Ethan Allen Greenwood

Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856) was a lawyer,[1] portrait painter, and entrepreneurial museum proprietor in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 19th century.[2] He established the New England Museum in 1818.

Contents

Biography

E.A. Greenwood was born in Hubbardston, Massachusetts. He attended school at the Academy at New Salem, and the Leicester Academy.[3] In 1806 he graduated from Dartmouth College. He also studied at West Point.[4]

Between 1801 and 1825, Greenwood produced many portraits, perhaps as many as 800 works. He utilized the physiognotrace technique.[5] He kept a studio in Boston, ca.1813; and associated with other artists, including Gilbert Stuart.[6] He joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1814.[7] He married Caroline Carter Warren in 1829. Around this time he became active in public and business affairs of Hubbardston.

Throughout his life, Greenwood kept a diary. On reviewing some of the diary entries, one scholar observes: "[he] each day recorded both the weather and the title of the book he was reading ... and occasionally noted the library from which the volume was borrowed—the Adelphi Fraternity Library, the Social Friends Library [of Dartmouth College], or the unnamed circulating library he joined in 1806.[8] His diaries now reside in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society.[4] Entries from 1824 capture the details of Greenwood's life as a museum director:

"June 1st, 1824. A Mermaid arrived here last week & I agreed to exhibit it. Busy setting up Shark. -- 2nd. Purchased some Indian Curiosities. -- 3rd. Bought four figures of an Italian $4.00. -- 5th. Bought four Busts of Voltaire, filling up jars of reptiles.... -- 7th. Artillery Election good run of business & in the eve a 'Glorious House' $342.75. Best day since the Museum began. -- 10th. Bought a young Shark."[9]

The New England Museum enjoyed considerable popularity. Greenwood also established museum branches in Portland, Maine, and Providence, Rhode Island. However around 1834-1839 he experienced financial difficulties, and as a result "his assignees conveyed the collections [of the New England Museum] to Moses Kimball."[10] Kimball would then found the Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts, a theatre and exhibit hall, featuring a portion of Greenwood's collection; Kimball sold the other portion of Greenwood's collection to a museum effort in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1840.[11][12]

See also

References

  1. ^ William Thomas Davis. Bench and bar of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Boston History Company, 1895; p.326.
  2. ^ Greenwood, Ethan Allen (1779-1856). The Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. London: Routledge, 2003.
  3. ^ Walter Watkins. The New England Museum and the home of art in Boston. Bostonian Society, 1911.
  4. ^ a b http://www.americanantiquarian.org
  5. ^ http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/bellion.html
  6. ^ Encyclopedia of American Folk Art.
  7. ^ Zachariah Gardner Whitman. The history of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 2nd ed. J.H. Eastburn, Printer, 1842; p.385.
  8. ^ Cathy N. Davidson. Revolution and the word: The rise of the novel in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986; p.3..
  9. ^ Extracts from the Journals of Ethan A. Greenwood: Portrait Painter and Museum Proprietor. Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 103, part 1, (April 1993); quoted in: Robert M. Lewis. From traveling show to vaudeville: theatrical spectacle in America, 1830-1910. JHU Press, 2003; p.24.
  10. ^ Watkins 1911
  11. ^ Museums in Boston. Essex Institute historical collections, v.34. Essex Institute, 1898; p.21.
  12. ^ Charles Cowley. History of Lowell. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1868.

Further reading