century association biographical archive

Earliest Members of the Century Association

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Ernest W. Longfellow

Artist

Centurion, 1892–1921

Full Name Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow

Born 23 November 1845 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Died 24 November 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts

Buried Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Proposed by Joseph H. Choate and Myles Standish

Elected 5 March 1892 at age forty-six

Archivist’s Note: Son of (nonmember) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Century Memorial

Last surviving son of the now all but forgotten poet whom, in our younger days, we were taught to regard as the American laureate, it was the fortune of Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow to pursue the elusive path of art, but not the art of his father. For some reason not apparent in the temperament of either father or son, Mr. Longfellow was sent for his education to a scientific school. He broke boldly away from such a career after graduating and went to Paris to study art. His paintings, mostly landscapes, are pleasing. But he really gave his life to another object of devotion, his invalid wife, and saw but little of his associates in the larger world.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1922 Century Association Yearbook