Clara Endicott Sears

Clara Endicott Sears was born in Boston, Mass., on December 16, 1862, the daughter of Knyvet Winthrop and Mary Crowninshield Sears. She was the descendent of (or related to) many prominent Massachusetts residents. Her maternal grandparents were George Peabody (1804-1892) and Clarissa Endicott Peabody (1807-1892) of Salem, Mass. Her paternal grandparents were David Sears (1787-1871) and Marian Clarke Mason Sears (1789-1870) of Boston, Mass. Fittingly, Miss Sears became a historian of early Massachusetts history and later a preservationist and author.

Sears first purchased land in Harvard in April of 1910 and soon built a home on the 38 acres along Prospect Hill Road she named “The Pergolas.” She had prize-winning cattle and shipped milk to Boston. She added adjacent acreage over the next 20 years, and established what has become known as Fruitlands Museum. The first part of this museum consisted of the restored farmhouse that was the site of the experimental transcendentalist community led by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane called Fuitlands. She then added a Shaker building, moved from its original site in Harvard Shaker Village, and later an art museum, concentrating on the Hudson River School painings and primitive portraits. She moved a schoolhouse to her property from across the street to house a collection of Native American artifacts.

Sears was a wide-ranging author as well, publishing 14 books in her lifetime. She wrote books on history (e.g. Bronson Alcott’s “Fruitlands,” “Gleanings from Old Shaker Journals”), novels (“Whispering Pine”), and poetry (“Wind from the Hills”) as well as penning popular songs. In 1942 the National Society of New England Women awarded her a gold medal for literature.

Sears managed Fruitlands Museum until her death in 1960, living during the summer in Harvard and the winter at the Hotel Vendome in Boston. Her grave can be found at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass.  Sears’ papers are held by The Trustees of Reservations, which presently owns and manages Fruitlands Museum.