Elizabeth (Boardman) Otis (1796-1873)
Mrs Elizabeth Henderson (Boardman) Otis; Society Hostess of Boston
She was the daughter of William Boardman, a wealthy merchant in the China and Indian trade, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Henderson, High Sheriff of Suffolk County. In her youth, she was a famous beauty and belle. She married into the influential Otis family but shortly afterwards she was left a widow with three sons. In 1835, she took her sons to Europe for their education and she remained there for the next seven years. On her return, similarly to her mother-in-law, Sally Otis, she, "undertook the task of lifting the social life of Boston from its old ruts. She became quite a social leader and her home the gathering place for people of great distinction". She was said to have done, "more for Boston than any one of her sex had ever previously accomplished".
She held a Fair to raise the funds needed to complete the Bunker Hill Monument. Later she held a Ball that raised $10,000 for the purchase of Mount Vernon and she persuaded the State Legislature to make Washington's Birthday a National Holiday. During the Civil War she established the Bank of Faith and came to the aid of wounded soldiers across the United States. In the picture, she wears a dress of purple velvet and old lace that she wore in 1860 for the ball in New York given for the future King Edward VII. She authored a novel The Barclays of Boston (1854) and contributed to the Boston Transcript under the signature of "One of the Barclays".
She held a Fair to raise the funds needed to complete the Bunker Hill Monument. Later she held a Ball that raised $10,000 for the purchase of Mount Vernon and she persuaded the State Legislature to make Washington's Birthday a National Holiday. During the Civil War she established the Bank of Faith and came to the aid of wounded soldiers across the United States. In the picture, she wears a dress of purple velvet and old lace that she wore in 1860 for the ball in New York given for the future King Edward VII. She authored a novel The Barclays of Boston (1854) and contributed to the Boston Transcript under the signature of "One of the Barclays".
