Charles C. Burleigh, Jr. (1848-1882) was an artist residing in Florence, Massachusetts from 1861 to 1878 and in Europe from 1878 until his death in Germany in 1882 at age 34.

Burleigh, Jr. was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania on November 14, 1848, the son of Gertrude Kimber Burleigh, a Philadelphia Quaker and Charles C. Burleigh, Sr., an abolitionist reformer and lecturer. By spring 1849, the family moved to Plainfield, Connecticut, the hometown of Charles C. Burleigh, Sr., whose father taught at Plainfield Academy. In 1861, the family moved to Florence, Massachusetts, a village within the city of Northampton. From 1863-1873, Charles Burleigh, Sr. served as the first resident speaker of the Free Congregational Society.

At age seventeen, Burleigh was admitted to the free drawing classes at the Lowell Institute in Boston for two academic years, 1866-1867 and 1867-1868. He studied drawing under George Hollingsworth and William Carleton. Burleigh enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia for the months of February, March and April of 1870. In 1870, Burleigh opened a studio in Florence, Massachusetts. He taught art lessons and painted portraits of local residents. In 1875, he moved his studio to the Jones Block in downtown Northampton. During the mid-1870s, Burleigh produced local views with artist Elbridge Kingsley which were printed by the Star Printing Company of Northampton. Burleigh also painted the mural frescoes for Cosmian Hall, built in 1873-1874 as the hall of the Free Congregational Society of Florence and prepared stage scenes for the Florence Dramatic Club. In September 1878, Burleigh married Ida Aldrich, whose mother, Auretta Aldrich, came to Florence to organize the Hill Institute, a public kindergarten endowed by Samuel Hill. That same month, the couple sailed to Europe, where Burleigh painted copies of Old Master paintings in art museums on commission from Andrew D. White, the president of Cornell University. Burleigh made copies of the paintings of such artists as Anthony Van Dyke, Peter Paul Rubens and Karl Piloty. With orders from White for copies in Italian museums, Burleigh planned to continue his work in Florence, Italy, but died from illness in Germany on December 5, 1882.

Beginning in 1955, family descendants of Charles Burleigh, Jr. began donating artwork, family letters and personal items belonging to the artist and his wife to the Northampton Historical Society. Charles C. Burleigh, Jr. Collection

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