Biography
Caroline Crane Marsh was the second wife of George Perkins Marsh. She was also an advocate for women's rights, a poet and an author.
The daughter of Benjamin Crane of Berkley, Massachusetts, Caroline Crane married George Marsh in 1839, five years after the death of his first wife. In 1849, President Taylor named Mr. Marsh Minister to Turkey, so the family moved to Constantinople. Caroline Marsh suffered from poor health (she may have suffered from a stroke), but this did not stop them from traveling extensively. After a brief stint in Greece, the couple returned to Vermont in 1854 and stayed until 1861, when President Abraham Lincoln named Mr. Marsh the American Minister to Italy. Mr. Marsh remained in Italy until his death in 1882.
Caroline Marsh shared her ideas with her husband and was able to influence his views on feminism and women's rights. Mr. Marsh has been quoted as saying that we would never know how far women could go in life until we "make women legally and socially the peer of man.
Mr. Marsh encouraged his wife in her work as a translator and poet. Caroline Marsh published "Wolfe of the Knoll and Other Poems" in 1860 and "The Life and Letters of George Perkins Marsh" in 1888. She intended the book about her husband to be a two-volume set, but the second volume was never published. She also published a book in Italian about her experiences in Italy and translated from German Johann C. Biernatzki's "The Hallig or the Sheepfold in the Waters."
Hiram Powers, the renowned sculptor, had Marsh sit for a bust in June 1862. The marble replica made from the plaster cast of her is in the Fleming Museum of the University of Vermont.Occupation
Poet
Translator
Author