Edith Minturn Stokes

Edith Minturn Stokes
I.N. Phelps Stokes standing behind his wife Edith née Minturn, (painting by John Singer Sargent, 1897)
Born	Edith Minturn June 20, 1867 West Brighton, in Staten Island, New York City, USA
Died	June 12, 1937 Manhattan, New York City, USA
Children	Helen Phelps Stokes (adopted daughter)
Parent(s)	Robert Bowne Minturn, Jr. Suzannah Shaw
Relatives	Robert Bowne Minturn (paternal grandfather) Robert Gould Shaw (maternal uncle) Henry Dwight Sedgwick (brother-in-law) Amos Pinchot (brother-in-law) Rosamond Pinchot (niece) Edwin Katte Merrill (son-in-law) Donald Bush (son-in-law) Edie Sedgwick (great-niece)

Statue of the Republic
A one-third scale replica of Daniel Chester French's Republic, which stood in the great basin at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Artist	Daniel Chester French
Year	1918 (replica of 1893 original)
Type	Bronze
Location	Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois

Edith Minturn Stokes (20 June 1867 - 12 June 1937) was an American philanthropist, artistic muse and socialite during the Gilded Age.

Edith Minturn was born on 20 June 1867 in West Brighton, in Staten Island, New York City. She was the third child and second daughter of shipping magnate Robert Bowne Minturn, Jr. (1836-1889) and his wife Susannah Shaw (1839-1926). The Minturn family was well connected both politically, and with other prominent families via marriage. Her uncle, Robert Gould Shaw, was killed while commanding the nation’s first all-black regiment.

Edith was educated at home, with music and French lessons, and went on a Grand Tour of Europe, as was then expected of society women.

Minturn had several siblings. Her brother Robert Shaw Minturn married Bertha Howard Potter, granddaughter of Bishop Alonzo Potter, niece of Henry Codman Potter, and great-granddaughter of Eliphalet Nott. Her sister Sarah May Minturn married Henry Dwight Sedgwick. They were grandparents of Edie Sedgwick and great-grandparents of Kyra Sedgwick. Their son Robert Minturn Sedgwick married Helen Peabody, daughter of Endicott Peabody. Her sister Mildred Scott married Arthur Hugh Scott, headmaster of a French boarding school for boys. They eventually relocated to England. Her sister Gertrude Minturn married Amos Richard Eno Pinchot. They had two children, one of whom, Rosamond Pinchot, was an actress famed mostly for her great beauty.

She was the President of the New York Kindergarten Association, ran a sewing school for immigrant women, and was a benefactor of St. George's Church in New York City.

Edith Minturn Stokes began modelling by participating in the then popular pastime known as tableaux vivants; she was spotted at these and became a model for Daniel Chester French in his Greenwich Village ateleier.