Mary Elizabeth Goddard (later Ticknor) drew the 53 leaf impressions in this collection around 1865 while living in Cuba for two years with her childhood acquaintance, Leila Echeverria. While the carefully arranged drawings document the presence of both economic crops and native plants prior to the island’s deforestation, it is unknown whether she resided at the consular quarters in Matanzas or the Echeverria plantation in the same region. 

Mary Elizabeth Goddard was born in Millbury, Massachusetts, on July 19, 1840. Orphaned before she turned ten, she went to live with her uncle, Ebenezer W. Goffe, who owned a general store and a large farm with frequent boarders. One of the boarders, Leila Echeverria, was a young woman born in Matanzas, Cuba, to an Italian-born merchant (Antonio Echeverria) and the daughter of a wealthy Massachusetts family (Sarah Newell).

In 1856, Leila married Henry C. Hall, who became the American consul at Matanzas, Cuba, from 1864 to 1873 and consul general in Havana from 1873 to 1877. During this tumultuous period, the United States ran blockades on Confederate trade during the American Civil War, slavery was still common on the island, and Cubans fought for independence from Spain from 1868 to 1878 in what was known as the Ten Years’ War (independence was not won until 1898).

Mary Elizabeth Goddard (later Ticknor) drew the 53 leaf impressions in this collection around 1865 while living in Cuba for two years with her childhood acquaintance, Leila Echeverria. While the carefully arranged drawings document the presence of both economic crops and native plants prior to the island’s deforestation, it is unknown whether she resided at the consular quarters in Matanzas or the Echeverria plantation in the same region.