Isabella Stewart was born in New York City on April 14, 1840, the daughter of wealthy linen-merchant David Stewart and Adelia Smith Stewart. She grew up in Manhattan. From age five to fifteen she attended a nearby academy for girls where she studied art, music, and dance, as well as French and Italian. Attendance at Grace Church exposed her to religious art, music and ritual.
At age 16, she and her family moved to Paris where she was enrolled in a school for American girls; her classmates included members of the wealthy Gardner family of Boston. In 1857 she was taken to Italy and in Milan saw Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli’s collection of Renaissance art arranged in rooms designed to recall historical eras. She said at the time that if she were ever to inherit some money, she would have a similar house for people to visit and enjoy. She returned to New York in 1858.
Shortly after returning, her former classmate Julia Gardner invited her to Boston, where she met Julia’s brother John Lowell “Jack” Gardner. Three years her senior, he was the son of John L. and Catharine E. (Peabody) Gardner, and one of Boston’s most eligible bachelors. They married in Grace Church on April 10, 1860, and then lived in a house that Isabella’s father gave them, at 152 Beacon Street in Boston. They resided there for the rest of Jack’s life.
Loss of a Son
Jack and Isabella had one son, born on June 18, 1863; he died from pneumonia on March 15, 1865. A year later Isabella suffered a miscarriage and was told she could not bear any more children. Her close friend and sister-in-law died about the same time. Gardner became extremely depressed and withdrew from society. On the advice of doctors, she and Jack traveled to Europe in 1867.
Isabella was so ill that she had to be taken aboard the ship on a stretcher. The couple spent almost a year traveling, visiting Scandinavia and Russia but spending most of their time in Paris. The trip had the desired effect on Isabella’s health and became a turning point in her life. It was on this trip that she began her lifelong habit of keeping scrapbooks of her travels. Upon her return, she began to establish her reputation as a fashionable, high-spirited socialite.
In 1875 Jack’s brother, Joseph P. Gardner, died, leaving three young sons. Jack and Isabella “adopted” and raised the boys. Augustus P. Gardner was 10 years old at the time. Isabella’s biographer, Morris Carter, wrote that “in her duty to these boys, she was faithful and conscientious”. Source: Wikipedia.
