oil on canvas, 17″ x 20″
In 1838 at age 25, Harriet Farley left Atkinson, N.H. and became a “mill girl” in Lowell. She was soon contributing articles to the newly formed Lowell Offering, a literary magazine that grew out of a church “Improvement Circle.” In 1842, Harriet left the mills to co-edit the magazine. During the summer of 1845, she was criticized by her former friend Sarah G. Bagley for not taking a stronger position on labor reform and for acting as “the mouthpiece for the corporation.” Harriet’s defense was that the Lowell Offering was a literary magazine, created to show that working women were respectable and had dignity, and was not a labor reform publication. The Lowell Offering ceased publication shortly after this debate. It was revived in late 1847, as the New England Offering, with Harriet as both editor and publisher.
In 1854, she moved to New York City to marry John Intaglio Dunlevy, an engraver and inventor. It is interesting to note that the painting was purchased for the Library from a Miss Alice Dunlevy of New York City. Her relationship to John Dunlevy is unknown.
Purchased from Miss Alice Dunlevy of New York 1926.