By STEVE GRANT; Courant Staff Writer, March 10, 2005
David Sturges was walking through the exhibits at the Connecticut Spring Antiques Show last year when he happened upon a cluster of 19th-century portraits. It was a family, and the portrait of the mother looked strikingly like his former sister-in-law, Ellen Leeds Sturges, who was working nearby as a volunteer.
He immediately told her about the portraits, and they took a look. The paintings, dating from about 1840, portrayed a Boston family, Samuel and Eliza Leeds, and two daughters, Elizabeth Harriet and Mary Amanda.