Anna Frances Levins (1876-1941) was an Irish American who traveled widely from her hometown Manhattan to photograph remotest Ireland and create portraits of sitters ranging from the Pope to American Irish Historical Society board members and martyred Irish revolutionaries. She founded her own company, Levins Press, which published lavish books about Irish history and Irish Americans, and her photos appeared by the hundreds in books, newspapers and magazines. She long served as AIHS's official photographer, and its first (and long its only) woman board member. She also helped the newest Irish arrivals at Ellis Island, combating her era's bitter prejudices against immigrants. She eventually married one of her portrait sitters, an Irish baronet, Sir Thomas Henry Grattan Esmonde, whose County Wexford castle (with a massive library full of centuries of rare editions and government papers) had been destroyed by arsonists during Ireland's 1920s civil unrest. Sir Thomas was one of many men she loved who loved books--her longtime friend Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet was a major contributor to AIHS's library.

How did Levins end up in contemporary obscurity? Independent scholar Eve M. Kahn, who has found troves of Levins' papers and donations at AIHS and mined thousands of pages of Levins' correspondence hidden in Catholic leaders' files, will give a heavily illustrated report on her research into the life and works of this trailblazer. Examples of Levins' photographs and books will be on display.

Eve M. Kahn, former Antiques Columnist at The New York Times, writes about art, architecture, and design for the Times among other publications. She is biographer of artist Mary Rogers Williams (1857-1907) and writer Zoe Anderson Norris (1860-1914) and her books Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary Rogers Williams, 1857–1907 received the Sarton Women’s Book Award, prizes from Connecticut Center for the Book and Connecticut League of History Organizations. She won the Advocacy Award in 2023 from the Victorian Society New York.

This event is free and open to the public, and doors will open approximately 15 minutes before the event begins.