Anne Lynch Botta

She was born Anne Charlotte Lynch in Bennington, Vermont. Her father was Patrick Lynch (died 1819), of Dublin, Ireland, who took part in the United Irishmen Rebellion of 1798. For this, he was imprisoned and then banished from Ireland. He came to the United States at the age of 18, eventually making his way to Bennington where he set up a dry-goods business, and where he met his future wife, Charlotte Gray (1789-1873), daughter of Revolutionary War veteran Lt. Col. Ebenezer Gray (1743-1795). Patrick Lynch and Charlotte Gray married in 1812. Along with their daughter Anne, they had a son, Thomas Rawson Lynch (1813-1845). Lynch's father died in 1819, shipwrecked off the coast of Puerto Principe, in the West Indies. After the death of her father, the family moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where Anne and her brother were sent to the best schools. When she was sixteen she was sent to the Albany Female Academy, where she graduated with high honors in 1834 and stayed there as a teacher for a few years.

Lynch traveled to Europe in 1853, where she met Vincenzo Botta, an Italian professor of philosophy in Turin. They married in 1855. Mrs. Botta told an intimate friend of her marriage, "it satisfied her judgement, pleased her fancy, and, above all, filled her heart".

In 1860, Mrs. Botta published the Handbook of Universal Literature, which contained concise accounts of authors and their work. She wrote: "This work was begun many years ago, as a literary exercise, to meet the personal requirements of the writer." This book was used as a text book in many educational institutions. She was also a sculptor of portrait busts. Her sculpture of Charles Butler, done in marble, was donated to New York University. She said: "Beauty in art, in my opinion, does not consist in simply copying nature, but in retaining the true features of the subject, and breathing on them a breath of spiritual life, which should bring them up to their ideal form." An example of her poetry which showed her interest in literature: IN THE LIBRARY Speak low, tread softly through these halls; Here genius lives enshrined, Here reign, in silent majesty, The monarchs of the mind. A mighty spirit-host they come From every age and clime; Above the buried wrecks of years They breast the tide of Time. And In their presence-chamber here They hold their regal state, And round them throng a noble train, The gifted and the great. Anne Charlotte Botta died of pneumonia at age 75. She is buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. Mrs. Botta refused to write an autobiography, so after her death, her husband collected correspondence, poems, and biographical information and had a book published, in 1893, called the Memoirs of Anne C. L. Botta: Written by Her Friends. A quote by her friend, Mrs. L Runkle: "Life was the material with which she wrought." One of her noteworthy legacies is a quinquennial prize of $1,000 she founded at the Académie Française for the best essay on "The Condition of Woman." She also promoted the establishment of Barnard College.