Patience Lovell Wright, Susan Waters highlighted
By:Vanessa S. Holt
BORDENTOWN CITY Seventh-grade world culture and language arts students recently learned about Bordentown women of the past in an appropriately historical setting.
Congregating in the recently renovated Quaker Meetinghouse on Farnsworth Avenue, students celebrated March’s Women’s History Month with a lesson on artists such as Patience Lovell Wright, Susan Waters and Charlotte Bonaparte.
Lifelong Bordentown resident Mimi Loretangeli shared the knowledge she has gathered through years of research with students as they sat in the former meetinghouse, which houses some of the Bordentown Historical Society’s collection.
Ms. Loretangeli, a past president of the society, has hosted walking tours, re-enactments and open houses here for over 12 years and has a special interest in the history of significant women in Bordentown history.
"These women are fascinating," she said. "At the time, art expression for women generally was confined to art pieces that one would display at home."
Needlework and china painting were among the more popular forms of expression before the 20th century. However, the female artists of Bordentown in the 18th and 19th centuries included respected professional sculptors, painters and illustrators.
Patience Lovell Wright (1725-86) was born to a Quaker family in Bordentown and is best known for her wax sculptures. She was rumored to have sent spy messages to American from England during the Revolutionary War in some of the busts she created and predated Madame Tussaud’s wax museum with the figures she created of public figures from the time.
"Wax sculpture was a popular form of sculpture, readily paintable and quite malleable," said Ms. Loretangeli. "But it was unusual for women to pursue any type of career even during that time period."
Patience Wright began working as a sculptress after her husband died. Like many women of the time, she entered the work force out of necessity.
Susan Waters, an itinerant 19th century painter, settled in Bordentown in the late 1800s. She was one of very few itinerant painters at the time, focusing mainly on portraits, landscapes, still life paintings and works featuring animals, particularly sheep.
An active member of the Trenton suffragette movement, she spoke extensively on that subject and others, including animal rights, said Ms. Loretangeli.
"Susan liked it here and brought her family here," said Ms. Loretangeli. "Both women (Wright and Waters) were very prominent and were raised in what was considered a very tolerant culture."
The class got to see a wax bust relief of George Washington by Patience Wright courtesy of a visitor from Delaware, Laura Flaherty, who is a descendent of Washington’s Cabinet member Oliver Wolcott.
Students were so intrigued to meet the descendent of a signer of the Declaration of Independence they even asked for her autograph, said Ms. Loretangeli.
The Bordentown Historical Society has several pieces in its collection by these artists, including a wax cameo by Patience Wright and several paintings by Susan Waters. One painting of sheep in a pasture hangs in the meetinghouse, and a painting of sheep in a barn is housed in the Gilder House.
"Most children today find their options are unlimited, but as a young woman, they wouldn’t have had much of a choice 100 years ago," said Ms. Loretangeli.
Many students were stunned when they realized that only 100 years ago a woman did not have the right to vote, for example, she said.
"Bordentown’s location during this period was attractive with its fairly urban setting," said Ms. Loretangeli. Philadelphians came to Bordentown in the summer by railroad or stagecoach to avoid the heat and the yellow fever in the cities.
"An old Bordentown hotel register would show that a lot of people came through here," she said.
In the 19th century Bordentown was the home of a powerful patron of the arts, noted Ms. Loretangeli, referring to Joseph Bonaparte, who lived in Bordentown from 1816 to 1832.
The former king of Spain and brother to Napoleon, Bonaparte had two daughters, Charlotte and Zenaide, and several of Charlotte’s watercolors were exhibited in Philadelphia at the time. Some of her work is still in the collection of a private Philadelphia museum.
Ms. Loretangeli said she enjoys the stories that come out of history and thinks of herself as a storyteller in that sense. Her personal favorite story to relate to audiences is the true story of Patience Wright being arrested in France when she traveling with a sculpted bust of Benjamin Franklin.
"She had Franklin’s head under her arm and was stopped by authorities," said Ms. Loretangeli. The police thought she had a decapitated head in her hands. The misunderstanding was cleared up with the help of a translator, she said.
"I’m no a historian, but I wanted to share with them my enthusiasm for the history and to put it in perspective," she said. "I want to share how interesting those people were, what they accomplished in their lifetimes and what role Bordentown played in it."
Students wrote "thank you" letters to Ms. Loretangeli after the presentation, describing some of what they learned from the lesson.
"I never knew that so many famous women in history like Patience Lovell Wright once lived in Bordentown," said one student, Meghan Carty. "I have heard of many famous men in history that lived in Bordentown, but until you came and talked to my class I didn’t know that famous women lived here too."
Other students were intrigued to learn that Patience Wright may have passed messages from England to America during the Revolutionary War.
"I thought it was interesting how Patience Wright sent letters through the heads of the sculptures and outwitted the English," said William Steinmann. "Having one of the first spies come from Bordentown is neat."
"It’s cool to know that women stood out during the time when men were in charge," said Zorangelee Mercado. "It’s cool to know that women stood out and actually made a difference so long ago."