Harriet Beecher Stowe House National Historic Landmark Nomination
Sexton J. 2013. Harriet Beecher Stowe House National Historic Landmark Nomination. National Historic Landmark Nominations. 70000710_NHL. National Park Service. Washington, DC
This document is the National Historic Landmark (NHL) nomination for the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, Connecticut. The NHL nomination for the Harriet Beecher Stowe House documents its national significance under NHL Criterion 2 as the longtime home of author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896). After a relatively peripatetic life, moving from Connecticut to Ohio to Maine to Massachusetts and traveling with great frequency to promote her work, Stowe returned to Connecticut to settle down for her final years in 1873; she lived at this house until her death in 1896. Here in Connecticut, Stowe continued her career as a social reformer, becoming engaged with a variety of ongoing national debates, most significantly the national debate over polygamy. Stowe’s involvement in this debate reflected the same concerns as her involvement in the debate over slavery. In fact, Stowe’s views on polygamy were so closely tied to her concerns about slavery that understanding her role in the polygamy debate provides a greater understanding of Stowe as a multi-dimensional social reformer who was shaped by both her own deep religious convictions as well as Victorian notions of female purity and the sacred nature of motherhood.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Sexton, James
- Date of Issue
- 2013-02-27
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Keywords
- Connecticut, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Hartford, National Historic Landmark