16 Facts About Leavitt Hunt

Leavitt Hunt was a Harvard-educated attorney and photography pioneer who was one of the first people to photograph the Middle East.

The youngest son of General Jonathan Hunt of Vermont and the former Jane Maria Leavitt, and brother to architect Richard Morris Hunt and painter William Morris Hunt, Leavitt Hunt was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, but grew up in Paris following the early death of his father, a Vermont Congressman whose father had been the state's lieutenant governor.

Leavitt Hunt attended the Boston Latin School, and subsequently enrolled in a Swiss boarding school, finally taking a law degree from the University of Heidelberg.

Leavitt Hunt then enrolled at the Swiss Military Academy in Thun.

Leavitt Hunt's companion on his Middle Eastern journey was a wealthy sculptor from Ohio and friend of the Leavitt Hunt family.

Leavitt Hunt decided to join him, meeting him in Florence, Italy, in late September 1851.

One image of an unveiled Ghawazee female dancer, signed on the negative by Leavitt Hunt himself, is likely the earliest photographic portrait of a Middle Eastern woman.

The young Leavitt Hunt showed his to the German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who brought them to the attention of the King of Prussia, and Leavitt Hunt made a formal gift of 11 prints to Karl Richard Lepsius, the German founder of the study of ancient Egyptology.

Baker returned to Cincinnati, Ohio, to enjoy the life of a wealthy aesthete, while Leavitt Hunt completed his studies at the Swiss Military Institute, then returned to America, where he took a second law degree, this one from Harvard.

Leavitt Hunt began practicing law in New York City, the home of his brother Richard Morris Hunt, until the outbreak of the American Civil War, when he enlisted as lieutenant on the staff of General Heintzelman.

Leavitt Hunt subsequently attained the rank of full colonel and assistant adjutant general in the Union Army.

Leavitt Hunt purchased his own estate at nearby Weathersfield Bow and became a gentleman farmer.

Leavitt Hunt was particularly interested in the rare breeds of Dutch cattle that he raised, as well as the white pine forests he propagated on his estate, which he dubbed Elmsholme.

Artist William Morris Hunt sketched other members of his brother Leavitt's family as well.

Leavitt Hunt predeceased his wife, dying at Weathersfield on February 16,1907.

The couple's infant son Morris Leavitt Hunt, who died in 1871, is interred with his parents.