The Wylie Women, Continued
Three Wylie Women: A Generation of Late Nineteenth-Century Mothers
As you explore the exhibit, click on images to learn more about the artifacts and to read full transcriptions and view full-size scans of the letters.
Most likely taken in 1913, this photo displays the early twentieth-century Wylie family on the front steps of the Wylie House. From left to right: Margaret Wylie Mellette, Reba Wylie (Seabrook’s daughter), Louisa Wylie Boisen, Morton C. Bradley Sr. (Louisa’s daughter’s husband), Marie Bradley (Louisa’s daughter), Laurence Wylie (Seabrook’s son). Children: Louise Bradley and, being held, Morton C. Bradley Jr. (Louisa’s grandchildren).
After Seabrook passed in 1899, her children continued to live in the Wylie House, alongside their Aunt Louisa. Following her husband’s death in 1884, Louisa remained at the Wylie House until her mother’s death in 1913. Because of this, she is considered the last Wylie family member to live at the home. In 1930, while living with her daughter, Marie, and son-in-law, Morton C. Bradley, Louisa died in Arlington, Massachusetts at the age of 91. Maggie spent the rest of her years residing with two of her sons Anton and Richard in Pittsburg, Kansas. She lived there until her death in 1938. She was ninety-five years old.
The museum serves not just as a monument to the University or the University president, but as a testament to the importance of place and the ties of family. In the 1960s, the efforts of Theophilus Wylie III, Charles Mellette, Anton Boisen, and Marie Boisen, several of the children of Louisa, Maggie, and Seabrook, aided in the establishment of the Wylie House, as museum. Contributing recollections of their childhood home, the children of the Wylie women assisted in preserving the memory of the Wylie House. A monument to the expectations and community of mothers, the legacy of the Wylie Women continues to live on through the Wylie House, the “woman’s sphere” and the Women’s haven.
Oil painting of the Wylie House, painted in the early twentieth century by one of Seabrook's sons, either Theophilus A. Wylie III or Samuel Brown Wylie
Confused on who's who? Take a look at the Family Relationship Chart at the end of this exhibit.