Louisa and Seabrook’s Children on the Steps of the Wylie House

Louisa and Seabrook’s Children on the Steps of the Wylie House

In 1884, after the unexpected death of her husband, Herman, Louisa returned to her parent’s home, where she continued to raise her children Anton and Marie with the help of her mother and father. Several years later, in 1890, Seabrook’s three youngest children were also brought back to the Wylie House, accompanied by their father, Brown Wylie. Meanwhile, Seabrook remained with their eldest son, Theo, in Pennsylvania, where she sought employment as a means to alleviate the family’s ever-mounting debt. Shortly after the return, though, Brown died of Bright’s disease. The children remained at the Wylie House after the death of their father, while Seabrook continued to seek employment, now a working mother, apart from her young children. The image, taken on the stone wall at the front of the Wylie House, shows the five children living here, during this time. Cared for and mothered by the united force of Rebecca, Louisa, and other household occupants, the children’s familial situation hardly echoed the nineteenth-century ideal. Rather, the Wylie Children and their caretakers represented an example of “extended mothering”. From left to right: Anton Boisen, Reba Wylie, Marie Boisen, Laurence Wylie, Samuel Wylie.

For more information on this item go to the Wylie House Museum Image Collection.

Indiana University Image Collections Online: Wylie House Museum Image Collection

Taken in 1890