Nancy H. Adsit
Nancy H. Adsit (pen name, Probus; May 21, 1825 – April 27, 1902) was an American art lecturer, art educator, and writer. A graduate of Ingham University, she contributed for half a century to art literature.[1]
Nancy H. Adsit | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Nancy H. Warren May 21, 1825 Palermo, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 27, 1902 (aged 76) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee |
| Pen name | Probus |
| Occupation | art lecturer, art educator, writer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Charles Davenport Adsit
(m. 1862; died 1873) |
Adsit was the first woman to enter the insurance field in the United States, and, as far as was known, in the world. She was possessed of an unusual combination: great literary ability and excellent business sense. At the age of 13, she assumed charge of her own affairs and her future education. Some of her early writings aroused great antagonism, and her identity was withheld by her editor and not until many years later did she acknowledge their authorship. On the death of her husband, Charles Davenport Adsit, of Buffalo, New York in 1873, the widow assumed entire charge of his business and general insurance agency. After a most successful career in this line, she sold the business and resumed her writing. She contributed to the London Art Journal, writing an interesting series of articles for them on "The Black and White in Art" or "Etching and Engraving." This brought demands for lectures and parlor talks on art, and she began a course of classes for study. For many years, she delivered these lectures in the principal cities of the U.S. and her name was prominently connected with art education both in the U.S. and abroad. [2]
Early years and education
Nancy H. Warren was born in Palermo, New York, May 21, 1825. She was of New England Puritans lineage, and was descended from the Mayflower Robinsons on the mother's side, and from the patriotic Warrens of Massachusetts on the father's side, her father being a clergyman and missionary. Her early life was a discipline in self-dependence, which aided and stimulated the development of an inherited force of character, enabling her to combat and conquer adverse conditions, overcome obstacles and from childhood mark out for herself and pursue steadily a career that achieved success. At the age of 13, she assumed entire charge of herself and her fortunes. The expenses of collegiate study in Ingham University were met by teaching and journalism.[3]
Career
Adsit was a regular contributor to the columns of the New York City Baptist Register, the Boston Recorder, the New-York Tribune and the Western Literary Messenger. Her earlier work was mostly in the line of poetic effusions and several series of "lay sermons" under the signature of "Probus." These sermons aroused intense antagonism in clerical circles, on account of their latitudinarianism on theologic questions. Heated and prolonged discussions followed each publication. "Probus," the unknown, was adjudged by a general council "guilty of heresy," and the sermons were denounced and condemned. The series was completed, however, and her identity was held between herself and the editor, and not until many years later, by her own voluntary confession, was the writer identified. Meanwhile, the thought of the clergy, as of the world at large, had broadened, and the sermons were no longer under proscription.[3]
She married Charles Davenport Adsit, of Buffalo, December 13, 1862. Her home during the next three years was at 11 North Division street, in that city. Alternating literary, charitable and church work with her domestic duties, she developed an ideal home. They removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1865, where the husband died in 1873, leaving his widow charged with large responsibilities. Adsit immediately assumed the entire charge and management of a general insurance agency. She was the first woman in general insurance in the U.S., and, so far as is known, in the world. Protests from family friends and jealous antagonisms on the part of business competitors met her at the threshold of the work, but she won public favor as she gave assurance of ability, until the work was crowned with such success as to leave no cause for its further prosecution. Accordingly, Adsit sold the business, with her good will, and resumed writing. Her range of work reached from the political questions of the day to science and art. Her contributions to the London Art Journal for many years brought a request for a series of articles on the "White and Black in Art," or "Etching and Engraving." Finding no satisfactory data for thorough investigation in books, she visited the studios of artists as well as the workshops of engravers, gathering at firsthand the necessary information, even to the practical use of the tools of each craft. An entire year was consumed in this preparatory work.[3]
Months before the articles were completed the demand for parlor conversation on the topics which so absorbed her induced Adsit to open her home to groups of ladies and gentlemen, who cared to take up the study in earnest. The field of her labor gradually broadened, and from 1880, she gave lecture courses in nearly all the principal cities of the U.S.. Her name became prominently identified with art education, both in the U.S. and abroad. While Adsit disclaimed being an artist, she was a competent and thorough critic and elucidator of art. Her criticisms of prints, especially, were sought by connoisseurs and collectors. The secret of her success lay in the fact that her work was simply the expression of her own personality, including an abounding enthusiasm which carried her audiences. In a report of its Wisconsin secretary to the Association for the Advancement of Women, of which Adsit is one of the vice-presidents,[4] the writer said: "To Mrs. C. D. Adsit's work is due, directly or indirectly, most of the art interest in our State as well as the entire West." Her own adverse experiences quickened and enlarged her sympathies toward all working women, to whom she gave not only wholesome advice, but also substantial aid. Her home in Milwaukee was a center of art and of social interchange.[5] She died April 27, 1902, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was buried at Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee.
References
- Herringshaw 1904, p. 26.
- Logan 1912, p. 784.
- Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 9.
- Association for the Advancement of Women 1892, p. 5.
- Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 10.
Bibliography
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Association for the Advancement of Women (1892). Report. Issues 15-16, Issues 18-19 (Public domain ed.).CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) - This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herringshaw, Thomas William (1904). Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century: Accurate and Succinct Biographies of Famous Men and Women in All Walks of Life who are Or Have Been the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States Since Its Formation ... (Public domain ed.). American Publishers' Association.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Logan, Mrs. John A. (1912). The Part Taken by Women in American History (Public domain ed.). Perry-Nalle publishing Company. p. 784.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)