Harriet Putnam Fowler (July 25, 1842 – July 28, 1901) was an American author and poet. Her many publications were chiefly in the genealogical and historical line. She created nearly 20 large manuscript volumes of family histories, which she presented to the
Essex Institute
The Essex Institute (1848–1992) in Salem, Massachusetts, was "a literary, historical and scientific society." It maintained a museum, library, historic houses; arranged educational programs; and issued numerous scholarly publications. In 1992 th ...
,
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...
. She also compiled several memorial volumes, wrote numerous poems, and published several small volumes.
Biography
Harriet Putnam Fowler was born July 25, 1842, in Danversport,
. Her parents were Samuel and Harriet (Putnam) Page. She had two older siblings, Clara (b. 1836) and Samuel (b. 1838). Fowler was a member of the
Putnam family
The prominent old colonial American and Puritan Putnam family founded by John and Priscilla (Gould) Putnam in the 17th century, in Salem, Massachusetts. Many notable individuals are descendants of this family, including those listed below.
John ...
, who were descendents of John Putnam who settled in
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...
in 1634. Fowler also traced her descent through sixteen generations to Catherine Chaucer, sister of
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
, the poet.
In 1879, she published a work entitled ''Vegetarianism, the Radical Cure for Intemperance''. Next, she published a novel entitled ''Our Smoking Husbands and What to Do With Them'' (New York, The Authors' Pub. Co., c. 1879)). Later, she collated a series of ancestral books of genealogy and heraldry. She was the author of a book of poems entitled ''Puritan Bluebells'', and like her mother, contributed poems to papers. Fowler also published short stories.
Although Fowler lived with a disability for 40 years as a result of an injury from an accident, her final illness was of less than a week's duration. She died at her home in
Danvers, Massachusetts
Danvers is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts. The suburb is a fairly short ride from Boston and is also in close proximity to the renowned beaches of Glo ...
, July 28, 1901. Her memoir was incomplete at the time of her death.
Putnam family cupboard
![Putnam cupboard of English oak and cedar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Putnam_cupboard_of_English_oak_and_cedar.png)
Fowler donated the Putnam cupboard of English oak and cedar to the Essex Institute. Her ancestor, John Putnam, imported it probably about the middle of the 17th century, as the chest of drawers which forms its lower part was not developed earlier, nor were the geometrical patterns of the cedar mouldings used in combination with the split
baluster
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...
s upon the
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s, until that date. Upon its back are marks of a fire from which the cupboard was rescued when, some two centuries ago, the Putnams' house was destroyed. Certain vase
finial
A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.
In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
s which surmounted the posts, 'improvements' suggested by the taste of an 18th-century member of the family, were removed. The enclosed box settle with lifting lid in the Bulkeley Collection is almost unique among examples of colonial woodwork; when discovered in a stable at
Barrington, Massachusetts it had for many years been used to hold salt for cattle. It illustrates the earliest of the English modes of combining the chest and the table which produced the settle. The panelled framing of the seat indicates that cushions were intended. The usual type of earlier colonial settle more nearly resembled the high-back variety one finds in old village inns in this country. They were drawn in front of the fire upon a winter's night—especially when of curved shape, as in some old English inns until recent days—for the sake of light as well as warmth, in those days when the flicker of the
Betty lamp, shown in the art work as an example, was the sole other illumination.
Selected works
![Vegetarianism the radical cure for intemperance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Vegetarianism_the_radical_cure_for_intemperance.png)
* ''Vegetarianism, the Radical Cure for Intemperance'', 1879
* ''Our Smoking Husbands and What to Do With Them'', c. 1879
* ''My sleeping father's lovers'', 1888
* ''Puritan Bluebells''
Notes
References
Attribution
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External links
*
Putnam Family Cupboard, 1680at the
Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Harriet Putnam
1842 births
1901 deaths
People from Danvers, Massachusetts
Writers from Massachusetts
19th-century American women writers
19th-century American poets
19th-century American novelists
19th-century American short story writers
American people with disabilities