Ellen Sewall Osgood

Ellen Devereux Sewall Osgood ( – ) was an American amateur geologist also known for being a love interest of Henry David Thoreau.

Biography

Early life and education Ellen Devereux Sewall was born on in Barnstable, Massachusetts, the daughter of the Rev. Edmund Quincy Sewall, a Unitarian minister, and Caroline Ward Sewall. She was named after the heroine of Walter Scott's poem "Lochinvar". She was educated at the Roxbury Female Academy.

Natural history Her education sparked her lifelong interest in natural history, particularly geology. She created a herbarium and collected geological specimens in a handmade mahogany box given to her by Henry David Thoreau, now in the Concord Museum. In 1962, at the age of 98, her youngest daughter, artist Louise Osgood Koopman, published an account of her mother's relationship with Thoreau in the Massachusetts Review.

In 1844, she married the Rev. Joseph Osgood, a Unitarian minister like her father. They had ten children.

Death Ellen Sewall Osgood died in December 1892.