The
lands of the First Mountain Forest have been part of the Whitney Farm since
purchase of the land by Anne Whitney in 1883. While the original 225
acres are now in three separate ownerships, the land is still described locally
as the Whitney Farm, and the mail address is simply "Whitney Farm,
North Road, Shelburne". If you have read the First Mountain History, you
already realize the important position that Anne Whitney held in Shelburne
society, but are probably not aware that she also held a position of prominence
on both the American and international scenes as well.
Anne Whitney was born in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1821 to gentleman farmer Nathaniel Whitney and his wife Sarah Stone Whitney. They were from well to do families and were very able to support young Anne in her interest in the arts. Their liberal Unitarian upbringing instilled in Anne her feelings for the abolitionist movement and a belief in the equality of women. Because she was a woman however, she received her education from home tutors and was not able to attend the nearby Harvard or Yale universities. She did attend a select ladies school in Maine and soon thereafter opened her own school in Salem, Massachusetts.
During those early years, Anne earned a reputation throughout New England as a serious writer and was published frequently in Harpers and the Atlantic Monthly magazines. She was a friend and contemporary of Ralph Waldo Emerson and had a collection of her works published in 1859 with the simple title "Poems". While pursuing her literary career, she also became interested in sculpture around 1855. At that period of time, women were encouraged to pursue water-colors to express their artistic bent, and sculpting of clay or carving of stone was considered to be a man's skill.
Anne's early sculptures were of family and friends, and after studying with the renowned William Rimmer for two years, she created her first life sized sculpture in 1862, titled Lady Godiva. That work was shown in Boston and New York and earned her considerable exposure. She continued her work in America and in 1867 began study in Rome, Paris, and London with a colony of American female artists who were then described by novelist Henry James as "The White Marmorean Flock". That group of women artists and sculptors greatly influenced American art for a considerable period of time.
Anne
returned to America in 1871 and opened her own studio in Louisburg Square
in Boston. Her works continued to receive acclaim in both Europe and America
and are now in renowned collections worldwide. Many of her works were
modeled by the most prominent citizens of her period. The statue of
Samuel Adams (pictured at left) was given by the state of Massachusetts to
the U.S. Capitol in 1876. That marble statue is now located in the
east central hall in the National Statuary Hall collection in the Capitol.
Charlotte Rubinstein's "American Women Sculptors" noted that Anne was driven by a passion for social justice which informed all her work and that she "abandoned the conventional marble neo-classicism of mid-nineteenth-century American sculpture for naturalistic bronzes that carry the messages of abolitionism, equality, and feminism".
While Anne Whitney was well known as a sculptress, and to a lesser degree as a poet, she was also very successful as an illustrator. Her illustrations appeared in Sara Orne Jewett's "Farmer Finch" and in the works of other turn of the century writers. She had a very close association with Wellesley College in Massachusetts and many of her works and personal writings are found in the college's collections.
While practicing her art throughout her life, Anne continued to be very active in the women's movement and was a close friend of famous feminist leader Lucy Stone. Throughout her life Anne Whitney remained extensively involved in social causes and was considered a fire-brand for those causes. She was an early leader in the conservation movement and brought those efforts to her own farm property at Shelburne, New Hampshire, where she enjoyed spending her summers during her later years. She led a very active and productive life and died at Boston in 1915 at the age of 93.
Below are described a few of Anne Whitney's works and their locations today.
WORK |
YEAR | LOCATION |
| Marble Bust of "Laura Brown" | 1859 |
National Museum of Art |
| Marble Statue titled "Lady Godiva" | 1862 |
Private Collection, Dallas, Texas |
| Monumental Plaster Statue titled "Africa" | 1864 |
Destroyed by Artist |
| Plaster Statue titled "Lotus Eater" | 1867 |
Newark Museum |
| Bronze Bust titled "Le Modele" | 1875 |
Boston Museum of Fine Art |
| Bronze Statue of "Samuel Adams" | 1875 |
Faneuil Hall, Dock Square, Boston |
| Marble Statue of "Samuel Adams" | 1875 |
Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol Art Collection |
| Marble Statue of "William Lloyd Garrison" | 1878 |
Smith College |
| Marble Statue of "Harriet Martineau" | 1883 |
Destroyed by Fire at Wellesley College |
| Plaster Bust of "Harriet Martineau" | 1883 |
Private Collection |
| Bronze Statue of "Leif Ericson" | 1885 |
Commonwealth Avenue, Boston |
| Marble Bust of "Eben Norton Horsford" | 1891 |
Wellesley College |
| Bust of "Lucy Stone" | 1892 |
Boston Public Library |
| Bronze Statue of "Charles Sumner" | 1902 |
Harvard Square, Cambridge |
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