(c) 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz

primary Carleton E. Watkins (Oneonta, New York, 1829 - 1916, Imola, California)

subject Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz (Boston, 1822 - 1907, Arlington, Massachusetts)

Dateabout 1880

Place MadeSan Francisco, California, United States, North America

MediumAlbumen print on card

Dimensions16.8 x 11 cm (6 5/8 x 4 5/16 in.)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberARC.007503

eMuseum ID722124

Other Numberv.2.a.5.11.x

EmbARK ObjectID33299

TMS Source ID16829

Last Updated8/9/24

Status

Not on view

Web CommentaryElizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz was a scholar and pioneer of women’s education in the United States and a friend of Isabella Stewart Gardner's. Agassiz was essential in transforming women’s education at Harvard University, which started with professors providing private instruction for ladies through what was called the “Harvard Annex.” It was likely through the Annex that Isabella could take classes with Charles Eliot Norton. Through her fundraising efforts and advocacy, Agassiz contributed to transforming this informal continuing education program into a formal and permanent college. As her letters to Gardner indicate, Isabella was one of the people whom she recruited to give to the cause: “I am truly obliged for your…generosity to the Annex."

BibliographyNotesDiana Seave Greenwald, "Back to School with Isabella at Radcliffe College," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 28 September 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/back-school-isabella-radcliffe-college

MarksNotesEmbossed (on recto, lower right inside image): Watkins.
Printed in ink (on recto, below image frame): Photographed from C.E. Watkins' Yosemite Art Gallery, 22 & 26 Montg'y St. op. Lick House Entrance.
Inscribed in pencil (on verso, upper left): Mrs. Louis Agassiz

ProvenanceNotesGift from Radcliffe College President Elizabeth Cary Cabot Agassiz to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 9 December, year unknown.
Enclosed in the book Louis Agassiz by Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, 1885. (v.2.a.5.11)