, the manufacturers of the laxative Fletcher’s Castoria, the success of which had made him a wealthy man.

[2] As vice-president of the Comité Franco-Américain pour la Protection des Enfants de la Frontière, beginning in 1914 Mildred Bliss helped establish centers in France for the care of Belgian and French children orphaned or displaced during the war.

[citation needed] The Blisses purchased their home, Dumbarton Oaks, in 1920, and also maintained apartments in Paris, at 4 rue Henri Moissan, and New York City, first at 969 Park Avenue in 1922 and then at 104 East 68th Street.

After giving Dumbarton Oaks to Harvard University in 1940, the Blisses resided at 1537 28th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

For secondary sources on the Blisses, see Susan Tamulevich, Dumbarton Oaks: Garden into Art (New York, 2001); James N. Carder, “Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss and the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection,” in Sacred Art, Secular Context, Objects of Art from the Byzantine Collection of Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., Accompanied by American Paintings from the Collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Asen Kirin, ed.