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Home , Agassiz Rock, Bear Swamp, Chapel Brook, Choate Island, Coolidge Reservation, Crane Beach

BY DANIELLE STEINMANN, TRUSTEES STAFF WOMEN of The Trustees ENDURING IMPACTS ON CONSERVATION, JUSTICE, AND 1979; CULTURE IN THE THE DEW,

COMMONWEALTH ADOLFOBEZAMAT AND THE CRANE,SIPPING SAWAHARA WORLD OF MR. ANDMRS. MINÉ GIFT

Women have always been an important sharing their stories for the many generations Conservation Heroines part of the Trustees’ story—shaping the that have followed. They may not be household names, but organization from its beginnings to the Barbara J. Erickson joined The Trustees Louise Doyle, Eugenie Beal, Helen C. Butler, current day. Miss Ellen Chase and Mrs. Fanny in 2012 as its first female President & CEO— W Mabel Choate, and Mary P. Wakeman Foster Tudor are named as the only two transforming the organization for the 21st exemplify dozens of women whose donations “Founders” in the Trustees’ century while keeping true to of property ensured the permanent 2nd Annual Report (1892), the original founders’ vision. protection of many of the Trustees’ an acknowledgement of their Under her leadership, The most important and iconic places. Their donations of $1,000 or more Trustees has doubled in size commitment to land conservation and open in land or money. Other early and experienced the highest space make them true heroines—for the supporters include Bostonians income and audience growth Commonwealth, The Trustees, and millions Sarah Crocker and Anna T. in the nonprofit’s history. She of visitors over the years. Phillips, and Mary Sophia was awarded the distinguished Walker of Waltham. Elizabeth Craig Weaver 1 Over the years, The Trustees Proctor Medal by the Garden has protected properties that Club of America in 2017, ELLEN CHASE were home to significant women named Conservationist of the in the arts and sciences—as well as several Year by Northshore Magazine in 2017, and has who made history as pioneering crusaders been named in the Commonwealth Institute for freedom, justice, and equality for women and Globe Magazine’s Annual Top 100 in America and beyond—honoring their Women-Led Businesses in contributions by conserving their homes and survey for six consecutive years. HELEN C. BUTLER “I WANT TO DO SOMETHING SPLENDID… MONUMENT MOUNTAIN Great Barrington Donated in 1899 SOMETHING HEROIC OR WONDERFUL THAT This popular hiking spot with sweeping views WON’T BE FORGOTTEN AFTER I’M DEAD…” of the Valley is famous —, Little Women for its literary connections, most notably a

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41689.CC2020.indd 16 7/6/20 10:51 AM legendary 1850 picnic outing that included Vineyard where she had lived since 1949. A BNAN merged with The Trustees, which and Herman Melville. founding trustee of the Vineyard Open Land today owns and manages 56 community But it would be impossible to follow in the Foundation and Vineyard Conservation gardens across eight Boston neighborhoods footsteps of these literary giants had it not Society, Wakeman led the fundraising efforts and helps coordinate activities related to been for the generosity of Helen C. Butler of to protect from development by all of the city’s more than 200 community and Stockbridge, MA (1843- purchasing it for The Trustees in 1968. In the gardens. 1929). In 1899, Butler donated 260 acres of the 1970s, she made significant contributions reservation in memory of her sister, Rosalie, to help add protected land to the Trustees’ Women in to “prevent vandals from disfiguring it with Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge, and in 1976 the Arts & Sciences advertising signs...[and] that it might be she donated her 15-acre Japanese-inspired Massachusetts has always been home to preserved forever for the enjoyment of the gardens, called , to the organization. In innovative scientists, creative thinkers, and public.” Later, she added an endowment for its 1970 she received the Trustees’ Conservation famous artists. It’s no wonder, therefore, care that has supported maintenance of the Award for “distinguished service in the field that some exceptional women in the arts site for the thousands of its annual visitors. of conservation and the environment.” and sciences found inspiration and respite in some of the Trustees’ special places. MABEL LOUISE 2 CHOATE DOYLE THE MISSION HOUSE DOYLE COMMUNITY 6 AND PARK & CENTER Stockbridge Leominster Donated in 1948 Donated in 1961 and 1959 Louise Doyle Mabel Choate 4 (1912-2007) was a (1870-1949) first learned about The Trustees practicing Buddhist from her friend and collaborator, landscape and an extraordinary philanthropist who architect (and former Trustees board supported causes ranging from Little League CLARA ENDICOTT SEARS & member) Fletcher Steele. For over 30 years, to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts to the LOUISA MAY ALCOTT Choate and Steele transformed Naumkeag work of Mother Teresa. She challenged The Harvard (the family home she inherited in 1929) Trustees to “do something important” with Fruitlands Museum plays host to the stories into the stunning 20th-century designed her donation of 170 acres of land and house in of many extraordinary women, including landscape visitors marvel at today. Choate Leominster. In 2004, her dream was realized museum founder Clara Endicott Sears (1863- left the property to the organization to help when the organization dedicated the LEED- 1960) and former resident Louisa May Alcott preserve the “aura of good times and gracious certified Doyle Center on her property. (1832-1888). Sears was a prolific author and living” enjoyed by her family at Naumkeag. dedicated community advocate. Her love In 1927, she purchased the historic Mission EUGENIE of American history and the House, which was in disrepair on the hill near 5 BEAL Valley inspired her life’s work as a collector Naumkeag. She relocated it to Main Street, BOSTON COMMUNITY and preservationist. At age 50, Sears realized hired Steele to design colonial gardens and GARDENS, 8 BOSTON the historical significance of the farmhouse buildings around the restored house, and NEIGHBORHOODS at the foot of her property. filled it with colonial-era antiques. It operated Founded Boston The Fruitlands Farmhouse, a National as an independent museum until Choate Natural Areas Network in 1977 Historic Landmark built in 1826, takes its donated it to The Trustees in 1948, along with Eugenie “Genie” Beal (1921-2013) was name from the transcendentalist experiment a significant endowment for its upkeep. committed to preserving the green spaces of that took place here in 1843. Led by Bronson MARY P. Boston, and firmly believed that people living Alcott and Charles Lane, they called this WAKEM A N in cities needed to see and . place Fruitlands because they intended CAPE POGE A dedicated urban environmentalist, former to live off the “fruits of the land.” Alcott WILDLIFE Boston Mayor Tom Menino eulogized her brought his wife and four young daughters, REFUGE, WASQUE, as “the mother of green space in the City of including a 10-year-old Louisa May. While AND MYTOI Chappaquiddick Boston.” In 1977, the Boston Redevelopment the experiment was short-lived, its role in the , Martha’s Authority identified thousands of acres of transcendentalist movement and influence Vineyard threatened open space in the city of Boston. on a young Louisa May Alcott are undeniable. Donated in 1959 Many visitors may also recognize the 3 (through 1995), 1967, Concerned by what they heard, Beal and five and 1976 other concerned citizens created Boston Farmhouse attic as the inspiration of those Mary P. Wakeman (1901-1984) devoted Natural Areas Network (BNAN) to protect now iconic scenes from her famous book her life to land conservation on Martha’s urban wilds from potential loss. In 2014, Little Women.

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41689.CC2020.indd 17 7/6/20 10:51 AM SARAH she died in 1984, Miss Peabody willed over stylized landscapes and other subjects are ALDEN 700 acres to The Trustees, thus establishing more imaginary than realistic. Her paintings BRADFORD two of the organization’s most beloved were exhibited in New York and Paris in the RIPLEY reservations. 1970s and 80s. Her favorite place perhaps was , where the couple could Concord POLLY live in complete privacy in a small cottage “What a home indeed 7 THAYER with views of Ipswich Bay, surrounded by it has been to me, STARR grazing sheep. In 1974 she donated her own which I would not exchange for all that wealth Ipswich estate (separate from Castle Hill) to or art have to offer!” Hingham The Trustees, now part of the Crane Wildlife Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley (1793-1867) and “I seek what the form Refuge. Following her death in 1991, she was her husband, Samuel, a minister, came to live will reveal of essence, buried alongside Cornelius on Choate Island. in the Ripley family home, the Old Manse, in what the visible

1846. Less than two years later, Samuel died 9 will tell me of the suddenly, leaving Sarah a widow. She was by invisible.” Women Who Made all accounts an extraordinary woman for her Ethel Randolph (“Polly”) Thayer Starr (1904- History: Justice, time. Self-taught, Ripley was fluent in many 2006) was drawn to art from an early age. Freedom, and Equality languages and was a scholar and tutor of Raised in a family of prominent Boston legal Standing up in the face of injustice takes classics, mathematics, philosophy, astronomy, scholars, it was at Weir River Farm—her extraordinary courage. The stories of two and botany. Her wide-ranging knowledge family’s summer estate in Hingham—that women who did just that can be traced back brought her many admirers among the Starr’s captivation with the offerings of to places now protected by The Trustees. Concord intellectuals. She and the young nature inspired fervid explorations into Elizabeth Freeman and Lucy Stone, born , for example, shared drawing and painting. Starr was trained almost a century apart, were pioneers against a mutual love of nature—she would often in portraiture at Boston’s Museum of Fine injustice—in the fights for freedom for collect botanical specimens from nearby Arts and quickly achieved notoriety, being enslaved people and for equality for women. fields to share with him. awarded the prestigious First Hallgarten Prize from the National Academy of Design ELIZABETH 11 AMELIA in her mid-20s. But the infinite variety of FREEMAN 8 PEABODY nature would captivate her for the rest of ASHLEY HOUSE Sheffield POWISSET FARM her long life. She was a prolific painter of AND NOANET “Any time while I was landscapes and animals, but also focused WOODLANDS a slave, if one minute’s Dover on the intricacies of insects and flowers, freedom had been In 1923, a young especially as her eyesight began to fail in her offered to me, and I Boston heiress named later years. had been told I must Amelia Peabody die at the end of that minute, I would have (1890-1984) began to acquire land in Dover, MINÉ SAWAHARA taken it—just to stand one minute on God’s including what is now Powisset Farm and CRANE earth a free woman—I would.” Noanet Woodlands. She came to the area THE CRANE ESTATE These are the words of Elizabeth Freeman because of the Norfolk Hunt Club, but her life Ipswich & Essex (ca. 1744-1829)—also known as Mum there wasn’t all parties and horses (though A native of Bett—who was born into slavery. She she loved both). At Powisset, she raised Hiroshima, Miné 10 was enslaved by Colonel John Ashley in heritage breed Hereford cattle and Yorkshire Sawahara Crane Sheffield until 1781, when, in the midst of pigs, invested in innovative architecture, (1917-1991), married Cornelius Crane, heir the American Revolution, Freeman and a filled the woods with native wildflowers, to the Crane Estate, in 1955, in a Shinto man named Brom successfully sued for their and created public riding and walking paths ceremony in Japan. She became a U.S. citizen freedom. Once free, Freeman chose to work throughout her property. A passionate artist, in 1960. She was a prolific artist, musician, for Theodore Sedgwick, the lawyer who Peabody studied at the School of the Museum and patron of the arts. A flutist and harpist, tried her case. She and her daughter Betsy of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as in Paris and she established the Mrs. Cornelius Crane moved to Stockbridge and helped raise the New York. Her sculpture was exhibited at Scholarship at the Julliard School. She and seven Sedgwick children. In 1803, Freeman the New York World’s Fair, the Whitney Cornelius lived part-time at Castle Hill, in the bought a house and 19-acre farm of her own, Museum, and the Boston Athenaeum. cottage (now the Inn at Castle Hill). She used where she welcomed her extended family of Amelia’s philanthropy reached far and wide one of the towers in the nearby garden as her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and and continues today through a charitable art studio, which afforded sweeping views lived out her life as a beloved member of the foundation established in her name. When over the salt marshes. Crane was inspired Stockbridge community. by her natural surroundings; however, her

41689.CC2020.indd 18 7/6/20 10:52 AM LUCY married, she wrote her own vows, omitting abolitionist beliefs. She formed the separate 12 STONE the reference to obedience and insisted on American Women Suffrage Association in ROCK HOUSE keeping her surname. In 1858, Stone boldly 1869 but reunited with Susan B. Anthony RESERVATION refused to pay property taxes on the basis of and ’s National West Brookfield “no taxation without representation.” In 1879, Woman Suffrage Association in 1890. Stone Leading suffragist Stone registered to vote in Massachusetts but continued to crusade for equality throughout and abolitionist Lucy was removed from the rolls because she did her life, though it was not until nearly 30 Stone (1818-1893) was not use her husband’s name. years after her death that women received born in a farmhouse She disagreed with the mainstream the right to vote nationally, with the passage on Coy’s Hill in women’s suffrage movement over the 14th of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Her dreams West Brookfield (now part of Rock House and 15th Amendments, which guaranteed for equality for people of color took much Reservation). Stone was the first woman in voting rights regardless of race but not longer to realize, however—their right to vote Massachusetts to earn a college degree and gender. Stone did not see this as a setback wasn’t guaranteed until the passage of the organized the first National Women’s Rights for women, but rather a fulfillment of her Voting Rights Act in 1965. Convention in Worcester (1850). When she

“I BELIEVE THAT THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN WILL SAVE THE COUNTRY BEFORE EVERY OTHER POWER.” —Lucy Stone

k R. ac Old Town Hill im r Greenwood Farm r e M Appleton    Stavros Reservation Farms & Grass Rides The Crane Estate (Castle Hill, Crane

r e & ) 10 v i The Stevens-Coolidge Place Pine &

R Halibut Point Reservation Field Farm Doane’s Falls Hemlock   4 Charles W.  Mount Ann Park  Knoll  Doyle   Community   95  4  Moraine Park & Center I- Bear’s Den Long Hill Bullitt Reservation Farandnear Farm  Malcolm Preserve  Redemption Rock    Misery   North Common    Meadow Fruitlands  6 The Old Manse  Gerry Island Bryant Homestead t Museum

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c i t Dexter c deCordova Chesterfield Gorge e Mount Warner Swift River Reservation   n  Drumlin  Sculpture Park and Museum n Quabbin  

o C ha R C rles . Glendale Falls Petticoat Reservoir Boston Community Gardens & Parks 2  5 Hill  Chestnut Hill Farm Naumkeag City Natives Goose Reservation Rock House  Boston The Mission Little Tom 12 Reserv ation    Worcester 8 Gov. Hutchinson’s Field World’s End House Mountain & Pierce Reservation 9 Dinosaur Footprints  Weir River Farm   Monument McLennan Reservation Land of Whitney & Thayer Woods Mountain 1 Providence Ashintully Gardens  Bradley Estate      Signal Hill Norris Reservation 

Springfield Archives & Research 11  Two Mile Farm Dunes’ Edge Ashley House    Center Questing  Campground Quinebaug Woods Francis William Cormier Bird Park   Bartholomew’s Cobble Woods   Peaked Gov. Ames      Mountain Estate   

  Bay    Lyman East Over Reserve Reservation and Copicut Hales Brook & Woods Tract  Lowell Holly Allen C. Haskell  AM MERICA Public Gardens I A Westport y a Town Farm B Reservation s d Cornell Farm r a z z u he year 2020 marks several historical milestones connected to the definition B T Slocum’s River Sound Reserve of American identity: the 400th anniversary of the landing of English colonists in Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge Coskata-Coatue Plymouth; the centenary of white women’s in the U.S., and the General Wildlife Refuge The Brickyard Election and opportunity to elect the President of the United States, including the Mytoi 3 Long Point Wasque debates of nation, race, and history that surround it. In response, The Trustees is Wildlife Norton Point Refuge Beach The FARM focusing on telling the stories of those often marginalized in the history of America, Institute including those of indigenous peoples, African-Americans, and women. will explore the great variety of backgrounds and experiences PHOTO CREDITS: PORTRAIT OF ELLEN CHASE, COURTESY OF SALLY I AM AMERICA CUMMINGS GOODRICH. PHOTOS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10: ARCHIVES that contribute to American identity, engaging visitors and the public in an exchange & RESEARCH CENTER, THE TRUSTEES: MONUMENT MOUNTAIN STEWARDSHIP, MISSION HOUSE STEWARDSHIP, MYTOI STEWARDSHIP, of ideas around this timely theme. Be sure to visit thetrustees.org/iamamerica for THE LOUISE I. DOYLE PAPERS, BNAN STEWARDSHIP, THE CLARA ENDICOTT SEARS COLLECTION, ALCOTT FAMILY PAPERS, WEIR RIVER updates on programs and events exploring this important subject. FARM STEWARDSHIP, THE CRANE FAMILY COLLECTION; 7. COURTESY CONCORD FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY; 8. THE DOVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY; 11. & 12. COLLECTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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