Although little is known about the personal life of Mary King Longfellow (1852-1945), today she "stands as Portland's best known [nineteenth-century] female painter."4 Her papers, including more than seventy years of diary entries begun in 1866 when Longfellow was fourteen, reveal little about her personal thoughts or beliefs but do provide an account of an interesting and active life.
Mary King Longfellow was the first of five children born to Elizabeth Clapp Porter Longfellow and Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, a brother of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, on 6 October 1852 at the family's farm Highfield in Westbrook, Maine. Named after her mother's sister, Mary King Porter, she was known to family and friends as "Mamie."
As a young woman Longfellow accompanied her father, an accomplished surveyor for the U.S. Coast Survey, on surveying trips. She enjoyed drawing and took up watercolor at an early age. In 1866, at the age of fourteen, she began a seasonal cycle of spending winter and spring in Cambridge and summer and fall in Portland. In Cambridge, Longfellow lived with her aunt, Mary Longfellow Greenleaf, and attended Hannah Davie's school with her cousins at the Craigie House up the street. In a diary entry for 2 January 1866, Longfellow notes "went to Miss Davies School for the first time, like it very much." Longfellow spent a great deal of time at Craigie House and became very close with her cousins, particularly Alice Mary Longfellow. The cousins enjoyed reading aloud, writing poetry and putting on plays. Longfellow notes in an 1866 diary entry that she played "Lady Arabella in a production of Margery Daw at Uncle Henry's."5
Her family encouraged her artwork and Longfellow pursued lessons. A receipt for the second session at the Museum of Fine Arts School of Drawing and Painting, found in her diary of 1878, suggests she took lessons there.6 A $50.00 grand prize from the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the best of twelve tiles in 1879 indicates that others appreciated her artwork as well.7 In the same year, Longfellow developed a Valentine card for Louis Prang, the chromolithographer responsible for popularizing the use of Christmas cards in the United States.8 Although her "first
4 The Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Women Pioneers in Maine Art, 26 December 1981 through 14 February 1982 (Westbrook College: Portland, Maine), p. 11.
5 Entry for 1 March, 1866 Diary, Box 1, Folder 1.
6 Ticket in Box 7, Folder 16.
7 Newspaper clipping beginning "Mary King Longfellow of this city," [Portland, 1879], Box 11, Folder 2 from 1879 Diary, Box 1, Folder 13; ECLP, Letter to AWL Jr., 23 November [1879], AWL Jr. Papers, Box 6, Folder 3, speaks of the prize.
8 Elizabeth Clapp Porter Longfellow to Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow (1854-1934), [1879?], AWL, Jr. Papers, 14 –Mary King Longfellow Papers Biographical Data
cards had been more successful than any [the L. Prang Company] had ever printed"9 she was disappointed with the quality and thought the results "simply horrible" with "the delicacy of the drawing lost and the whole thing looking hard and crude."10 Despite the Prang Company "always writing and asking for more," Longfellow found the format limiting and refused further work.11
Box 6, Folder 3.
No doubt introduced to influential artists through her relatives, Longfellow began daily watercolor lessons in 1884 with Ross Sterling Turner, a well-known Boston painter of the American Impressionist movement.12 Longfellow was impressed by Turner from their first introduction on 18 February: "I only looked on for the first day & felt as if I had been at a Theatre. It was all so new & bold!"13 Likely influenced by her instructor, Longfellow's artwork reflected the principles of two fashionable art movements of the late nineteenth-century, Impressionism and Realism.14 As a result, she focused on watercolor as a medium and often painted in plein air. Moreover, her primary subjects, the landscape and seascape of coastal Maine were captured moments on paper depicting the world around her in a realistic and seemingly objective manner. Although her diaries make little mention of her techniques or principles for painting, we can infer from her comments and the work itself that she appreciated the recently introduced methods.15 Longfellow was a student of Turner's between 1884 and 1889, studying both painting and ceramics. Why the lessons stopped in 1889 is not recorded. A diary entry for 23 April 1889 simply notes "last lesson with Mr. Turner."16 However, the following year, Longfellow started taking lesson with another American Impressionist, Louis Ritter, a Cincinnati, Ohio native who studied under the painter Frank Duveneck in Munich and opened a studio in 1883.17 In a diary entry for 9 April 1890, she wrote, "[F]irst lesson with Mr. Ritter and working with a model – the results comical."18
Although Longfellow made little mention of the art circle she was a part of, through acquaintances and study, she must have known or been known among some of the most prominent American artists of the late nineteenth-century. A diary entry for 23 February 1884 indicates that while Longfellow was visiting Edith Longfellow Dana a "Mr. Dan [Daniel Chester] French came to call." French, the well-known sculptor celebrated for his naturalistic style, must have invited the pair to his studio for on 28 February Longfellow comments that they
9 Ibid.
10 MKL to AWL, Jr. 1 February 1880, AWL, Jr. Papers, Box 1, Folder 6
11 AWL, Jr. to ECPL [1879?], AWL, Jr. Papers, Box 6, Folder 3.
12 Entry for 18 February, 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
13 Ibid.
14 Note: During the 2005 survey and processing of MKL diaries, references to the painter William Morris Hunt were not found in her diaries. However, a paper, "Mary King Longfellow: The Artist," compiled by Jennifer Tolpa in April 1994 and available in the biographical files of the Longfellow National Historic Site, mentions that MKL was a student of Hunt.
15 Entry for 7 March, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.
16 Entry for 23 April, 1889 Diary, Box 2, Folder 6.
17 Ask Art web site, www.askart.com/askart/l/mary_ king_longfellow/mary_king_longfellow.aspx, accessed 28 December 2005.
18 Entry for 9 April, 1890 Diary, Box 2, Folder 7. Biographical Data Mary King Longfellow Papers – 15
had a "most interesting visit" there.19 Whatever the case, it is known from newspaper clippings, diary entries and exhibit catalogs that Longfellow was active in the art community, both in Boston and Portland (the Portland Sketch Club), and that her artwork was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Club, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy and the Portland Society of Art.20 Although she did not paint for a living, her occupation in the Portland City directory after 1903 is listed as "Artist."
In addition to her career as an artist, Longfellow had a variety of interests, such as photography, sailing, shooting, sewing, writing and collecting poetry, travel and theatre, throughout her life. She combined an enjoyment of literature and visual arts by participating in local plays. Diary entries for 1885 suggest that she was painting sets and working on the theatrical production of A Fair Encounter by the Elevator.21 She was also enterprising and shrewd with money as indicated by the accounting of yearly expenditures in her diaries. In February, 1884 Longfellow combined an interest in Japanese culture and fund raising. With her sister Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett, she successfully organized a "Japanese Tea," complete with decoration borrowed from Craigie House, earning $75.00.22 Around that same time the sisters organized a Turkish party that was well received. Longfellow also enjoyed shooting and occasionally joined her brothers' hunting parties. On 27 September 1884, she "spent all morning trying to get the rust out of [her] pistol."23
Another hobby was photography. She documented outings and social gatherings and often printed her own film. In January 1893 she assisted Joseph Thorp, Jr. in photographing the Wadsworth-Longfellow house in Portland and its owner Anne Longfellow Pierce.24 In February of that same year she was photographed in a Japanese dressing gown.25 In 1896 Longfellow purchased a camera for $5.00 and spent a great deal of her free time taking pictures and printing the film.26 On 2 July 1896 she was teaching Harriet Spelman Longfellow how to print photographs.27
Longfellow also photographed family sailing excursions along the coast of Maine. Undoubtedly among her most enjoyable pursuits, sailing provided time to sketch, paint and take pleasure in family and friends. Throughout the summer months she sailed on her brothers' cutter, the "Wyvern" or her cousin Charles Appleton Longfellow's yacht, the "Alga." The Longfellow family loved the seaside and probably acquired or leased a house by the shore. References in her diary for 1904 indicate that the family was preparing to go to Falmouth for the summer but that
19 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
20 Portland Society of Art exhibition catalogs found at the Maine Historical Society in November 2005 show MKL exhibiting watercolors for the years 1884, 1885, 1887, 1895, 1909.
21 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 2.
22 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
23 Entry for 27 September, 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
24 Entry for 14 March, 1893 Diary, Box 2, Folder 10.
25 Entry for 19 February, 1893 Diary, Box 2, Folder 10; see also entry for 14 March, 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 2.
26 Entries for April-August, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.
27 Entry for 2 July, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.. 16 –Mary King Longfellow Papers Biographical Data
her mother was feeling so ill they postponed the move.28 On 2 May 1905, the sisters were "cleaning and tagging items" at the house in Falmouth, and on 10 May keys to the house were regretfully turned over to the caretaker: "it was a bad task," Longfellow wrote.29 The Falmouth area inspired a number of her paintings including two entries for the 1909 Portland Society of Art exhibition entitled "Falmouth Fields" and the "Coast of Maine."
Among Longfellow's many interests, traveling was a highlight. She made several extended trips to Europe as well as trips to Mexico and the southeastern United States. Each excursion is documented through diary entries, sketches and watercolors. On her first journey to Europe in 1876, Longfellow was accompanied by Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow and his wife Harriet Spelman Longfellow. The trio spent four months abroad, first traveling to England and then to France. They enjoyed many of the historical and cultural sights with an eye always toward sketching and painting. While in France, they spent a great deal of time with the artist Elizabeth "Lizzie" Otis Lyman Boott or "Miss Boott" as Longfellow called her. Boott, born in Boston and raised in Florence, Italy, famous for her watercolors (and later marriage to painter Francis Duveneck), gave them art lessons and assisted with their French and Italian lessons.30 The following year, Longfellow traveled to Hampton, Virginia with Alice Mary Longfellow. She was able to pay for half the trip from the sale of a $45.00 painting.31
On 25 March 1885, Longfellow, along with her parents, embarked on what she fondly called the "Raymond Excursion" to the Southwest and Mexico. The party traveled by train and stopped at Niagara Falls, Chicago and Santa Fe where they met up with a larger contingent. Obviously enjoying her visit to the southwest and Mesoamerica, on 5 April an enthusiastic Longfellow wrote "off on Mexico Central for a new land!"32 The following day she was "wild with delight" riding through the mountains down to the prairie on a train.33 Longfellow enjoyed the arid landscapes and documented the sites in a sketchbook. The party returned to Boston in late May.
Longfellow made several more trips to Europe. On 7 July 1886, she and Alice Mary Longfellow embarked on the "Adriatic" for a four-month tour. The duo joined Anne and Joe Thorp in Switzerland and traveled to Italy and Amsterdam before returning to the United States in late October. Longfellow sailed to Europe on the Romantic in 1906 with her sister Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett and brother-in-law Frank Barrett visiting Spain, France and England. In 1910, she and Alice Mary Longfellow traveled to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France. She journeyed to Europe two more times. In 1923 she was accompanied by her brother Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., or "Waddy" as he was known, and Lucia. Her final trip to Europe was made in 1927 with her siblings and the Thorp family.
28 Spring, 1904 Diary, Box 3, Folder 7.
29 Entry for 10 May, 1905 Diary, Box 3, Folder 8.
30 June-September, 1876 Diary, Box 1, Folder 10.
31 1877 Diary, Box 1, Folder 11.
32 Entry for 5 April, 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
33 Entry for 6 April, ibid. Biographical Data Mary King Longfellow Papers – 17
Never married, Longfellow remained close to her family and friends. She lived in the family home in Portland at 37 South Street until 1908 when she acquired her first home at 116 State Street. Formerly known as the Linkleam House, Longfellow purchased the home for $7,500 with financial assistance from her brother Alexander and her sister Lucia.34 Longfellow referred to the house as the "new old South."35 She took up residence on 8 June 1908 and lived there until her death in 1945. "Waddy" visited most weekends from Boston and died in the house on 2 February 1934. Lucia maintained her own home at 169 State Street until her death in 1940 but visited daily and cared for Longfellow after two minor strokes in 1939 and 1940.
Longfellow lived a long and relatively healthy life, other than minor ailments and an eight-week hospital stay in 1914. At the age of 92 in 1945, she had outlived her family and most of her friends. She had become the last direct link to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Her obituaries hailed that connection but surprisingly failed to mention her lifelong avocation as an artist. Longfellow died 17 September 1945 and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine.
Mary King Longfellow was the first of five children born to Elizabeth Clapp Porter Longfellow and Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, a brother of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, on 6 October 1852 at the family's farm Highfield in Westbrook, Maine. Named after her mother's sister, Mary King Porter, she was known to family and friends as "Mamie."
As a young woman Longfellow accompanied her father, an accomplished surveyor for the U.S. Coast Survey, on surveying trips. She enjoyed drawing and took up watercolor at an early age. In 1866, at the age of fourteen, she began a seasonal cycle of spending winter and spring in Cambridge and summer and fall in Portland. In Cambridge, Longfellow lived with her aunt, Mary Longfellow Greenleaf, and attended Hannah Davie's school with her cousins at the Craigie House up the street. In a diary entry for 2 January 1866, Longfellow notes "went to Miss Davies School for the first time, like it very much." Longfellow spent a great deal of time at Craigie House and became very close with her cousins, particularly Alice Mary Longfellow. The cousins enjoyed reading aloud, writing poetry and putting on plays. Longfellow notes in an 1866 diary entry that she played "Lady Arabella in a production of Margery Daw at Uncle Henry's."5
Her family encouraged her artwork and Longfellow pursued lessons. A receipt for the second session at the Museum of Fine Arts School of Drawing and Painting, found in her diary of 1878, suggests she took lessons there.6 A $50.00 grand prize from the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the best of twelve tiles in 1879 indicates that others appreciated her artwork as well.7 In the same year, Longfellow developed a Valentine card for Louis Prang, the chromolithographer responsible for popularizing the use of Christmas cards in the United States.8 Although her "first
4 The Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Women Pioneers in Maine Art, 26 December 1981 through 14 February 1982 (Westbrook College: Portland, Maine), p. 11.
5 Entry for 1 March, 1866 Diary, Box 1, Folder 1.
6 Ticket in Box 7, Folder 16.
7 Newspaper clipping beginning "Mary King Longfellow of this city," [Portland, 1879], Box 11, Folder 2 from 1879 Diary, Box 1, Folder 13; ECLP, Letter to AWL Jr., 23 November [1879], AWL Jr. Papers, Box 6, Folder 3, speaks of the prize.
8 Elizabeth Clapp Porter Longfellow to Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow (1854-1934), [1879?], AWL, Jr. Papers, 14 –Mary King Longfellow Papers Biographical Data
cards had been more successful than any [the L. Prang Company] had ever printed"9 she was disappointed with the quality and thought the results "simply horrible" with "the delicacy of the drawing lost and the whole thing looking hard and crude."10 Despite the Prang Company "always writing and asking for more," Longfellow found the format limiting and refused further work.11
Box 6, Folder 3.
No doubt introduced to influential artists through her relatives, Longfellow began daily watercolor lessons in 1884 with Ross Sterling Turner, a well-known Boston painter of the American Impressionist movement.12 Longfellow was impressed by Turner from their first introduction on 18 February: "I only looked on for the first day & felt as if I had been at a Theatre. It was all so new & bold!"13 Likely influenced by her instructor, Longfellow's artwork reflected the principles of two fashionable art movements of the late nineteenth-century, Impressionism and Realism.14 As a result, she focused on watercolor as a medium and often painted in plein air. Moreover, her primary subjects, the landscape and seascape of coastal Maine were captured moments on paper depicting the world around her in a realistic and seemingly objective manner. Although her diaries make little mention of her techniques or principles for painting, we can infer from her comments and the work itself that she appreciated the recently introduced methods.15 Longfellow was a student of Turner's between 1884 and 1889, studying both painting and ceramics. Why the lessons stopped in 1889 is not recorded. A diary entry for 23 April 1889 simply notes "last lesson with Mr. Turner."16 However, the following year, Longfellow started taking lesson with another American Impressionist, Louis Ritter, a Cincinnati, Ohio native who studied under the painter Frank Duveneck in Munich and opened a studio in 1883.17 In a diary entry for 9 April 1890, she wrote, "[F]irst lesson with Mr. Ritter and working with a model – the results comical."18
Although Longfellow made little mention of the art circle she was a part of, through acquaintances and study, she must have known or been known among some of the most prominent American artists of the late nineteenth-century. A diary entry for 23 February 1884 indicates that while Longfellow was visiting Edith Longfellow Dana a "Mr. Dan [Daniel Chester] French came to call." French, the well-known sculptor celebrated for his naturalistic style, must have invited the pair to his studio for on 28 February Longfellow comments that they
9 Ibid.
10 MKL to AWL, Jr. 1 February 1880, AWL, Jr. Papers, Box 1, Folder 6
11 AWL, Jr. to ECPL [1879?], AWL, Jr. Papers, Box 6, Folder 3.
12 Entry for 18 February, 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
13 Ibid.
14 Note: During the 2005 survey and processing of MKL diaries, references to the painter William Morris Hunt were not found in her diaries. However, a paper, "Mary King Longfellow: The Artist," compiled by Jennifer Tolpa in April 1994 and available in the biographical files of the Longfellow National Historic Site, mentions that MKL was a student of Hunt.
15 Entry for 7 March, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.
16 Entry for 23 April, 1889 Diary, Box 2, Folder 6.
17 Ask Art web site, www.askart.com/askart/l/mary_ king_longfellow/mary_king_longfellow.aspx, accessed 28 December 2005.
18 Entry for 9 April, 1890 Diary, Box 2, Folder 7. Biographical Data Mary King Longfellow Papers – 15
had a "most interesting visit" there.19 Whatever the case, it is known from newspaper clippings, diary entries and exhibit catalogs that Longfellow was active in the art community, both in Boston and Portland (the Portland Sketch Club), and that her artwork was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Club, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy and the Portland Society of Art.20 Although she did not paint for a living, her occupation in the Portland City directory after 1903 is listed as "Artist."
In addition to her career as an artist, Longfellow had a variety of interests, such as photography, sailing, shooting, sewing, writing and collecting poetry, travel and theatre, throughout her life. She combined an enjoyment of literature and visual arts by participating in local plays. Diary entries for 1885 suggest that she was painting sets and working on the theatrical production of A Fair Encounter by the Elevator.21 She was also enterprising and shrewd with money as indicated by the accounting of yearly expenditures in her diaries. In February, 1884 Longfellow combined an interest in Japanese culture and fund raising. With her sister Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett, she successfully organized a "Japanese Tea," complete with decoration borrowed from Craigie House, earning $75.00.22 Around that same time the sisters organized a Turkish party that was well received. Longfellow also enjoyed shooting and occasionally joined her brothers' hunting parties. On 27 September 1884, she "spent all morning trying to get the rust out of [her] pistol."23
Another hobby was photography. She documented outings and social gatherings and often printed her own film. In January 1893 she assisted Joseph Thorp, Jr. in photographing the Wadsworth-Longfellow house in Portland and its owner Anne Longfellow Pierce.24 In February of that same year she was photographed in a Japanese dressing gown.25 In 1896 Longfellow purchased a camera for $5.00 and spent a great deal of her free time taking pictures and printing the film.26 On 2 July 1896 she was teaching Harriet Spelman Longfellow how to print photographs.27
Longfellow also photographed family sailing excursions along the coast of Maine. Undoubtedly among her most enjoyable pursuits, sailing provided time to sketch, paint and take pleasure in family and friends. Throughout the summer months she sailed on her brothers' cutter, the "Wyvern" or her cousin Charles Appleton Longfellow's yacht, the "Alga." The Longfellow family loved the seaside and probably acquired or leased a house by the shore. References in her diary for 1904 indicate that the family was preparing to go to Falmouth for the summer but that
19 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
20 Portland Society of Art exhibition catalogs found at the Maine Historical Society in November 2005 show MKL exhibiting watercolors for the years 1884, 1885, 1887, 1895, 1909.
21 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 2.
22 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
23 Entry for 27 September, 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
24 Entry for 14 March, 1893 Diary, Box 2, Folder 10.
25 Entry for 19 February, 1893 Diary, Box 2, Folder 10; see also entry for 14 March, 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 2.
26 Entries for April-August, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.
27 Entry for 2 July, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.. 16 –Mary King Longfellow Papers Biographical Data
her mother was feeling so ill they postponed the move.28 On 2 May 1905, the sisters were "cleaning and tagging items" at the house in Falmouth, and on 10 May keys to the house were regretfully turned over to the caretaker: "it was a bad task," Longfellow wrote.29 The Falmouth area inspired a number of her paintings including two entries for the 1909 Portland Society of Art exhibition entitled "Falmouth Fields" and the "Coast of Maine."
Among Longfellow's many interests, traveling was a highlight. She made several extended trips to Europe as well as trips to Mexico and the southeastern United States. Each excursion is documented through diary entries, sketches and watercolors. On her first journey to Europe in 1876, Longfellow was accompanied by Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow and his wife Harriet Spelman Longfellow. The trio spent four months abroad, first traveling to England and then to France. They enjoyed many of the historical and cultural sights with an eye always toward sketching and painting. While in France, they spent a great deal of time with the artist Elizabeth "Lizzie" Otis Lyman Boott or "Miss Boott" as Longfellow called her. Boott, born in Boston and raised in Florence, Italy, famous for her watercolors (and later marriage to painter Francis Duveneck), gave them art lessons and assisted with their French and Italian lessons.30 The following year, Longfellow traveled to Hampton, Virginia with Alice Mary Longfellow. She was able to pay for half the trip from the sale of a $45.00 painting.31
On 25 March 1885, Longfellow, along with her parents, embarked on what she fondly called the "Raymond Excursion" to the Southwest and Mexico. The party traveled by train and stopped at Niagara Falls, Chicago and Santa Fe where they met up with a larger contingent. Obviously enjoying her visit to the southwest and Mesoamerica, on 5 April an enthusiastic Longfellow wrote "off on Mexico Central for a new land!"32 The following day she was "wild with delight" riding through the mountains down to the prairie on a train.33 Longfellow enjoyed the arid landscapes and documented the sites in a sketchbook. The party returned to Boston in late May.
Longfellow made several more trips to Europe. On 7 July 1886, she and Alice Mary Longfellow embarked on the "Adriatic" for a four-month tour. The duo joined Anne and Joe Thorp in Switzerland and traveled to Italy and Amsterdam before returning to the United States in late October. Longfellow sailed to Europe on the Romantic in 1906 with her sister Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett and brother-in-law Frank Barrett visiting Spain, France and England. In 1910, she and Alice Mary Longfellow traveled to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France. She journeyed to Europe two more times. In 1923 she was accompanied by her brother Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., or "Waddy" as he was known, and Lucia. Her final trip to Europe was made in 1927 with her siblings and the Thorp family.
28 Spring, 1904 Diary, Box 3, Folder 7.
29 Entry for 10 May, 1905 Diary, Box 3, Folder 8.
30 June-September, 1876 Diary, Box 1, Folder 10.
31 1877 Diary, Box 1, Folder 11.
32 Entry for 5 April, 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
33 Entry for 6 April, ibid. Biographical Data Mary King Longfellow Papers – 17
Never married, Longfellow remained close to her family and friends. She lived in the family home in Portland at 37 South Street until 1908 when she acquired her first home at 116 State Street. Formerly known as the Linkleam House, Longfellow purchased the home for $7,500 with financial assistance from her brother Alexander and her sister Lucia.34 Longfellow referred to the house as the "new old South."35 She took up residence on 8 June 1908 and lived there until her death in 1945. "Waddy" visited most weekends from Boston and died in the house on 2 February 1934. Lucia maintained her own home at 169 State Street until her death in 1940 but visited daily and cared for Longfellow after two minor strokes in 1939 and 1940.
Longfellow lived a long and relatively healthy life, other than minor ailments and an eight-week hospital stay in 1914. At the age of 92 in 1945, she had outlived her family and most of her friends. She had become the last direct link to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Her obituaries hailed that connection but surprisingly failed to mention her lifelong avocation as an artist. Longfellow died 17 September 1945 and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine.
Although little is known about the personal life of Mary King Longfellow (1852-1945), today she "stands as Portland's best known [nineteenth-century] female painter."4 Her papers, including more than seventy years of diary entries begun in 1866 when Longfellow was fourteen, reveal little about her personal thoughts or beliefs but do provide an account of an interesting and active life.
Mary King Longfellow was the first of five children born to Elizabeth Clapp Porter Longfellow and Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, a brother of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, on 6 October 1852 at the family's farm Highfield in Westbrook, Maine. Named after her mother's sister, Mary King Porter, she was known to family and friends as "Mamie."
As a young woman Longfellow accompanied her father, an accomplished surveyor for the U.S. Coast Survey, on surveying trips. She enjoyed drawing and took up watercolor at an early age. In 1866, at the age of fourteen, she began a seasonal cycle of spending winter and spring in Cambridge and summer and fall in Portland. In Cambridge, Longfellow lived with her aunt, Mary Longfellow Greenleaf, and attended Hannah Davie's school with her cousins at the Craigie House up the street. In a diary entry for 2 January 1866, Longfellow notes "went to Miss Davies School for the first time, like it very much." Longfellow spent a great deal of time at Craigie House and became very close with her cousins, particularly Alice Mary Longfellow. The cousins enjoyed reading aloud, writing poetry and putting on plays. Longfellow notes in an 1866 diary entry that she played "Lady Arabella in a production of Margery Daw at Uncle Henry's."5
Her family encouraged her artwork and Longfellow pursued lessons. A receipt for the second session at the Museum of Fine Arts School of Drawing and Painting, found in her diary of 1878, suggests she took lessons there.6 A $50.00 grand prize from the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the best of twelve tiles in 1879 indicates that others appreciated her artwork as well.7 In the same year, Longfellow developed a Valentine card for Louis Prang, the chromolithographer responsible for popularizing the use of Christmas cards in the United States.8 Although her "first
4 The Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Women Pioneers in Maine Art, 26 December 1981 through 14 February 1982 (Westbrook College: Portland, Maine), p. 11.
5 Entry for 1 March, 1866 Diary, Box 1, Folder 1.
6 Ticket in Box 7, Folder 16.
7 Newspaper clipping beginning "Mary King Longfellow of this city," [Portland, 1879], Box 11, Folder 2 from 1879 Diary, Box 1, Folder 13; ECLP, Letter to AWL Jr., 23 November [1879], AWL Jr. Papers, Box 6, Folder 3, speaks of the prize.
8 Elizabeth Clapp Porter Longfellow to Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow (1854-1934), [1879?], AWL, Jr. Papers, 14 –Mary King Longfellow Papers Biographical Data
cards had been more successful than any [the L. Prang Company] had ever printed"9 she was disappointed with the quality and thought the results "simply horrible" with "the delicacy of the drawing lost and the whole thing looking hard and crude."10 Despite the Prang Company "always writing and asking for more," Longfellow found the format limiting and refused further work.11
Box 6, Folder 3.
No doubt introduced to influential artists through her relatives, Longfellow began daily watercolor lessons in 1884 with Ross Sterling Turner, a well-known Boston painter of the American Impressionist movement.12 Longfellow was impressed by Turner from their first introduction on 18 February: "I only looked on for the first day & felt as if I had been at a Theatre. It was all so new & bold!"13 Likely influenced by her instructor, Longfellow's artwork reflected the principles of two fashionable art movements of the late nineteenth-century, Impressionism and Realism.14 As a result, she focused on watercolor as a medium and often painted in plein air. Moreover, her primary subjects, the landscape and seascape of coastal Maine were captured moments on paper depicting the world around her in a realistic and seemingly objective manner. Although her diaries make little mention of her techniques or principles for painting, we can infer from her comments and the work itself that she appreciated the recently introduced methods.15 Longfellow was a student of Turner's between 1884 and 1889, studying both painting and ceramics. Why the lessons stopped in 1889 is not recorded. A diary entry for 23 April 1889 simply notes "last lesson with Mr. Turner."16 However, the following year, Longfellow started taking lesson with another American Impressionist, Louis Ritter, a Cincinnati, Ohio native who studied under the painter Frank Duveneck in Munich and opened a studio in 1883.17 In a diary entry for 9 April 1890, she wrote, "[F]irst lesson with Mr. Ritter and working with a model – the results comical."18
Although Longfellow made little mention of the art circle she was a part of, through acquaintances and study, she must have known or been known among some of the most prominent American artists of the late nineteenth-century. A diary entry for 23 February 1884 indicates that while Longfellow was visiting Edith Longfellow Dana a "Mr. Dan [Daniel Chester] French came to call." French, the well-known sculptor celebrated for his naturalistic style, must have invited the pair to his studio for on 28 February Longfellow comments that they
9 Ibid.
10 MKL to AWL, Jr. 1 February 1880, AWL, Jr. Papers, Box 1, Folder 6
11 AWL, Jr. to ECPL [1879?], AWL, Jr. Papers, Box 6, Folder 3.
12 Entry for 18 February, 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
13 Ibid.
14 Note: During the 2005 survey and processing of MKL diaries, references to the painter William Morris Hunt were not found in her diaries. However, a paper, "Mary King Longfellow: The Artist," compiled by Jennifer Tolpa in April 1994 and available in the biographical files of the Longfellow National Historic Site, mentions that MKL was a student of Hunt.
15 Entry for 7 March, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.
16 Entry for 23 April, 1889 Diary, Box 2, Folder 6.
17 Ask Art web site, www.askart.com/askart/l/mary_ king_longfellow/mary_king_longfellow.aspx, accessed 28 December 2005.
18 Entry for 9 April, 1890 Diary, Box 2, Folder 7. Biographical Data Mary King Longfellow Papers – 15
had a "most interesting visit" there.19 Whatever the case, it is known from newspaper clippings, diary entries and exhibit catalogs that Longfellow was active in the art community, both in Boston and Portland (the Portland Sketch Club), and that her artwork was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Club, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy and the Portland Society of Art.20 Although she did not paint for a living, her occupation in the Portland City directory after 1903 is listed as "Artist."
In addition to her career as an artist, Longfellow had a variety of interests, such as photography, sailing, shooting, sewing, writing and collecting poetry, travel and theatre, throughout her life. She combined an enjoyment of literature and visual arts by participating in local plays. Diary entries for 1885 suggest that she was painting sets and working on the theatrical production of A Fair Encounter by the Elevator.21 She was also enterprising and shrewd with money as indicated by the accounting of yearly expenditures in her diaries. In February, 1884 Longfellow combined an interest in Japanese culture and fund raising. With her sister Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett, she successfully organized a "Japanese Tea," complete with decoration borrowed from Craigie House, earning $75.00.22 Around that same time the sisters organized a Turkish party that was well received. Longfellow also enjoyed shooting and occasionally joined her brothers' hunting parties. On 27 September 1884, she "spent all morning trying to get the rust out of [her] pistol."23
Another hobby was photography. She documented outings and social gatherings and often printed her own film. In January 1893 she assisted Joseph Thorp, Jr. in photographing the Wadsworth-Longfellow house in Portland and its owner Anne Longfellow Pierce.24 In February of that same year she was photographed in a Japanese dressing gown.25 In 1896 Longfellow purchased a camera for $5.00 and spent a great deal of her free time taking pictures and printing the film.26 On 2 July 1896 she was teaching Harriet Spelman Longfellow how to print photographs.27
Longfellow also photographed family sailing excursions along the coast of Maine. Undoubtedly among her most enjoyable pursuits, sailing provided time to sketch, paint and take pleasure in family and friends. Throughout the summer months she sailed on her brothers' cutter, the "Wyvern" or her cousin Charles Appleton Longfellow's yacht, the "Alga." The Longfellow family loved the seaside and probably acquired or leased a house by the shore. References in her diary for 1904 indicate that the family was preparing to go to Falmouth for the summer but that
19 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
20 Portland Society of Art exhibition catalogs found at the Maine Historical Society in November 2005 show MKL exhibiting watercolors for the years 1884, 1885, 1887, 1895, 1909.
21 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 2.
22 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
23 Entry for 27 September, 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
24 Entry for 14 March, 1893 Diary, Box 2, Folder 10.
25 Entry for 19 February, 1893 Diary, Box 2, Folder 10; see also entry for 14 March, 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 2.
26 Entries for April-August, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.
27 Entry for 2 July, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.. 16 –Mary King Longfellow Papers Biographical Data
her mother was feeling so ill they postponed the move.28 On 2 May 1905, the sisters were "cleaning and tagging items" at the house in Falmouth, and on 10 May keys to the house were regretfully turned over to the caretaker: "it was a bad task," Longfellow wrote.29 The Falmouth area inspired a number of her paintings including two entries for the 1909 Portland Society of Art exhibition entitled "Falmouth Fields" and the "Coast of Maine."
Among Longfellow's many interests, traveling was a highlight. She made several extended trips to Europe as well as trips to Mexico and the southeastern United States. Each excursion is documented through diary entries, sketches and watercolors. On her first journey to Europe in 1876, Longfellow was accompanied by Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow and his wife Harriet Spelman Longfellow. The trio spent four months abroad, first traveling to England and then to France. They enjoyed many of the historical and cultural sights with an eye always toward sketching and painting. While in France, they spent a great deal of time with the artist Elizabeth "Lizzie" Otis Lyman Boott or "Miss Boott" as Longfellow called her. Boott, born in Boston and raised in Florence, Italy, famous for her watercolors (and later marriage to painter Francis Duveneck), gave them art lessons and assisted with their French and Italian lessons.30 The following year, Longfellow traveled to Hampton, Virginia with Alice Mary Longfellow. She was able to pay for half the trip from the sale of a $45.00 painting.31
On 25 March 1885, Longfellow, along with her parents, embarked on what she fondly called the "Raymond Excursion" to the Southwest and Mexico. The party traveled by train and stopped at Niagara Falls, Chicago and Santa Fe where they met up with a larger contingent. Obviously enjoying her visit to the southwest and Mesoamerica, on 5 April an enthusiastic Longfellow wrote "off on Mexico Central for a new land!"32 The following day she was "wild with delight" riding through the mountains down to the prairie on a train.33 Longfellow enjoyed the arid landscapes and documented the sites in a sketchbook. The party returned to Boston in late May.
Longfellow made several more trips to Europe. On 7 July 1886, she and Alice Mary Longfellow embarked on the "Adriatic" for a four-month tour. The duo joined Anne and Joe Thorp in Switzerland and traveled to Italy and Amsterdam before returning to the United States in late October. Longfellow sailed to Europe on the Romantic in 1906 with her sister Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett and brother-in-law Frank Barrett visiting Spain, France and England. In 1910, she and Alice Mary Longfellow traveled to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France. She journeyed to Europe two more times. In 1923 she was accompanied by her brother Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., or "Waddy" as he was known, and Lucia. Her final trip to Europe was made in 1927 with her siblings and the Thorp family.
28 Spring, 1904 Diary, Box 3, Folder 7.
29 Entry for 10 May, 1905 Diary, Box 3, Folder 8.
30 June-September, 1876 Diary, Box 1, Folder 10.
31 1877 Diary, Box 1, Folder 11.
32 Entry for 5 April, 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
33 Entry for 6 April, ibid. Biographical Data Mary King Longfellow Papers – 17
Never married, Longfellow remained close to her family and friends. She lived in the family home in Portland at 37 South Street until 1908 when she acquired her first home at 116 State Street. Formerly known as the Linkleam House, Longfellow purchased the home for $7,500 with financial assistance from her brother Alexander and her sister Lucia.34 Longfellow referred to the house as the "new old South."35 She took up residence on 8 June 1908 and lived there until her death in 1945. "Waddy" visited most weekends from Boston and died in the house on 2 February 1934. Lucia maintained her own home at 169 State Street until her death in 1940 but visited daily and cared for Longfellow after two minor strokes in 1939 and 1940.
Longfellow lived a long and relatively healthy life, other than minor ailments and an eight-week hospital stay in 1914. At the age of 92 in 1945, she had outlived her family and most of her friends. She had become the last direct link to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Her obituaries hailed that connection but surprisingly failed to mention her lifelong avocation as an artist. Longfellow died 17 September 1945 and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine.
Mary King Longfellow was the first of five children born to Elizabeth Clapp Porter Longfellow and Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, a brother of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, on 6 October 1852 at the family's farm Highfield in Westbrook, Maine. Named after her mother's sister, Mary King Porter, she was known to family and friends as "Mamie."
As a young woman Longfellow accompanied her father, an accomplished surveyor for the U.S. Coast Survey, on surveying trips. She enjoyed drawing and took up watercolor at an early age. In 1866, at the age of fourteen, she began a seasonal cycle of spending winter and spring in Cambridge and summer and fall in Portland. In Cambridge, Longfellow lived with her aunt, Mary Longfellow Greenleaf, and attended Hannah Davie's school with her cousins at the Craigie House up the street. In a diary entry for 2 January 1866, Longfellow notes "went to Miss Davies School for the first time, like it very much." Longfellow spent a great deal of time at Craigie House and became very close with her cousins, particularly Alice Mary Longfellow. The cousins enjoyed reading aloud, writing poetry and putting on plays. Longfellow notes in an 1866 diary entry that she played "Lady Arabella in a production of Margery Daw at Uncle Henry's."5
Her family encouraged her artwork and Longfellow pursued lessons. A receipt for the second session at the Museum of Fine Arts School of Drawing and Painting, found in her diary of 1878, suggests she took lessons there.6 A $50.00 grand prize from the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the best of twelve tiles in 1879 indicates that others appreciated her artwork as well.7 In the same year, Longfellow developed a Valentine card for Louis Prang, the chromolithographer responsible for popularizing the use of Christmas cards in the United States.8 Although her "first
4 The Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Women Pioneers in Maine Art, 26 December 1981 through 14 February 1982 (Westbrook College: Portland, Maine), p. 11.
5 Entry for 1 March, 1866 Diary, Box 1, Folder 1.
6 Ticket in Box 7, Folder 16.
7 Newspaper clipping beginning "Mary King Longfellow of this city," [Portland, 1879], Box 11, Folder 2 from 1879 Diary, Box 1, Folder 13; ECLP, Letter to AWL Jr., 23 November [1879], AWL Jr. Papers, Box 6, Folder 3, speaks of the prize.
8 Elizabeth Clapp Porter Longfellow to Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow (1854-1934), [1879?], AWL, Jr. Papers, 14 –Mary King Longfellow Papers Biographical Data
cards had been more successful than any [the L. Prang Company] had ever printed"9 she was disappointed with the quality and thought the results "simply horrible" with "the delicacy of the drawing lost and the whole thing looking hard and crude."10 Despite the Prang Company "always writing and asking for more," Longfellow found the format limiting and refused further work.11
Box 6, Folder 3.
No doubt introduced to influential artists through her relatives, Longfellow began daily watercolor lessons in 1884 with Ross Sterling Turner, a well-known Boston painter of the American Impressionist movement.12 Longfellow was impressed by Turner from their first introduction on 18 February: "I only looked on for the first day & felt as if I had been at a Theatre. It was all so new & bold!"13 Likely influenced by her instructor, Longfellow's artwork reflected the principles of two fashionable art movements of the late nineteenth-century, Impressionism and Realism.14 As a result, she focused on watercolor as a medium and often painted in plein air. Moreover, her primary subjects, the landscape and seascape of coastal Maine were captured moments on paper depicting the world around her in a realistic and seemingly objective manner. Although her diaries make little mention of her techniques or principles for painting, we can infer from her comments and the work itself that she appreciated the recently introduced methods.15 Longfellow was a student of Turner's between 1884 and 1889, studying both painting and ceramics. Why the lessons stopped in 1889 is not recorded. A diary entry for 23 April 1889 simply notes "last lesson with Mr. Turner."16 However, the following year, Longfellow started taking lesson with another American Impressionist, Louis Ritter, a Cincinnati, Ohio native who studied under the painter Frank Duveneck in Munich and opened a studio in 1883.17 In a diary entry for 9 April 1890, she wrote, "[F]irst lesson with Mr. Ritter and working with a model – the results comical."18
Although Longfellow made little mention of the art circle she was a part of, through acquaintances and study, she must have known or been known among some of the most prominent American artists of the late nineteenth-century. A diary entry for 23 February 1884 indicates that while Longfellow was visiting Edith Longfellow Dana a "Mr. Dan [Daniel Chester] French came to call." French, the well-known sculptor celebrated for his naturalistic style, must have invited the pair to his studio for on 28 February Longfellow comments that they
9 Ibid.
10 MKL to AWL, Jr. 1 February 1880, AWL, Jr. Papers, Box 1, Folder 6
11 AWL, Jr. to ECPL [1879?], AWL, Jr. Papers, Box 6, Folder 3.
12 Entry for 18 February, 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
13 Ibid.
14 Note: During the 2005 survey and processing of MKL diaries, references to the painter William Morris Hunt were not found in her diaries. However, a paper, "Mary King Longfellow: The Artist," compiled by Jennifer Tolpa in April 1994 and available in the biographical files of the Longfellow National Historic Site, mentions that MKL was a student of Hunt.
15 Entry for 7 March, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.
16 Entry for 23 April, 1889 Diary, Box 2, Folder 6.
17 Ask Art web site, www.askart.com/askart/l/mary_ king_longfellow/mary_king_longfellow.aspx, accessed 28 December 2005.
18 Entry for 9 April, 1890 Diary, Box 2, Folder 7. Biographical Data Mary King Longfellow Papers – 15
had a "most interesting visit" there.19 Whatever the case, it is known from newspaper clippings, diary entries and exhibit catalogs that Longfellow was active in the art community, both in Boston and Portland (the Portland Sketch Club), and that her artwork was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Club, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy and the Portland Society of Art.20 Although she did not paint for a living, her occupation in the Portland City directory after 1903 is listed as "Artist."
In addition to her career as an artist, Longfellow had a variety of interests, such as photography, sailing, shooting, sewing, writing and collecting poetry, travel and theatre, throughout her life. She combined an enjoyment of literature and visual arts by participating in local plays. Diary entries for 1885 suggest that she was painting sets and working on the theatrical production of A Fair Encounter by the Elevator.21 She was also enterprising and shrewd with money as indicated by the accounting of yearly expenditures in her diaries. In February, 1884 Longfellow combined an interest in Japanese culture and fund raising. With her sister Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett, she successfully organized a "Japanese Tea," complete with decoration borrowed from Craigie House, earning $75.00.22 Around that same time the sisters organized a Turkish party that was well received. Longfellow also enjoyed shooting and occasionally joined her brothers' hunting parties. On 27 September 1884, she "spent all morning trying to get the rust out of [her] pistol."23
Another hobby was photography. She documented outings and social gatherings and often printed her own film. In January 1893 she assisted Joseph Thorp, Jr. in photographing the Wadsworth-Longfellow house in Portland and its owner Anne Longfellow Pierce.24 In February of that same year she was photographed in a Japanese dressing gown.25 In 1896 Longfellow purchased a camera for $5.00 and spent a great deal of her free time taking pictures and printing the film.26 On 2 July 1896 she was teaching Harriet Spelman Longfellow how to print photographs.27
Longfellow also photographed family sailing excursions along the coast of Maine. Undoubtedly among her most enjoyable pursuits, sailing provided time to sketch, paint and take pleasure in family and friends. Throughout the summer months she sailed on her brothers' cutter, the "Wyvern" or her cousin Charles Appleton Longfellow's yacht, the "Alga." The Longfellow family loved the seaside and probably acquired or leased a house by the shore. References in her diary for 1904 indicate that the family was preparing to go to Falmouth for the summer but that
19 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
20 Portland Society of Art exhibition catalogs found at the Maine Historical Society in November 2005 show MKL exhibiting watercolors for the years 1884, 1885, 1887, 1895, 1909.
21 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 2.
22 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
23 Entry for 27 September, 1884 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
24 Entry for 14 March, 1893 Diary, Box 2, Folder 10.
25 Entry for 19 February, 1893 Diary, Box 2, Folder 10; see also entry for 14 March, 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 2.
26 Entries for April-August, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.
27 Entry for 2 July, 1896 Diary, Box 2, Folder 13.. 16 –Mary King Longfellow Papers Biographical Data
her mother was feeling so ill they postponed the move.28 On 2 May 1905, the sisters were "cleaning and tagging items" at the house in Falmouth, and on 10 May keys to the house were regretfully turned over to the caretaker: "it was a bad task," Longfellow wrote.29 The Falmouth area inspired a number of her paintings including two entries for the 1909 Portland Society of Art exhibition entitled "Falmouth Fields" and the "Coast of Maine."
Among Longfellow's many interests, traveling was a highlight. She made several extended trips to Europe as well as trips to Mexico and the southeastern United States. Each excursion is documented through diary entries, sketches and watercolors. On her first journey to Europe in 1876, Longfellow was accompanied by Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow and his wife Harriet Spelman Longfellow. The trio spent four months abroad, first traveling to England and then to France. They enjoyed many of the historical and cultural sights with an eye always toward sketching and painting. While in France, they spent a great deal of time with the artist Elizabeth "Lizzie" Otis Lyman Boott or "Miss Boott" as Longfellow called her. Boott, born in Boston and raised in Florence, Italy, famous for her watercolors (and later marriage to painter Francis Duveneck), gave them art lessons and assisted with their French and Italian lessons.30 The following year, Longfellow traveled to Hampton, Virginia with Alice Mary Longfellow. She was able to pay for half the trip from the sale of a $45.00 painting.31
On 25 March 1885, Longfellow, along with her parents, embarked on what she fondly called the "Raymond Excursion" to the Southwest and Mexico. The party traveled by train and stopped at Niagara Falls, Chicago and Santa Fe where they met up with a larger contingent. Obviously enjoying her visit to the southwest and Mesoamerica, on 5 April an enthusiastic Longfellow wrote "off on Mexico Central for a new land!"32 The following day she was "wild with delight" riding through the mountains down to the prairie on a train.33 Longfellow enjoyed the arid landscapes and documented the sites in a sketchbook. The party returned to Boston in late May.
Longfellow made several more trips to Europe. On 7 July 1886, she and Alice Mary Longfellow embarked on the "Adriatic" for a four-month tour. The duo joined Anne and Joe Thorp in Switzerland and traveled to Italy and Amsterdam before returning to the United States in late October. Longfellow sailed to Europe on the Romantic in 1906 with her sister Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett and brother-in-law Frank Barrett visiting Spain, France and England. In 1910, she and Alice Mary Longfellow traveled to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France. She journeyed to Europe two more times. In 1923 she was accompanied by her brother Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., or "Waddy" as he was known, and Lucia. Her final trip to Europe was made in 1927 with her siblings and the Thorp family.
28 Spring, 1904 Diary, Box 3, Folder 7.
29 Entry for 10 May, 1905 Diary, Box 3, Folder 8.
30 June-September, 1876 Diary, Box 1, Folder 10.
31 1877 Diary, Box 1, Folder 11.
32 Entry for 5 April, 1885 Diary, Box 2, Folder 1.
33 Entry for 6 April, ibid. Biographical Data Mary King Longfellow Papers – 17
Never married, Longfellow remained close to her family and friends. She lived in the family home in Portland at 37 South Street until 1908 when she acquired her first home at 116 State Street. Formerly known as the Linkleam House, Longfellow purchased the home for $7,500 with financial assistance from her brother Alexander and her sister Lucia.34 Longfellow referred to the house as the "new old South."35 She took up residence on 8 June 1908 and lived there until her death in 1945. "Waddy" visited most weekends from Boston and died in the house on 2 February 1934. Lucia maintained her own home at 169 State Street until her death in 1940 but visited daily and cared for Longfellow after two minor strokes in 1939 and 1940.
Longfellow lived a long and relatively healthy life, other than minor ailments and an eight-week hospital stay in 1914. At the age of 92 in 1945, she had outlived her family and most of her friends. She had become the last direct link to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Her obituaries hailed that connection but surprisingly failed to mention her lifelong avocation as an artist. Longfellow died 17 September 1945 and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine.
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