Wyeth Dynasty

Famous People

Denys Zingiebel

Denys Zingiebel was born in Switzerland. When he retired from working at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in the 1860's, he bought 35 acres of land in Needham along the Charles River of South Street. He had a greenhouse business there where he shipped flowers each week to the White House and the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. He was the first to cultivate the giant Swiss pansy in the United States. His nickname is the "Pansy Man". His farm was sold off by the 1920's. He also had several patents for innovative greenhouse heating systems.

N.C. Wyeth

Zingiebel's daughter, Henrietta, was N.C. Wyeth's mother. Newall Convers (N.C.) Wyeth was born in Needham on October 22,1882 . He went to Wilmington, Delaware to study about art in October,1902. He sold his first painting of a cowboy on a Bronco Buster in 1902 for $50. It was on the cover of the SATURDAY EVENING POST on February 21,1903. In 1904 N.C. graduated Howard Pyle's Art College. He met his wife on a sleigh ride in Wilmington Delaware. He married Carolyn Bockius in 1906. In 1911 they bought a farm in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. The Wyeths had five children. Three of them grew up to be painters. His favorite vacation spot was in Maine and N.C. made some of his favorite art there. He illustrated some famous books such as: TREASURE ISLAND, KIDNAPPED, ROBIN HOOD, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, RIP VAN WINKLE, THE DEERSLAYER and others. N.C. and his three year old grandson, Newell, were killed by a train at a railroad crossing in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania on October 19,1945. You can find some of his paintings in the Needham Public Library.

Wyeth's first work "Sketch of Man on a Bucking Bronco" in 1902