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Anna Quincy Thaxter Cushing (1825-1900), the daughter of Edward Thaxter (1784-1841) and Susan Joy (Thaxter) Thaxter (1791-1837), was born on 24 October 1825 in Hingham, Massachusetts. Both Anna's family and that of her husband—Dr. Benjamin Cushing (1822-1895), son of Jerom Cushing (1780-1824) and Mary (Thaxter) Cushing (1784-1867)—were among the first settlers of the town of Hingham.

After the untimely death of her parents, Anna left Hingham to attend school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and shortly thereafter she settled in Dorchester. As the eldest child, Anna became responsible for the care of her sister, Susan Barker Thaxter (1827-1849), and her brother, Edward Thomas Thaxter (1832-1859). Susan married Henry Hunter Peters (1825-1877), in 1848, and died soon after giving birth to Edward Dyer Peters in 1849.

Anna married her cousin, Benjamin Cushing, on 5 January 1848. He had received his education in the Derby Academy (Hingham, Massachusetts), Harvard College, class of 1842, and Harvard Medical School, class of 1846. He studied in Paris for a year following graduation. Except for the period during the Civil War in which he served as a volunteer surgeon at Fortress Munroe (Hampton, Virginia), he lived and practiced in Dorchester.

Benjamin's and Anna's four children were all born in Dorchester. They were Mary Cushing (1848- ), who married Joseph Richmond Churchill (1845- ) in 1871; Edward Thaxter Cushing (1851- ); Annie Quincy Cushing (1857- ), who married her cousin, Edward Dyer Peters (1849-1917) in 1881; and Susan Thaxter Cushing (1863- ).

The First Church (Unitarian) in Dorchester, was a center of Anna's many activities. She belonged to its various sewing groups formed to aid the needy or benefit a cause and was also a member of its choir. Music was one of Anna's passions and indeed of the entire Cushing family.

Nearer home, Anna's charitable instincts benefited the young Irish women—nearly all of whom were named Mary—who came to work for her. Her kindness resulted in friendships, which in the cases of Mary Desmond, Mary Gately, and Margaret Gately, lasted for years.

Anna died in Dorchester on 13 March 1900.

This collection contains thirty-two octavo volumes which cover most of the years 1844 to 1875 and 1884 (the years in which Ben was away in the Army are notably missing). The diaries record Anna's daily activities and news of the extended Thaxter-Cushing family. Many members of this family lived in Dorchester and nearby Hingham. Though Anna had relatives living in Bolton, Deerfield, and Cambridge, they were near enough to be a vital part of Anna's life.

Anna was an intelligent, articulate, and sympathetic observer of her world. She saw herself as a homemaker, mother, and wife. When her domestic duties were completed—although she noted that the sewing was never finished—she liked to visit friends, read, sing, play the piano, and attend lectures and concerts. The diaries reveal a woman of charitable disposition, anxious to be of service to her family and community, grateful for her blessings but sometimes wishing to escape from the confines of the cult of domesticity—"Oh dear I wish I had the faculty of turning off work a little more." Despite the work, Anna seemed to be more than a little satisfied with Wednesday's spotless sugar bowls, castors and saltcellars, Friday's clean-swept house and the jars of pear preserves on the shelf.

This collection also contains two folders of correspondence to or from various members of the Thaxter-Cushing family, including early letters from Anna's mother, Susan Joy Thaxter, to her mother, Anna Thaxter; letters from Benjamin Cushing to Anna shortly before their marriage; letters of condolence regarding the deaths of Susan Joy Thaxter, Thomas Thaxter Show more Show less