Returning Home: TVHS acquires two William Sidney Mount portraits
Portraits of Louisa Matilda Spinola McKeige amd Edward McKeige by William Sidney Mount.
For TVHS Research & Collections Archivist Kayleigh Smith, the opportunity to acquire a painting by renowned local artist William Sidney Mount (1807-1868) was remarkable. To acquire two within two months, only to discover that the subjects were husband and wife, was almost unbelievable.
In August 2026, Three Village Historical Society & Museum acquired at auction an 1866 portrait of Louisa Matilda Spinola McKeige (1825-1865), the wife of Edward Ellesmere McKeige (b.1809) and sister of Civil War general and future Congressman Francis B. Spinola (1821- 1891). At the same auction one month later, a second portrait attributed to Mount, dating to 1854, joined the Society’s collection. Initially identified only as “Portrait of a Gentleman,” later research suggests the sitter was none other than Louisa’s husband, Edward.
More than a century and a half after their creation, the two portraits have returned to the community where their stories and families flourished.
A portrait preserved in Mount’s own words
Louisa’s portrait memorializes a life cut tragically short, with the circumstances of its creation preserved in Mount’s own journal.
On August 19, 1866, William Sidney Mount recorded his intention to paint “the late Mrs. Edw. McKeige” at the Spinola property near Flax Pond. Eleven days later, he noted that he had completed the portrait after ten days of work at Spinola’s residence at Crane Neck, known today as the Childs Mansion and now owned by Stony Brook University.
Louisa had died the previous year, making this a posthumous portrait. So, to recreate her likeness, Mount relied on a daguerreotype — the earliest form of a photograph, while another woman, identified as Mrs. Douglas, posed for the figure. The identity of Mrs. Douglas remains uncertain, though she may have been either Edward’s subsequent wife, Maria Douglas (d. 1934), or Louisa’s sister, Ann Eliza Spinola Douglas (b. 1829).
An April 17, 1891, account in a NYC newspaper The Sun describing the funeral of General Francis B. Spinola identifies both “Mrs. McKeige” and “Mrs. Annie Douglas” as his sisters, despite Louisa having died more than two decades earlier. Though the reference to “Mrs. McKeige” may refer to Edward’s second wife, Maria Douglas. This is the difficulty of tracing familial relationships, even among prominent families whose members were immortalized by artists like Mount.
Portrait of a Gentleman
One month later, another opportunity appeared for TVHS. Originally offered as “Portrait of a Gentleman,” dated 1854, research following the acquisition points to the sitter as Edward E. McKeige (b.1809), Louisa’s husband, whose portrait is documented among Mount’s works from that year.
Approximately 45 years old at the time, Edward was already established in an accomplished maritime career. Census records identify him as a sea captain in 1850 and then as a shipmaster in 1860. Edward and Louisa maintained close ties to the Spinolas, living in Brooklyn in 1850 alongside her brother Francis and their mother, Eliza (Phelan) Spinola (1790-1873).
During the Civil War, Edward McKeige served as an officer in the United States Navy, taking command of the USS Patroon. The 113-foot wooden screw steamer was assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and stationed near Florida’s St. Johns River, where it participated in the Union blockade.
Edward’s naval career, alongside General Spinola’s military service, connects this locally rooted family to Civil War history. Yet the women who sustained their households and preserved familial bonds through conflict are too often overlooked. Louisa’s contributions, though less visible in the historical record, were no less significant to her family’s story. Her death in 1865, just as the war came to an end, adds another emotional layer to her story and the portrait Mount would paint in her memory.
Legacy in Three Village
The Spinola-McKeige family’s connection to the Three Village area and William Sidney Mount were rooted in a shared local history before the paintings were created.
According to Osborn Shaw’s The Story of Stony Brook, General Francis B. Spinola was born in the Hawkins-Mount farmhouse in Stony Brook. Shaw also documents this in an 1866 letter Mount wrote in response to an invitation to attend the dedication of a memorial honoring General Spinola. In the letter, Mount recalled the general’s birthplace, writing, “I often mention to my friends that General Spinola was born at Stony Brook, L. I., in the large farmhouse occupied by the Mount family.”
This shared history helps reveal the longstanding relationship between the Mount and Spinola families, rooted in the community that bound them together, and offers insight into the relationship that would lead Mount to paint Louisa and Edward McKeige.
After the Civil War, General Francis B. Spinola returned to his home in Brooklyn before eventually returning to the shores of his childhood, purchasing the former Jones property (dating back to at least 1797) at Cranes Neck in Old Field. After Spinola’s widow died in 1896, the estate passed to his nephew, Ferdinand McKeige (1853-1937), Louisa and Edward’s son. Ferdinand and his wife, Cornelia Douglas McKeige (1860-1922), maintained their residence on a portion of the property at what is now 7 Shore Drive, known currently as the Van Der Bogart-Ogle House. The larger estate, including the mansion, was later purchased by Eversley Childs (1867-1953) and eventually passed to the State of New York in 1965.
Ferdinand’s ties to the community are further reflected in his patronage of Caroline Episcopal Church, where he donated a memorial stained-glass window in 1891. According to an article published that year in the South Side Signal, the window depicted Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene following the Resurrection, accompanied by the biblical inscription, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Its dedication commemorated members of the Spinola–McKeige family.
Much like Mount’s portrait of Louisa twenty-five years earlier, the memorial window reflects the family’s desire to preserve the memory of their loved ones.
Today, more than 170 years after Mount first painted Edward and 160 years after he memorialized Louisa, their portraits have returned to the community where their families lived and, more importantly, loved. Together, these paintings do more than preserve likenesses of two people; they reunite a husband and wife while reconnecting the stories that have long shaped the Three Village Community, stories rooted in family, memory, and a shared sense of place.
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The Three Village Historical Society and Museum is honored to bring these remarkable works of art back to the community and preserve the stories of the people behind them for future generations. We look forward to sharing Louisa and Edward’s portraits with the public and inviting our community to experience these extraordinary pieces of local history firsthand.
Follow TVHS on social media @threevillagehistory and visit our website, www.tvhs.org, for announcements about the portraits’ official unveiling.
This article was written and research was conducted by TVHS Research and Collections Archivist, Kayleigh Smith
Photos courtesy of Kimberly Phyfe, Community Engagement Manager, TVHS
