THE BOSTON BRAHMIN Ethel Gibson Allen

Ethel Gibson Allen and Freeman Allen circa 1925

Come with us to peak Gilded Age America! We’ll watch a charmingly unconventional love story unfold, cure yellow fever, stare at some incredible wallpaper, and explore fascinating reasons why women should NOT vote.

Katie takes us on location to Ethel Gibson Allen’s Boston mansion, now the Gibson House Museum.

Learn more about Ethel Gibson Allen and the Gibson House museum here. Find resources about the anti-suffrage movement in the US at the Library of Congress and the sheet music for the Anti-Suffrage Rose (as performed for us by Natalie Thompson) is available here.



All images courtesy of the Gibson House Museum unless otherwise stated


Sarah Hagglund is Museum Program & Curatorial Assistant at The Gibson House Museum, where she has worked for the past two years. She has an MA in Art History from Boston University and a BA in History and Anthropology from Kent State University. She was named a 2021 Portz Scholar for her research on women’s cultural production in Italy during the 17th century, and has always been fascinated and inspired by the stories of women in history. Sarah is a painter, a lover of quirky museums, and a long-time listener of What’sHerName.


Music featured in this episode included

“The Anti-Suffrage Rose” performed for us by Natalie Thompson
[free download available for personal use only]
“Drifting along with the Tide” by Gershwin
“Somebody Loves Me” by Gershwin
“Swans in Flight” and “Snowfall Butterflies” by Asher Fulero
“Fig Leaf Rag” by Kevin Macleod
“Darktown Strutters Ball” and “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” by E’s Jammy Jams
“Burden Laid Down” by The Westerlies

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