Explore Downton Abbey Link to Portsmouth and Kittery
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Catherine Tredick Wendell as a child. A year after her 1922 marriage, she became the 23-year-old mistress of Highclere Castle, the setting for the acclaimed PBS series FREE EXHIBIT RUNS TO DEC 1, 2012

Those who can't wait until January for the third season of the TV series "Downton Abbey" can meet up with the 6th Countess of Carnarvon at a new Portsmouth Athenaeum exhibit opening October 5, 2012. The countess is Portsmouth's own Catherine Tredick Wendell, who married into the family in 1922 and lived until 1936 at Highclere castle, the setting for the award-winning PBS series. (Continued below)

 

"It's just an incredible leap," exhibit curator Ronan Donohue says of Catherine. "This 23-year-old girl born in Kittery, Maine, is suddenly in charge of a 300-room house and its elaborate and complex social gatherings."

The Wendells had homes in Kittery and Portsmouth as well as Frostfields, a mansion on New Castle Common. Catherine was only 11 when her father, Jacob, died, and her mother moved her and her three siblings to England to be near a beloved cousin.

"The two daughters of the family both married earls and became countesses," Donohue said.

Donohue was watching an episode of the wildly popular "Masterpiece Classic" period drama when he realized the family was the same one whose correspondence he had read years earlier when the Athenaeum received 100 boxes of correspondence from the Wendell family. Donohue helped catalog the letters that date back to the 1700s.

 In the mid-1920s, the 6th Countess of Carnarvon is shown with her two children, Henry George Reginald Molyneaux Herbert, who would become the 7th Earl of Carnarvon, and Lady Anne Penelope Marian Herbert.

SEE MORE PHOTOS BELOW

"I found a lot of the correspondence wildly amusing and interesting," he said. "The part I liked most was the early 20th-century stuff about a Wendell that had married, gone to England, become the 6th Countess of Carnarvon and lived in a castle outside London."

That castle turned out to be Highclere, which Donohue said likely resembles the Houses of Parliament because they share the same architect, Sir Charles Barry.

Donohue said Catherine became the countess a year after her marriage. Her father-in-law, the 5th earl, died only a year after discovering the tomb of King Tut.

"Downton Abbey: The Portsmouth Connection" will feature about 60 family photos, including the 5th earl and his adventures in Egypt, as well as a stunning portrait of Catherine in a flapper-style dress.

"They all look exactly the way they should look," Donohue said of the family. "Central casting couldn't have sent you a better cast of characters."

The exhibit will also include photos of Highclere and relevant Portsmouth, Kittery and New Castle residences, along with family letters from and about Highclere.

The free exhibit at the non-profit membership museum and library founded in 1817 will run through December 1, 2012.

The Athenaeum, 9 Market Square, is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. An opening reception for the exhibit will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 5. The exhibit is sponsored by Vigilant Capital Management LLC.

For more information, go to www.portsmouthathenaeum.org or call 603-431-2538.

Portsmouth's Catherine Tredick Wendell, who married an English lord and became the 6th Countess of Carnarvon, is featured in a new Athenaeum exhibit that opens Oct. 5, "Downton Abbey: The Portsmouth Connection."

Frostfields, one of the Wendell family homes, was situated on what is now the New Castle town common.

The July 17, 1922, wedding of Catherine Tredick Wendell and Lord Porchester, the only son of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, was celebrated at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, London.

 

 

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