[citation needed] At the age of 18 she married Ludolph Chester who died two years later, leaving her with an infant child.

She received a proposal of marriage from W. Ledyard Scott, a former suitor then serving as a professor of English and Latin at Zoshikwan College in Kagoshima, Japan.

The two became romantically involved, and Fenollosa divorced his first wife, causing a social scandal in Boston.

Forced to leave his post at the museum, Fenollosa moved with Mary to New York, but the couple returned to Japan in 1897 following a long honeymoon cruise.

[1] Mary Fenollosa was also responsible for the posthumous completion, checking and publication of her late husband's work Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art.