Reminiscences of a Long Life.
New York: F. E. Parrish, 1894. Hardcover. The reminiscences of the wife of Jonathan Sturges (1802 - 1874) of the New York merchant firm of Reed & Sturges, who became an art collector, commissioning work from notable American artists such as Asher Durand, and establishing exhibition galleries in New York. Sturges commissioned Durand to paint 'Kindred Spirits', which depicts Thomas Cole and William Cullen Bryant in the Catskills, and is considered to be the defining work of the Hudson River School.
Mary Pemberton Cady Sturges (1806 - 1894) grew up in New London and Plainfield Connecticut, and recalls life in Washington and New York during a life time which encompassed events such as the War of 1812, the New York cholera epidemic, the 1835 Manhattan Fire, the building of their home in Fairfield (the "Cottage"), and work at the Sanitary Fair in 1864 to raise funds for the benefit of wounded Civil War soldiers.
8vo, frontispiece, 245pp. Cream gilt cloth. A bit sunned at spine; internally, previous owner bookplate. OCLC cites electronic holdings only. Very good overall. Item #21564
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