Francis Davis Millet Timeline: November 3, 1846 - present

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1846, November 3

Born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to Asa (a doctor) and Huddah Millet.

1864, July 11

Millet enlists in the Massachusetts Volunteers, claiming that he is 18, thereby exaggerating his age by four months, He is mustered into service as a musician, a drummer boy, and later serves as a surgeon's assistant.

1864-1865

Millet writes in his personal Journal of his adventures in the war in "Civil War Diary".

1865

Millet's journal begins to record social functions with young ladies. He attended a dancing school in Bridgewater on many Thursday evenings and during March took a girl named Mary to dances in Bridgewater and Abington. They danced late into the evening, and returned home at 2 am. Millet recorded that he would always remember one of those late carriage rides, but never said what had happened.

1865, September 14

Millet matriculates into Harvard University. At Harvard, Millet becomes friends with Royal Merrill, who has two sisters [???}, Katherine (Kate) and Lily, who Millet eventually marries. Millet lives off-and-on with the Merrill family for several years, before leaving Cambridge.

1868, February-March

Millet writes a series of four newspaper articles, each titled "Letter from Washington", published in the North Bridgewater Gazette and signed "Davis".

1869, June 25

Millet graduates from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, in Modern Languages and Literature in English, French, and German. He is elected to Phi Beta Kappa Society. His Harvard class book contains a photo of him, and a group photo.

During his last year at Harvard, Millet meets Vilma Marie Morse. A month after Millet's graduation the two go for a ride to pick violets and this begins a relationship that lasted for five years (until 1874).

Date?

Millet workes as a reporter and editor for the Boston Courier.

Any bylines?

Date?

Millet works as a correspondent for the Advertiser at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

Bylines?

1871

Millet enrolled in the Royal Academy, Antwerp. There, unlike anyone before him, he won all the art prizes the school offered and was officially hailed by the king of Belgium.

1871, September 11-21

Millet writes of "Trip to the Rhine" in his personal Journal.He travels with friends Champney, Grundmann and Maynard.

1872

Millet receives a Master of Arts Degree from Harvard, the archives of which are mute on the circumstances under which this degree was granted.

1872, March 30

Millet writes of "Trip to Holland" in his personal Journal. He travels with two friends.

1873, May 7

Millet, employed as secretary of the Massachusetts commission to the Vienna exposition, for the first time meets and forms a life-long friendship with the American Charles Francis Adams, Junior.

1873-1874, October 9

Millet writes of Trip to Southern Europe and Turkey in his personal Journal. He travels with Maynard.

1870s, early

Millet rents a studio in Rome.

1874, Novemberr

Millet invites Charles Warren Stoddard to join him in the house he (Millet) has rented in Venice. The two live and sleep together there in an upstairs room.

1875, January 27

Millet starts to write of a "Trip Throughout Italy" in his personal Journal. He travels for three weeks through norther Itality with Charles Warren Stoddard.

Stoddard writes columns about Venice and other Italian cities for the San Francisco Chronicle. These include coded references to his affair with Millet.

1876

Millet returns to Massachusetts and paints murals at Trinity Church in Boston with John LaFarge.

1884, August 23

Millet's address in London according to his correspondence was Bedford Gardens, Kensington, West.

1885

Millet writes "Diary of a Trip to the West". He travels with Adams, Lane and Canfield.

In correspondence, Millet gives his New York City address as Apartment 15, 578 Fifth Avenue. The building has been demolished.

1877-1882, June 5-18

Millet writes of "Russo-Turkish War and Trip to Sweden" in his personal Journal.

1887

Stoddard revises his stories for the San Francisco Chronicle about a trip with Millet through northern Italy and publishes them in the Catholic magazine Ave Maria, at Notre Dame University.

1889, June

Millet and his wife Lily return to England. Shortly after their arrival they travel to Paris to the newly erected Eiffel Tower at the Universal Exposition of 1889. Several of Millet's pictures are exhibited in two different locations. Piping Times of Peace is show in the British Sections. Handmaiden and A Difficult Duet are shown in the United States Section. The Millets settle in their home, Russell House, in Broadway, England, for the summer season.

1889, June 18

Millet writes to Stoddard from Broadway, England, inviting him to stay in his home, Russell House, and that his wife will be delighted to see him.

1889, [July 28?]

In another letter dated "Sunday" (possibly written on July 28, 1889] Millet urges Stoddard to visit, but to come alone (Stoddard had evidently written that he might bring a guest). Millet tells Stoddard there is a nearby monastery that Stoddard can visit and where Stoddard is sure to make friends with the father and the boys of the order. Millet says that Henry James often comes to stay. There is no record of Stoddard's visit.

1891, June 20-October 26

Millet writes in his journal about his "Canoe Trip Down the Danube". He travels with Alfred Parsons.

According to Wikipedia, Millet, Parsons and Edwin Austin Abbey, all artists and illustrators, at one time "lived together and entertained sociably at 54 Bedford Gardens, London."

The association with artist Parsons appears to have been particularly close as Millet's youngest son was partly named after him, John Alfred Parsons Millet, who later became a famous psychiatrist. The "John" came from John Singer Sargent, another close friend. All three worked together in the artists' colony in Broadway, England.

1892

Francis Davis Millet. The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea.

Francis Davis Millet. The Designers of the Fair [at Chicago, 1893]. Published 1892.

1892, September

The Century Magazine, contains a painting on pages 656-647 in its "The Century Series of Pictures by American Artists" series entitled "Between Two Fires" by Millet.

1892, August 31.

The Century Magazine for September. Alexandria Gazette, August 31, 1892, page ??.

1894

Daniel Hudson Burnham, Francis Davis Millet. The book of the builders: being the chronicle of the origin and plan of the World's fair, of the architecture of the buildings and landscape, of the work of construction, of the decorations and embellishments, and of the operation. Columbian Memorial Publication Society. Springfield, Ohio, 1894.

1905

Millet writes in his journal about "Trip to the Northwest and Alaska". He travels with son Laurence.

In 1905 correspondence, Millet gives his address in New York City as 6 East 23rd Street. This could have been his studio. According to Google Earth, the building appears to still exist.

1906

Stoddard's recollection of meeting Millet in Venice was published in Boston's National Magazine.

1908

Millet writes in his journal of his "Trip to the Orient". He is accompanied by son Jack.

1910

In 1910 correspondence, Millet gives his New York City address as 9 East 39th Street.

1911, March 6-30

Millet writes a "Diary of Trip to Panama." He is accompanied by Lily.

1912, April 10

Millet boarded the RMS Titanic at Cherbourg, France, bound for New York City.

1912, April 11

Francis Davis Millet to Alfred Parsons: On Board R.M.S. "Titanic", April 11, 2012

1912, April 15

Millet dies on the Titanic, as does his friend and Washington, D.C. housemate Archibald Butt.