Submit an update

Lily Moulton Doane Wicks
3 September 1865 — 4 May 1937

Help improve this person’s record. Share a memory, correct a detail, or add a photo. Jason will review your suggestion.

You only need to edit the details you want to change. Fields start with the current information; leave anything unchanged that already looks right. To suggest removing a value, clear that field and explain why.

Names and life details

Full name

Given names

Surname

Birth dateA year or an approximate date is fine, such as “about 1840.”

Birthplace

Death dateA year or an approximate date is fine, such as “about 1840.”

Death place

Sex

Living status

Other names

Family relationships

Include names, dates, and the type of relationship. For parents, say whether the connection is biological, adoptive, stepfamily, or uncertain.

Parents

Spouses and partners

Children

Their story and life events

Their story

# Lily Moulton Doane Wicks

## Care, music and a place for art

1865–1937

Lily Moulton Doane Wicks spent fifteen years presiding over a hospital board in Syracuse, in central New York. During her long association with the institution, it grew from a hospital for women and children into a general hospital in a substantial new building. Alongside that work, she helped sustain the city's music and art, supporting institutions that continue to serve Syracuse.[1–3]

An earlier image of Lily survives in a very different setting. Theodore E. Pine's *Doane Family Portrait*, painted in 1871, gathers the children of John Wesley Doane in an elaborate outdoor scene. Lily is the girl at the far left, wearing blue beside the carriage. Many years later, her son Bartlett gave the painting to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City, Utah.[4]

Lily was born in 1865, a daughter of John Wesley Doane and Julia Ann Moulton. Her family had connections with Chicago and with Thompson, in northeastern Connecticut. She married Frederick Stanton Wicks at Trinity Church in Chicago on April 24, 1889. Frederick, who turned thirty-eight the following day, had already established his legal practice in Syracuse, in central New York.[1,5]

Their first anniversary came immediately after a loss. Stanton Doane Wicks was born in Syracuse on April 21, 1890, and died two days later. Their next son, born in Chicago on January 4, 1892, received the same name. Bartlett was also born in Chicago, on April 16, 1895; John Doane, later known as Jack, followed on July 8, 1896. Four sons were born to the marriage, and three survived infancy. The Chicago births reflect the family's continuing ties to the city.[5]

Her hospital service began while the boys were young. In 1897 she joined the board of the institution that later became Syracuse Memorial Hospital. It had been founded by women to provide care for women and children, with a training school for nurses. Its trustees were women, responsible for sustaining an institution whose patients, buildings and services grew over time.[2,3]

By 1918 the hospital's name reflected its broader work as a general hospital. A community campaign supported a new building on Irving Avenue, near Syracuse University, which opened in 1929. Lily's obituary credited her with a leading part in its construction and placed the completion during her presidency.[1,3]

The Harmony Circle, another of her recorded associations, supported the hospital through fundraising and provision for patients. Her interests also included St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Meade Settlement, the Huntington Club and the Perpetual Nurse Fund. These connections placed her among the women supporting Syracuse's charitable institutions.[1,3]

Music and visual art occupied a substantial place in her public life. She was an organizer and patron of a Syracuse symphony orchestra and helped the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts develop. Frederick had been one of the museum's original trustees, but Lily's own patronage is separately documented. In 1931 she purchased Robert Strong Woodward's *Across the Pond* and gave it to the museum. The pastel shows water, trees and a small boat near Mount Hermon Station in Northfield, Massachusetts. Its museum label credits Mrs. Frederick Wicks as donor.[2,6,7]

The gift survives within the collection of the Everson Museum of Art, the later name of the Syracuse institution. It provides a specific example of her patronage: a work she helped bring into a public collection, preserved beyond her lifetime. The museum's 1916 gallery photographs also show the kind of institution she supported—rooms of paintings beneath skylights, with chairs set out for visitors.[6,7]

Family life included a summer home on Chenango Street in Cazenovia, a village southeast of Syracuse in Madison County, New York. Early in 1900 Lily, Frederick and their family had also traveled as guests on an extended tour of California and the Northwest.[5,8] The family's Doane genealogy account records First World War service by all three surviving sons.[11] By Frederick's final years their Syracuse home was on Brattle Road. He retired in 1929 and died there on April 26, 1931, two days after their forty-second wedding anniversary.[5,8]

Lily survived him by six years. Their son Stanton died in February 1937; she herself became ill that spring and entered Syracuse Memorial Hospital. She died there on May 4, 1937, aged seventy-one. Funeral arrangements awaited Bartlett's arrival from Salt Lake City. Bartlett and John survived her, and she was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse.[1,2,9]

Her later years brought her back, as a patient, to the institution she had helped govern. The hospital subsequently became part of today's Crouse Hospital, while the museum she supported developed into the Everson. Lily's contribution is more specific: years of hospital governance, support for music, and a work of art that still carries the record of her gift.[3,6,10]

## Source notes

1. Syracuse Herald, May 5, 1937, p. 6; retained obituary transcription in the family evidence ledger. [Find a Grave memorial 88497952](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88497952/lily-moulton-wicks)

2. The Cazenovia Republican, May 6, 1937, p. 1. [original page](https://cazenovia.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?fn=the_cazenovia_republican_usa_new_york_cazenovia_19370506_english_1)

3. Hospital history: SUNY Upstate historical guide; Memorial Memoirs (1945), digital pages 32–34. [SUNY Upstate Medical University, “Syracuse Memorial Hospital—A History”](https://guides.upstate.edu/hospitalshistory/memorial) · [Crouse Hospital collection](https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll5/id/1614)

4. Childhood portrait: UMFA, Art as Storyteller, p. 18; The Art of Healing, PDF p. 10. Theodore E. Pine, Doane Family Portrait (1871), accession 1980.041. [*Art as Storyteller*](https://umfa.utah.edu/wp-content/uploads/files/2017-10/Art-as-Storyteller.pdf) · [*The Art of Healing* guide](https://umfa.utah.edu/wp-content/uploads/files/2021-09/SelfGuide-ArtAmbassador-ArtofHealing.pdf)

5. Marriage, children and travel: Shepard, History of the Yale Class of 1873 (1901), pp. 185–186; Yale Obituary Record, 1930–1931, pp. 37–38; infant Stanton’s death-index entry. [digitized original](https://archive.org/details/cu31924030632552/page/n190/mode/2up) · [scan](https://www.mindmapchannel.com/Obit/YaleObit1930-31.pdf) · [Released New York death-index entry](https://www.newyorkdeathindex.com/people/stanton-d-wicks-1890-225202)

6. Art patronage: Robert Strong Woodward catalogue, Across the Pond, donor label and acquisition clipping; accession P.C.31.157. [Robert Strong Woodward catalogue, “Across the Pond”](https://www.robertstrongwoodward.com/Gallery/AcrossThePond.html)

7. Museum: 1914 catalogue charter history, pp. 34–35; Everson archive photographs. [scan](https://archive.org/details/cu31924068632698/page/n39/mode/2up) · [Everson Museum, “1916 Installation Photographs”](https://everson.org/from-the-archives/from-the-archives-1916-installation-photographs/)

8. Family homes: The Cazenovia Republican, April 30, 1931, p. 1. [original page](https://cazenovia.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?fn=the_cazenovia_republican_usa_new_york_cazenovia_19310430_english_1) · [1931 civil-index image](https://archive.org/details/New_York_State_Death_Index_1931/page/n1252/mode/1up)

9. Death: New York State index, May 4, 1937, certificate 31434. [scan](https://archive.org/details/New_York_State_Death_Index_1937/page/n1302/mode/1up)

10. Institutional legacy: Crouse Hospital and Everson Museum histories. [Crouse Hospital institutional history](https://www.crouse.org/about/inside-crouse/story/) · [Everson institutional history](https://everson.org/about/)

11. Doane-family genealogy extract forwarded January 8, 2011, preserved in the family archive and earlier Lily biography. This is the retained family account; the original published volume and page have not been identified. [Earlier biography](https://goodluckbros.com/person/92/lily-moulton-doane-wicks/)

Life events

1865-09-03 — birth — Birth — Thompson, Connecticut. — Thompson, Connecticut
1889-04-24 — marriage — Married at Trinity Church in Chicago, Illinois. — Chicago
1892-01-04 and 1895-04-16 — family_context — Sons Stanton and Bartlett were born in Chicago in 1892 and 1895. — Chicago
1897 — hospital_board — Joined the board of the hospital for women and children that later became Syracuse Memorial Hospital. — Syracuse, New York
1900 — tour — Traveled with the family as guests on an extended tour of California and the Northwest early in 1900. — California
1931 — art_gift — Gave Robert Strong Woodward’s pastel Across the Pond to the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts. — Syracuse, New York
1931 — property — The family’s summer home on Chenango Street in Cazenovia was recorded in 1931. — Cazenovia, New York — New York — United States
1931 — residence — Family home on Brattle Road in Syracuse, New York. — Syracuse, New York
1937 — burial — Buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, New York. — Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, New York — New York — United States
1937-05-04 — death — Died at Syracuse Memorial Hospital in Syracuse, New York. — Syracuse Memorial Hospital — New York — United States
civic_service — Supported Syracuse’s music, church and charitable institutions, including the symphony orchestra, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Harmony Circle, Meade Settlement, Huntington Club and Perpetual Nurse Fund. — Syracuse, New York

Work and organizations

Occupations

Organization roles

Memories and sources

Memories and context

Sources

Anything else

Photos

Share up to three photos, each 4 MB or smaller. JPG, PNG, and WebP are supported. Add a caption beside each photo to help tell its story.

Who is pictured? About when and where was it taken? Where did the photo come from? Add whatever you know.

Photo 1Choose photo 1Caption for photo 1 Optional

Photo 2Choose photo 2Caption for photo 2 Optional

Photo 3Choose photo 3Caption for photo 3 Optional

Your suggestion

What changed, and how do you know?A source link, document title, or personal recollection can help Jason review it.

Your name Required

Email Optional — only for questions about your suggestion

Email is optional and stays private.