Collections record Beta

Drawing - Litchfield Female Seminary

1993-05-1

Unframed drawing of the Litchfield Female Academy building. View shows northeast corner of building. Federal style building with columns on front. Shutters closed on all but four windows. Fence in front with a few trees. Behind academy building is a smaller outbuilding. Cupola on top of building, hip style roof. Signed in lower left corner "Z.S. Webb/M.D./1838 & 1898" and "Litchfield Female Seminary."

The LHS archival collection contains a letter written by Z.S. Webb to Emily Noyes Vanderpoel in 1898. In the letter, Webb writes that he is sending an ink sketch of the "Seminary" to her, a replica of a sketch he completed in 1837 or 1838. Webb noted both of these dates at the left of the drawing, underneath his name. Webb must have been living in Litchfield at the time, as he writes that he attended the school in 1837-1838 under a Miss Finch, who succeeded Miss Pierce.

Z. S. Webb is known to have completed two versions of the scene illustrated in this drawing. The first, believed to be the original 1838 sketch, is in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society. A later version was sent by Webb to Emily Noyes Vanderpoel in 1898 and is also in the LHS collection (1975-100-75). Webb's 1898 drawing is illustrated in Vanderpoel's Chronicles of a Pioneer School, opposite page 268, where it is clearly attributed to Webb. This drawing (1993-05-1) is likely a copy of Webb's 1898 drawing completed by Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, although it is possible that Webb completed a third version.

• Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes, 1842-1939

1898

6 1/2" length x 5 1/4" width

• ink
• pencil
• paper