Catherine had her miniature taken

One of CHS’s great friends recently donated another Charlotte Cowles letter to add to what we already have. Of course, I was pleased as punch! In this letter, again written from Farmington to her brother Samuel in Vermont, she indicates their mother is dictating what to write, but I still hear Charlotte’s voice. She relates an accident suffered by Cousin Austin, when his wagon was overturned by a carriage driven by a man who had just “called at the last tavern”. No wonder Horace, her father, attends Temperance meetings!

The Real Cinque?

Cinque, chief of the Amistad captives, New Haven. CHS collection. 1931.13.0

This portrait is of the freed Amistad captive Cinque. Or at least that is what we are told. How do we know that this is what he actually looked like? Cameras were in their infancy, so we cannot look at another image to compare. And the toga-like garment and the scenery, was that all the artist’s imagination or is there some basis in fact?

A little bit of matchmaking

Engraved portrait of Isabella Beecher Hooker, Charlotte Cowles’ friend.

I took a brief “field trip” to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center on Monday to look at their collection of John and Isabella Hooker correspondence, focusing on those that mentioned or were written by Charlotte Cowles Hull and her husband Joseph. Of course, anything related to Charlotte is fun in my book.

Three of the letters contained what I consider new and interesting information. On November 28, 1840, Isabella, who was in Boston, wrote to John that she had been speaking with her cousin Henry and that he was thinking of being a missionary. Of course, every missionary needed a wife. Isabella asks John, what about Charlotte Cowles? Isabella claims that Charlotte has “determined not to marry at all,” but Isabella asks how irrevocable is her decision given that she could be a missionary’s wife (that would certainly make me want to get married!)? Needless to say, Charlotte did not marry Henry.

An Anti-Abolition meeting

Letter from Charlotte Cowles dated January 25, 1836.

What would one do on a January day in 1836? In Farmington, one might have attended an Anti-Abolition rally. We know from Charlotte Cowles that one was indeed held in that town, and although Charlotte could empathize with slaves and indeed help them to freedom in the north, she was prejudiced against those who did not hold with her abolitionist feelings.

Another Charlotte Cowles (Hull) letter to write about!

Letter addressed to Charlotte C. Hull from Isabella Hooker. Ms 101809.

One of our good friends recently purchased and then donated to us a letter written by Isabella Beecher Hooker to Charlotte Cowles Hull. Yes, a letter to “our” Charlotte Cowles after her marriage to Joseph Hull.  Isabella Beecher and her husband John Hooker introduced Charlotte and Joseph and evidently maintained that friendship. The letter was written February 21, 1845, at which time Charlotte had a child and was living in Essex, Connecticut.