Browse Items (29 total)

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The top image is the Music Vale Seminary as it looked upon its opening in 1835.
In January 1868, a special-effects display during a performance resulted in a fire. To create thunder, Oramel rolled cannon balls along the back of the state. To create…

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This was one of the about fifty women whose picture appeared in the Music Vale Seminary's album of beauty.

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Jeanette Morgan Whittlesey, the third daughter, was born March 29, 1836, and married William Henry Maginnis, the brother of Elisabeth's husband, John. She was a talented singer, teaching voice lessons to the young women of Music Vale. Jeanette and…

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Young women came from the Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Nova Scotia, and some as far as the West Indies.

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Bela Lyon Pratt, one of Sarah's sons, was born December 11, 1867, in Norwich. At 16, he attended Yale School of Fine Arts and later became a teacher at the school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He is credited with 175 impressive sculptures,…

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The second daughter, Sarah Victoria Whittlesey, born May 23, 1831, also taught at the Music Vale Seminary. On July 31, 1858, she married lawyer George Pratt of Norwich, where they lived for many years before moving to Kansas City, Missouri. Sarah and…

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The eldest daughter of Oramel and Charlotte, Elizabeth (Eliza) Maginnis (nee Whittlesey), born October 5, 1826, was a teacher and later vice principal at Music Vale. After her husband John's death in 1864, she started a school of music called…

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Rev. John Whittlesey, 1780-1864, was a strong-willed Methodist minister of the sect "New Lights". He married his cousin Sally Whittelsey in Westbrook, Connecticut; note the variation on spelling. They moved to Salem in 1801, the year Oramel was born.…

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Oramel Whittlesey's daughter Kate is seated with her back toward the photograph. It looks as though she has two students practicing.
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