Eliza Southgate Bowne ( – ) was an American letter writer whose letters were published after her death and have been frequently quoted and anthologized.
Eliza Southgate Bowne was born on in
Scarborough, Maine. She was the daughter of Dr. Robert Southgate, a prominent physician, landowner, and judge, and Mary King Southgate, sister of the politician
Rufus King
Rufus King (March 24, 1755April 29, 1827) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and was one of the signers of the Unit ...
. Bowne was educated at
finishing school
A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the education, wit ...
s in
Boston and at
Susanna Rowson
Susanna Rowson, née Haswell (1762 – 2 March 1824) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, religious writer, stage actress, and educator, considered the first woman geographer and supporter of female education. She also wrote against s ...
's Young Ladies’ Academy in
Medford, Massachusetts
Medford is a city northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus alo ...
. On a trip to
Saratoga Springs, New York, she met businessman
Walter Bowne. They married in 1803, lived in New York City, and had two children, Walter Bowne, Jr., and Mary King Bowne. She died of
tuberculosis in
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
on February 20, 1809. After her death, Walter Bowne became the 59th
Mayor of New York City
The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
in 1829.
Bowne wrote a series of letters to her cousin Moses Porter from March 1801 until July 1802, when Porter died while still a law student. The letters were preserved in the family and published in 1887 as ''A Girl’s Life Eighty Years Ago: Selections from the Letters of Eliza Southgate Bowne.'' They have been valued due to her evident intelligence and the insight they provide into the life and
material culture
Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects creat ...
of an upper-class teenager of the early 19th century. The letters also reveal that Bowne disputed conventional beliefs and expectations of women at the time and lamented her poor intellectual education compared to that received by men of the time.
References
External links
*
A Girl’s Life Eighty Years Ago: Selections from the Letters of Eliza Southgate Bowne' (
HathiTrust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southgate, Eliza
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1783 births
1809 deaths
American letter writers
People from Scarborough, Maine