Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye

Last updated
Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye
Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye.png
BornElizabeth Craig Eggleston
15 December 1858
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedNovember 11, 1923(1923-11-11) (aged 64)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish
Alma mater Packer Collegiate Institute
Genrebiographies
Spouse
(m. 1877)
Relatives Edward Eggleston (father), Allegra Eggleston (sister)

Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye (December 15, 1858 - November 11, 1923) was an American writer and biographer. Her story "The A.O.I.B.R.", which appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1889 with an illustration of a child reading, is cited by the Rockwell Centre for American Visual Studies as an early illustration of a girl reading. Allegra Eggleston (Seelye's sister) and Rosina Emmet Sherwood provided illustrations for Seelye's stories.

Contents

Early years and education

"Disgusted with life, she retired to the society of books" an illustration by Rosina Emmet Sherwood for a story by Seelye. Disgusted with life, she retired to the society of books.jpg
"Disgusted with life, she retired to the society of books" an illustration by Rosina Emmet Sherwood for a story by Seelye.

Elizabeth Craig Eggleston was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota, December 15, 1858. She was a daughter of Edward Eggleston, the novelist. Her mother, Elizabeth, was of English parentage and of a family with talent for graphic art. Seelye early showed the "book hunger" that characterized members of her family. In 1866, the family removed to Evanston, Illinois, where her father had built one of the earliest kindergartens in America where his children might "be trained".

After they moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1870, Seelye attended Packer Collegiate Institute, but with her parents dissatisfied, she and her sister were soon taught at home by private teachers. She also was the only child to attend adult classes in French and German at the Brooklyn Mercantile Library. [1]

Career

Her love of reading was illustrated in her writing. Her story "The A.O.I.B.R." appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1889 with an illustration of a child reading. The Rockwell Centre for American Visual Studies cites this as a surprisingly early illustration of a girl reading. The subject of girls reading in the illustration by Rosina Emmet Sherwood is thought rare (like the ones in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women ). [2]

The Story of Columbus (1892) The story of Columbus (1892) (14782831055).jpg
The Story of Columbus (1892)

As an adult, she read works of philosophy, natural science and political economy. Her study of the literature of the Middle English period enabled her to supply the editor of the Century Dictionary with 500 new words and definitions. She wrote four of the five volumes in the Famous American Indian Series, Tecumseh (New York, 1878); Pocahontas (New York, 1879); Brant and Red Jacket (New York, 1879), and Montezuma (New York, 1880). Seelye also published The Story of Columbus (New York, 1892), illustrated by her sister, Allegra Eggleston. [3]

Personal life

In 1877, she married Elwyn Seelye, and since that time, lived on or near Lake George, New York. [3] Seelye was the mother of six children: Allegra (b. 1878), Blanche (b. 1882), Elwyn (b. 1884), Edward (b. 1888), Cynthia (b. 1888) and Elizabeth (b. 1893). [4] She died November 11, 1923, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [5]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Livermore</span> American journalist, abolitionist and advocate of womens rights

Mary Livermore was an American journalist, abolitionist, and advocate of women's rights. Her printed volumes included: Thirty Years Too Late, first published in 1847 as a prize temperance tale, and republished in 1878; Pen Pictures; or, Sketches from Domestic Life; What Shall We Do with Our Daughters? Superfluous Women, and Other Lectures; and My Story of the War. A Woman's Narrative of Four Years' Personal Experience as Nurse in the Union Army, and in Relief Work at Home, in Hospitals, Camps and at the Front during the War of the Rebellion. She wrote a sketch of the sculptor Anne Whitney for Women of the Day and delivered the historical address for the Centennial Celebration of the First Settlement of the Northwestern States in Marietta, Ohio on July 15, 1788.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Eggleston</span> American novelist

Edward Eggleston was an American historian and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Le Roy Emmet</span>

William Le Roy Emmet was an electrical engineer who made major contributions to alternating current power systems including the design of large rotary converters.

Elwyn Seelye was the founder of the New York State Historical Association and the first custodian of the Lake George battlefield site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosina Emmet Sherwood</span> American painter

Rosina Emmet Sherwood was an American painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Parker Scott Boyd</span> American journalist

Kate Parker Scott Boyd was a 19th-century American artist, journalist, and temperance worker from the U.S. state of New York. She won a number of medals and prizes in the Centennial Exposition of 1876.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegra Eggleston</span> American illustrator and painter

Allegra Eggleston was a 19th-century American artist from the U.S. state of Minnesota. She occupied herself as a woodcarver, portrait painter, and book illustrator. As an illustrator, she collaborated with her sister, Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, and her father, Edward Eggleston, on a number of books including The story of Columbus (1892), The story of Washington, and The Graysons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blanche Dillaye</span>

Blanche Annie Dillaye was a 19th-century artist from the U.S. state of New York. After studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, she became one of the significant figures in the American etching revival movement. She acquired prominence in one of the most difficult of arts, and was accepted in some respects as an authority in a field where far more men than women were in competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Curtiss Bascom</span> American educator, suffragist, reformer

Emma Curtiss Bascom was a 19th-century American educator, suffragist and reformer from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. She was a charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Woman and for many years was an officer of its board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Louise Burnham</span> American novelist

Clara Louise Burnham was an American novelist. After the success of No Gentlemen (1881), other books followed, including A Sane Lunatic (1882), Dearly Bought (1884), Next Door (1886), Young Maids and Old (1888), The Mistress of Beech Knoll (1890), and Miss Bagg's Secretary (1892). The daughter of George Frederick Root, she wrote the text for several his most successful cantatas. The 1923 film, A Chapter in Her Life is based on Burnham's 1903 novel Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life. Born in Massachusetts, she died at the family home in Maine in 1927.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliza Archard Conner</span> American journalist (1838–1912)

Eliza Archard Conner was an American writer, journalist, novelist, lecturer, teacher, and feminist of the long nineteenth century. Hailing from Ohio, Conner began writing for newspapers at the age of 13. She served in various roles for the Saturday Evening Post, of Philadelphia, the Commercial of Cincinnati, and the New York World of New York City. She also worked towards the emancipation and advancement of women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Alice Seymour</span>

Lady Mary Alice Seymour was a 19th-century American musician, author, elocutionist, and critic. She was referred to as "Octavia Hensel" in the music world, where she was an internationally-known music critic. As a critic, Seymour was renowned. Her musical nature, her superior education, her thorough knowledge of the laws of theory and familiarity with the works of the great composers of the classic, romantic and Wagnerian schools, and the later schools of harmony, gave her a point of vantage above the ordinary. She was one of the original staff writers on the Musical Courier, having been its correspondent from Vienna and other European centers. Seymour played the piano, harp, guitar and organ, but never appeared on the stage, except for charitable events, as her relatives were opposed to her pursuing a professional life. A "confirmed bluestocking", Seymour was also a polyglot who spoke seven languages fluently: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Hungarian dialects. She died in 1897.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Elizabeth Wilson Sherwood</span> American author and socialite

Mary Elizabeth Sherwood was an American author and socialite. She wrote short stories, poetry, several books, and etiquette manuals, in addition to contributing to many magazines and translating poems from European languages. Among her writings are The Sarcasm of Destiny, A Transplanted Rose, Manners and Social Usages, Sweet Briar, and Roxobel. Better known as Mrs. John Sherwood, some of her literary works were published as "M.E.W.S." or "M.E.W. Sherwood".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Hammond Willis Snead</span> American artist, writer (1870–1958)

Louise Hammond Willis Snead was an American artist, writer, and composer. Her art specialized in miniature painting, illustrations, and needlework. She lectured on Persian rugs, wrote articles of various topics under a masculine pseudonym, and even composed a march.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. E. Brown</span> American writer and painter

Emma Elizabeth Brown, pen names B. E. E. and E. E. Brown, was an American author of prose, biographies, and poetry. She was also an artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ella Loraine Dorsey</span> American author, journalist, translator

Ella Loraine Dorsey was an American author, journalist, and translator. She contributed articles to magazines and wrote many stories, among them Midshipman Bob, Jet, the War Mule, The Taming of Polly, The Children of Avalon, The Jose Maria, The Two Tramps, Saxty's Angel, Pickle and Pepper, The End of the White Man's Trail, and Pocahontas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Robinson Wright</span> American journalist (1853–1914)

Marie Robinson Wright was an American travel writer of the long nineteenth century. She was elected member of learned societies in various parts of the world; and served as a special delegate or representative to international expositions. It was, however, as an observer and especially as a writer, that Wright gained her fame. Her books were written about Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Mexico. These volumes were generous octavos, well illustrated, and filled with facts gathered chiefly from authoritative sources or confirmed by her own observations. They ran through more than one edition, and were esteemed in the countries they described. She was a contemporary of Nellie Bly. Wright died in 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercedes Leigh</span> American actress

Mercedes Leigh was an American actress. She was widely known by her stage name, Mercedes Leigh, which she chose when she began her professional career. Her contemporaries were Mary Haviland Sutton and Mary C. Francis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nellie Marie Burns</span> American actor and poet

Nellie Marie Burns was a 19th-century American actor and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Straub</span> American temperance worker (1838–1898)

Maria Straub was an American writer of prose, poetry, and hymns. She was best known for writing nearly 200 hymns, all of which were set to music by American composers. She was also a contributor to a number of journals. She was an ardent worker in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and, although she suffered from poor health, Straub wielded an important influence through her songs and writings.

References

  1. Willard & Livermore 1897, p. 639.
  2. "Women Who Read - The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies". www.rockwell-center.org. 11 February 2013. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  3. 1 2 Willard & Livermore 1897, pp. 639–40.
  4. Foulke, Patricia; Foulke, Robert (November 1, 2014). "Joshua's Rock, Home of the Seelye-Eggleston Family" . Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  5. New York State Historical Association 1924, p. 76.

Attribution

Bibliography