Died Jan. 17th, 1837 — Mrs. Elizabeth Coolidge, Aged 60 Years. [Elizabeth Bulfinch Coolidge, sister of American Architect Charles Bulfinch]

An unrecorded broadside for the sister of famed architect Charles Bullfinch

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An apparently unrecorded funeral memorial to Elizabeth Bulfinch Coolidge (1777–1837), sister to American architect, Charles Bulfinch. Elizabeth Coolidge was the daughter of Thomas Bulfinch and Susan Apthorpe Bulfinch of Boston. For context, see Papers, 1802-1837, of Susan Apthorp Bulfinch and family held by the Boston Athenaeum.

The memorial or eulogy is mainly concerned with Elizabeth’s religious devotion and her moral character:

In early life, she possessed beauty with vanity, and talent without attempt at display; she was as remarkable for sincerity as for a modesty of demeanor which retired from, rather than courted observation. In married life, she was as attentive to the claims of society, and to those connected with the station in which Providence had placed her, as to the more important demands upon her benevolence; she engaged with cheerfulness and liberality, while health was afforded her, in the circles of domestic and social life. It may be truly said that her life was unblemished. (p[1])

Elizabeth Bulfinch Coolidge and her husband, Joseph Coolidge, Sr. lived in a house designed by her architect brother Charles. The Joseph Coolidge House, built in 1791–1792 and based on a design by English architect Robert Adam, was Boston’s “...first example of Neo-Classical architecture.”¹

Price: $75.00