Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (18091871), one of the famous Peabody sisters of Salem and later Nathaniel Hawthornes wife, was an accomplished artist and illustrator. On June 14, 1853, friend and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow held a farewell dinner party at his Cambridge home. Sophia kept a journal on that trip which included her drawings, such as The Ceyba Tree of Cuba. Her Cuba Journal was a description of the people and landscape of Cuba. Only three, the journal American Literary Scholarship, Pearson 1971, and Sterling 1997 are reasonably convenient to access. She sold two works titled Scenery near Bristol, in England for a total of sixty dollars at that fair. Composed by my wife and written with her diamond Hawthorne was in failing health in his final years, but in May 1864 he took a trip to the White Mountains with his friend and former U.S. president Franklin Pierce. In 1864, Nathaniel Hawthorne took a trip to the White Mountains with his friend, Franklin Pierce. Provides useful annual surveys of new critical and biographical literature, including sections on Nathaniel Hawthorne, early-19th-century literature, and transcendentalism that have encompassed work on Sophia Peabody Hawthorne in recent years, especially since 1999. . While some thought that Hawthorne's connection was with Elizabeth, who published three of his children's stories, he was drawn to Sophia. Una wrote to Julian that their mothers grave was on a sunny hillside looking towards the east We had a head and footstone of white marble, with a place for flowers between, and Rose and I planted some ivy there that I had brought from America, and a periwinkle from papas grave. Some have speculated that he knew he was ill and wanted to spare his wife; in any case, he died on that trip, with Pierce at his side. In a letter to her sister Elizabeth, she wrote of her art, What do you think I have actually begun to do? She was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London on March 4. The familys circle also expanded to include such luminaries as Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson. "[14], The Hawthornes' first child was born March 3, 1844, after a difficult 10-hour delivery. On the first anniversary of their wedding day, the Hawthornes addressed love letters to each other within the diary. In the first entry, Sophia wrote with joy of the arrival of their first child, Una. Later that year Sophia and the girls moved back to England where Sophia became ill with typhoid pneumonia in February 1871. [24], Few of Sophia's letters from her courtship and early marriage survive. [21] In March, 1846, Sophia moved to 77 Carver Street in Boston to be closer to family and Dr. William Wesselhft while pregnant with her second child. New and used Paintings for sale in Cape Town, Western Cape on Facebook Marketplace. She threatened to sue publisher James Thomas Fields for not paying enough in royalties from book sales. Sophia, wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne is the simple inscription which marks the grave of a woman remembered for her marriage to one of the foremost men in American letters. A funeral was held for the familys descendants and a public ceremony was held at The Old Manse to mark the occasion. Sophia also suffered a bout of ill health again, brought on by the stress of her daughters illness, and in May 1859 the family spent some time in England at a resort in hopes of finding relief. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016. (They had probably seen each other as children, as well, living about a block apart.) [4], Sophia first met Nathaniel Hawthorne through her sister, Elizabeth. Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne. She took up drawing and painting in 1829, and was an accomplished artist before her marriage to author Nathaniel Hawthorne. endobj [3] When doctors pronounced Sophia had no discernible illness, she sought the "rest therapy". Many of her early works include reproductions of artworks of the time, but eventually, she . Nathaniel Hawthorne borrowed a copy from the Peabody home in 1837, and likely used some of the descriptions in his own stories. On May 18, 1864, they arrived in Plymouth, New Hampshire; Nathaniel Hawthorne died in his sleep that night. During this time his mother died, and Hawthorne announced his wish to leave Salem, which he called that abominable city, saying that he now had no reason to remain. At the Old Manse, the young couple became part of Concord life (the Emersons, Thoreaus, and Alcotts lived nearby) and had the first of three children; Nathaniel wrote short stories, while Sophia largely set aside her professional aspirations as an artist, embracing the roles of wife and mother with a passion that would define her well into the 20th century. Mary served as a governess with the Morell family in Havana, Cuba, while Sophia read, wrote and painted. Her sister Elizabeth educated Sophia, focusing on geography, science, literature and both American and European history; eventually, she learned to read in Latin, French, Greek and Hebrew; she knew some German, as well. American Transcendentalist, Writer, Artist, Wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Known for: publishing notebooks of her husband, Nathaniel Hawthorne; one of the Peabody sistersOccupation: painter, writer, educator, journal writer, artist, illustratorDates: September 21, 1809 - February 26, 1871Also known as: Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne. "A rainy daya rainy day," begins Nathaniel's first entry in their joint diary, "and I do verily believe there is no sunshine in this world, except what beams from my wife's eyes." In 1809, Sophia Amelia Peabody was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to an old and distinguished New England family, the third of seven children. [20], The family was soon kicked out of the Old Manse, left with only 10 dollars. Their only child died in 1881, and the marriage was not happy. It was on this occasion that Sophia first met Nathaniel Hawthorne. In 1860, the Hawthornes moved back to America. The events of 1692 in Salem haunted him his great-grandfather John Hathorne was the only judge involved in the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 who never repented of his actions. (4) Sophia's artistic and literary oeuvre clearly extended beyond copies, even though the arc of her professional career began and ended with copying. Like Hawthorne, Sophia was a reclusive person. Care for the graves of Sophia and Una fell to this organization. With his firing, Hawthorne turned to full-time writing, turning out his first novel, The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850. A talent not only for writing but also for visual art emerged, and after the Peabodys moved to Boston, Sophia began informal apprenticeships with such prominent painters as Washington Allston and Thomas Doughty. [38] Later, she tutored her daughter Rose in art. On her return, she privately distributed her "Cuba Journal" to friends and family. After Nathaniel's death, Sophia blotted out some of her own words in the notebook as she prepared her husband's journals for publication, but she left enough of herself uncensored that her soaring voice remained present.As the seasons passed, the Hawthornes marked them together. This is the only house the Hawthornes ever owned. [6], Sophia had originally objected to marriage, partly because of her health. ", When their first notebook was full, the Hawthornes began anotherthis one taller and narrower, but with a similar cover. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909. Image: Nathaniel Hawthorne by Charles Osgood, 1841. Una eventually recovered, but never completely regained her health. Get the latest business insights from Dun & Bradstreet. However, she deserves to be remembered among the earliest women in American painting.. Sophia fell apart, and Una and Julian had to make the arrangements for the funeral. Julian left to attend school away from home, visiting sometimes on weekends. Franklin Pierce sent word to Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, who notified Sophia of her husbands death. <> Of course, she was overshadowed by him, -- but she was a singularly accomplished woman, with a great gift of expression.". Dates / Origin Date Created: 1859-01-01 - 1859-12-31 Nathaniel considered moving to Boston, noting I am really at a loss to imagine how we are to squeeze ourselves into that little old cottage of mine. The income from his consulship did not bring as much money as Hawthorne had predicted and reception to The Marble Faun was not positive. Our collection holds materials related to Sophia and the Peabody family, including correspondence, paintings, illustrations, and other works. Sophia Peabody Hawthorne. Her . Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. Sophia Amelia Hawthorne (ne Peabody; September 21, 1809 February 26, 1871) was an American painter and illustrator as well as the wife of author Nathaniel Hawthorne. She had difficulty breathing and was cared for by her daughters. The next year Sophia and the girls moved to England. One possible cause was a fashionable treatment her dentist father prescribed for her teething pains that included mercury. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909. The family then moved in May to Lenox, Massachusetts, where their third child, a daughter, Rose, was born in 1851. A wedding was scheduled for June 27, 1842, but was postponed when Sophia fell ill.[9] On July 9, 1842, five years after first meeting, she and Nathaniel were married at 13 West Street in Boston, the Peabody bookstore where Margaret Fuller held some of her "conversations". She had three brothers; her sisters were Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, later Horace Mann's wife. [1] Peabody's father was the dentist Nathaniel Peabody, while her mother was the strong Unitarian Elizabeth Palmer. )2*Lgo\5\I,SV]e/;~=4H p_=5NNox_qywL'y_,8r(DCrC+z[( @EPO M] ~90' -|dG2c. While she was in Cuba, a landscape Sophia painted was exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum, an unusual accomplishment for a woman. https://www.thoughtco.com/sophia-peabody-hawthorne-biogaphy-3530589 (accessed May 1, 2023). Under the particular tutelage of eldest sister Elizabethwho would become an education reformer, transcendentalist, and publishershe read widely across such fields as history, theology, literature, art, science, and philosophy, acquiring a lifelong habit of self-education. The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives, Syndicate records of the Morgan financial firms, 18821933, A Dark and Stormy Night: Charlotte Bront, Dear Diary, Dear Beloved: Frances Eliza Grenfell, Diary of a Marriage: Sophia and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Spinning and Sausage-making: Elizabeth Eastman Morgan, Niagara Honeymoon: Mary Ann and Septimus Palairet, Final Years of a Full Life: Sir Walter Scott, Sex, Drugs, and Ennui: Tennessee Williams, Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Claude Gillot: Satire in the Age of Reason, Entrance to the Mind: Drawings by George Condo in the Morgan Library & Museum, Uncommon Denominator: Nina Katchadourian at the Morgan, In and around Piranesi's Rome: Eighteenth-Century Views of Italy, Into the Woods: French Drawings and Photographs from the Karen B. Cohen Gift, Nora Thompson Dean: Lenape Teacher and Herbalist, Seeds of Knowledge: Early Modern Illustrated Herbals, Spirit and Invention: Drawings by Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo, Ferdinand Hodler: DrawingsSelections from the Muse Jenisch Vevey, Blaise Cendrars (18871961): Poetry Is Everything, Bridget Riley Drawings: From the Artists Studio, Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian's Legacy.