Clara Endicott Sears
Encyclopedia
Clara Endicott Sears was a New England
author, preservationist, and philanthropist.
family in Boston, Massachusetts in 1863. Her parents were Knyvet Winthrop and Mary Crowninshield (Peabody) Sears. Sears was educated at private schools in Boston and by tutors in Europe. She authored several romantic work and later authored many historical tracts.
In 1910 Sears purchased a summer estate in Harvard, Massachusetts
, which included the buildings that were part of a failed Transcendentalist community known as the Fruitlands
. After restoring the property, Sears opened the buildings as the Fruitlands Museum
in 1914. When the nearby Shaker community in Harvard closed in 1917, Sears bought 1794 office building from the Harvard Shaker Village and moved it to her property. Sears also worked with Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
at Harvard University in acquiring a Native American collection to display at the museum. She donated her collection of Hudson River School
paintings and other America folk art to the museum.
Sears served as a trustee of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) and was awarded a gold medal by the National Society of New England Women in 1942. She was a member of the Colonial Dames of America, the New England Historic Genealogical Society
, and Society of Mayflower Descendants.
Clara Endicott Sears died in Boston in 1960. She remained unmarried throughout her life.
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
author, preservationist, and philanthropist.
Biography
Sears was born to a wealthy, YankeeYankee
The term Yankee has several interrelated and often pejorative meanings, usually referring to people originating in the northeastern United States, or still more narrowly New England, where application of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English settlers of the region.The...
family in Boston, Massachusetts in 1863. Her parents were Knyvet Winthrop and Mary Crowninshield (Peabody) Sears. Sears was educated at private schools in Boston and by tutors in Europe. She authored several romantic work and later authored many historical tracts.
In 1910 Sears purchased a summer estate in Harvard, Massachusetts
Harvard, Massachusetts
Harvard is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. A farming community settled in 1658 and incorporated in 1732, it has been home to several non-traditional communities, such as Harvard Shaker Village and the utopian Transcendentalist center Fruitlands...
, which included the buildings that were part of a failed Transcendentalist community known as the Fruitlands
Fruitlands (transcendental center)
Fruitlands was a Utopian agrarian commune established in Harvard, Massachusetts by Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane in the 1840s, based on Transcendentalist principles...
. After restoring the property, Sears opened the buildings as the Fruitlands Museum
Fruitlands Museum
Fruitlands Museum is a cluster of small historic buildings in Harvard, Massachusetts on the former site of the unsuccessful utopian community Fruitlands...
in 1914. When the nearby Shaker community in Harvard closed in 1917, Sears bought 1794 office building from the Harvard Shaker Village and moved it to her property. Sears also worked with Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World ethnography and...
at Harvard University in acquiring a Native American collection to display at the museum. She donated her collection of Hudson River School
Hudson River school
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...
paintings and other America folk art to the museum.
Sears served as a trustee of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) and was awarded a gold medal by the National Society of New England Women in 1942. She was a member of the Colonial Dames of America, the New England Historic Genealogical Society
New England Historic Genealogical Society
The New England Historic Genealogical Society is the oldest and largest genealogical society in the United States, founded in 1845. A charitable, nonprofit educational institution, NEHGS is located at 99-101 Newbury Street, in Boston, Massachusetts, in an eight-story archive and research center....
, and Society of Mayflower Descendants.
Clara Endicott Sears died in Boston in 1960. She remained unmarried throughout her life.
Works by Clara Endicott Sears
- Prentice Mulford’s Works (compiled) (1913)
- The Power Within , writings of various New Thought authors (compiled) (1914)
- Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands (Houghton Mifflin, 1915)
- The bell-ringer: an old-time village tale (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918)
- Peace Anthem (1919)
- The romance of Fiddler's green (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922)
- Days of Delusions , a history of the Millerites (1924)
- The Great Powwow (1934)
- Wind from the Hills (1935)
- Some American Primitives (1941)
- Highlights Among the Hudson River Artists (1947)
- Snapshots from Old Registers (taken from the registers of 1880–1900 of the Hotel Vendome in Boston) (1955)
- Early Personal Reminiscences in the Old George Peabody Mansion in Salem (1956).
- Gleanings from Old Shaker Journals (Kessinger Publishing, 2003) ISBN 0766180050, 9780766180055