Julia Gardner Coolidge, Friend and Sister

Julia Gardner Coolidge holds a special place in the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner. A childhood friend from their days in Parisian boarding school, Julia later became Isabella’s sister-in-law. In fact, it was through their friendship that Isabella first met her husband Jack. While their closest connection was in childhood, bonds of friendship and family connected Julia and Isabella throughout their lives.

Julia Gardner was born in 1841 in Boston, the second-youngest child of John Lowell Gardner, a prominent Boston merchant, and Catharine Elizabeth Peabody Gardner. The Gardner family was incredibly well-connected and wealthy. They owned houses in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, Brookline, Massachusetts, and on an island in Maine. Julia’s maternal grandfather, George Peabody, made his fortunes as a merchant and shipowner, particularly in the trade of pepper from Sumatra, and at the time of Catharine and John’s marriage, was the wealthiest man in Salem, Massachusetts. 
 

In 1856, Isabella moved to Paris with her parents and younger brother. Like many other daughters of upper-class American families at the time, Isabella enrolled at a Protestant boarding school. Considered prestigious, these schools taught French and prepared their students to navigate life in high society. Students boarded from Monday to Friday, and joined their parents, who were staying at local hotels, on the weekends. 

Of the sixteen students at the school (or pension), three were American: Isabella, Julia Gardner, and Helen Waterston. The three girls quickly became inseparable.

Most of what we know of their time at boarding school comes from Helen’s diaries and letters. These detailed and intimate sources paint a picture of their close friendship and offer insights into their lives, like Julia’s love of books and chess. Helen once wrote in her diary “what should I do if Julia and Isabelle were not here?” 
 

These “jolly three,” as Helen referred to them, had flourishing lives outside of the classroom and across the city. They read together (Isabella had the 1856 London editions of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Northanger Abbey), wrote in each other's friendship albums, and compared home cities and weekend adventures with their families. They took walks in the garden near the school, enjoyed impromptu theatrical performances, and sewed for charity. They also got ready for parties together, helping one another dress up and doing each other's hair. Helen comically describes a time when they placed a variety of “absurd things” in their high Marie Antoinette-like poufs, including three pens in Julia’s hair and an open fan in Isabella’s.

Isabella, Julia, and Helen referred to themselves as the Vestagine, or little Vestal Virgins, and created secret names for one another. Isabella was “Danilo Brignole,” Julia was “Alonso Vigirato” and Helen was “Giovanni Amour.” As a trio, they “swore by our brooches to stand by each other in troubles, scraps, & etc.”

Once, to hide a newly-acquired historic romance novel (La Comtesse de Charny, by Alexander Dumas) from the prying eyes of teachers and classmates, the friends wrapped the book in plain paper and gave it a title that wouldn’t arouse suspicion: History of France. Unfortunately, their efforts at subterfuge were in vain. The book was discovered and confiscated by a teacher who believed the novel’s story of a frivolous and flirtatious Marie Antoinette would be a corrupting influence. Notably, many years later, Isabella would include portraits of Marie Antoinette in her Museum.

Staying in Paris with Julia’s parents were her younger sister Eliza (10) and her older brother John Lowell Gardner Jr., known as Jack, who was 19 years old at the time. Jack and Isabella first met in this period, although they don’t seem to have closely interacted much.

After the 1857 school year ended, all three girls travelled throughout Europe with their families, but Julia’s travels in Germany and Paris did not align with Isabella’s or Helen’s, and she spent a lonely summer without her friends. Sometime later that year, she returned to Boston, and Isabella to New York, marking the end of their time as schoolmates. Sadly, a year later, Helen passed away.

Isabella and Julia remained connected throughout their lives. They kept in touch and, in February 1859, Isabella travelled to Boston for the first time to visit Julia and explore the city together. They attended parties, went sleigh riding, had tea parties, and delighted in each others’ company.

During this trip Isabella also reconnected with Julia’s brother Jack. They got to know each other during strolls through Boston Common and the Public Garden, and by the end of the month, they were engaged. Three days later, Isabella wrote to Julia about Jack’s proposal, referring to it as “the great event,” and describing herself as the “happiest of human beings.” She was excited not just to marry Jack, but to join the Gardner family, and the feeling was mutual. 

In October of 1859, Julia travelled to New York to help Isabella with wedding planning. Like in their school days, they explored the city together, meeting up with friends, going to shows, reading together, and even attending a cricket match.

In 1860, the same year that Isabella and Jack married, Julia married Joseph Randolph Coolidge, great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson. They went on to have six sons, one of whom died in infancy. Joseph’s brother Thomas Jefferson Coolidge was the original owner of Sargent’s monumental painting El Jaleo, gifting it to Isabella years later.
 

It is difficult to track and characterize the relationship between Julia and Isabella over time. There are very few letters between them, for two women living in close proximity and with family ties. Yet we do know of their paths intersecting.

Julia visited Isabella at her Green Hill estate during the spring season, often with her sons. There they would meet the new litters of fox terrier puppies which Isabella raised. Julia also signed Isabella’s guestbooks twice, in 1896 and 1897. On November 26, 1896 her name is listed amongst many members of the Coolidge and Gardner extended families, gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving together. Her sons show up more frequently in Isabella’s guestbooks, a testament to strong family ties throughout the years. 
 

The Museum’s archives also hold three letters from Julia to Isabella. In a poignant one from 1920, she writes:

While they were not perhaps as close as in those teenage years in Paris, there is an undeniable bond that they maintained. In a 1918 letter to Isabella, Julia signs off with the sentiment: “I am Ever your old friend and very affectionately your sister.” Isabella saved mementoes from her time with Julia in Paris including a composition book of French idioms and her Jane Austen novels and preserved them as part of the museum’s collection in the Vatichino.

Julia Gardner died in 1921, survived by her husband, five sons, seventeen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. About two years later, shortly before her own death, Isabella split her signature long strand of pearls (seen in her Sargent portrait) into smaller lengths, and gifted them to seven women. Two of those women were Julia Gardner’s daughters-in-law, continuing the connection between the two women.

Much of the information in this post was drawn from a recent biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner:
Natalie Dykstra, Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner (Mariner Books, 2024).