Update Our ticketing, donations, and membership sales portal is down for scheduled maintenance on the afternoon of 4/11.
1889
GUSN-248460
The Lesley Dillingham Bangs Collections consists of 43 photographic prints documenting Bangs and Skillings Family members and properties built in the Rangeley neighborhood of Winchester, Massachusetts. The images of Lesley Dillingham Bangs show her in a riding habit or as a carriage driver. Photographs of passengers in horse-drawn vehicles and children in Rangeley settings are not identified in most instances. Rangeley Hall, the social center and kindergarten, is noteworthy as the school at which Mary Pickard Winsor, founder of the Winsor School in Boston, began teaching. Identified structures in the Collection include the Bangs and Skillings' mansions and houses developed by David Nelson Skillings with the architect George D. Rand.
1 legal document case; approximately 45 photographic prints
PC058
Lesley Dillingham Bangs Photograph Collection
PC058
Gift of Lesley Wilcox Anderson.
Probably Bangs, Lesley Dillingham, 1873-1919 (Photographer)
Collection
This collection of photographs documents the Rangeley neighborhood of Winchester, Massachusetts, in and around 1889. The images focus on the world of a young woman, Lesley Dillingham Bangs (1873-1919), who became Lesley Brown after her marriage to Walter Jackson Brown (1870-1961) in 1897. The collection was passed down to a daughter of Lesley and Walter, Lesley Brown Wilcox (1900-2002), and then to her daughter, Lesley Wilcox Anderson (b. 1931).
As many of the photographs focus on the Bangs house and stable, it seems probable that Lesley Bangs was the photographer. Yet she also was a subject in some of the photographs. One picture in the collection shows a young woman with a camera who is not Lesley Bangs, indicating that Lesley and a companion (or companions) enjoyed taking pictures together.
The Bangs house was located on what is today Central Green at the entrance to Rangeley Road. It was the home of Elisha Dillingham Bangs (1844-1900) and Georgiana Skillings Bangs (1845-1926), and Lesley was their only child. The house no longer stands, having been destroyed in a fire shortly after Georgiana's death in 1926. Adjacent to the Bangs property was Rangeley Place, a large residential park developed by Georgiana's father, David Nelson Skillings (1818-1880). Originally from Maine, he was a successful Boston lumber merchant. Bangs was a banker and a stockbroker who eventually became president of the Boston Stock Exchange.
Source: Notes by Maureen Meister, October 2, 2009.
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].
Sign up to our newsletter for our latest news and events
