Harriette Merrifield Forbes (October 22, 1856 – 1951) was an American author, artist, gardener and botanical collector.

Biography

Harriette Merrifield Forbes was born as Hattie Merrifield on 22 October 1856 in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

, United States of America. She married William Trowbridge Forbes (1850-1931), who taught mathematics at

Robert College The American Robert College of Istanbul ( tr, İstanbul Özel Amerikan Robert Lisesi or ), often shortened to Robert, or RC, is a Selective school, highly selective, Independent school, independent, mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary ...

in Constantinople, and moved to USA to study law. He later became judge in Worcester in 1888. Forbes was one of the pioneers of gravestone art. She photographed the early gravestones throughout central and eastern Massachusetts, even before the invention of the technically advanced “Brownie camera and flexible film”. Her extensive works on stone carvers and gravestones were published in 1927 as the ''Early New England Gravestones and the Men Who Made Them'', Hanson considers this, as “groundbreaking” since it became the base for other researches on this topic.

Esther Forbes Esther Louise Forbes (; June 28, 1891 – August 12, 1967) was an American novelist, historian and children's writer who received the Pulitzer Prize and the Newbery Medal. She was the first woman elected to membership in the American Antiqu ...

(1891-1967), author and antiquarian, was one of her daughters. Forbes “served as her daughter's most important researcher.” She died in 1951.

Works

Forbes's works include. * ''Gravestones of Early New England and the Men Who Made Them (1927)'' * ''The Hundredth Town: Glimpses of Life in Westborough 1717-1817'' * ''New England Diaries, 1602-1800: A Descriptive Catalogue of Diaries, Orderly Books and Sea Journals''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Harriette Merrifield 1856 births 1951 deaths 20th-century American historians Writers from Worcester, Massachusetts Historians of the United States