Elizabeth

Born into the well-to-do Homer family of Roxbury, Elizabeth’s school papers and surviving childhood keepsakes suggest she was a curious and inquisitive girl. In both 1856 and 1858, when she was 12 and 14 years of age, she won first prize for “perfect recitation and excellent deportment.” Her school essays range in topic from palm trees to Greek History to patriotism in the face of the looming Civil War.

In the fall of 1868, after a period of courtship, Elizabeth and Arthur Nichols announced their engagement. In 1869 Elizabeth sent Arthur a curl of her pale brown hair, which remains preserved with the accompanying letter in the Special Collections of the Massachusetts State House. Later that year, Elizabeth and Arthur married and settled into their first home in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

In the first years of her marriage, Elizabeth spent much of her time conscientiously furnishing their new home. In 1869 she purchased a fashionable black walnut sideboard which she described as “nicely finished with excellent carving.” Elizabeth enjoyed collecting art and antique furniture throughout her life, much of which remains in the Nichols House Museum’s collection today. However, she was also fiscally-minded and routinely helped Arthur balance the family’s account books.

Elizabeth and Arthur had three daughters and one son, Sidney, who sadly died of diphtheria in early childhood. She was devoted to her children and shared in their passions as adults, including women’s suffrage. Arthur and Elizabeth remained a devoted couple and on their 33rd wedding anniversary, Elizabeth remarked on the “smooth path of their marriage.”

Like many late Victorian women, Elizabeth was involved in local charity work including the Children’s Aid Association and the Boston Female Asylum. An avid gardener, Elizabeth spent much of her time at the family’s country home in Cornish, New Hampshire where her brother-in-law, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, had founded the Cornish Art Colony. After Arthur’s death in 1923, Elizabeth spent an increasing amount of time in Cornish until the end of her life.

More on Elizabeth:

Cunningham, Laura and Rosemary Foy. Their Objects, Their Stories: The Nichols Women as Collectors, 1870-1960. Edited by Laura Cunningham. Nichols House Museum: 2018. Download e-Booklet.