Ethan Allen Greenwood

Ethan Allen Greenwood (May 27, 1779 – May 3, 1856) was an American lawyer, portrait painter, and entrepreneurial museum proprietor in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 19th century. He established the New England Museum in 1818.

Biography Greenwood was born in Hubbardston, Massachusetts, to Moses Greenwood and Betsy Dunlap, May 27, 1779. He attended school at the Academy at New Salem, and the Leicester Academy. In 1806 he graduated from Dartmouth College. He also studied at West Point. Between 1801 and 1825, Greenwood produced many portraits, perhaps as many as 800 works. He utilized the physiognotrace technique. He kept a studio in Boston and associated with other artists, including Gilbert Stuart. He married Mrs. Caroline Carter Warren of Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1829. His diaries now reside in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society.

The New England Museum enjoyed considerable popularity. Greenwood also established museum branches in Portland, Maine, and Providence, Rhode Island. However, between 1834–1839 he experienced financial difficulties and, as a result, "his assignees conveyed the collections [of the New England Museum] to Moses Kimball." Greenwood died May 3, 1856, and is buried in Hubbardston.