UNF professor to lecture on Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, famed female author
Florida art history professor Dr. P. Scott Brown will present a virtual discussion on the legacy of early Feminist scholar and historian Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16.
Evangeline is well worth remembering for her brilliant writing on women and creativity, her profound influence on her husband’s art, and her impact on the ideals of public beauty and aesthetic access in America.
Evangeline had a fascinating family history, including her famous/infamous father, a Boss Tweed crony and Egyptologist; her mother, a well-known suffragist; and her husband, Edwin, a celebrated painter. Artists and intellectuals on multiple continents remembered her on her death in 1918 as “the most learned woman” alive, yet history has nearly forgotten Evangeline herself.
She was a pioneer of women’s history, an activist, and an icon. Although her most important work was misappropriated by another, now-famous woman, and she wrote most of her husband’s books without credit, Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield should not be forgotten.
The talk is sponsored by the Little Compton Historical Society of Rhode Island.