EthanAllenGreenwood selfportrait ca1800s WorcesterArtMuseum

Ethan Allen Greenwood - Portrait of Charles Jones

Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856) was an American lawyer, portrait painter, and entrepreneurial museum proprietor in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, in the early 19th century. He established the New England Museum in 1818.

Biography

Greenwood was born in

Hubbardston, Massachusetts Hubbardston is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town population was 4,328. It is situated 18 miles north of Worcester and 53 miles west of Boston; it is distinguished in Massachusetts by be ...

, to Moses Greenwood and Betsy Dunlap, May 27, 1779. He attended school at the Academy at New Salem, and the Leicester Academy. In 1806 he graduated from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

. He also studied at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

. Between 1801 and 1825, Greenwood produced many portraits, perhaps as many as 800 works. He utilized the physiognotrace technique. He kept a studio in Boston and associated with other artists, including

Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...

. He joined the

Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts is the oldest chartered military organization in North America and the third oldest chartered military organization in the world. Its charter was granted in March 1638 by the Great and Gen ...

in 1814. He married Mrs. Caroline Carter Warren of

Roxbury, Massachusetts Roxbury () is a neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for neighborhood services coordination. The city states that Roxbury se ...

, in 1829. After the deaths of his parents he built a large house on their land and he became active in the public and business affairs of Hubbardston. Throughout his life, Greenwood kept a diary. On reviewing some of the diary entries, one scholar observed he "each day recorded both the weather and the title of the book he was reading ... and occasionally noted the library from which the volume was borrowed—the Adelphi Fraternity Library, the Social Friends Library f Dartmouth College or the unnamed circulating library he joined in 1806." His diaries now reside in the collection of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

. Entries from 1824 capture the details of Greenwood's life as a museum director:

"June 1st, 1824. A Mermaid arrived here last week & I agreed to exhibit it. Busy setting up Shark. -- 2nd. Purchased some Indian Curiosities. -- 3rd. Bought four figures of an Italian $4.00. -- 5th. Bought four Busts of Voltaire, filling up jars of reptiles.... -- 7th. Artillery Election good run of business & in the eve a 'Glorious House' $342.75. Best day since the Museum began. -- 10th. Bought a young Shark."

The New England Museum enjoyed considerable popularity. Greenwood also established museum branches in

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

, and

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. However, around 1834–1839 he experienced financial difficulties and, as a result, "his assignees conveyed the collections f the New England Museumto

Moses Kimball Moses Kimball (October 24, 1809 – February 21, 1895) was a US politician and showman. Kimball was a close associate of P. T. Barnum, and public-spirited citizen of Boston, Massachusetts. Biography Kimball was descended from Richard and Urs ...

." Kimball would then found the Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts, a theatre and exhibit hall, featuring a portion of Greenwood's collection; Kimball sold the other portion of Greenwood's collection to a museum effort in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

, in 1840. Greenwood died May 3, 1856, and is buried in Hubbardston.

Biography

See also

References

Further reading