(soft music)
- The real Amy in Little Women is Abigail May Alcott
and she was a wonderful artist.
She worked in all mediums, watercolor, oils,
and we are so pleased to have many
of her original works here at Orchard House in Concord.
There's a great deal of evidence that May
was drawing from her earliest days.
She displayed raw talent. Amazing,
what she could do with no training.
They allowed her to draw all over her walls
in her bedchamber.
Later in life, May was able to study art in Europe
and that's when she began
to really become excellent in her craft.
When May saw something that today someone would say,
"I've got to get a photograph of that."
She sat right down and sketched it.
So this was true of everywhere they went in Europe.
When May returned, she taught many many students,
and her most famous pupil was Daniel Chester French,
who becomes the preeminent American sculptor.
His last commissioned work is the seated Lincoln
in the Lincoln Memorial.
May Alcott, the real Amy of Little Women,
in a way is the best kept secret
of Little Women and of the Alcott family.
She really was a pioneer in that she took art
as an American female beyond the place
where you could normally do that in this country.
She was really always creatively thinking outside the box.