At The Longfellow House Layers Of History Live

In his day, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882) epitomized the terms "superstar" or "A-list celebrity." Everyone who was anyone visited the poet at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his was the most photographed, painted, interviewed and written about family in America. Everyone knew his children's names; schoolchildren celebrated his birthday. Fanny Longfellow was the first woman in America to be given anesthesia during childbirth. When Longfellow died, the country observed a national day of mourning.

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