Researching Ednah Cheney

She was born on Beacon Hill, Boston, June 27, 1824; and was educated in private schools in Boston. Cheney served as secretary of the School of Design for Women in Boston from 1851 till 1854. She married portrait artist Seth Wells Cheney on May 19, 1853. His ill-health limited his volume of work and after a winter trip abroad (1854-1855) he died in 1856. They had one child, Margaret.

Cheney's life was devoted to philosophic and literary research and work. She was one of the marked personalities of Boston in her day, prominent in reform movements. Naturally averse to personal publicity, she did not shun it where her name and word could add weight to the advocacy of a just cause. In the education and health of the community, she showed the most interest. She was a strenuous champion of the claims of African Americans to political and social justice. She advocated for religious toleration and the enfranchisement of women. She took an interest in social concerns such as the Freedman's Aid Society (secretary of the committee on aid for colored regiments and of the teachers' committee, 1863), Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (vice president), New England Women's Club (vice president) and the New England Hospital for Women and Children (secretary, 1862). She lectured at the Concord School of Philosophy on the history of art, and wrote about art in several books and articles. She was an active member of the Margaret Fuller conversation class. She went south to visit the Freedmen's schools in 1866, 1868, and 1869. Cheney was one of the founders in 1862 of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, its secretary for twenty-seven years and president fifteen years, is numbered among the veterans of the forward movements in education, philanthropy, and reform of the nineteenth century. who happily still live to grace by their presence and help by their wise counsels the deliberative assemblies and budding activities of the twentieth century. She was the author of "Reminiscences."

Cheney visited Europe several times, and spoke before lyceums west of New England in 1873, 1875, and 1876. The location where her home stood in Jamaica Plain is a site on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.