Alice Leeds Heard (1868-1953)
The daughter of John Heard (1824-94) and Alice
Leeds Heard (1846-1917), young Alice, called “Elsie” to
differentiate her from her mother, spent her early
days living in Boston, where she was born. Her
uncle, George Farley, built her a dollhouse replica
of her birthplace, the family townhouse at 3 Park
Street, to play with.
Very little is known about Elsie’s girlhood.
She probably visited Ipswich during the summer
months to enjoy the countryside, beach, and her
family’s ancestral home – today’s
Heard House Museum. By the age of 22 she was a
skilled enough artist to enroll in the School of
the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (SMFA). There,
while living at 82 Chestnut Street on Beacon Hill,
she studied with the great Frank W. Benson, Edmund
C. Tarbell, Anson K. Cross, E.W. Emerson, and possibly
Otto Grundman.
In 1894, Elsie’s father died, in the family
home at 53 Chestnut Street, and she no doubt assumed
the care of her aging mother. In 1898, mother and
daughter were honored guests at the Ipswich Historical
Society’s first annual “Antique Supper.” Elsie’s
father had been a founding member of the Society,
which was initially organized in 1890.
Elsie received her diploma from the SMFA in 1899,
but it is not known what works of original art
she produced. She was a skilled copyist, however,
and several of her paintings may still be seen
in Ipswich. Her imitation of Gilbert Stuart’s
portrait of her ancestor, John Heard, is remarkable.
She also copied portraits of Rev. Thomas Franklin
Waters, the founder of the Ipswich Historical Society,
and Charles M. Kelly, president of the First National
Bank of Ipswich. Perhaps her favorite subject,
though, was her infant brother “Georgie,” who
died before he reached his second birthday.
Elsie’s mother died in 1917, and it is unclear
how she spent her days. During World War I, Elsie
volunteered for the Red Cross, probably rolling
bandages or packing and shipping parcels for soldiers
serving overseas. She no doubt maintained an interest
in Ipswich Historical Society activities, and visited
the family home more frequently which her brother,
John, his wife, Grace Clifford, and their children
John, Grace, and Marileeds, now occupied.
In 1930, John died, leaving the house to Elsie.
Grace, his widow, moved to the Washington, D.C.
area. Elsie found the mansion difficult to maintain,
and in 1936 she sold her home to the Ipswich Historical
Society with the stipulation that she be allowed
to reside there as long as she chose. She kept
a bedroom and a private office while the Society
worked to restore the rest of the house and open
it for tours to the public.
In late 1949 or early 1950, Elsie returned to
Boston -- to an apartment in the Back Bay’s
grand Hotel Vendome. There, according to the Herald-Traveler, “elderly
Bostonians, or at least retired Bostonians, many
of them of the highest social register standing,
took up year round residency.”
Elsie died just a few years later in 1953, in
nearby Brookline, probably in a private medical
facility. She was 85. An anonymous “devoted
friend” paid tribute to her in the Ipswich
Chronicle, writing, “to those who loved her
(and who indeed did not?) her quick and charming
sense of humor was a delight. It was never marred
by the least suspicion of mockery, of intolerance,
or of unkindness. Her joy in all things beautiful
went hand in hand with her lifelong devotion to
the art of painting.”
Today, the Heard House Museum proudly displays
a plaque in Elsie’s memory, her dollhouse,
portraits of John Heard and Thomas Franklin Waters,
and her fine Victorian easel.
Sources:
Files of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston.
Edward W. Hanson, The Heards of Ipswich, Massachusetts
(privately published, 1986).
Alice Leeds Heard correspondence files, Ipswich
Historical Society.
Herald-Traveler, 6 June 1970.
Ipswich Chronicle, 24 Sept., 1953; 23 Dec. 1898.
Salem Evening News, 16 Sept. 1953.
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