The Providence Athenæum

The Athenæum’s bust of the American author Lousia May Alcott [1832-1888] is after the 1892 work completed by the sculptor Walton Ricketson [1839-1923], now part of the collection of the Concord Free Public Library Corporation in Concord, MA. Ricketson completed two artistic renditions of Alcott, including a bas-relief medallion done from life a few years earlier. The bust was produced posthumously and initially owned by Alcott’s sister, Anna Alcott Pratt.

Alcott was the second of four daughters born to Bronson (philosopher, educator, and Transcendentalist) and Abigail May Alcott. Her family settled in Concord, Massachusetts, where Alcott was educated by her father and such family friends as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. While best known for her beloved work Little Women, Alcott was also the author of many other works of fiction and non-fiction, a Civil War nurse, an abolitionist, and an early suffragette. She held progressive values about women that have continued to be a source of inspiration to young women and authors around the world.

In 2019, the Athenæum commissioned a plaster copy of Ricketson’s original bust from Skylight Studios in Woburn, Massachusetts. Two other busts were commissioned at the same time: those of Mary Wollstonecraft and Frederick Douglass.

"The Bust Project/Louisa May Alcott."  The Providence Athenæum, 2020, www.providenceathenaeum.org/collections/the-bust-project/louisa-may-alcott/.  Accessed 19 Sep. 2020.

Porter, Maria S. “Recollections of Louisa May Alcott.” The New England Magazine, March 1892, vol. VI, no. 1, books.google.com/books?id=zEc5AQAAMAAJ&q=alcott#v=snippet&q=alcott&f=false.  Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.

Louisa May Alcott Papers, [1847]-1887: Special Collections: Concord Free Public Library, concordlibrary.org/special-collections/fin_aids/LMAlcott. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.

Skylight Studios. Skylight Studios, Inc., 2018, www.skylightstudiosinc.com/.  Accessed 1 Sep. 2020.