Helena de Kay Gilder Writes To Wellesley
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
It’s a Wagner Week and I found a letter from a famous person! Well, she would be fairly famous in some circles, I imagine. When I pull a letter out of the very clearly never-ending box of Wagner Letters and don’t immediately recognize the name at the bottom of the letter, I Google it. Almost one hundred percent of the time, it is the name of a politician, business owner, or a rich person.
This time, though, I had a feeling that the person who wrote this letter was noteworthy on a larger scale because the letter isn’t addressed to a Wagner. It is addressed to a “Miss Blake” at Wellesley College, not our own Jessie Wagner who attended Wellesley. This means that the letter was either given to our Jessie by her friend Miss Blake or Jessie snagged it to keep as a bit of notable memorabilia. I could also tell that the person who wrote this letter was in the realm of the famous because her signature is absolutely giant.
One thing that the Wagner Letters have taught me is that the richer you are, the bigger your signature. This probably accounts for why my own signature is so small.
Helena de Kay Gilder is the name on this letter and she was an artist. She was born into a family of artists and poets and then later married into another family of writers, artists, and poets. Helena was a muse to a few creative types. Most notably, Helena was the unrequited (supposedly) love interest of one Winslow Homer! He was her dear friend and painted several portraits of her. But she was married to a famed poet and editor named Richard Watson Gilder.
In researching whether Winslow or Richard was cuter, all I could really determine was that Helena was clearly into giant mustaches. Helena took life-drawing classes at famed art schools in New York during the first years those classes were open to women. Helena was a shaker-upper of things in the young scene of the New York art world.
This letter is undated. Wellesley College has an online archive of other letters from Helena, though, including one addressed to a Miss Whiting, who is mentioned in this letter. It is dated 1893. I guess this letter to be from around the late 1890s.
No. 55 Clinton Place
May 21
My Dear Miss Blake,
It would give both Mr. Gilder and myself the greatest possible pleasure to go to Wellesley on the twenty-sixth and accept the kind hospitality of the College and see the lovely play. I longed to see it when I read about it last year. But Mr. Gilder has such pressing demands on his time just now that he couldn’t possibly leave, and I will be in the middle of closing the house and getting the family off for four months in the country.
I can’t say how I regret—how we both regret—saying no—our regrets.
I write you our thanks and regards to all our inviters and our special regards to Miss Whiting and Miss Jewett and Miss Sherman.
Very sincerely yours,
Helena de Kay Gilder
