Rebecca Lloyd Nicholson Post Shippen collection

Rebecca Lloyd Nicholson Post Shippen was a prominent member of Baltimore society, most known for her participation in the Brown Veil Club. She was born on May 28, 1842 to Arinthea Darby Parker and James Macon Nicholson. The family lived in the wealthy Mount Vernon neighborhood in Baltimore at 209 West Monument Street.

During the Civil War, she was a Confederate supporter and was a part of the Brown Veil Club, or “Monument Street Girls,” which sewed clothing for rebel soldiers. The group also helped popularize James Ryder Randall’s poem, “Maryland! My Maryland.” The poem was set to the tune of “Tannenbaum-O Tannenbaum,” and Shippen offered to get the work published even though she could have been imprisoned for her actions. Her paternal grandfather Joseph Hopper Nicholson, in a similar manner, had his brother-in-law Francis Scott Key’s poem, “Defence of Fort McHenry,” published.

On April 17, 1866, she married Captain John Eager Howard Post, who was the Adjutant of the 1st Maryland Calvary for the Confederacy. They had six children together, five of which died in childhood. Their son, John Eager Howard Post, eventually worked as professor of languages at the Gilman School and died in 1911. Captain Post died in 1876. She then married Dr. Edward Shippen in 1878 and had another son, Lloyd Parker. Dr. Shippen was a surgeon for the Union Army. The family traveled throughout Europe and eventually settled in Florence, Italy.