Mary Ann Delafield Dubois


Other Name:
Mary Ann Delafield
Gender:
Female
Born:
November 6, 1813
Died:
October 27, 1888
Home Town:
New York, NY
Later Residences:
New York, NY
Marriage(s):
Cornelius Dubois (1810-1882) (6 Nov 1832)
Biographical Notes:
Born in England on November 6, 1813, Mary Ann Delafield Dubois's parents were John Delafield and Mary Roberts Delafield. Mary Ann attended the Litchfield Female Academy in 1825. She met Cornelius Dubois Jr., a Litchfield Law School student, in New York City and the two took the stage back to Litchfield together. They married in 1832 and had 10 children. For over 30 years, they resided at 80 Gramercy Park in New York City.

Mary Ann was active in many benevolent activities and societies during her life. In May 1854, she and Anna R. Emmett (the wife of a specialist in women's and children's diseases) founded the Nursery and Children's Hospital of New York City. The hospital became the first institution in the United States devoted primarily to day care, taking in the children of working ...
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Education
Years at LFA:
1825

Profession / Service
Profession:
Arts; Social Activist
Benevolent and Charitable Organizations:
Founder of the Nursery for the Children of Poor Woman in New York City, 1854 (later re-named the Nursery and Child's Hospital)

Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
1825 Litchfield Female Academy Catalogue (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 To 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).

Mary Ann's marriage to Cornelius is noted in Appendix D "Marriages" (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 To 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).
Secondary Sources:
Miller, Julie. Abandoned: Foundlings in Nineteenth-Century New York City. New York: New York University Press, 2008.

Heldgerd, William. The American Descendents of Chretien DuBois of Wicres, France Part 5. New Paltz, NY: DuBois Family Association, 1971.

Golden, Janet. A Social History of Wet Nursing in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Ellet, Mrs. Women Artists in All Ages and Countries. New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1859.

Pelletreau, William Smith Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York, Volume 1, Lewis Publishing Company, New York, 1907 accessed via Google Books.

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If you have family papers, objects, or any other details you would like to share, or if you would like to obtain a copy of an image for publication, please contact us at curator@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org.