Women in the 19C United States of America: 19C American Women - New England ladies by Ethan Allen Greenwood 1779-1856

Monday, January 18, 2021

19C American Women - New England ladies by Ethan Allen Greenwood 1779-1856

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) An Older Woman

Portrait painter & lawyer Ethan Allen Greenwood attended school at the Academy at New Salem, & the Leicester Academy, before heading for college. He graduated from Dartmouth & attended Columbia College, where he studied law.

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Ann Gewyer Amory

In 1806, after he graduated from Dartmouth College; & he trained under artist Edward Savage, whose New York museum he bought from Savage's son in 1918. Greenwood produced perhaps as many as 800 portraits using the physiognotrace technique. By 1813, he was keeping a studio in Boston, & associating with other artists, including Gilbert Stuart.

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Eunice Hardin

His New England Museum enjoyed considerable popularity. Greenwood also established museum branches in Portland, Maine, & Providence, Rhode Island. However around 1834-1839, he experienced financial difficulties, & as a result his assignees conveyed the collections of the New England Museum to Moses Kimball.

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Harriet Hawking

Following the death of his father in 1827, Greenwood returned to his hometown of Hubbardston, MA, where he entered politics. He married Caroline Carter Warren in 1829, & built a large house on the family homestead.

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Martha Bridgham

The Barre Patriot newspaper reported in July of 1849, "The large mansion house of the Hon. Ethan A Greenwood, of Hubbardston,was entirely consume d by fire on Friday, July 13, between the hours of eight & ten. All of the barns & other buildings, some half dozen in number we learn, together with 25 tons of hay, 160 bushels of grain, twowagons, a cart, & many farming tools were likewise consumed. The house was situated some two or three miles from the village & was not inhabited at the time of the fire. It was without doubt the work of an incendiary. The loss is said to be about $5000, - insurance $1500. Since writing the above we learn that an Irishman formerly in the employ of Mr Greenwood has been arrested on suspicion of having fired the buildings. Some difficulty had arisen between him & Mr Greenwood, & he had threatened retribution."

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Mrs Prescott

Greenwood died in Hubbardston in May of 1856.

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Rebecca Tufts Whittemore

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Sally Reed Sessions

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Sally Shurtleff (Mrs Benjamin Shurtleff)

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Sarah Ward Brigham

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Woman in Blue Dress

Ethan Allen Greenwood (American artist, 1779-1856) Zillah Chenery Abbott
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About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”