Helen West Stewart Ridgely

Place: Baltimore

Born: 1854

Death: 1929

Biography:

Helen West Stewart Ridgely was an accomplished artist, antiquarian, author, and botanist. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1854, and died in 1929. She was the wife of Captain John Ridgely, and was known for her watercolor paintings of historical sites, as well as her writing. She was also the first mistress or master of Hampton to learn how to drive a car, likely by 1920. Helen Ridgely was also a conscientious diarist, with diaries surviving for several years of her life. She was a highly accomplished woman, and her papers are held in the Hoyt collection of Ridgely papers at the Maryland Historical Society.