Anna "Anne" Whitney was the daughter of Nathaniel Whitney, well to do farmer and his wife Sarah Stone Whitney. Being from a well to do family it afforded her the luxury of developing her artistic nature. In her early life she wrote poetry that was well received and of which two volumes were published. When she was thirty, she became interested in sculpting. Many of her works can be found in Boston and in Europe. She and Abby Adeline Manning perhaps met around 1862 when Anne was studying with the renowned William Rimmer. He also taught at the School of Design for Women, Cooper Union, New York City. Between 1867 and 1876 she and Adeline visited Munich, Paris and Rome. In 1878 they were living and working in their new studio at 92 Mt. Vernon in Boston. In 1888 she purchased 225 acres in Shelburne, New Hampshire and her and Adeline spent their summers on the farm. They were both involved with the women suffrage movement, printing of pamphlets to hand out for different causes, and of sharing their home with friends and fellow artists. They were together for forty-four years until, after a brief illness, Adeline died at the age sixty-nine. She was so distraught over Adeline's death that she never returned to Whitney Farms in Shelburne. A cousin of hers offered her the use of a cottage on his estate in Plymouth. It was there that she met poet, Olive Dargan, with whom it was said brought back great comfort and joy to her life. She died in her apartment at The Charlesgate on Beacon St., after a brief Illness. They buried her and Adeline's ashes next to each other under the same headstone.
Anna "Anne" Whitney was the daughter of Nathaniel Whitney, well to do farmer and his wife Sarah Stone Whitney. Being from a well to do family it afforded her the luxury of developing her artistic nature. In her early life she wrote poetry that was well received and of which two volumes were published. When she was thirty, she became interested in sculpting. Many of her works can be found in Boston and in Europe. She and Abby Adeline Manning perhaps met around 1862 when Anne was studying with the renowned William Rimmer. He also taught at the School of Design for Women, Cooper Union, New York City. Between 1867 and 1876 she and Adeline visited Munich, Paris and Rome. In 1878 they were living and working in their new studio at 92 Mt. Vernon in Boston. In 1888 she purchased 225 acres in Shelburne, New Hampshire and her and Adeline spent their summers on the farm. They were both involved with the women suffrage movement, printing of pamphlets to hand out for different causes, and of sharing their home with friends and fellow artists. They were together for forty-four years until, after a brief illness, Adeline died at the age sixty-nine. She was so distraught over Adeline's death that she never returned to Whitney Farms in Shelburne. A cousin of hers offered her the use of a cottage on his estate in Plymouth. It was there that she met poet, Olive Dargan, with whom it was said brought back great comfort and joy to her life. She died in her apartment at The Charlesgate on Beacon St., after a brief Illness. They buried her and Adeline's ashes next to each other under the same headstone.
