Blickensderfer, William Jacob Davenport, Adelaide Hutchings Davenport, Harriet Grant Chesebrough Dewing, Clark Leonard Dewing, Hiram Duffy, Edward Gildemeister, Clara Parsons Hanrahan, John T. Hoit, Edward B. Hoyt, Joseph Blachley Jones, Cortland Mead Lathrop, The Reverend Edward Lockwood, Judge Charles Davenport Machlett, Raymond R. Palmer, Delos Peters, The Reverend Cyril S. Quintard, Elizabeth Quintard, Mary “Polly” Selleck, Charlotte Gregory Selleck, George Selleck, Harriet Banks Selleck, James Weed Selleck, Captain William Studwell, Theodore Towne, Frederick Tallmadge Waterbury, Captain Marcus Wilensky, Julius Morris Introduction

The Stamford Historical Society Presents

Best Face Forward
Portraits from the Society's Collection
April through September 2009

Harriet Banks Selleck (1807–1846)

Pen and ink/watercolor wash Artist unknown 2008.4.1.b Gift of Florence L. Selleck

Harriet Banks of Redding, Connecticut married George Selleck on November 28, 1825. They had six children, five of whom were born in Norwalk and the sixth in New York City in 1844.

Neither of their portraits are signed, but both were probably done in the early 1840s shortly before Harriet’s death from smallpox on January 4, 1846. A clue to this dating was made by art conservator, Alexander Kaplan, who pointed out that Harriet’s collar is painted with a brilliant china white watercolor, a pigment first introduced to the watercolor palette between 1840 and 1842. Harriet died in Williamsburg, New York and is buried there.

George Selleck
Captain William Selleck
Charlotte Gregory Selleck
James Weed Selleck

Image © Stamford Historical Society