Ellen "Nelly" (Swinburn) Leckenby (1844-1932) was born in New York and came to Washington State around 1895, settling first near Olympia with her husband, Alfred Bingham Leckenby (1842-). The couple moved to join their sons in Seattle's Brighton Beach neighborhood around 1905 where Mrs. Leckenby became involved in various women's clubs, particularly as a way to support the women's suffrage movement.
In this image Mrs. Leckenby sits posed in an armchair, holding knitting in her lap, apparently around the time the family moved to Washington State. The Leckenby's children continued the couple's pioneering spirits; one of their daughters, Mollie E. (Leckenby) King (1885-) was only 17 when she became a founding member of the Mountaineers Club in Seattle, and one of their sons, Frank Leckenby (1874-1955) was vice president of the The Chas. H. Lilly Co., a Seattle seed and garden products merchant, still in existence in 2017 as Lilly Miller.
Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times, April 18, 1905, p. 7 Caption information source: The Seattle Daily Times, December 8, 1906, p. 3
ID Number: 1984.126.1
Date: Circa 1895
Physical Description: 1 copy negative : b&w ; 4 x 5 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
