Anne Whitney (September 2, 1821 – January 23, 1915) was an American sculptor and poet. She made full-length and bust sculptures of prominent political and historical figures, and her works are in major museums in the United States. She received prestigious commissions for monuments. Two statues of Samuel Adams were made by Whitney and are located in Washington, D.C.'s

National Statuary Hall Collection The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol is composed of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. Limited to two statues per state, the collection was originally set up in the old ...

and in front of

Faneuil Hall Faneuil Hall ( or ; previously ) is a marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others ...

in Boston. She also created two monuments to

Leif Erikson Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental Nort ...

. She made works that explored her liberal views regarding abolition, women's rights, and other social issues. Many prominent and historical men and women are depicted in her sculptures, like

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel '' Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the ha ...

. She portrayed women who lived ground-breaking lives as suffragists, professional artists, and non-traditional positions for women at the time, like noted economist and

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficia ...

president

Alice Freeman Palmer Alice Freeman Palmer (born Alice Elvira Freeman; February 21, 1855 – December 6, 1902) was an American educator. As Alice Freeman, she was president of Wellesley College from 1881 to 1887, when she left to marry the Harvard professor George He ...

. Throughout her adult life, she lived an unconventional, independent life and had a lifelong relationship with fellow artist, Abby Adeline Manning, with whom she lived and traveled to Europe.

Early life

Anne Whitney was born in

Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End. Watertow ...

, on September 2, 1821. She was the youngest child of Nathaniel Ruggles Whitney, Jr.—a justice of the peace—and Sally, or Sarah, Stone Whitney, both of whom were descendants of Watertown settlers of 1635. She had a sister and five brothers. The family moved to East Cambridge by the time that Whitney was 12 years old and returned to Watertown in 1850. Anne Whitney, Africa

Her family were

Unitarians Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present) ...

and abolitionists. They fought for women's and education rights, as well as abolition of slavery. Except the 1834–1835 school year that she attended at a private school run by Mrs. Samuel Little in

Bucksport, Maine Bucksport is a historical town in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,944 at the 2020 census. Bucksport is across the Penobscot River estuary from Fort Knox and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, which replaced the Waldo–Ha ...

, she received her education from private tutors. Her year at private school allowed her to teach. Whitney enjoyed writing poetry and had an interest in sculpture.

Career

Early career

From 1847 to 1849, she ran a small private school in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

, after which she traveled by ship to visit cousins in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

She began making portrait busts of family members in about 1855. At the time that Whitney began to study art, women had limited educational opportunities. Unlike male students, women could not take life drawing classes. Visits to art galleries required that sculptures of nude men needed to have the genitalia covered before the women could enter the gallery. Plaster casts of the human form could not be used in co-educational classrooms. Whitney moved to New York so that she could study anatomy at a Brooklyn hospital from 1859 and into 1860, and then studied drawing and modeling at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and Private university, private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

in Philadelphia. Whitney was on the front end of the

New Woman The New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th century and had a profound influence well into the 20th century. In 1894, Irish writer Sarah Grand (1854–1943) used the term "new woman" in an influential article, to refer t ...

movement. Rather than following an acceptable path for women in the mid-1850s to explore her interest in poetry, she believed that she could more fully express her viewpoints about social causes through art. She made ''Laura Brown'' (1859), a bust of a young girl, and exhibited it at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

in New York. It is now in the collection of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...

. Also in 1859, she published a volume of poetry entitled ''Poems'', which was a collection of poems she had previously published in newspapers and magazines such as ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' and ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

''. ''

North American Review The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived a ...

'' said of her poetry, "Every word strikes home; every line is clean, distinct as if cut in stone; the pen in her hands becomes so like the sculptor’s chisel that one questions if poetry be the fittest exponent of her genius.

Symbolic works of art

In 1860, she established a studio in Watertown. Two years later, she rented a studio in Boston near

William Rimmer William Rimmer (20 February 181620 August 1879) was an American artist born in Liverpool, England. Biography William Rimmer was the son of a French refugee, who emigrated to Nova Scotia, where he was joined by his wife and child in 1818, and ...

, an artist and physician, with whom she studied. He critiqued her works as she began making full-length sculptures. She made a life-size sculpture of

Lady Godiva Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly re ...

and, during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

, a large sculpture entitled ''Africa''. Both had were expressions of her political viewpoints. ''Africa'' represented an entire race breaking free of slavery and ''Lady Godiva'' represented a heroine relieving the poor of exorbitant taxes. They were shown in 1864 and 1865 in Boston and New York. ''Lady Godiva'', which was positively received at its exhibits, resides at the

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

, Texas. In 1867, she exhibited work in the Boston gallery of De Vries, Ibarra & Co. Whitney moved to Rome in 1867. While there, she worked in the city and took long vacations in Europe, including two trips to Munich for further study, including learning foundry techniques for working in bronze. In Rome, she was able to make works using nude male models, where it was not considered improper for a woman. Her works from this period include ''Chaldean Shepherd'' at

Smith College Museum of Art The Smith College Museum of Art (abbreviated SCMA), is an art museum in Northampton, Massachusetts connected with Smith College. The museum is known for its compilation of American and European art of the 19th and 20th centuries, including works by ...

and ''Lotus Eater'' at

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, A ...

. She associated with a group of female artists in Rome that

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was th ...

described as the "that strange sisterhood of American 'lady sculptors' who at one time settled upon the seven hills in a white, marmorean flock". She was acquainted with American artists that were in Florence and Rome, like

Edmonia Lewis Mary Edmonia Lewis, also known as "Wildfire" (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907), was an American sculptor, of mixed African-American and Native American (Mississauga Ojibwe) heritage. Born free in Upstate New York, she worked for most o ...

Harriet Hosmer Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (October 9, 1830 – February 21, 1908) was a neoclassical sculptor, considered the most distinguished female sculptor in America during the 19th century. She is known as the first female professional sculptor. Among other ...

Florence Freeman Florence Freeman (January 14, 1836 – August 8, 1883) was an American sculptor. Freeman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, daughter of Peter Wilder Freeman and Frances Ann Dorr. After studying with Richard Saltonstall Greenough, she went to ...

, and others within the circle of stage actress

Charlotte Cushman Charlotte Saunders Cushman (July 23, 1816 – February 18, 1876) was an American stage actress. Her voice was noted for its full contralto register, and she was able to play both male and female parts. She lived intermittently in Rome, in an expa ...

, a patron of the arts. While Whitney was in Italy there was political, social, and economic instability due to the attempts to unify the country, during which the new secular government was at odds with the papacy. She created the bronze sculpture ''Roma'' in 1869 to represent the "spiritual destitution" that the citizens experienced due to the political climate, symbolized by the ancient beggar woman. It was shown in Philadelphia, Boston, and London. She visited the United States in 1870 when the city was overtaken by

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...

's forces, then returned to Rome for one year before moving back to the United States in 1871 and then exhibited her sculpture of

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

an leader

Toussaint Louverture François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...

in Boston. She established a studio in Boston in 1872.

Monuments

In 1875, she submitted a model

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...

for a blind competition conducted by the Boston Art Committee. She knew Sumner, a senator and abolitionist, through her brother Alexander, who was a classmate of Sumner's at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. Whitney's model competently captured Sumner's frame and features. She depicted him seated in a chair, in part because of ancient Greek artist's practice of portraying prominent people seated to "represent dignity and something of state." She won the contest, including receiving the prize money, until the judges realized that they had selected a work made by a woman; they thought it would be inappropriate for a woman to sculpt a man's legs. The judges rejected her offering and selected Thomas Ball's

for the

Boston Public Garden The Public Garden, also known as Boston Public Garden, is a large park in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to Boston Common. It is a part of the Emerald Necklace system of parks, and is bounded by Charles Street and Boston Common to t ...

. Both the Sumners and the Whitneys were disappointed, but Whitney wrote in a letter, "Bury your grievance; it will take more than the Boston Art committee to quench me." She exhibited the model of Sumner at the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

of 1876. Following an 1879 exhibit of the model, the ''

New York Evening Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily newspaper, daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip ...

'' stated of the judge's decision, "Think of a woman bringing her mind to bear on the legs of a man-even if those legs were inside a pair of stone trousers! ''

New York Evening Telegram ''The New York Evening Telegram'' was a New York City daily newspaper. It was established in 1867. The newspaper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., and it was said to be considered to be an evening edition of the ''New York Herald''. ...

'' wrote a verse which starts out: "You see, ’tis a fixed law of art, my friend, / That only a man can superintend / The play of muscle and post of limb, / Whenever a statue is made of him." The verse later states "Yet under the dome of the Capitol / Stands Samuel Adams erect and tall, / As free as his namesake before the fall; / And though the image was carved by woman / Rarely is marble so grandly human." Among her well-known public monuments is the statue of

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, a ...

(1876) in the

in the

US Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill at ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Whitney traveled to Italy in 1875 to acquire the marble for the sculpture. During the trip, she studied French sculpture techniques at

Écouen Écouen () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department, in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The 19th-century poet and playwright Pierre-Joseph Charrin (1784–1863) died in Écouen. The artist Louis ...

, realized in her work ''Le Modèle'', which was created with a degree of Realism. A bronze and granite replica (1880) of the Samuel Adams sculpture is installed in Faneuil Hall Plaza in Boston, where Adams gave speeches about

British rule The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

and

taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

. Another important work is the

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

(1887) in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

. She corresponded with

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co-d ...

about the placement of the monument and its landscaping. Another edition, '' Leif, the Discoverer'', was placed in Juneau Park in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Portrait sculptures

From about 1876 to nearly 1896, Whitney made a number of portrait sculptures of prominent individuals. Garrison said Whitney's sculpture, ''

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper ''The Liberator'', which he foun ...

'' (1879), was the closest likeness made of him. It is at the

Massachusetts Historical Society The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street in Bost ...

in Boston. She depicted

, President of

; economist

Harriet Martineau Harriet Martineau (; 12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist often seen as the first female sociologist, focusing on race relations within much of her published material.Michael R. Hill (2002''Harriet Martineau: Theoreti ...

; and suffragists

Frances Willard Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 ...

and Whitney's cousin

Lucy Stone Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 – October 18, 1893) was an American orator, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and Suffrage, suffragist who was a vocal advocate for and organizer promoting Women's rights, rights for women. In 1847, Sto ...

, which is in the Boston Public Library. She also depicted Mary Tileston Hemenway, the famed philanthropist and reformer. Her sculpture of ''

'' (1892) is at the

Mark Twain House The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) and his family from 1874 to 1891. It was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in the American High Gothic style. Clemens ...

, and a bust is at the Day House, owned by the adjacent Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, Connecticut. The Uris Library at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

houses the Jennie McGraw Fiske Medallion. She completed statues and busts of other famous individuals, such as

Edward Charles Pickering Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist and the older brother of William Henry Pickering. Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote ' ...

and James Walker, presidents of

. The busts are at the

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

. She also made sculptures ''

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

'' of the poet, and sculptures of

Samuel Sewall Samuel Sewall (; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay ''The Selling ...

Robert Gould Shaw Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a prominent Boston abolitionist family, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment (the 54th Mass ...

, and

Eben Norton Horsford Eben Norton Horsford (27 July 1818 – 1 January 1893) was an American scientist who taught agricultural chemistry in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard from 1847 to 1863. Later he was known for his reformulation of baking powder, his int ...

. Other of her works can be found in the collections of the Amherst College, and the

Woman's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international Temperance movement, temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social ref ...

Although she was still healthy and vibrant, her career began to slow down into the 1890s. She did, though, create a larger version of ''Roma'' for the

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to ...

at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, h ...

of 1893. For the same

exposition Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair *Expository writing **Exposition (narrative) *Exposition (music) *Trade fair * ''Exposition'' (album), the debut album by the band Wax on Radio *Exposi ...

she also created ''Child with Calla Lily'' ''Leaves,'' a fountain in bronze with a winged cherub on a stem above a basin decorated with leaves and vines representative of the emerging

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Moder ...

style. This was on display in the center of the Hall of Honor in the

Woman's Building The Woman's Building was a non-profit arts and education center located in Los Angeles, California. The Woman's Building focused on feminist art and served as a venue for the women's movement and was spearheaded by artist Judy Chicago, graphic des ...

at the Exposition. A replica of this fountain was cast at the request of Mariana Porter, and is located in West Newton, MA on the corner of Chestnut and Highland Streets, installed in memory of Anne Whitney's close friend, Catherine Porter Lambert (1817–1900). Her last major work of art was the creation of the sculpture from the model of Charles Sumner sculpture from 1875. It was completed in 1902 and is installed at

Harvard Square Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the busin ...

Personal life

Throughout her adulthood, she was an advocate for forest conservation, women's rights, abolition of slavery, and equal educational opportunities for African-Americans. Whitney was an individualist, who lived independently and cut her hair short, which annoyed her Victorian neighbors. She wrote of her independent nature in one of her poems, "You are welcome, world, to criticize, carp and croak yourself hoarse if you will." She was active in political, literary and artistic circles and supported liberal activists, sculptors and other artists, entertaining people like

and

at her home. One of her friends and supporters was writer

Annie Adams Fields Annie Adams Fields (June 6, 1834 – January 5, 1915) was an American writer. Among her writings are collections of poetry and essays as well as several memoirs and biographies of her literary acquaintances. She was also interested in philanthro ...

, who found her to be a "noble, simple, strong living woman. She purchased a house in Boston at 92 Mt. Vernon Street in 1876 and established a studio on its top floor. The house, located in

Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to: Places Canada * Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood * Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia * Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan * Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec United ...

is on the

Boston Women's Heritage Trail The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating w ...

. Six years later she purchased a farm in

Shelburne, New Hampshire Shelburne is a town in Coös County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 353 at the 2020 census. It is located in the White Mountains, and part of the White Mountain National Forest is in the south. Shelburne is home to Leadmine Stat ...

, with views overlooking

Mount Washington Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, ...

, Mount Adams, and

Mount Madison Mount Madison is a mountain in the Presidential Range of New Hampshire in the United States. It is named after the fourth U.S. President, James Madison. Mountains in the Presidential Range are named for U.S. presidents, with the tallest (Moun ...

. She lived at her home on Mt. Vernon Street until October 1893 when she moved to Beacon Street at the Charlesgate Hotel, near her statue of Leif Erikson on Commonwealth Avenue. She lived with and shared her life with Abby Adeline Manning (1836–1906), who devoted her life to Whitney. Whitney Manning lived abroad in the 1860s and 1870s, in Rome, Florence, and Paris. They had what was called a "

Boston marriage A "Boston marriage" was, historically, the cohabitation of two wealthy women, independent of financial support from a man. The term is said to have been in use in New England in the late 19th/early 20th century. Some of these relationships were r ...

", a term for a long-term relationship between upper-class, educated women, which was generally accepted within the community. Fields said of the relationship, "the two women complement and repose each other." Whitney died on January 23, 1915, in Boston, Massachusetts of cancer and was buried in Cambridge at Mount Auburn Cemetery alongside Abby Adeline Manning.

Legacy

She created prominent monuments for public sites, like the United States Capitol, of historical figures Samuel Adams, Charles Sumner, and Leif Erikson. Even though the works are well-known, her association as creator of the works is not widely recognized. Her works, though, are in a number of museums and collections, including Davis Museum at Wellesley that has seven of her works, ''Roma'', ''Harriet Martineau'', ''Abby Adeline Manning'', ''Ann Mary Hale'', ''

'', '' Relief of George H. Palmer'', and ''

''. Her portrait of Abby Adeline Manning is also at the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...

, Salem, Massachusetts. She is also not known for her active role in the expatriate communities in Rome, Florence, and France—where women were able to attain a richer educational experience and access to original works of art that was not afforded to women in the United States at that time. As

Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel '' Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels '' Little Men'' (1871) and '' Jo's Boys'' (1886). Raised ...

said in '' Little Women'', when independent women felt the need to "go to Rome, and do fine pictures, and be the best artist in the whole world." Whitney said of Rome, "It is certain that there is not another city on this earth which gives so much (to me) for so little. Whitney's letters during that time provide insight into the importance of her time in Europe towards her artistic development. The Anne Whitney Archive at

holds more than 4000 letters, photographs, and other documentation that includes more than 400 letters she sent to her family about her life abroad. Jacqueline Marie Musacchio's article "Mapping the 'White Marmorean Flock': Anne Whitney Abroad, 1866–1867" uses Whitney's extensive correspondence to create a timeline and associated maps of two trips Whitney made in Europe during this period.

References

External links

Historic American Buildings Survey
Library of Congress. Flagstaff Park, Massachusetts Avenue & Kirkland Street, Cambridge, Middlesex County, MA
Anne Rebecca Whitney
at

Find a Grave Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present f ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney, Anne 1821 births 1915 deaths 19th-century American poets 19th-century American sculptors 19th-century American women artists 19th-century American women writers 20th-century American poets 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American women writers American women poets American women sculptors Artists from Boston Artists of the Boston Public Library LGBT people from Massachusetts People from Beacon Hill, Boston People from Watertown, Massachusetts Poets from Massachusetts American portrait artists Sculptors from Massachusetts Writers from Boston Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery