Mary Minturn Hartshorne
Periodca. 1850
MediumDaguerreotype
DimensionsImage: 2.75 × 2.25 in. (7 × 5.7 cm)
Case: 3.75 × 3.25 × 0.63 in. (9.5 × 8.3 × 1.6 cm)
Case: 3.75 × 3.25 × 0.63 in. (9.5 × 8.3 × 1.6 cm)
InscribedPinned to the inside of the case is a handwritten penciled inscription on lined paper reading "Mary M. Hartshorne / married Felix E. O'Rourke"
ClassificationsDaguerreotypes and Ambrotypes
Credit LineGift of Mary Minturn Adams in memory of her Hartshorne Ancestors. 2018
Object number2018.10.12
DescriptionMary Minturn Hartshorne, aged about 10, poses solemnly in 3/4 view turned towards the right. Mary wears her hair parted in the center, smoothly back behind her ears with a large silk bow visible at the back of her head. The young girl wears a plaid dress, long sleeved, with piped seams and a starched white embroidered collar held with a small brooch. Mary also appears to be wearing hoop earrings. The edge of a low backed chair is visible at left. The image is mounted in a leather embossed case with a wine colored velvet lining.Curatorial RemarksThe daguerreotype of Mary Minturn Hartshorne, taken when she was about eleven years old, captures in sharp detail the costume and accessories of a well-dressed little girl. Her plaid gown, most likely a lightweight wool challis, is well-made, with matched pleats and piped seams. She wears a crisply starched and embroidered white collar, held closed with a small brooch. Mary's dark hair is smoothly drawn back from her face, revealing a pair of rather prominent ears. A large silk bow finishes her costume. Mary also wears a pair of large hoop earrings, an accessory detail not often seen in girls of this age.NotesMary Minturn Hartshorne was born on 3 November 1839, the youngest child of Robert Hartshorne (1798 - 1872) and Mary Alnn Minturn (1802 - 1861). She attended St. Mary's Hall from 1848 to 1854, an Episcopal school for girls in Burlington, NJ. In 1871 she married Felix Eugene O'Rouke (ca. 1827 - 1891). O'Rourke, a native of County Leitrim, Ireland, was born about 1827 and graduated with honors from Armagh College, after which he joined the Young Ireland Party. This group of violet radicals attempted a rebellion against the British in 1848 due to repression and the introduction of martial law in Ireland. The British government issued an order for O'Rourke's arrest, but he escaped to the United States, arriving in New York on 25 July 1848. Upon Felix O'Rourke's marriage to Mary M. Hartshorne, the couple retired to the Highlands in New Jersey. After their wedding, the couple visited Niagara Falls, posing for a tintype photograph to mark the occasion. The 1880 U.S. Census indicates they lived there at the time with a cook, a servant, and a laborer in their household. Mary Hartshorne O'Rourke died without issue on 11 November 1890 at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City at the age of fifty-one. Her husband never recovered from the shock of his wife's death. He also passed away at St. Vincent's Hospital only five months later on 6 April 1891 of pneumonia. Their funerals both took place at St. Frances Xavier Roman Catholic Church on 16th Street in New York, with interments in Calvary Cemetery in Queens.
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