This photo was taken shortly after Mary Elise "May" Fellows, (later known as Elise Fellows White) was enrolled as a student at the Boston Conservatory of Music. May Fellows showed a great deal of musical talent at a very young age, taking part in a violin recital at the age of five.
May Fellows, a Skowhegan violinist who performed professionally as Elise Fellows White, is shown here at the age of 16. At this point in her career, she was becoming a nationally known violinist. She shared the concert stage with many talented singers and instrumentalists, performing in North America and Europe.
Miss May Fellows (1873-1953) was a talented Skowhegan violinist who later performed under her married name of Elise Fellows White. This photograph was taken on a tour of Europe by the court photographers in Vienna, Austria. The highlight of this tour was an opportunity for Miss Fellows to meet Johann Brahms, the most celebrated violinist of his day. Brahms granted her an interview and presented her with an autographed photograph.
Aimee Sargent took a picture of Mary Elise Fellows, a violin prodigy from Skowhegan, at the Sargent summer home, Wodenethe, at Fishkill-on-Hudson.
Aimee and Winthrop Sargent of Boston took Fellows (1873-1953) into their home and paid for her musical training, including a year-long trip to Europe where she studied and performed.
Fellows, later known as Elise Fellows White, studied at the New England Conservatory where a program paired young musicians with people in the Boston area who agreed to help support them and their studies.
May Fellows, later know as Elise Fellows White, was about 16 when this photo was taken. She was studying violin in Boston, hoping to have a professional career as a musician.
Mary Elise "May" Fellows poses with her violin, probably at Pine Brook, the home of Annie Rotch in Milton, Massachusetts. Fellows studied music in Boston, living most of the time with her patrons, Aimee and Winthrop Sargent. Aimee Sargent and Annie Rotch were sisters.
May Fellows was the maiden name of Skowhegan violinist, Elise Fellows White.
Elise Fellows White, a native of Skowhegan, poses with her sons James Fellows White and Bruce Hugh Miller White at their Skowhegan home.
A violinist who studied in Boston and Europe, Elise Fellows married Bruce White, a mine operator in British Columbia in 1898. The couple separated in 1907 and White returned to Skowhegan.
Bruce H.M. White was born in Nelson, British Columbia, in 1900. He died in 1983. James was born in Nelson, B.C., in 1907 and died in 1976.
Posing on the porch of the "cottage" at Lake Wesserunnsett in Skowhegan are Frank W. Swan, his niece Elise Fellows White, Elise's son James Fellows White, her mother, Deborah T. Fellows; her son Bruce H.M. White, and her father, James Fellows.
Mary Elise Fellows was a violin prodigy who studied in Boston and Europe. In 1889 she married Bruce White, prospector and owner of ore mines in British Columbia. They had two sons, Bruce and James.
Elise Fellows White, a musician, and Zaidee Morrison, an artist, pose at the Edna Bunker house in Skowhegan in 1923.
The childhood friends remained friends as adults.
Morrison (1872-1953) was a painter and illustrator. She studied in New York at Cooper Union Art School and the Art Students League, among other venues.
White (1873-1953) studied violin in Boston and Europe before marrying Bruce White, a mine owner in British Columbia. The couple separated and White and her two young sons returned to Skowhegan. She pursued her musical career, and wrote poetry and newspaper and magazine articles.
Elise Fellows White (1873-1953), a native of Skowhegan, was a violin prodigy who studied in Boston and Europe. After performing and teaching for several years in the late 1890s, she married and moved to British Columbia.
She returned to Skowhegan with her two young sons in 1907. She continued to pursue musical and writing careers, but was stymied by the Great Depression and lack of financial resources.
She wrote on the back of this photograph, "My best picture taken in summer of 1939."
Elise Fellows White of Portland had her picture taken in front of the "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's airplane at a hangar at Old Orchard Beach.
Lindbergh was on a tour of the U.S. following his successful solo crossing of the Atlantic. He tried to land in Portland on July 23, 1927, but was deterred by fog. He tried again on July 24, circled several times, then went to Old Orchard Beach instead where the weather was better. He went by auto to a speaking engagement in Portland.
White missed the talk, but went to Old Orchard the following day and saw both Lindbergh and his plane.
