Edith Minturn Stokes(June 20, 1867 - June 12, 1937) was an American philanthropist, artistic muse and socialite during theGilded Age.
Edith Minturn Stokes | |
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| Born | Edith Minturn June 20, 1867 |
| Died | June 12, 1937(aged 69) Manhattan,New York City,U.S. |
| Spouse | Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes(m. 1895) |
| Children | Helen Phelps Stokes (adopted daughter) |
| Parent(s) | Robert Bowne Minturn Jr. Suzannah Shaw |
| Relatives | Robert Bowne Minturn(paternal grandfather) Robert Gould Shaw(maternal uncle) Henry Dwight Sedgwick(brother-in-law) Amos Pinchot(brother-in-law) Rosamond Pinchot(niece) Edie Sedgwick(grand-niece) |
Early life and family background
editEdith Minturn was born on June 20, 1867, inWest Brighton,Staten Island,New York.She was the third child and second daughter of the shipping magnateRobert Bowne Minturn Jr.(1836-1889) and his wife Susannah Shaw (1839-1926). The Minturn family was well connected both politically, and with other prominent families via marriage. Her uncle,Robert Gould Shaw,was killed while commanding the nation’s first all-black regiment.[1]
Minturn was educated at home, with music and French lessons, and went on a Grand Tour of Europe, as was expected of society women.[2]
Minturn had several siblings. Her brother Robert Shaw Minturn married Bertha Howard Potter, granddaughter of BishopAlonzo Potter,niece ofHenry Codman Potter,and great-granddaughter ofEliphalet Nott.[3]Her sister Sarah May Minturn marriedHenry Dwight Sedgwick.They were grandparents ofEdie Sedgwickand great-grandparents ofKyra Sedgwick.Their son Robert Minturn Sedgwick married Helen Peabody, daughter ofEndicott Peabody.[4]Her sister Mildred Scott married Arthur Hugh Scott, the headmaster of a French boarding school for boys.[3]They eventually relocated to England. Her sister Gertrude Minturn marriedAmos Richard Eno Pinchot.[3]They had two children, one of whom,Rosamond Pinchot,was an actress famed mostly for her great beauty.[5]
Philanthropy and artistic muse
edit
She was the President of the New York Kindergarten Association,[6]ran a sewing school for immigrant women, and was a benefactor ofSt. George's Churchin New York City.
Edith Minturn Stokes began modelling by participating in the then popular pastime known astableaux vivants;she was spotted at these and became a model forDaniel Chester Frenchin his Greenwich Village atelier.[7]
So it was that she posed for his sculptureThe Republic,which was a centerpiece of the Court of Honor of theColumbian Exposition of 1893inChicago.It was a 65-foot-high (20 m) plaster statue covered in gold leaf, and with an illuminated crown. The sculpture was decommissioned and deliberately destroyed in 1896 and the sculptor was commissioned to produce a smaller version, theStatue of the Republic,a 24-foot-tall (7.3 m) gilded bronze sculpture that was erected in 1918 and still stands.[8]
Peter Mariéaccumulated a collection of watercolor-on-ivory miniatures of society beauties, and she was one of those he selected. These are now on display at theNew-York Historical SocietyMuseum.[9]
John Singer Sargent’s portraitMr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokesis on display in the American Wing of theMetropolitan Museum of Art.[8][10]
Personal life
editOn 25 August 1895, at Pointe-á-Pic, Quebec, she marriedIsaac Newton Phelps Stokes(1867-1944).[11]
The couple had no biological children, but in 1908 adopted a 3 year old girl, Helen, a daughter of Raj Lieutenant Colonel Maldion Byron Bicknell and his wife Mildred Bax-Ironside, who did not want to raise children in India, where they were stationed.[12]Helen married twice, first in 1928 to Edwin Katte Merrill, and had two daughters and two sons. Her second husband was Donald Bush. Helen died in 2004.[13]
Edith suffered from a series of strokes in late life, and died on June 12, 1937, in her home at 953Fifth Avenue,New York City.[6]
References
edit- ^Zimmerman, Jean (2012),Love, fiercely: a gilded age romance,Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p.55,ISBN978-0-15-101447-7
- ^Zimmerman, Jean (2012),Love, fiercely: a gilded age romance,Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p.97,ISBN978-0-15-101447-7,
From the end of Edith's adolescence on, Susanna [her mother] ruled alone over the four girls and their two brothers. She disallowed all the girls but the youngest, Mildred, from obtaining the higher education that was just then becoming available to privileged women. All the Minturn daughters were expected to be literate, of course, as well as lovely, but that goal was to be accomplished thorough private tutoring and the attentions of their parents.
- ^abcZimmerman, Jean (2012),Love, fiercely: a gilded age romance,Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p.299,ISBN978-0-15-101447-7
- ^"Edie Sedgwick Warhol Star, 28".New York Times.November 23, 1971.RetrievedDecember 8,2021.
- ^Gaston, Bibi (2009),The Loveliest Woman in America: A Memoir,New York: Harper Perennial
- ^ab"Mrs. I. N. P. Stokes Dies at Her Home"(PDF),The New York Times,New York, New York, 13 June 1937,retrieved2 August2015
- ^Zimmerman, Jean (2012),Love, fiercely: a gilded age romance,Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p.110,ISBN978-0-15-101447-7
- ^abMorrone, Francis (1997),"The Ghost of Monsieur Stokes",City Journal(August), New York: The Manhattan Institute, archived fromthe originalon 3 March 2016,retrieved2 August2015
- ^"Edith Minturn (ca. 1869-1937)".New-York Historical Society Museum & Library.New-York Historical Society.Retrieved2 August2015.
- ^Heyman, Stephen (23 March 2012),"The Haves Who Gave",The New York Times Magazine,New York, New York,retrieved2 August2015
- ^"Marriage of Miss Edith Minturn"(PDF),The New York Times,New York, New York, 22 August 1895,retrieved2 August2015
- ^Zimmerman, Jean (2012),Love, fiercely: a gilded age romance,Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p.337,ISBN978-0-15-101447-7
- ^Zimmerman, Jean (2012),Love, fiercely: a gilded age romance,Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p.503,ISBN978-0-15-101447-7