In the Footsteps of Eliza: Louisa Lee Schuyler’s Lifetime of Advocacy

Louisa (left) at 14 with siblings Georgina and Philip.
"Portrait of Three Children," 1851, artist unknown.
Courtesy of New York Historical Society.

Louisa Lee Schuyler is the older sister of Georgina, discussed in our last blog post. Born in 1837 to Eliza Hamilton Schuyler and George Lee Schuyler, she was the second eldest of their three children. 

Louisa Lee grew up with her siblings and parents in New York City, but often made trips to Irvington, NY where her grandfather, James Alexander Hamilton, lived at his estate of Nevis. Louisa was well-educated, and as a teenager and young woman, she travelled frequently.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Louisa’s altruistic nature was revealed. Her mother helped found the Woman’s Central Association of Relief and Louisa was appointed chairman. The organization made clothes, bandages, and provided nurses with all needed equipment as they went to army hospitals to tend to wounded Union soldiers. It eventually functioned as an auxiliary branch of the US Sanitary Commission. 

Louisa Lee Schuyler circa 1860s, photographer unknown.
Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site collections.

In 1871, Louisa toured the Westchester County poorhouse. The conditions she witnessed there inspired her and some of her friends to found the State Charities Aid Association (SCAA). The members of SCAA began visiting the multitude of poorhouses and almshouses run by New York State and reported on the deplorable conditions they found there. SCAA focused on child welfare, the welfare of the poor in almshouses and poorhouses, and conditions in hospitals, including those that housed people with mental illnesses.

From 1872-1893, SCAA accomplished a variety of important tasks. Louisa outlined what the association did. In her own words, they are as follows:

• A higher standard of care has been introduced into every poor house and almshouse in the state.
• Training-School for Nurses, 1873. [At Bellevue]
• Hospital Book and Newspaper Society, 1874.
• Farming Out the Poor Abolished, 1875.
• Temporary Homes for Children, 1877-85.
• Tramp Act, 1880.
• First Aid to the Injured, 1882.
• Trained Nurses for the Insane, 1885.
• Municipal Lodging Houses, 1886.
• State Care for the Insane Act of 1890. 
• State Care Appropriation Act of 1891.

Read more about each of the above here.

In many ways, Louisa Lee carried out the legacy of her great-grandmother, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, who founded the first private orphanage in New York City (now the Graham-Windham Foundation). Louisa was seventeen when Eliza died. Louisa’s special care in removing children from poorhouses and almshouses and placing them in temporary homes until they could be adopted, as well as working to end preventable blindness in children, echoes Eliza’s fifty years of work with her own orphanage.

While Louisa Lee may not have been the young preservationist her sister, Georgina, was, she was an advocate for many important causes. Together, they were the perfect team to help save and preserve Schuyler Mansion. Learn about the results of their work next week! 

Louisa Lee, 1915.
Photographer unknown.

The State Charities Association still exists today and is now named the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy in honor of Louisa Lee, who also received an honorary LLD from Columbia University in 1915.

Read more on Louisa Lee from the SCAA and VCU Libraries Social Welfare History Project. Additional reading from the American Journal of Nursing.

Georgina Schuyler: Young Preservationist

Georgina Schuyler, aged 4.
Painted by John Carlin, 1845. At NYHS.

By Jessie Serfilippi

May is Historic Preservation Month, which provides us with some time to reflect on and appreciate the many people who have worked to preserve Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site starting in the early 20th century up to the modern day. 

Two women in particular were important in the early preservation of Schuyler Mansion: Louisa Lee and Georgina Schuyler, direct descendants of Philip and Catharine Schuyler through their grandson, George Lee Schuyler, and great-granddaughter, Eliza Hamilton.

Louisa Lee and Georgina were born in 1837 and 1841 respectively. They had an older brother Philip, and were close to their parents, their aunt Mary Hamilton, great-grandmother Mary Ann Sawyer Schuyler and her family in Boston, and spent a lot of time at the home of their grandfather, James Alexander Hamilton, in Irvington, NY. They grew up mainly in New York City, but traveled often as young adults.

George Lee Schuyler, 1839.
By Richard Morell Staigg. At NYHS.

In 2019, Schuyler Mansion was fortunate to acquire letters to and from George Lee Schuyler, Eliza Hamilton Schuyler, Philip, Louisa Lee, and Georgina. The letters provide a window into their lives, travels, interests, and education. An 1859 letter from seventeen-year-old Georgina also reveals an early interest in history and historic preservation.

In 1859, Georgina was attending school in Boston. On Tuesday, February 22, 1859, she wrote a letter to her father about the festivities she attended that day to celebrate George Washington’s birthday.

“Dear Father–– Today being Washingtons [sic] birthday we have had a holiday, which I have entirely appreciated [...] this morning I received Mothers [sic] Sunday letter, telling me of Mt Vernon donations––The day has been very fine, & the bells have rung, the canons have been fired, the Hancock house open to the public, a fair opened, a grand ball tonight at one of the theatres, & last, not least, Mrs. Harrison Grey [O]tis received her friends- So you see they do things in quite a spirited ways to celebrate the day, even if they wont [sic] buy Mt. Vernon, which they ought to; I think its is [sic] a great shame that they don’t.”

In her letter, Georgina mentions two historic homes: the Hancock House, or Hancock Manor as it was known, and Mount Vernon. 

Hancock Manor, circa winter of 1860.

Hancock Manor, once home to John Hancock, served as headquarters to British General Henry Clinton before his evacuation from Boston and was where John Hancock hosted Washington, Lafayette, and other famous guests. In 1859, when Georgina visited, it was privately owned by his heirs, who opened it to visitors for the day. That same year, the heirs offered to sell it to Massachusetts to serve as the Governor's Mansion, but by 1863, the state had failed to purchase it, and it was sold at public auction. It was torn down less than two weeks after its sale.

Mount Vernon met a different fate. A year after Georgina penned her letter, the Mount Vernon Ladies Association (MVLA) raised enough funds to purchase Mount Vernon from John Augustine Washington. Ann Pamela Cunningham, founder of MVLA, started the association’s efforts in 1853, and by late 1859, raised $200,000. The MVLA officially took over the home in 1860 and began the process of preserving it and turning it into the historic site it is today.

In their adult years, Georgina and her sister became involved in the preservation of Schuyler Mansion and donated a sizable amount of the furniture and items they inherited from both their Schuyler and Hamilton ancestors. Their efforts during the early years of Schuyler Mansion as a museum and the donations they made to the site will be explored in upcoming blog posts, so stay tuned!

For further exploring: The Ticonderoga Historical Society is housed in a replica of the Hancock House.

The Hamilton Children: Part One

On Twitter we’ve been highlighting one of Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton’s children each week. The couple had eight children, and so far we’ve discussed their eldest four: Philip, Angelica, Alexander Jr., and James Alexander. We’ve rounded-up a few facts about each of them here. Enjoy!

(Links to more about each individual are included at the end of each section.)

Philip Hamilton

January 22, 1782––November 24, 1801

The Albany Dutch Reformed Church.

Philip was the only Hamilton child to be baptized at Albany in the Dutch Church the Schuylers attended. From the time he was an infant, his father believed Philip held future greatness. This belief in his eldest son never faltered.

When Philip was nine, he went to school in Trenton, NJ, while his family lived in Philadelphia. Eventually, his younger brother Alexander Jr. joined him there.

At the age of fifteen, Philip contracted a serious fever. Dr. David Hosack saved the boy from the brink of death. Sadly, Dr. Hosack could do nothing but watch as Philip died after his fatal duel with George Eacker just a few years later.

Learn more about the life and legacy of Philip Hamilton here.


Angelica Hamilton

September 25, 1784––February 6, 1857

Angelica Hamilton's piano
at The Grange.

Angelica was born in New York City and named after her aunt, Angelica Schuyler Church. Her aunt, even though she was abroad in England for most of her niece’s childhood, managed to dote on Angelica from across the Atlantic. She sent her young namesake a piano similar to her own children’s––the best that could be made in London, she claimed.

Based on letters, Angelica seems to have spent more time at Albany with her grandparents than her siblings. In 1803, when her grandmother Catharine van Rensselaer Schuyler died, her grandfather wrote Eliza Schuyler Hamilton that her daughter helped him through his grief.


Unlike the popular story, Angelica did not have a permanent breakdown upon the death of her brother in 1801. Instead, she seemed to have times when she was healthy and times when she was ill. By the 1830s, she was placed in an institution under the care of Dr. MacDonald in Flushings, Queens.

Read on and dispel some more myths about her here.

Alexander Hamilton Jr. 

May 16, 1786––August 2, 1875

Gertrude Schuyler Cochran
by the Baroness Hyde de
Neuville.

Born in New York City in 1786, Alexander Jr. was named for his father. He was baptized at the age of two with four baptismal sponsors, including his great aunt, Gertrude Schuyler Cochran.

After the education he received alongside his older brother, Alexander Jr. attended Columbia College, too. Weeks before his graduation, he had to bury his father.

His father wanted Alexander Jr. to become a merchant, but he became a lawyer instead. Before settling into his law practice, he fought with the Duke of Wellington’s troops against Napoleon in Portugal and served during the War of 1812.

In a weird twist of fate, he was Eliza Jumel’s lawyer, and is believed to have been her lawyer when she divorced Aaron Burr.

Keep reading about Alexander Jr. here!

James Alexander Hamilton

April 14, 1788––September 24, 1878

The Second Bank in Philadelphia.

Born in New York City in 1788, James Alexander was named for his paternal grandfather. Just like his father and older brothers, James attended Columbia College. His father wrote him a “thesis on discretion” while James was a college student. Hamilton penned this for his son days before his fatal duel.

James eventually became a lawyer. While he was practicing the law in Hudson, NY, he met Mary Morris. They wed on October 17, 1810, and had five children together. In 1835, the family moved into “Nevis,” the mansion James had built in Irvington, NY, and named after his father’s birthplace.

James served during the War of 1812 and he was the Acting Secretary of State during Jackson’s administration. Like Jackson, James opposed the Second Bank––the reincarnation of the bank his father built.

He left his letters, thoughts, and legacy behind for all to read in his memoir, Reminiscences of James A. Hamilton: Or, Men and Events, at Home and Abroad During Three Quarters of a Century.

Click here to read more about James.


Check back in a few weeks to learn about the other four Hamilton children: John Church, William Stephen, Elizabeth, and “Little” Philip.

Interested in further reading? Check out the biography on the doctor who saved Philip Hamilton from his fever: American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic