Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Third Great-Grandmother's Photo in a Museum

The blog reader who shared the original daguerreotype of my second great-grandmother, Eliza May Wells, recently notified me that he had discovered a daguerreotype of Eliza's mother, in a book he owns, and he found that the original is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum, which has one of the world's most significant collections of photography.


According to the museum, there is a note taped to the back of the daguerreotype case, in pen:

"I herewith bequeath to the Louisa May
Alcott memorial association at Orchard
House, Concord, Massachusetts, this
daguerreotype of my Grandmother,
Elizabeth Sewall Willis Wells (the daugh-
ter of Elizabeth Sewall May Willis) play
ing chess with her sister-in-law, Mrs.
Phineas Wells. The left hand figure is my
Grandmother."

Elizabeth Sewall (Willis) Wells (1820-1900) married Thomas Goodwin Wells (1804-1873). His brother, Phineas Parkhurst Wells (1808-1891) was married to Catherine (French) Wells (1810-1873).

I descend from Elizabeth and Thomas as follows:

Elizabeth Sewall Willis (1820-1900) married Thomas Goodwin Wells
Eliza May Wells (1839-1880) married Samuel Sewall Greeley
Samuel Sewall Greeley (1824-1916) married Eliza May Wells
Ethel May Greeley (1875-1931) married Lowell Copeland
Lowell Townsend Copeland (1900-1974) married Helen Lysle Hunter
My mother
Me

2 comments:

  1. What a fun photo and it's in a museum! I wish one of my ancestors turned up in a museum picture.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda, thanks for the comment. And who knows, you may find an ancestral photo in an unexpected location.

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