George Barton: Birth and early influences.

George Edward Barton was born on March 7, 1871.  That is a rather dry fact about one of the important founders of the occupational therapy profession - so what can be done to help give it context?Context provides dimension - and if we want to learn a little about George Barton it might be helpful to know a little about his history.  His parents lived in Boston, Massachusetts.   His father was Edward H. Barton, the Secretary and Treasurer of the South Boston Savings Bank.  His mother was Rebecca Duncan (Boynton) Barton.It was difficult to find other information about George Barton's parents, but a rather unexpected pair of portrait photographs were contained in some of his possessions that led me through this investigation.  Here is the first picture:I recognized this photograph; it is an original portrait of Louisa May Alcott - but why would it be in the possession of George Barton?  Louisa May Alcott was born November 29, 1832 and she died on March 6, 1888.  That would have made George Barton only 17 years old when she died, so they certainly were not contemporaries.This is a second (smaller) original portrait photograph that identifies the photographer as Augustus Marshall.  A quick search led me to the fact that this was taken in 1870 and perhaps she was not happy with this photographer, writing "His pictures are vile."   (Shealy, D. [ed.], 2008).As I continued my search I learned that Louisa May Alcott was a prolific letter wri...
Source: ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog - Category: Occupational Therapists Tags: history Source Type: blogs