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Sisters Eleanor and Marion Goddard were each painted by artist
Mary L.
Cheney. Eleanor Goddard was the elder of the two daughters of
Harry and
G. Grace Goddard. Born in Spencer in 1889, she moved to Worcester
as a
small child and attended Worcester public schools. One of her high
school
teachers encouraged her to consider going on to college, which she
did,
graduating from Smith College in 1911. There, she kept a scrapbook
in
which she saved a record of her busy social life. On June 2, 1915,
she
married F. Harold Daniels, who had also grown up in the Salisbury
Street
neighborhood. They had two children, Eleanor and Bruce.
In Worcester, Eleanor Goddard Daniels was a member of the Second
Church
of Christ, Scientist, Center for Crafts, Friends of the Public
Library,
Tatnuck Country Club, Worcester Club, Woman's Club, Citizens Plan
E Association,
Higgins Armory Museum, Salisbury Mansion Association, Worcester
County
Horticultural Society, Worcester County Music Association,
Worcester Children's
Friend Society, Worcester Garden Club, Preservation Worcester, and
Mechanics
Association. She was a benefactor of AAS, Clark University, the
Home for
Aged Men (Goddard House), Smith College, Worcester Academy,
Worcester
Art Museum, Homestead Hall, and Worcester Polytechnic Society. She
was
a director of Faith House, a trustee of Old Sturbridge Village,
and a
member of the National Board of the Worcester Area Council of Camp
Fire
Girls. She received the Wohelo award from the Camp Fire Girls in
1943.
She also donated 500 acres of marshland on Petit Manon Point in
Steuben,
Maine, to the state of Maine to be used as a waterfowl management
area.
Her husband was elected to the American Antiquarian Society in
1956 and
served on the Council from 1959 until his death in 1967. Several
years
afterwards, Mrs. Daniels made arrangements to deed the home at 190
Salisbury
Street to the Society. The benefits of the 1981 acquisition of the
home
have been far-reaching, particularly in the augmentation of the
Society's
departments of outreach and scholarly programs, and in its
fellowship
program, which is noted for its collegiality. The house's history
is well-remembered,
and many people still recall seeing Mrs. Daniels walking around
the neighborhood,
even on cold days, bundled up in a warm coat.
Eleanor's younger sister, Marion Goddard, was not quite
twenty-five years
of age when she died on board the ship, City of Athens in 1918, en
route
from Savannah, Georgia, to New York. Her health had always been
delicate
and she was returning from the South where she had spent the
winter. Her
niece, Eleanor Daniels Bronson Hodge, who was very young at
Marion's death,
recalled that she prized an elegant doll with a hand-painted head,
had
a beloved dog named Bunty, and collected pink lusterware.
Born in Chautauqua, New York, Mary Langdon Cheney was active in the early
twentieth century. In addition to the Goddard portraits, one of her
nephew, Langdon Shervee, also dates from 1912. (1) Listed as a portrait
painter in New York City in 1920, Cheney exhibited works, including
miniature paintings, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City and the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. By 1930, she resided in Shrewsbury,
Massachusetts, where she was associated with a photography portrait studio
operated by her sister Katherina and her two sons, Curtis and Langdon, and
subsequently the Shervee Art Studio in Wrocester. Cheney was also a member
of the art colony in Warwick, Rhode Island. (2)
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