Elizabeth F. Ellet
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet (October 18, 1818 – June 3, 1877) was an American writer, historian and poet. She was the first writer to record the lives of women who contributed to the American Revolutionary War
.
Born Elizabeth Fries Lummis, in New York, she published her first book, Poems, Translated and Original, in 1835. She married the chemist William Henry Ellet and the couple moved to South Carolina. She had published several books and contributed to multiple journals. In 1845 she moved back to New York and took her place in the literary scene there. She was involved with a public scandal involving Edgar Allan Poe
and Frances Sargent Osgood
and, later, another involving Rufus Wilmot Griswold
. Ellet's most important work, The Women of the American Revolution, was published in 1845. The three volume book profiled the lives of patriotic women in the early history of the United States. She continued writing until her death in 1877.
, on October 18, 1818. Her mother was Sarah Maxwell
(1780–1849) the daughter of American Revolutionary War
captain John Maxwell
. During the Revolution, John Maxwell was lieutenant of the first company raised in Sussex County, New Jersey
, he was promoted to captain, and attached to the Second Regiment Hunterdon County Militia. He was also a captain in Colonel Spencer's regiment of the Continental Army, from February 7, 1777, to April 11, 1778. He later joined the Army of General George Washington
as captain of a company of 100 volunteers known as "Maxwell's Company.
Her father was William Nixon Lummis (1775–1833), a prominent doctor who studied medicine in Philadelphia under the famous physician Dr. Benjamin Rush
. In the early part of 1800, Dr. Lummis left Philadelphia and purchased the Pulteney estate
in Sodus Point
, Wayne County, New York
. Elizabeth Lummis attended Aurora Female Seminary in Aurora, New York
, where she studied, among other subjects, French, German, and Italian. Her first published work, at age 16, was a translation of Silvio Pellico's
Euphemio of Messina.
. He graduated from Columbia College
in New York and earned a gold medal for a dissertation on the compounds of cyanogen
. The couple moved to Columbia, South Carolina
, when he was made professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at South Carolina College in 1836. He also discovered a new and inexpensive method of preparing guncotton, for which the state of South Carolina presented him with a service of silver plate.
During this time Ellet published several books. In 1839 she wrote The Characters of Schiller, a critical essay on the writer Friedrich Schiller
including her translation of many of his poems. She wrote Scenes in the Life of Joanna of Sicily, a history of the life styles of female nobility, and Rambles about the Country, a lively description of the scenery she had observed in her travels through the United States, in 1840. She continued writing poems, translations, and essays on European literature which she contributed to the American Monthly, the North American Review, the Southern Literary Messenger
, the Southern Quarterly Review, and other periodicals. Ellet wrote abundantly in a wide variety of genres.
In 1845, Ellet left her husband in the south, moving back to New York City where she resumed her place as a member of literary society along with such writers as Margaret Fuller
, Anne Lynch Botta
, Edgar Allan Poe
, Rufus Wilmot Griswold
, Anna Cora Mowatt
and Frances Sargent Osgood
.
". A number of women in literary society sent him letters, including Ellet and Osgood. Some of the letters sent may have been flirtatious or amorous ones. Ellet also spent time with Poe discussing literary matters. It is possible that Ellet felt herself in competition with Osgood for Poe's affections. During this time Poe had written several poems to and about Osgood, including "A Valentine".
On one visit to Poe's home in January 1846, Ellet allegedly observed letters from Osgood, shown to her by Poe's wife Virginia
, and subsequently advised Osgood to ask for their return, implying to Osgood that they were an indiscretion. On behalf of Osgood, Margaret Fuller
and Anne Lynch Botta
asked Poe to return the letters. Poe, angered by their interference, suggested that Ellet had better "look after her own letters". One such letter, written in German, asked Poe to "call for it at her residence this evening", a phrase presumably meant to be seductive, though Poe either ignored it or did not understand its meaning. He then gathered up these letters from Ellet and left them at her house. Despite her letters having been returned, Ellet asked her brother "to demand of me the letters". Her brother, Colonel William Lummis, did not believe that Poe had already returned them and threatened to kill him. In order to defend himself, Poe requested a pistol from Thomas Dunn English
, who did not believe that Ellet ever sent Poe any letters.
Osgood's husband, Samuel Stillman Osgood
, threatened to sue Ellet unless she formally apologized. She retracted her statements in a letter to Osgood saying, "The letter shown me by Mrs Poe must have been a forgery created by Poe himself". She put all the blame on Poe, suggesting the incident was because Poe was "intemperate and subject to acts of lunacy." The rumor that Poe was insane was spread by Ellet and by other enemies of Poe and eventually reported in newspapers. After Osgood reunited with her husband, the scandal died down. Poe's sick wife Virginia, however, was deeply affected by the scandal. She had been receiving anonymous letters, possibly from Ellet, which reported her husband's alleged indiscretions as early as July 1845. On her deathbed Virginia claimed "Mrs. E. had been her murderer." As Poe described years later, "I scorned Mrs. E simply because she revolted me, and to this day she has never ceased her anonymous persecutions." It is believed that Poe wrote the short story "Hop-Frog
" as a literary revenge on Ellet.
Around 1846, Ellet began a major project in historical writing: to profile the life stories of women who sacrificed for, and were committed to, the American Revolution. She did this by searching out unpublished letters and diaries, and by interviewing descendants of Revolutionary era and frontier women, becoming the first historian of the Revolution to carry out such an effort. She noted the "abundance of materials for the [masculine] history of action" and attempted to add balance by telling the feminine side, referring to the founding "mothers" as giving "nurture in the domestic sanctuary of that love of civil liberty which afterwards kindled into a flame and shed light on the world".
She found so much information about female patriots that the first edition of The Women of the American Revolution (1848) had to be published in two volumes. These volumes were well received and a third volume of additional material was published in 1850. Later historians consider these volumes represent her most important work. Ellet also authored Domestic History of the American Revolution summarizing the same material in narrative form, and also published in 1850.
Ellet told the stories of women from every colony and from all ranks of society, with the exception of African Americans whose role she chose to ignore. Some of the women she wrote about, such as Martha Washington
, Abigail Adams
, Mercy Otis Warren
and Ann Eliza Bleecker
, among others, were famous in their own right. She also wrote of the women who were more obscure but equally valuable: the wives of heroes who, in the face of British encroachment, bravely raised children and defended their homes. She wrote, "It is almost impossible now to appreciate the vast influence of woman's patriotism upon the destinies of the infant republic."
Anthologist and critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold
had aided Ellet in the production of the book and granted her access to the records of the New York Historical Society, of which he was a member. She did not acknowledge his assistance, angering the vindictive Griswold. In a review Griswold said, "with the assistance of a few gentlemen more familiar than herself with our public and domestic experience, she has made a valuable and interesting work."
Now an established and respected author, Ellet went on to write Family Pictures from the Bible in 1849. In 1850, she wrote Evenings at Woodlawn, a collection of German legends and traditions and Domestic History of the American Revolution, possibly the only history of the American Revolution told from the perspective of both men and women. From 1851 to 1857 she wrote Watching Spirits, Pioneer Women of the West, Novelettes of the Musicians and Summer Rambles in the West. This book was inspired by a boating trip along the Minnesota River
in 1852. The local town, Eden Prairie, Minnesota
, got its name from Ellet and has dedicated a nature trail in her honor.
In 1857, Ellet published a 600-page encyclopedia of American home economics entitled The Practical Housekeeper. The guide, which seemed to target middle to upper class readers, was organized into three parts: cooking, housekeeping and pharmaceutical concerns. Its contents included thousands of recipes and advice with references to philosophers, scientists, and ancient civilizations. There were also five hundred wood-engraved illustrations. She wrote in the preface "No complete system of Domestic Economy, within the limits of a convenient manual, has been published in this country."
Later works included Women Artists in All Ages and Countries (1859), the first book of its kind to represent a history of women artists. She wroteThe Queens of American Society (1867), and Court Circles of the Republic (1869), a look at the social life of eighteen presidents from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant
.
In 1850, Ellet and her husband relocated to New York, where he spent his final years as a chemical consultant for the Manhattan Gas Company
.
Ellet became involved with the divorce case between Rufus Griswold and his second wife, Charlotte Myers, in 1852. Ellet and Ann S. Stephens
wrote to Myers telling her not to allow the divorce, as well as to Harriet McCrillis, who intended to marry Griswold after the divorce, to end her relationship with him. After it was granted, Ellet and Stephens continued writing to Myers and convinced her to repeal the divorce on September 23, 1853. On February 24, 1856, the appeal went to court, with Ellet and Stephens providing lengthy testimony against Griswold's character. Neither Griswold nor Myers attended and the appeal was dismissed. When Griswold died in 1857, Sarah Anna Lewis, a friend and writer, suggested that Ellet had worsened Griswold's illness and that she "goaded Griswold to his death".
In 1857 Ellet replaced Ann Stephens
as literary editor of the New York Evening Express. Ellet's husband died two years later in 1859. She continued to write, and although they had no children, she promoted charities for impoverished women and children by speaking in public to raise funds. An Episcopalian most of her life, she converted to Catholicism
in her later years. She died of Bright's disease
in New York City on June 3, 1877, and was buried beside her husband at Green-Wood Cemetery
in Brooklyn
.
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
.
Born Elizabeth Fries Lummis, in New York, she published her first book, Poems, Translated and Original, in 1835. She married the chemist William Henry Ellet and the couple moved to South Carolina. She had published several books and contributed to multiple journals. In 1845 she moved back to New York and took her place in the literary scene there. She was involved with a public scandal involving Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
and Frances Sargent Osgood
Frances Sargent Osgood
Frances Sargent Osgood was an American poet and one of the most popular women writers during her time...
and, later, another involving Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere. He built up a strong literary reputation, in part due to his 1842...
. Ellet's most important work, The Women of the American Revolution, was published in 1845. The three volume book profiled the lives of patriotic women in the early history of the United States. She continued writing until her death in 1877.
Early life
Elizabeth Fries Lummis was born in Sodus Point, New YorkSodus Point, New York
Sodus Point is a village in Wayne County, New York, United States. The population was 1,160 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from a nearby body of water, Sodus Bay. It is considered within the larger Rochester metropolitan area....
, on October 18, 1818. Her mother was Sarah Maxwell
(1780–1849) the daughter of American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
captain John Maxwell
John Maxwell
John Maxwell may refer to:*John Maxwell, 4th Lord Maxwell , Scottish nobleman and head of the Border family of Maxwell*John Maxwell , Scottish prelate, Archbishop of Tuam, Bishop of Ross...
. During the Revolution, John Maxwell was lieutenant of the first company raised in Sussex County, New Jersey
Sussex County, New Jersey
The County of Sussex is the northernmost county in the State of New Jersey. It is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 Federal decennial census, 149,265 persons resided in Sussex County...
, he was promoted to captain, and attached to the Second Regiment Hunterdon County Militia. He was also a captain in Colonel Spencer's regiment of the Continental Army, from February 7, 1777, to April 11, 1778. He later joined the Army of General George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
as captain of a company of 100 volunteers known as "Maxwell's Company.
Her father was William Nixon Lummis (1775–1833), a prominent doctor who studied medicine in Philadelphia under the famous physician Dr. Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania....
. In the early part of 1800, Dr. Lummis left Philadelphia and purchased the Pulteney estate
The Pulteney Association
The Pulteney Association was a purchaser in 1792 of a large portion of the Western New York land tract known as the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. The Pulteney Associates were British investors: nine-twelfths was owned by Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet , a Scottish lawyer; two-twelfths by William...
in Sodus Point
Sodus Point, New York
Sodus Point is a village in Wayne County, New York, United States. The population was 1,160 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from a nearby body of water, Sodus Bay. It is considered within the larger Rochester metropolitan area....
, Wayne County, New York
Wayne County, New York
Wayne County is a county located in the US state of New York. It is part of the Rochester, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area and lies on the south shore of Lake Ontario, forming part of the northern border of the United States with Canada. The name honors General Anthony Wayne, an American...
. Elizabeth Lummis attended Aurora Female Seminary in Aurora, New York
Aurora, Cayuga County, New York
Aurora is a village and college town in Cayuga County, in the Town of Ledyard, north of Ithaca, New York, United States. The village had a population of 720 at the 2000 census, of which more than 400 were college students....
, where she studied, among other subjects, French, German, and Italian. Her first published work, at age 16, was a translation of Silvio Pellico's
Silvio Pellico
Silvio Pellico was an Italian writer, poet, dramatist and patriot.-Biography:Silvio Pellico was born at Saluzzo . He spent the earlier portion of his life at Pinerolo and Turin, under the tuition of a priest named Manavella. At the age of ten he composed a tragedy inspired by a translation of the...
Euphemio of Messina.
Career
In 1835, Elizabeth Lummis published her first book, entitled Poems, Translated and Original, which included her tragedy, Teresa Contarini, based on the history of Venice, that was successfully performed in New York and other cities. Around this time she married William Henry Ellet (1806–1859), a chemist from New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He graduated from Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
in New York and earned a gold medal for a dissertation on the compounds of cyanogen
Cyanogen
Cyanogen is the chemical compound with the formula 2. It is a colorless, toxic gas with a pungent odor.The molecule is a pseudohalogen. Cyanogen molecules consist of two CN groups — analogous to diatomic halogen molecules, such as Cl2, but far less oxidizing...
. The couple moved to Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
, when he was made professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at South Carolina College in 1836. He also discovered a new and inexpensive method of preparing guncotton, for which the state of South Carolina presented him with a service of silver plate.
During this time Ellet published several books. In 1839 she wrote The Characters of Schiller, a critical essay on the writer Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
including her translation of many of his poems. She wrote Scenes in the Life of Joanna of Sicily, a history of the life styles of female nobility, and Rambles about the Country, a lively description of the scenery she had observed in her travels through the United States, in 1840. She continued writing poems, translations, and essays on European literature which she contributed to the American Monthly, the North American Review, the Southern Literary Messenger
Southern Literary Messenger
The Southern Literary Messenger was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from 1834 until June 1864. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some variation and included poetry, fiction, non-fiction, reviews, and historical notes...
, the Southern Quarterly Review, and other periodicals. Ellet wrote abundantly in a wide variety of genres.
In 1845, Ellet left her husband in the south, moving back to New York City where she resumed her place as a member of literary society along with such writers as Margaret Fuller
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
, Anne Lynch Botta
Anne Lynch Botta
Anne Charlotte Lynch Botta was an American poet, writer, teacher and socialite whose home was the central gathering place of the literary elite of her era.-Early life:...
, Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere. He built up a strong literary reputation, in part due to his 1842...
, Anna Cora Mowatt
Anna Cora Mowatt
Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie was an author, playwright, public reader, and actress.- Childhood :Anna Cora Ogden was born in Bordeaux, France, March 5, 1819. She was the tenth of fourteen children. Her father was Samuel Gouveneur Ogden , an American merchant...
and Frances Sargent Osgood
Frances Sargent Osgood
Frances Sargent Osgood was an American poet and one of the most popular women writers during her time...
.
Scandal
During this time Ellet was a participant in a notorious scandal involving Edgar Allan Poe and Frances Sargent Osgood, both of whom were married to others. Accounts of the particulars of the scandal and the sequence of events differ. At the time Poe was at the height of his fame, thanks to his work, "The RavenThe Raven
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness...
". A number of women in literary society sent him letters, including Ellet and Osgood. Some of the letters sent may have been flirtatious or amorous ones. Ellet also spent time with Poe discussing literary matters. It is possible that Ellet felt herself in competition with Osgood for Poe's affections. During this time Poe had written several poems to and about Osgood, including "A Valentine".
On one visit to Poe's home in January 1846, Ellet allegedly observed letters from Osgood, shown to her by Poe's wife Virginia
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The couple were first cousins and married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27...
, and subsequently advised Osgood to ask for their return, implying to Osgood that they were an indiscretion. On behalf of Osgood, Margaret Fuller
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
and Anne Lynch Botta
Anne Lynch Botta
Anne Charlotte Lynch Botta was an American poet, writer, teacher and socialite whose home was the central gathering place of the literary elite of her era.-Early life:...
asked Poe to return the letters. Poe, angered by their interference, suggested that Ellet had better "look after her own letters". One such letter, written in German, asked Poe to "call for it at her residence this evening", a phrase presumably meant to be seductive, though Poe either ignored it or did not understand its meaning. He then gathered up these letters from Ellet and left them at her house. Despite her letters having been returned, Ellet asked her brother "to demand of me the letters". Her brother, Colonel William Lummis, did not believe that Poe had already returned them and threatened to kill him. In order to defend himself, Poe requested a pistol from Thomas Dunn English
Thomas Dunn English
Thomas Dunn English was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who represented the state's 6th congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895. He was also a published author and songwriter, who had a bitter ongoing feud with Edgar Allan...
, who did not believe that Ellet ever sent Poe any letters.
Osgood's husband, Samuel Stillman Osgood
Samuel Stillman Osgood
Samuel Stillman Osgood was a 19th-century American portrait painter.-Biography:He was born in New Haven, Connecticut to James Osgood and Elizabeth Badger. He studied painting in Boston, Massachusetts. After his marriage to poet Frances Sargent Locke he continued his art education at the Royal...
, threatened to sue Ellet unless she formally apologized. She retracted her statements in a letter to Osgood saying, "The letter shown me by Mrs Poe must have been a forgery created by Poe himself". She put all the blame on Poe, suggesting the incident was because Poe was "intemperate and subject to acts of lunacy." The rumor that Poe was insane was spread by Ellet and by other enemies of Poe and eventually reported in newspapers. After Osgood reunited with her husband, the scandal died down. Poe's sick wife Virginia, however, was deeply affected by the scandal. She had been receiving anonymous letters, possibly from Ellet, which reported her husband's alleged indiscretions as early as July 1845. On her deathbed Virginia claimed "Mrs. E. had been her murderer." As Poe described years later, "I scorned Mrs. E simply because she revolted me, and to this day she has never ceased her anonymous persecutions." It is believed that Poe wrote the short story "Hop-Frog
Hop-Frog
"Hop-Frog" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character, a dwarf taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes...
" as a literary revenge on Ellet.
The Women of the American Revolution
She found so much information about female patriots that the first edition of The Women of the American Revolution (1848) had to be published in two volumes. These volumes were well received and a third volume of additional material was published in 1850. Later historians consider these volumes represent her most important work. Ellet also authored Domestic History of the American Revolution summarizing the same material in narrative form, and also published in 1850.
Ellet told the stories of women from every colony and from all ranks of society, with the exception of African Americans whose role she chose to ignore. Some of the women she wrote about, such as Martha Washington
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first First Lady of the United States...
, Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth...
, Mercy Otis Warren
Mercy Otis Warren
Mercy Otis Warren was a political writer and propagandist of the American Revolution. In the eighteenth century, topics such as politics and war were thought to be the province of men. Few women had the education or training to write about these subjects. Warren was the exception...
and Ann Eliza Bleecker
Ann Eliza Bleecker
Ann Eliza Bleecker was an American poet and correspondent. Following a New York upbringing, Bleecker married John James Bleecker, a New Rochelle lawyer, in 1769. He encouraged her writings, and helped her publish a periodical containing her works.The American Revolution saw John join the New York...
, among others, were famous in their own right. She also wrote of the women who were more obscure but equally valuable: the wives of heroes who, in the face of British encroachment, bravely raised children and defended their homes. She wrote, "It is almost impossible now to appreciate the vast influence of woman's patriotism upon the destinies of the infant republic."
Anthologist and critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere. He built up a strong literary reputation, in part due to his 1842...
had aided Ellet in the production of the book and granted her access to the records of the New York Historical Society, of which he was a member. She did not acknowledge his assistance, angering the vindictive Griswold. In a review Griswold said, "with the assistance of a few gentlemen more familiar than herself with our public and domestic experience, she has made a valuable and interesting work."
Further work
Minnesota River
The Minnesota River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of nearly , in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa....
in 1852. The local town, Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 54,901 people, 20,457 households, and 14,579 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 21,026 housing units at an average density of 649.2 per square mile...
, got its name from Ellet and has dedicated a nature trail in her honor.
In 1857, Ellet published a 600-page encyclopedia of American home economics entitled The Practical Housekeeper. The guide, which seemed to target middle to upper class readers, was organized into three parts: cooking, housekeeping and pharmaceutical concerns. Its contents included thousands of recipes and advice with references to philosophers, scientists, and ancient civilizations. There were also five hundred wood-engraved illustrations. She wrote in the preface "No complete system of Domestic Economy, within the limits of a convenient manual, has been published in this country."
Later works included Women Artists in All Ages and Countries (1859), the first book of its kind to represent a history of women artists. She wroteThe Queens of American Society (1867), and Court Circles of the Republic (1869), a look at the social life of eighteen presidents from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
.
Later years
Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison, Inc. is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $14 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets...
.
Ellet became involved with the divorce case between Rufus Griswold and his second wife, Charlotte Myers, in 1852. Ellet and Ann S. Stephens
Ann S. Stephens
Ann Sophia Stephens was an American novelist and magazine editor. She was the author of dime novels and is credited as the progenitor of that genre.- Early life :...
wrote to Myers telling her not to allow the divorce, as well as to Harriet McCrillis, who intended to marry Griswold after the divorce, to end her relationship with him. After it was granted, Ellet and Stephens continued writing to Myers and convinced her to repeal the divorce on September 23, 1853. On February 24, 1856, the appeal went to court, with Ellet and Stephens providing lengthy testimony against Griswold's character. Neither Griswold nor Myers attended and the appeal was dismissed. When Griswold died in 1857, Sarah Anna Lewis, a friend and writer, suggested that Ellet had worsened Griswold's illness and that she "goaded Griswold to his death".
In 1857 Ellet replaced Ann Stephens
Ann S. Stephens
Ann Sophia Stephens was an American novelist and magazine editor. She was the author of dime novels and is credited as the progenitor of that genre.- Early life :...
as literary editor of the New York Evening Express. Ellet's husband died two years later in 1859. She continued to write, and although they had no children, she promoted charities for impoverished women and children by speaking in public to raise funds. An Episcopalian most of her life, she converted to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
in her later years. She died of Bright's disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
in New York City on June 3, 1877, and was buried beside her husband at Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Brooklyn, Kings County , New York. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.-History:...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
Legacy
Ellet was the first historian to write about the relationship of women to the American Revolution. She felt that women shaped history by their influence, which was done through "sentiment" and "feeling". This was so hard to define that she stated "History can do it no Justice". Her book The Women of the American Revolution is still studied.List of works
List of works taken from MSU Historic American project.- Euphemio of Messina (1834) a translation
- Poems, Translated and Original including the play Teresa Conarini (1835)
- The Characters of Schiller (1839)
- Joanna of Sicily (1840)
- Rambles about the Country (1840)
- The Women of the American Revolution (1848–50) (3 volumes)
- Evenings at Woodlawn (1849)
- Family Pictures from the Bible (1849)
- Domestic History of the American Revolution (1850)
- Watching Spirits (1851)
- Nouvelettes of the Musicians (1851)
- Pioneer Women of the West (1852)
- Summer Rambles in the West (1853),
- The Practical Housekeeper (1857)
- Women Artists in All Ages and Countries (1859)
- The Queens of American Society (1867)
- Court Circles of the Republic (1869)
External links
- Poems: Translated and Original (1835) by Elizabeth F. Ellet at Google Book SearchGoogle Book SearchGoogle Books is a service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October...
- Summer Rambles in the West (1853) by Elizabeth F. Ellet