- Clara Endicott Sears
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Clara Endicott Sears (1863–1960) was a New England author, preservationist, and philanthropist.
Contents
Biography
Sears was born to a wealthy, Yankee family in Boston, Massachusetts in 1863. Her parents were Knyvet Winthrop and Mary Crowninshield (Peabody) Sears. Sears was educated at private schools in Boston and by tutors in Europe. She authored several romantic work and later authored many historical tracts.[1]
In 1910 Sears purchased a summer estate in Harvard, Massachusetts, which included the buildings that were part of a failed Transcendentalist community known as the Fruitlands. After restoring the property, Sears opened the buildings as the Fruitlands Museum in 1914. When the nearby Shaker community in Harvard closed in 1917, Sears bought 1794 office building from the Harvard Shaker Village and moved it to her property. Sears also worked with Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University in acquiring a Native American collection to display at the museum. She donated her collection of Hudson River School paintings and other America folk art to the museum.[2]
Sears served as a trustee of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) and was awarded a gold medal by the National Society of New England Women in 1942. She was a member of the Colonial Dames of America, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and Society of Mayflower Descendants.[3]
Clara Endicott Sears died in Boston in 1960. She remained unmarried throughout her life.[4]
Works by Clara Endicott Sears
- Prentice Mulford’s Works (compiled) (1913)
- The Power Within , writings of various New Thought authors (compiled) (1914)
- Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands (Houghton Mifflin, 1915)
- The bell-ringer: an old-time village tale (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918)
- Peace Anthem (1919)
- The romance of Fiddler's green (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922)
- Days of Delusions , a history of the Millerites (1924)
- The Great Powwow (1934)
- Wind from the Hills (1935)
- Some American Primitives (1941)
- Highlights Among the Hudson River Artists (1947)
- Snapshots from Old Registers (taken from the registers of 1880–1900 of the Hotel Vendome in Boston) (1955)
- Early Personal Reminiscences in the Old George Peabody Mansion in Salem (1956).
- Gleanings from Old Shaker Journals (Kessinger Publishing, 2003) ISBN 0766180050, 9780766180055
See also
References
- ^ Cynthia H. Barton, History's Daughter: The Life of Clara Endicott Sears Founder of Fruitlands Museums (CLB Publications, 1988) (ISBN 9780941632027)
- ^ Cynthia H. Barton, History's Daughter: The Life of Clara Endicott Sears Founder of Fruitlands Museums (CLB Publications, 1988) (ISBN 9780941632027)
- ^ Cynthia H. Barton, History's Daughter: The Life of Clara Endicott Sears Founder of Fruitlands Museums (CLB Publications, 1988) (ISBN 9780941632027)
- ^ Cynthia H. Barton, History's Daughter: The Life of Clara Endicott Sears Founder of Fruitlands Museums (CLB Publications, 1988) (ISBN 9780941632027)
External links
Categories:- American philanthropists
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