BURIED TOGETHER

Partner Emilie A. Wagner

Queer Places:
7b Irving Pl, New York, NY 10003, USA
58 E 54th St, New York, NY 10022, USA
Swezey house, 331 Beaver Dam Rd, Brookhaven, NY 11719, USA
Valhalla aka Learned-Wagner House, Hawkins Ln & Rose Ln, Brookhaven, NY 11719, USA
Oaklawn Cemetery, Westminster Ave, Brookhaven, NY 11719, United States

Ellen Edgerton Learned (October 31, 1866 - January 26, 1963) was born on October 31, 1866, in New London, Connecticut, to James Edgerton Learned, a cork dealer turned music critic for the New York Post, and Hannah Lydia Adams Learned. As the youngest of four children and the only daughter, her early years involved moving between Connecticut and Newark, New Jersey, where she grew up alongside her brothers Richard, Charles, and John, under the care of her parents and later her stepmother, Frances Rebecca Pinkerton.

By the turn of the century, Learned established herself professionally in New York City as a prominent contralto soloist, music educator, and school principal. She operated a studio at 7b Irving Place, taught at Miss Brackett's School, and led an English and German school for girls at 58 East 54th Street. As a celebrated concert artist, she earned high praise from audiences and the press alike, famously stepping into the demanding role of the witch in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel on a mere 24-hour notice. In addition to her musical career, she also contributed her writing skills as an editorial staff member for the New York Evening Post.

During the second decade of the twentieth century, Learned became part of the vibrant artistic set in Brookhaven on Long Island, which she initially visited during summers before making it a permanent home. Throughout her life in New York City and Brookhaven, she shared her domestic and professional world with fellow music educator Emilie A. Wagner. Census records and historical documents trace their enduring partnership from living together on Manhattan's 106th Street with Learned's stepmother in 1910 to sharing a household on Beaver Dam Road in Brookhaven (the Swezey house) by 1915, and later residing on Hawkins Lane in 1930. Together, Learned and Wagner purchased and remodeled local properties, taught music, and actively nurtured the community's creative talent by supporting young artists such as Jimmy Reynolds and hosting joint fundraising recitals for the local school's piano fund.

In her later years, Learned remained a fixture of the Brookhaven community, singing in the choir at St. James Episcopal Church where her snow-white curls became as well-known as the fiery red tresses of her youth on the New York stage. She passed away on January 26, 1963, at the Suffolk County Infirmary in Yaphank, New York, at the age of 96, and was laid to rest at Oaklawn Cemetery in Brookhaven. Her personal papers, correspondence, and mementos remain preserved in archival collections such as the Harvard Library Music Manuscripts, bearing witness to a remarkable life bridging the worlds of turn-of-the-century journalism, classical music education, and an enduring historical same-sex partnership.

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