Women of the Week

Financier Levancia Holcomb Plumb, who was born on June 23, 1841, artist and art teacher Agnes Dean Abbatt, who was born on June 23, 1847, and author Ednah Dow Cheney, who was born on June 27, 1824, are this week's Women of the Week.  

•  To learn about them by viewing their items, please click on their images.  

• To read their biographical sketches in A Woman of the Century, please click on the highlighted page number(s) to the left of their images.

Levancia Holcomb Plumb was born in Sand Lake, New York, on June 23, 1841, but she lived in Illinois for most of her life.  She attended Oberlin College, graduating in 1861.  On December 6, 1866, Levancia married Samuel H. Plumb in Lorain, Ohio.  They became the parents of three daughters and a son, and the family lived in Streator, Illinois.

She was a well-respected businesswoman and bank president who was affiliated with Frances E. Willard and worked closely with Julia A. Ames.

Levancia passed away in Streator, Illinois, where she had lived for fifty years, on April 10, 1923.

Agnes Dean Abbatt was born on June 23, 1847, in New York City. Educated at both the art school of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the National Academy of Design, Agnes was successful as both an art teacher and an artist. She presented her art at many exhibitions, including the American Watercolor Society, of which she was a member.

The September 2, 1893, The Evening  Star of Washington, D.C., noted: "Miss Agnes D. Abbatt is very successful.  Her studio is in a new building on Fifth avenue, where many important artists live.  She is one of the few ladies who are members of the Water-Color Society.  Miss Abbatt paints also in oils, and is especially fond of landscapes.  Lately she has been devoting much time to pastels."

Agnes passed away on January 1, 1917, and was buried at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery.

Ednah Dow Cheney, the daughter of Sargent Smith Littlehale and Edna Parker Littlehale, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 27, 1824.  She attended Mount Vernon School in Boston, but much of her literary education came through her participation in Margaret Fuller's "Conversations."  Ednah came to know Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Amos Bronson Alcott, Abby May Alcott, and many other authors.

She married artist Seth Cheney and became mother to her daughter Margaret, but Seth died at a young age and Ednah did not remarry.  Instead, she focused on motherhood and her career.

Ednah was an author, a lecturer, a philanthropist, a reformer, a suffragist, and a teacher.  Passionate about education, she was involved with the Concord School of Philosophy, Boston School of Design for Women, Women's Medical College, and The Horticultural School for Women.

She participated in numerous organizations, including The Freedman's Aid Society, The Association for the Advancement of Women, The New England Woman's Club,  The New England Woman's Press Association, The Massachusetts School Suffrage Association, and The New England Hospital for Women and Children.

Ednah wrote articles for periodicals such as The North American Review, The Christian Examiner, and Woman's Journal.  She also penned books, including her 1902 autobiography, Reminiscences of Ednah Dow Cheney.  Two years later, on November 19, 1904, she passed away.