Alexander Family.

In 1853 the Alexanders, a well-to-do New England couple and their daughter, settled in Italy, where this collection of scrapbooks was assembled. Francis Alexander (1800-ca.1880), a successful portrait painter in Boston, married Lucia Gray Swett (ca.1814-1916), the granddaughter of a prosperous Salem (MA) merchant, in 1836. Their only child, Esther Frances, called "Fanny" until 1882 when John Ruskin dubbed her "Francesca," was born in 1837. At an early age she showed talent in drawing, music and poetry. In Florence the Alexanders associated with the social, cultural and ecclesiatical elite of northern Italy, and entertained distinguished visitors from overseas. Fanny devoted herself to art and to charity among the Tuscan peasants, and became well known through her friendship with John Ruskin.