Aunt Storer was Mrs. Ebenezer Storer. Her maiden name was Elizabeth
Green. She was a sister of Mrs. Joshua Winslow. She was born October
12, 1734, died December 8, 1774; was married July 17, 1751, to
Ebenezer Storer, who was born January 27, 1729-30, died January 6,
1807. He was a Harvard graduate, and was for many years treasurer of
that college. He was one of Boston's most intellectual and respected
citizens. His library was large. His name constantly appears on the
lists of subscribers to new books. After his death his astronomical
instruments became the property of Harvard College, and as late as
1843 his comet-finder was used there.
As Anna Green Winslow spent so much of her time in her "Aunt
Storers" home in Sudbury Street, it is interesting to know that a
very correct picture of this elegant Boston home of colonial days
has been preserved through the account given in the _Memoir of Eliza
Susan Morton Quincy_,--though many persons still living remember the
house:--
"The mansion of Ebenezer Storer, an extensive edifice of wood three
stories in height, was erected in 1700. It was situated on Sudbury
Street between two trees of great size and antiquity. An old English
elm of uncommon height and circumference grew in the sidewalk of the
street before the mansion, and behind it was a sycamore tree of
almost equal age and dimensions. It fronted to the south with one
end toward the street. From the gate a broad walk of red sandstone
separated it from a grass-plot which formed the courtyard, and
passed the front door to the office of Mr. Storer. The vestibule of
the house, from which a staircase ascended, opened on either side
into the dining and drawing rooms. Both had windows towards the
courtyard and also opened by glazed doors into a garden behind the
house. They were long low apartments; the walls wainscoted and
panelled; the furniture of carved mahogany. The ceilings were
traversed through the length of the rooms by a large beam cased and
finished like the walls; and from the centre of each depended a
glass globe which reflected as in a convex mirror all surrounding
objects. There was a rich Persian carpet in the drawing-room, the
colors crimson and green. The curtains and the cushions of the
window-seat were of green damask; and oval mirrors and girandoles
and a teaset of rich china completed the furniture of that
apartment. The wide chimney-place in the dining room was lined and
ornamented with Dutch tiles; and on each side stood capacious
armchairs cushioned and covered with green damask, for the master
and mistress of the family. On the walls were portraits in crayon by
Copley, and valuable engravings representing Franklin with his
lightning rod, Washington, and other eminent men of the last
century. Between the windows hung a long mirror in a mahogany frame;
and opposite the fireplace was a buffet ornamented with porcelain
statuettes and a set of rich china. A large apartment in the second
story was devoted to a valuable library, a philosophical apparatus,
a collection of engravings, a solar microscope, a camera, etc."
As I read this description I seem to see the figure of our happy
little diary-writer reflected in the great glass globes that hung
from the summer-trees, while she danced on the Persian carpet, or
sat curled up reading on the cushioned window-seat.