Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat information

Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat
Born	(1823-11-28)November 28, 1823 Portland, Maine
Died	January 16, 1908(1908-01-16) (aged 84)
Nationality	American
Education	Public School: Portland, Maine High School: Roxbury (Mass) Latin School
Notable works	Ethel's Love Life
Children	None
Parents	John Mussey and Mehitable Smith Rana
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Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (1823–1908) was an American author, patron and reformer from Portland, Maine. Sweat received her education in Portland public schools and the Roxbury Latin School. Mussey married Lorenzo De Medici Sweat at age 26 in 1849 and began keeping a journal. Her husband was a lawyer; he graduated from Bowdoin College and served in the Maine Senate and then the United States House of Representatives (1863-1865). Their home, known as the Sweat Mansion, is now part of the Portland Museum of Art. The Sweats traveled all over the world. She was fluent in French, German, Italian, and Russian. Sweat was an avid philanthropist; she bequeathed their home and an additional 100,000 dollars to the Portland Society of Art to construct a building adjacent to her home for the museum. Many of her donations were to Bowdoin College, where both her husband and her father, John Mussey, graduated. A noted poet, journalist, and author, Sweat wrote the first American lesbian novel, Ethel's Love Life.