Friends of Wellesley College Library Wellesley College VOLUME 31 • FALL 2013 • NUMBER 2 The Papers of Anne Whitney: Scholarship, Classes, and a Crowd-Sourced Transcription Project for Wellesley Jacqueline Marie Musacchio ’89, Chair, Art Department significant number of of Art in New York and the Museum of Alcott’s real painter sister May, American women artists of Fine Arts in Boston were not stated that she always wanted to “go A lived and worked in late founded until the 1870s and they had to Rome, and do fine pictures, and be nineteenth-century Rome; they were few original objects in their early col- the best artist in the whole world.” evocatively but dismissively de- lections. These women also went But this was a fraught time in Ital- scribed by Henry James as “that abroad to push against social con- ian history. The ongoing tensions of strange sisterhood of American ‘lady unification, which pitted the papacy sculptors’ who at one time settled against the new secular government upon the seven hills in a white, mar- and its citizens, resulted in political, morean flock.” The poet and sculptor economic, and social upheaval on a Anne Whitney (1821-1915) was part of dramatic scale. Italy’s Ancient and artistic, literary, and political circles Renaissance past, as well as its com- in her native Massachusetts, and a plicated present, embedded in both key member of this community of Catholicism and these shifting politi- women artists during her years cal circumstances, were often misun- abroad. Although Whitney’s oeuvre derstood by American travelers. Yet includes statues of Samuel Adams for life in Italy had distinct advantages for the United States Capitol building, artists and these outweighed – and and Leif Erikson and Charles Sumner even allowed them to ignore – the for public sites in Boston, few associ- tensions that plagued native Italians. ate these monuments with her name In a letter to her sister in 1871 Whit- today, and even fewer recognize her Pulling first year students through the ney wrote, “What your objec- role in Rome’s Anglo-American sculpture of Harriet Martineau was a tion…may be to Roman dust, which community. But Whitney and her rite of passage until the loss of College you wish to see me shake from my Hall to fire in 1914. The statue was partner, the painter Addy Manning, completed by Anne Whitney in 1883, and feet, I don’t appreciate. It is certain were abroad from 1867-71 and 1875- donated to Wellesley College in 1886. that there is not another city on this 76, primarily in Rome but also in Image from 1913 Wellesley College Leg- earth which gives so much (to me) for Florence and for several months each enda. (Wellesley College Archives) so little.” summer elsewhere in Europe; every- strictions; they were informed by Whitney’s experience was not where they went, they were actively texts like Germaine de Staël’s Cor- unique among this pioneering group engaged in their adopted cities. inne (1807), Elizabeth Barrett Brown- of American women artists who lived During this period increasingly ing’s Aurora Leigh (1857), and Na- in, interacted with, and understood regular and affordable ships and rail- Italian art and history. But the docu- thaniel Hawthorne’s Marble Faun ways brought Americans to and mentation about Whitney makes her (1860), all of which advocated Italy as around Europe. Many were aspiring a particularly valuable case study for a destination for independent and women artists seeking training and women’s art and lives in the nine- creative women. Indeed, the charac- contact with original art that they teenth century. Wellesley’s Archives ter of Amy in Louisa May Alcott’s could not get at home; public collec- Little Women (1868), a veiled version tions like the Metropolitan Museum CONTINUED on page 3 PAGE 2 • FRIENDS OF WELLESLEY COLLEGE LIBRARY! A Message From the Co-Chair Georgia B. Barnhill ’66 FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY Dear Friends, Once again, summer is over and and her staff busy. Hearing about Honorary Chairperson fall has arrived. The steering commit- Jacqueline Musacchio’s class that is H. Kim Bottomly tee of the Friends of the Library held transcribing Anne Whitney’s Travel Founding Member its first meeting of the academic year Letters (already digitized thanks to Mary E. Jackson ’24 in September and welcomed several FOL support), a project that will new members whom you will meet in eventually be open to all Wellesley the pages of the Newsletter. We also alums, made several of us volunteer. Co-Chairs welcomed Ian Graham to his first We were intrigued as well to hear Georgia Brady Barnhill ’66 Ian Graham meeting as co-chair. about Wellesley’s participation in Although the love of books and edX. Registering is easy. It is quite Manager of Friends Programs traditional learning probably played a fascinating to contemplate how Well- Elizabeth Ahern Crowley role in bringing us as individuals to esley’s course offerings can circle the membership in the Friends of the globe. There is an ongoing debate Newsletter Editor Library and to the Steering Commit- about whether online education or Amanda Zoellner ’03 tee, there was a palpable sense of ex- distance learning can be equivalent to Photography citement around the table as we an education with live class participa- Sarah Gilman ’82 learned from Ravi Ravishanker, the tion and a professor who closely Chief Information Officer and Asso- works with students. But offering ciate Dean, about new electronic of- such excellent instruction with mas- Steering Committee ferings and services enriching the sive electronic support is an intrigu- Mary Allen Judith Black intellectual lives of students and fac- ing development for the College. As Barbara E. Coburn ’52 ulty alike. Take a look at the website Ravi Ravishanker has noted, “The Clemency Chase Coggins ’55 for Library and Technology Services possibilities are endless and exciting; Elizabeth Febo and you will see the diversity of activi- the challenge is to harmonize the ca- Sarah Gilman ’82 ties sponsored by the library. You pabilities of the new technology with Anne Yost Harper ’58 will find ongoing hands-on work- the academic rigor that is at Welles- Linda Leahy ’66 Nancy L. Leblang ’78 shops that introduce students to elec- ley’s core.” Take a look at this fall’s Ruth R. Rogers tronic resources and how to make the Introduction to Human Evolution Lorraine Roses best use of Google. You will read taught by Adam Van Arsdale. Susan F. Saul ’65 about The American Revolution and Finally, I hope that we will see Wilma Slaight the Early Republic, an excellent ex- you at the fall program organized by Diane S. Triant ’68 hibition of rare books and unique Leslie Wilson ’75, on November 9 at Leslie Perrin Wilson ’75 Amanda Zoellner ’03 manuscripts from Special Collections the Concord Free Public Library’s that is on display at the Clapp Library William Munroe Special Collections. this fall. And Katherine Ruffin is of- It promises to be a great opportunity Emeritae fering workshops open to students to learn about a great collection and Janice L. Hunt ’52 and staff in the book arts lab on how other libraries support academic Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56 Wednesday afternoons. I envy those research. Polly Slavet ’67 June M. Stobaugh ’66 who have participated. Thank you for your continued Elinor Bunn Thompson ’37 Classes from a multitude of dis- support of the libraries at Wellesley! ciplines visit Special Collections on a regular basis, keeping Ruth Rogers Georgia B. Barnhill ’66 FALL 2013 • PAGE 3 ANNE WHITNEY continued from page 1 house approximately four thousand clopedias, maps, timelines, and high- family knew the Durants and she her- largely unpublished letters to and light articles on topics of particular self knew Alice Freeman and George from Whitney over the course of her interest to class members. Working Herbert Palmer, as well as professor long life; almost four hundred of with these largely unpublished and Vita Scudder and benefactor Eben these fragile letters, scrawled on unknown letters allows my students Horsford; she taught here for at least onion-skin paper, document her time to understand women’s lives in the a semester and her statue of the Eng- abroad. I began to work with these past through a particularly rich cache lish author and feminist Harriet Mar- amazingly detailed abroad letters dur- of primary source materials; their tineau was a focal point of College ing my research on one of Whitney’s articles, which will be published on Hall before it was destroyed in the contemporaries. This led to my arti- our future website, will give students 1914 fire. The Davis Museum owns cle, “Infesting the Galleries of the chance to make their own contri- seven of her sculptures, and a painted Europe: The Copyist Emma Conant butions to scholarship. portrait of Whitney by Elizabeth Bi- Church in Paris and Rome,” which This is a huge project; Whitney’s gelow Greene. Thanks to a grant was published in Nineteenth-Century abroad letters will keep me and my from the Friends of the Library Inno- Art Worldwide in 2011 (http://www. students occupied for the foreseeable vations in Reading & Scholarship 19thc-artworldwide. org). But I future. In the meantime, however, I Fund, we are digitizing some five quickly realized how much more wanted to find a way to make the rest hundred letters to pilot this website; I there was to do, and I am now writing of Whitney’s letters accessible. A selected a group of correspondents a book on the lives and art of Whitney growing number of institutions have ranging from the personal (Whit- and her sister artists abroad.