Portrait of Mrs. Perez Morton (Sarah Wentworth Apthorp) by Gilbert Stuart, about 1802. This painting is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. To visit their website and learn more about this painting, please click the image above.
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Sarah Wentworth Morton, born into the prominent Apthorp family, was baptized at King’s Chapel in 1759. She and husband Perez Morton later owned Pew 4, in view of the weeping child atop her grandfather Charles’s memorial. Morton was a respected poet, although, like many women, much of her work was not officially published. Her printed work appeared under her pen name Philenia, a common practice for 18th-century writers. She wrote about private life, patriotism in the new nation, and book-length romantic poems about indigenous characters that were well-researched and sympathetic. Abolitionists quoted her work, despite the Apthorp involvement in slavery. Her last book of thoughtful prose pieces was published under her own name in 1823. For 18th-century writers, success was not only about being in print. Women, especially, had networks of manuscript exchange and literary gatherings that gave their writing wide audiences and influence. The Mortons hosted a popular Boston literary salon. Although Morton had several works in print, we might look to blogs and online spaces for creative sharing as today’s versions of her writing life.
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What creative outlets do you use to express yourself?
How might this be different if you were living in the 1800?
How might this be different if you were living in the 1800?