I possess a partiality for irregular houses, when you go up and down steps, out of one room into another and when you come upon more rooms when you think you have seen all there are, and where then is a bountiful provision of little halls & passages, and where you find older rooms in unexpected places with lattice windows and green growth pressing through them.
Anna Wharton Seward Portrait by Frank Buchser
c. 1869
Oil on canvas portrait of Anna Wharton Seward, wife of Frederick Seward, and daughter-in-law of Sec. Seward. Painted by Swiss artist Frank Buchser, Ana served as the official hostess of Seward's Washington, D.C. residences. Anna was responsible for planning and organizing all of Seward's dinner parties that included guests from across the country and around the world.
