Alexander I / Aleksandr Pavlovich / Александр Павлович (1777-1825)
Born in the autumn of 1798, the younger of two daughters, Jane Caroline Armat was raised in the newly built family home of Loudon in Germantown, Philadelphia. By the age of 11, Jane and her sister Sara were left solely in the care of their grandparents following the death of their mother and father within just three years of each other.
At the age of 21, in 1819, Jane married her cousin William Armatt with whom she had two daughters. It was in the early years of their marriage that the artist Henry Inman is believed to have painted this portrait of Jane.
Inman, who had established himself as one of the prominent portraitists in New York City by 1829, was also credited with the first successful attempt of genre painting by an American-born artist. His somewhat Romanticised style is perhaps what first appealed to Jane when commissioning this portrait, however it is thought that Jane Caroline Armatt and Henry Inman were good friends too. Their friendship lasted long after the passing of William Armatt in 1822 as Inman is also attributed to painting two later portraits of Jane and her second husband, James Skerrett, an Athenaeum shareholder, after their marriage in 1825.
Inman, Henry (attributed). Alternate attribution: Jacob Eichholtz.
Paul Beck, Jr. (1760-1844), was a distinguished Philadelphia merchant and philanthropist. Appointed to the post of Port Warden, Beck helped to improved the city's shipping facilities and was instrumental in building a canal to connect the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. Among the many charitable institutions served by Beck was the Ludwick Institute, founded in 1801 as a free school for poor children. For many years its vice president, Beck bequeathed to it a property at 6th and Catharine Streets. In 1859 the Institute removed to that site (which became known as the Beck School House) and soon after it commissioned this portrait.
Executed by Thomas Sully (1783-1872) in 1860, this portrait was copied from an earlier one he had painted in 1813. An Athenaeum shareholder from 1818 to 1822, Sully was Philadelphia's leading portraitist. His canvases show a fine use of colors and textures, as well as an attention to detail. In this example he has included a biographical accessory, the gold snuff box given to Beck in 1812 by Major William Jackson (1759-1828), once personal secretary to George Washington.
The Ludwick Institute has long met at the Athenaeum and a majority of its managers are usually also directors of the Athenaeum.
Legislator and financier Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) was a member of the prominent Biddle family of Philadelphia, whose ancestors came to America with William Penn. A child prodigy, Biddle graduated from Princeton at the age of 15. He spent several years traveling throughout Europe, and served as secretary to James Monroe, then the US minister to Great Britain. Upon returning to the United States in 1807, Biddle practiced law, edited the literary magazine Port Folio, and helped edit the Lewis and Clark expedition journals for publication. Biddle belonged to many Philadelphia civic organizations, among them: the Athenaeum of Philadelphia (which he helped found in 1814), the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture. Additionally, Biddle served as President of the Girard College Board of Trustees and was instrumental in fulfilling Stephen Girard’s vision of building a school for poor orphaned boys. As a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Biddle advocated for the reestablishment of a national bank. In 1816, the second Bank of the United States was chartered, and in 1819, Monroe, now president of the United States, appointed Biddle to the board of directors of the Bank. In 1822 Biddle became president of the Bank, serving in that role until 1839, when it became increasingly clear that President Andrew Jackson’s refusal to renew the Bank’s charter all but guaranteed the Bank’s failure. The Bank ultimately closed in 1841. Throughout his career, Biddle often took respite at his country residence known as Andalusia. In 1811 Biddle had married Jane Craig, and in 1814 obtained her parents’ large house located 14 miles north of Philadelphia overlooking the Delaware River. He commissioned architect Thomas Ustick Walter (who had designed Girard College) to transform the existing Craig house into a Greek Revival masterpiece. Biddle applied his lifelong interest in the arts, architecture, and experimental agriculture to develop the home and gardens into a stately and serene estate. Today, Andalusia is a National Historic Landmark open to visitors. Nicholas Biddle died at Andalusia in 1844 at the age of 58.
Eleanor Blaney Bird (1806-1888) was the wife of Henry Bird (1803-1864) sixth Librarian of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
Henry Bird (1803-1864), served as Secretary and sixth Librarian of The Athenaeum of Philadelphia from 1859 until his death in 1864. He was the husband of Eleanor Blaney Bird (1806-1888).
Philadelphia-born church architect Charles M. Burns was the son of Charles M. and Eliza Van Dyke (Rousseau) Burns. Although he entered the University of Pennsylvania in the Class of 1859 as a second-semester freshman, his academic career was finished by the end of his junior year when he volunteered for Civil War action. By 1862 Burns was in battle at Mobile, AL with Admiral Farragut; he would return with Farragut to New Orleans in 1864. Therefore, although city directory listings for Burns commence in 1863, it is doubtful that Burns would have returned to Philadelphia before 1865. Once he did return to Philadelphia, he launched a distinguished architectural career, with a specialty in ecclesiastic buildings, especially Protestant Episcopal churches.
While managing a steadily growing practice, Burns still attempted to further his own education by enrolling at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1876. His own talents were soon recognized, however; and by 1879 he had left off his own student activities in order to become a member of the faculty of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, with responsibility for "Theory and Practice of Freehand Drawing and Design." According to artist Joseph Pennell, who attended Burns's class and wrote a memorial article (really more a diatribe against Philadelphia) after Burns's death, "If he found that you could accept [his criticism], his interest in you was endless and tireless. But if you did not, the heavy black eyebrows and bristling black mustache, with the flaming red necktie underneath, passed you by -- and that was worse than anything." After this stint at the PMSI, Burns would continue as instructor of drawing at Haverford College through 1885.
Burns was among the first group of architects proposed for membership in the Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA in 1870 and later served as treasurer for the group. Widely known as a portrait painter of some distinction and as a watercolorist, he exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876; and his architectural drawings appeared in exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1887, 1888, 1890, 1892 and 1894. After his retirement to Camden, NJ, Burns passed some of his ecclesiastical work along to Henry Macomb.
On 21 April 1870 Burns was elected an associate member of the AIA, but his membership "lapsed" in October 1875, according to the bulletin published for the 17th Annual Convention of the AIA (1883).
Mary Burt (d. 1908) was the niece of William Lehman whose legacy of $10,000 in 1829 provided the funds to construct this building. This three-quarter length portrait was painted by Bernard Uhle (1847-1929) in 1891.
Born in Chemitz, Saxony, Uhle emigrated with his family to Philadelphia in 1851 and at the age of fifteen became a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He opened a portrait studio in Philadelphia in 1877 and later became an instructor at the Academy (1886-1890). It was soon after this time that Uhle became a recluse. He lived alone (with seven cats) for nearly a quarter century. Uhle was presumed dead until 1915, when he suddenly reappeared to present a painting ordered twenty-three years before.
Mr. Busch (1873-1942) was President of the Welcome Society at the time Pennsbury Manor was reconstructed, thus the reason the artist included that house in the background.
The Athenaeum reading room is named in Mr. Busch's honor. It was dedicated on April 6, 1992, by Mrs. deHellebranth--member of the Athenaeum board of directors, Mr. Busch's daughter, and the donor of the renovation funds.
Benjamin Carr was born in England and received a good musical education in London. He emigrated to Philadelphia in 1793. There he opened a music store and promoted music. He was a publisher, editor, organist, pianist, singer, composer, teacher and conductor, as well as one of the founding members of the Musical Fund Society in 1820. He was also a member of the Atheneaum. Carr never married. When he died he was living at 72 South Fifth St.
Darley, Jane Cooper (nee Sully) or John Clarendon Darley
Scottish-born architect/builder Thomas Carstairs (born c. 1759, died July 26, 1830) launched his career in America by advertising his services in the Pennsylvania Packet in 1784. That same year, he sought membership in the Carpenters’ Company, but was turned down. Nonetheless, Carstairs steadily gained commissions and established a thriving business in Philadelphia. The Carpenters’ Company, noticing his growing success, subsequently issued an invitation in 1788, which Carstairs ignored until finally becoming a member in 1805. Among his achievements, Carstairs is noted for a block of twenty-two speculative row houses that he designed and built for William Sansom around 1800 on the south side of Sansom Street between 7th and 8th streets. Historically known as Carstairs Row, that block is widely known today as Jewelers’ Row.
Chandler, Theophilus Parsons, Jr. (1845-1928), Self Portrait
The importance of T.P. Chandler to the architectural profession in late nineteenth-century Philadelphia cannot be overestimated. Not only as a conveyor of high-style design, often based on European models, but also as the founder of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Architecture, Chandler substantially affected the architectural climate in Philadelphia and raised the role of architect to new heights of professionalism. Born in Boston, MA, and educated first in the Brookline schools, Chandler spent his freshman year at Harvard University and later studied at the Atelier Vaudremer in Paris. After returning to the United States, Chandler worked in several Boston offices. In 1872, with the persuasion of landscape architect Robert Copeland, then involved in the development of Ridley Park, Chandler came to Philadelphia and opened an office at 705 Sansom Street. While moving to Philadelphia enabled Chandler to capitalize on Copeland's activities in Ridley Park, it also reinforced Chandler's ties to his mother's family, the Schlatters, with grandfather William Schlatter, one of the founders of the Church of the New Jerusalem in Philadelphia, and to the DuPont family in Wilmington, DE, with whom the Schlatters had strong financial ties. Thus, with the Chandlers of New England behind him, and strong professional and familial ties in the Philadelphia and Delaware region, Chandler was successfully launched on an active architectural career. His first commissions reflect his ties to the development of Ridley Park (the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Station on Sellers Ave., the William Smythe residence, and the Ridley Park store on Hinckley Ave.), but by 1874 he was already engaged on commissions for the DuPont family in Delaware. In addition, by 1878, Chandler had been installed as Godey's in house architect and was publishing cottage designs in Godey's Lady's Book. Throughout his career Chandler designed a number of residences, but he became chiefly known as an ecclesiastical architect, with such major churches as the Church of the New Jerusalem at 22nd & Chestnut streets in Philadelphia, Calvary Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., and the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA, to his credit.
Chandler served as president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the AlA; he was also an early member of the national organization and received fellowship status in 1886. During the 1880s Chandler served on the Board of Trustees of the Spring Garden Institute, and, along with John Deery, judged their student exhibits of architectural drawings. His commitment to architectural education was to have even greater impact on Philadelphia's professional community in the 1890s, however, since during this time he successfully worked for the organization of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Architecture, then part of the Towne Scientific School. He served as the Department's executive head for the school year 1890/91, but then he persuaded Warren P. Laird to move to Philadelphia in order to assume the headship. Chandler was extremely active in the general Philadelphia community as well, holding memberships in the Union League, the Philadelphia Club, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Radnor Hunt Club. In addition he was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants and the Sons of the Revolution.
Small oval portrait of Eliza Fremineau Chastelain (daughter of Monsieur Fremineau, 1977.05.01). Waist view, seated, facing three quarters to the right. Hair is parted with curls at sides. Wears untied blue bonnet, long sleeved black dress with white lace collar and cuffs, and bow at waist. Holds white gloves. Chair has scrolled arms, backswept scrolled crest and is upholstered in red. Vertical scrolled architectural detail in right background. Oval mat. Gilt and gesso frame: Inner frame is oval, outer frame is serpentine oblong with floral and foliate scroll decoration at corners. (Frame is identical to frames for 1977.05.01-02, and 1977.05.04)
Leloir, Heloise (nee Colin) (b.1820 Paris-d.1873 Paris)
Small oval portrait of Madame Chastelain, mother-in-law of Eliza Fremineau Chastelain (1977.05.03). Waist view, seated in chair draped with multi-colored cloth. Hair is parted with curls at sides. Wears untied yellow bonnet, long sleeved blue dress with lace collar and cuffs, and bow on bodice, black lace mitts, and brooch at collar. Vertical architectural molding on wall in left background.
Oval mat. Gilt and gesso frame: Inner frame is oval, outer frame is serpentine oblong with floral and foliate scroll decoration at corners. (Frame is identical to frames for 1977.05.01, 1977.05.03-04)
Leloir, Heloise (nee Colin) (b. 1820 Paris - d. 1873 Paris)
One of the most influential forces in Philadelphia architecture during the early part of the twentieth century, Paul P. Cret was born in Lyons, France. He first studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Lyons; and there won the Paris Prize, which enabled him to move to Paris and attend the Ecole there as well as become a member of the Atelier supervised by Pascal. In 1903 when many schools of architecture in the United States were importing teachers from the Ecole, Cret was persuaded to move to Philadelphia and become a Professor of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, arriving in August 1903. Throughout his 34 year tenure, Cret trained many of the students graduating from the University's Department of Architecture and acted as patron of the T-Square Club Atelier; the Beaux-Arts stamp could be seen on the work of those students long after they had graduated and dispersed to various parts of the world.
In 1907 Cret, in partnership with Philadelphian Albert Kelsey, won the first of many national architectural competitions which he would enter, the design of the International Bureau of American Republics in Washington, DC (the Pan American Union). Before the first World War interrupted his career, Cret would participate in several other competitions, including the Robert Fulton Memorial Competition (1909: Third Place), the Perry Memorial Competition (1911: Third Place), and the Indianapolis Public Library (1914: First place, with Zantzinger, Borie & Medary).
Cret was in France when World War I broke out, and he simply remained there in the army for the next five years, returning to Philadelphia when he was discharged. At the end of his time in the service, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt asked him to design a memorial to her son, Quentin, who had been killed in the War. This was designed in 1919 for a site at Chamery, France. For his work during the war, Cret was awarded the Croix de Guerre and made an officer in the Legion of Honor.
Upon his return from France, Cret was again engaged in an active practice combined with his teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. It was during this time that he designed his first bridge, the Delaware River Bridge in Philadelphia, on which he collaborated with engineer Ralph Modjeski. The 1920s were a thriving time for Cret's work and included work on the Detroit Institute of Arts (with Zantzinger, Borie & Medary), the Frankford War Memorial in Philadelphia, the Barnes Foundation Gallery, Merion, PA, and the Integrity Trust Co., Philadelphia. He was also called upon to use his planning skills for several major campus plans (Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, and, later, the University of Texas at Austin).
In his capacity as Consulting Architect for the American Battle Monuments Commission from 1923 to 1945, Cret was in a role where he could affect the image of the United States which was projected abroad through the design of memorials, chapels, and cemeteries in honor of the dead of the first World War. He would continue in this capacity until his death and be followed in this position by his student and colleague John F. Harbeson.
Cret's firm flourished until his death. Over the years he designed many memorials, civic and commercial buildings, and, beginning in 1933, even railroad cars. His practice was chiefly non-residential, perhaps because his designs were better suited to the monumentality required by public structures; however, a few residences such as the James M. Cameron residence in Harrisburg, PA (1927) attest to his firm's abilities in that area.
Cret's memberships included the National Academy of Design, National Institute of Arts and Letter, American Philosophical Society, Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, the T-Square Club, the American Institute of Architects, and the French Benevolent Society, among others. His areas of public service included serving as a member of the Art Jury of the City of Philadelphia from its foundation until his death, serving on the National Fine Arts Commission for two terms, and chairing the American Institute of Architects National Committee on War Memorials.
A great number of awards came to Cret in recognition of his contributions to city planning, American architecture, and architectural education. These included the Bok Award (1931), the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects (1938), the medal of honor of the Architectural League of New York (1920), the Paris Grand Prix, the Prize of Honor at the 5th Pan American Congress of Architects at Montevideo (with Zantzinger, Borie & Medary), and the Award of Merit of the Pennsylvania Alumni Society. He received honorary degrees from Brown University (Master of Arts, 1929), the University of Pennsylvania (1913), and Harvard University (1940). In addition to his architectural design and city planning work Cret published several articles which described the Beaux-Arts method and reacted to the modernist principles of design.
Elliott, Arthur, from the original by Adolphe Borie (1914)
Evgeniia Osipovna Dashkov (c. 1780-c.1870) was the wife of Andrei I. Dashkov (1776-1831), who in 1809, became the Russian Consul General at Philadelphia under Emperor Alexander I. Aside from fostering diplomatic and commercial relations, Andrei Dashkov was an ambassador of culture. In 1816, as a visitor to The Athenaeum, he gave the society maps and books relating to Russia which helped to acquaint Philadelphians with the resources, customs and culture of the Russian Empire.
Son of Richard H. Day, Charles A. Day graduated from Germantown Academy before entering the University of Pennsylvania's program in Engineering. In 1899 he obtained a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, followed by the M.S. in 1903. Even before graduation he was employed at the Link-Belt Engineering Co. in Nicetown, an operation headed by John Mapes Dodge, father of his friend from Germantown Academy days Kern Dodge. After Kern Dodge graduated from Drexel Institute in 1901, the two established Dodge & Day, engineers; but after a transition with Dodge, Day & Zimmermann, Kern Dodge withdrew from this enterprise in 1912, and Charles Day continued with the succeeding firm of Day & Zimmermann.
Charles Day both wrote and lectured on engineering practice. His book Industrial Plants: Their Arrangement and Construction, published by Engineering Magazine as a monograph in 1911, actually grew out of a series of lectures for Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration.
During World War I Day also served on the U. S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation and became a member of the Army War Council.
Edwin Forrest Durang (1829-1911) was born into a prestigious family of professional actors and performers. His grandfather, John Durang, was credited with being the first native-born American actor; his father and uncle, Charles and Richard Durang were the first to perform the "Star Spangled Banner."
Edwin F. Durang was listed in the Philadelphia city directories as an architect by 1855. He specialized in ecclesiastical design, most notably those churches and institutions associated with the Catholic Church.
Joseph Bennett Eves was one of the founders and first president of the Ludwick Institute. Incorporated in 1801 as the Philadelphia Society for the Establishment of Charity Schools, it took the name of its original benefactor, German-born Christopher Ludwick (d.1801), in 1872. Director of Baking in the Army of the United States under Washington, and a Philadelphia civic leader, Ludwick left an $8,000 estate "for the schooling and educating gratis, of poor children of all denominations, in the city and liberties of Philadelphia."
The University of Pennsylvania, originally founded as a charity school, had also been anxious to receive this bequest, but Governor Thomas McKean maintained that it would go to the first organization to submit documents of incorporation in the Rolls Office at Lancaster. Thus, a messenger from the University, on horseback, and Joseph Bennett Eves, in a sulky, set out from Philadelphia in a "hot race...but Eves soon distanced his competitor and arrived in Lancaster, sixty-six miles distant, in seven hours," establishing legal claim to the Ludwick legacy.
The Ludwick Institute remains in existence today. Its assets have grown considerably, and it supports a wide range of programs to benefit poor children. The Institute has, for many years, held its meetings at the Athenaeum.
This view of the Fairmount Waterworks from the west bank of the Schuylkill River is a close copy of an engraving by English landscape artist William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854), which was published in his American Scenery (London, 1840).
The waterworks facility was designed by Frederick Graff (1774-1847) and began operation in 1815. The covered Upper Ferry Bridge, depicted in the distance, was built in 1812 and destroyed by fire in 1838. The locks of the Schuylkill Navigation Company are seen at the right. The "fair mount" above the waterworks complex is the present site of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Small oval portrait of Monsieur Fremineau, waist view, facing three quarters to the right. Blue eyes with brown hair which curls over forehead. Wears double breasted black coat with brass buttons, and white waistcoat, neckcloth and cravat.
Background is blue/gray and painted in cross stroke style. Gilt and gesso frame: Inner frame is oval, outer frame is serpentine oblong with floral and foliate scroll decoration at corners. (Frame identical to frames for 1977.05.02-04)
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), shown here as a lieutenant-general, was Commander in Chief of the United States Army from 1862 to 1865. A national hero after the Civil War, Grant became the eighteenth President of the United States in 1869. His two terms in the White House were marked with the problems of Reconstruction in the South, political graft in Washington, and financial panics. Grant came to Philadelphia in 1876 to officiate at the opening of the Centennial Exposition in Fairmount Park.
King Alexander and the Stag (Also known as Alexander III, King of Scotland, rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald; The Stag Hunt)
Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859), who lived in Philadelphia and studied under Benjamin West (1738-1820) in England, copied West's painting Alexander III, King of Scotland, rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald. [The West original hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland.]
Leslie presented this painting to his benefactor, Charles Nicoll Bancker (1776-1869), an early Athenaeum member, and it later came to the society from Mr. John Cadwalader who had inherited the painting.
Leslie, Charles Robert (After Benjamin West)
Lydia Leaming, the daughter of Thomas Leaming and Rebecca Fisher, was born in Philadelphia in 1789. In 1806, Lydia’s mother commissioned artist Thomas Sully to paint a portrait of her 17 year old daughter.
Edwin O. Lewis (1879-1974) was a long-time member of the Athenaeum and its President from 1950 to 1955. Born in Richmond, VA, Lewis came to Philadelphia at the age of eighteen to attend the University Of Pennsylvania Law School. In 1923 he was elected Judge of Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas, a position he held for thirty-four years.
Lewis's distinguished record of public service is highlighted by his efforts to restore the Independence Hall area. He was the leader of the drive which created both Independence Mall and the Independence National Historical Park in the 1950s. The Mall's Lewis Quadrangle and the Lewis fountain were named for him.
In this portrait, by Agnes Allen (b. 1897), Lewis holds the Independence Mall blueprints. A native Philadelphian, Allen specialized in portraiture; she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Barnes Foundation. Frame is an early 20th-century reproduction, installed in 2001.
Howard W. Lewis was a member of the Athenaeum Board of Directors for fifty-two years, serving as Treasurer from 1888 to 1926 and as Vice President from 1926 until his death in 1940. A banker by profession, Lewis was also a philanthropist, historian, and sports enthusiast. This portrait was acquired in 1949 by bequest of Lewis's widow, Mabel Potter Lewis, who also served on the Athenæum Board of Directors. Molarsky, born 1885 in Kiev, emigrated to Philadelphia where he became a student at the School of Industrial Arts. An accomplished portrait and still life painter, he won many awards, including a silver medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco (1915), a gold medal from the Art Club of Philadelphia (1919), and a silver medal at the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition (1926).
The lines of this portrait are actually calligraphy which tells the life story of Winfield Scott.
Isaiah Lukens (1779-1846) was best known in his own day as a maker of town clocks, but his mechanical genius led him also into the manufacture of machine tools, mathematical and surgical instruments. His father made clocks (see example on first floor) and the son made the towering clock at the Athenaeum (Busch Reading Room).
This portrait descended in the family of Franklin Williams along with a number of other Lukens items later donated by his widow in his memory. Charles Willson Peale is known to have painted Lukens (1816; Franklin Institute), but the Peale experts are not in agreement about which Peale did this painting; all agree it is a member of the family.
McIllhenney, William, Jr. (c.1779-1853),
William McIlhenney, Jr., (c.1779-1854), scholar and attorney at law educated at the University of Pennsylvania, became the Athenaeum's third librarian in 1820. He served the Athenaeum well and was its popular librarian for thirty-four years. During his tenure the collections were greatly expanded and the present building was erected. On the back of the canvas: "Post mortem portrait of the late Wm. McIlhenney for thirty-four years the librarian of the Philadelphia Athenaeum. Painted for the Athenaeum by John Neagle. Phila. June 30, 1855."
Dr. James Mease (1771-1846) was a prominent Philadelphia physician, scientist and author with wide-ranging intellectual interests. He earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1792; served as a hospital surgeon during the War of 1812; corresponded regularly with notable figures in the United States and abroad; and published on topics including medicine, agriculture and geology. In 1814 he published the first-known ketchup recipe to include a tomato base, effectively transforming the sauce that had previously existed in various forms to the now familiar condiment. Dr. Mease was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, and a founding member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. In 1814 he helped found the Athenaeum of Philadelphia; among the original 139 charter shareholders, Dr. Mease held share number 7, and served as the Athenaeum’s first vice-president. In 1800, Dr. Mease married Sarah Butler, the daughter of South Carolina Senator Pierce Butler. They had two sons who later changed their last names from Mease to Butler as a prerequisite for inheriting their grandfather Senator Butler’s vast fortune. One of the sons, Pierce Butler, married the renowned English stage actress Fanny Kemble. Dr. James Mease died in Philadelphia in 1846.
A melancholy Lydia Ann Moore, aged 33, is the subject of this portrait painted by Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904). Heade executed other commissions for this Trenton family, painting Lydia's husband Charles, and his brother Imlah, who together operated a flour, grain, and oil factory under the name, I. & C. Moore.
Born in Lumbersville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Heade is best known for his paintings of tropical birds and flowers. These subjects he studied directly while on painting expeditions to South America, and West Indies, British Columbia, California and Florida during the 1860s and 1870s. In 1885 this peripatetic artist, naturalist and sometime poet settled in St. Augustine, Florida where he lived the last two decades of his life.
Necker, Suzanne Curchod (Mme Jacques Necker) (1737-1794)
Suzanne Curchod Necker (1737-1794) was married to Jacques Necker, finance minister of France under King Louis XVI. She was an accomplished writer who hosted one of the most celebrated salons in Paris, where luminaries gathered to discuss art, literature, and politics. In 1778, seeking to ease the suffering of overcrowded hospitals, she remodeled a monastery and established a neighborhood charity hospital, with the aim of providing every patient their own bed. Today that hospital continues as the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, a teaching hospital in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, affiliated with the University of Paris Descartes.
Wax portrait in oval shadow box frame of Robert Oakeley (1771-1813) of Philadelphia. He is buried in St. Peter's Churchyard, 313 Pine Street.
On back: Robert Oakeley of Phila / No. 41 Chatham St. / New York / Taken in 1800 / Father of Geo. Washington Oakeley / b. July 21, 1807 d. June 2, 1874 / Married Charlotte Francisca / Richards b. Jan. 19, 1802 / d. Mar. 6, 1867
Comegys Paul was a shareholder of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia (share certificate #364 - December 19, 1820)
Pierre de Poletica (1778-1849) was counsellor to the Russian mission in Philadelphia, 1810-1812. From 1819 to 1821 he again served in the United States, this time as the Russian charge d'affaires in Washington, DC. He was an acute observer of America's political and social life and wrote A Sketch of the Internal Condition of the United States of America, and of their Political Relations with Europe (Baltimore, 1826).
William L. Price was one of an influential group of architects working during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Philadelphia. Aside from his importance in the area of design based on Arts and Crafts Movement ideals, Price was one of the founders of an arts and crafts community, Rose Valley, outside of Philadelphia. He attended the Westtown School, but left in 1877 to practice carpentry, abandoning that for architecture when he entered the office of Quaker architect Addison Hutton in 1878. According to the obituary published by the Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders Guide, Price also spent some time with Furness & Evans; however, that information has not been documented by other sources. By 1881 Price and his brother Frank L. Price had established a partnership which would last until 1895, with a practice chiefly based on residential design, including houses for Wendell & Smith, the developers of Wayne and St.Davids, PA, as well as the Pelham and Overbrook neighborhoods of Philadelphia. In 1895 Price began to practice independently, but in 1903 he established a partnership with M. Hawley McLanahan which would endure under the name of Price & McLanahan until his death, with McLanahan continuing to use the name for several years thereafter and eventually producing a successor firm, McLanahan & Bencker. Although well-known for residential design, Price's work also included the Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City, NJ, and Jacob Reed's Sons store in Philadelphia.
As interested in social reform movements as he was in architecture, Price helped Frank Stephens to found Arden, DE, a single-tax community outside of Wilmington. In 1901 he helped establish Rose Valley, an arts and crafts community in which many architects were involved, but none so vitally as Price. Although the earlier parts of the community were based on existing buildings, Price later designed a number of residences, among those several for the Rose Valley Improvement Company. Price was joined in the Rose Valley endeavor by his brother Walter Price and Walter Price's partner, William McKee Walton, as well as by younger architects like Carl deMoll and John M. Dickey.
Handwritten on back: Professor Wm B Rodgers/President School Technology/Boston
Portrait of Bridgeda Benjamin Samuel, seated on sofa, facing forward.
Frame is pine painted black with metal liner.
French labels on backing board "Maison Lambert / Fondee en 1789/ Specialite de Dorure & d'Encadrements Artistiques/ Grand Assortiment de Modeles Riches/ 19 Cour cu Commerce, ST. Andre-des_Arts, Paris"
1968.01.01-Portrait of husband, Samuel David Samuel
Portrait of Samuel David Samuel from the waist up, facing forward, wearing a dark coat.
Frame is pine and painted black with metal liner.
French labels on backing board "Maison Lambert / Fondee en 1789/ Specialite de Dorure & d'Encadrements Artistiques/ Grand Assortiment de Modeles Riches/ 19 Cour cu Commerce, ST. Andre-des_Arts, Paris”
1968.02.01-Portrait of wife Bridgeda Benjamin Samuel
John Sartain was born in London, apprenticed as an engraver to John Swaine (1823-30). In 1830 he married and emigrated to Philadelphia. He was successful as an engraver but not as a publisher (a couple of cultural journals were ill-fated). He was Vice President of Philadelphia School of Design for Women (later Moore College of Art), Freemason; Artists Fund Society; Society of St. George; Director of P.A.F.A.; and a Freeman of London. During the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia he was chief of the Bureau of Art.
Russell Smith (1812-1896) was born in Glasgow, Scotland and came to the U.S. in 1819 and later studied art with James R. Lambdin. His diversified career included work as a scene painter, landscape painter and scientific draughtsman. He was a regular contributor at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA).
William L. Schaffer (c. 1806-1884), Vice president of the Girard National Bank, and his sister, Elizabeth, are among the Athenaeum benefactors whose names are inscribed in the marble tablets of the Reading Room on the second floor. After Schaffer's death, the Board of Directors asked Elizabeth to lend a portrait of her late brother "in order that a copy be made and hung on the walls of the Library". Instead, she presented the Athenaeum with this portrait in March 1893.
Grandson of John Morin Scott, mayor of Philadelphia during 1840's riots, who lived on Washington Square and was an Athenaeum shareholder (Share #181) from 1816-1863.
Oct. 8, 1923-Elected Vice President of the Athenaeum
Oct. 14, 1924-Selected to present the Athenaeum address to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.
Dec. 21, 1925-ELected President of Athenaeum at special meeting to succeed George Harrison Fosher on his death.
Thomas Birch (1779-1851), son of artist William Birch, distinguished himself as a prolific painter of marine views and ship portraiture. He achieved early success with his depictions of American naval engagements of the War of 1812. He enjoyed a long career, exhibiting regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for forty years.
William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891), a career Army officer, served under General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War battle of Shiloh (1862). In 1864 he achieved his greatest military renown for his "March to the Sea" from Atlanta to Savannah, laying waste to the most populated area of Georgia by the extensive destruction of property. After the war Sherman became a lieutenant general. Following Grant's inauguration as President in 1869, Sherman succeeded him as Commander in Chief of the Army, a position he held until his retirement in 1883.
The artist of these paired portraits of Grant and Sherman is unknown, but one of the frames bears the label of a Washington, DC, frame maker, suggesting that they may have been painted in that city.
Lydia Leaming, the daughter of Thomas Leaming and Rebecca Fisher, was born in Philadelphia in 1789. In 1808, Lydia married James Somers Smith, a prominent Philadelphia attorney who served on the Board of Directors of the Athenaeum from 1826 to 1831. The couple had six children and it was at some point well into their marriage, that Henry Inman was commissioned to paint his portrait of Lydia Leaming Smith.
Joseph Biays Ord (1805-1865), son of the noted Philadelphia ornithologist and Athenaeum founder George Ord, was a portrait, still life and religious painter, as well as a picture restorer. Specializing in still life painting from 1838 to 1862, Ord became known for his fruit pictures.
In these dynamic compositions he uses a variety of sizes, colors and textures to express the passage of time. In this example, age spots appear on the apples, a partly peeled orange waits to be eaten, an empty almond shell lies on the table. The dishes which hold the fruit are typical examples of the fine ceramics which Ord uses in his pictures.
Charles Wharton Stork (1881-1971) was a Philadelphia born poet and dramatist educated at Haverford College (A.B., 1902), Harvard (M.A., 1903) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D., 1905). From 1903-1916 he taught in the English department at the University of Pennsylvania. For the next twenty years Wharton, as he was called, devoted his time to private literary endeavors, translating and editing verse and writing poetry, plays, critical essays, book reviews and fiction, in addition to lecturing and poetry reading. From 1935-1951 he taught again, this time at Harcum Junior College in Bryn Mawr, and continued writing and publishing until the 1960's. He served on the Athenaeum Board of Directors from 1919-1968.
William Strickland (1788-1854) was a noted architect and engineer who helped develop the Greek Revival style in the United States. His major commissions included the Second Bank of the United States and the Merchants' Exchange Building (both in Philadelphia), and the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Artist Lois Harper Wyman, a descendant of William Strickland, painted this portrait of her ancestor in 1952, copying from an original portrait by an unknown artist.
With experience restoring Renaissance works at the Vatican in Rome, Brumidi came to the U. S. Capitol project in 1855 where he executed the very first frescoes in America for a House Committee meeting room. The Apotheosis of Washington was completed in January 1866.
Depicts Timon seated in a cave receiving the philosopher Apemantus. Timon leans on a shovel and wears a red toga. Apemantus stands with right hand extended toward Timon, holds staff in left hand, and wears a brown toga and sandals. Frame has spiral turning between moldings along outside of frame and foliate motif along inside of frame. Leslie was born in England, but his father was a Philadelphia watchmaker who returned to the United States in 1799 with his family. Leslie went back to England ca. 1812 to study art, especially under Benjamin West. He continued to exhibit at PAFA. Was elected an Associate at the Royal Academy in 1821 and an Academician in 1826. Remained in England for the rest of his life, except for a short period in the U.S. (1833-34).
Country landscape with small house in right middleground.
Small oval portrait bust of unidentified young woman, facing three quarters to left. Wide spaced almond shaped eyes, black curled hair parted in center and drawn up, with ornamental comb containing two rows of red beads. Wears pink v-neck dress over white 3-layered ruffled collar. Oval mat. Gilt and gesso frame: Inner frame is oval, outer frame is serpentine oblong with floral and foliate scroll decoration at corners. (Frame is identical to frames for 1977.05.01-03)
Anne Hawks Vaux (1913-1978) was closely associated with the Athenaeum for many years. Her husband, George Vaux, served as President of the Board of Directors from 1965 to 1996. The Vaux family’s Athenaeum connections date back to the institution’s founding: lawyer and abolitionist Roberts Vaux held Share #3 from 1814 to 1836.
George Vaux (1908-1996) became a member of the Athenaeum in 1947 and was elected President of the Board of Directors in 1965 a position he held until a few months prior to his death in 1996. During the Vaux administration, the Athenaeum building was restored, expanded, the institution given new direction as a special collections library with museum collections. This portrait was presented to the Athenaeum at the 178th Annual Meeting in April, 1993.
Roberts Vaux (1786-1836) was a successful Philadelphia businessman, politician and philanthropist. He was a moving force among Philadelphia Quakers behind the change of penology, inventing the concept of correctional institutions. He was a founder and early director (first Treasurer) of the Athenæum.
Charles Vezin was extremely influential in the development of chess in Philadelphia. He came to the United States from France in 1813; and for over twenty years, Vezin conducted an informal chess "school" with his friend Henry Vethake, a chess prodigy. The school was held in the Athenaeum of Philadelphia and produced many talented chess players. Students of Charles Vezin were sometimes known as "Men of the Athenaeum." Charles Vezin became a stockholder of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia in 1815. He was an ancestor of the donor.
Framed watercolor painting of Waln Grove, 1797. Waln Grove was a country estate house built in 1742 by Philadelphia merchant Robert Waln. It was located in Frankford, which is now a section of Philadelphia. The painting shows the house sitting atop a gently sloping hill, with trees and a fence along the sides.
Amanda Gardiner Walter (1821-1892) was born in Delaware County, PA, the daughter of Richard and Hannah Gardiner. She married Thomas Ustick Walter in 1848, bore two children by him and raised six of his children by his first wife.
The German-born historical painter Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868) is best known for his “Washington Crossing the Delaware ” (1850). Walter records in his diary (preserved at the Athenæum) on April 1, 1852, “Worked at plans of Washington…Took Mrs. W & children to Capitol to see Leutze’s picture…Dined at the Presidents with Mrs. Walter."
Mary Ann Walter (1806-1847) was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Robert and Marian Hancocks. She married Thomas Ustick Walter in 1824 and died following the birth of their eleventh child. According to her husband, “she was a lady of estimable qualities of mind, and of genial and engaging manners, fulfilling her duties to society with exactness, and propriety, and to her family with tenderness and love. She managed well the affairs of her household and, and trained her children with prudence and affection.”
Walter, Mary Ann Elizabeth Hancocks (1806-1847)
Miniature portrait of Mrs. Ann Elizabeth Hancocks Walter, first wife of the great American architect Thomas Ustick Walter. In presentation frame: "Presented by Mrs. T.U. Walter to her husband, June 28th, 1838" inscribed in gold plaque, reverse.
Thomas Ustick Walter is widely recognized as the leading American architect of the mid-nineteenth century. Born in Philadelphia, Walter's many buildings here include Moyamensing Prison, Girard College, Andalusia and Portico Row. He is best remembered as the architect of the dome and wings of the United States Capitol-the most symbolically important and controversial building in the United States. Late in life he made major contributions to the design and decoration of the Philadelphia City Hall. This portrait of the architect shows him at the start of his prolific career. Behind him are visible a fluted column at Girard College and a distant view of the Philadelphia County Prison at Moyamensing. Both were under construction when the portrait was completed. A receipt in the amount of $180 for painting “Portraits of wife & self” survives in the Architect’s papers at the Athenæum.
This portrait of Daniel Webster (1782-1852) by Chester Harding (1792-1866) is based on two daguerreotypes taken in 1850-52. Webster's second wife, Caroline LeRoy, had one of them in her New York apartment until the end of her life, calling it the most satisfactory likeness of her husband.
Other examples of this portrait are at Springfield Museum of Fine Arts and the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Thomas Roberts Woodhouse (born c.1821) served on the Board of Directors of the Athenaeum, from 1869 until his death in 1885. Woodhouse, who lived at 1111 Walnut Street, was a supporter of Philadelphia's hospitals, churches, and charities. He was a member of the St. Andrews Society, founded in 1749 by men of Scottish birth or descent for the relief of their "poor and distressed countrymen."
The portrait is signed and dated by Edward Bowers (c.1822-c.1865), a Maryland-born artist. Living in Philadelphia from 1854 to 1858, Bowers participated in the exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Blanche Wendell Woodward (d. 1895) was married to Dr. Joseph Janvier Woodward (1833-1884), the Civil War surgeon who participated in the autopsies of Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth and attended President Garfield. Woodward was a shareholder in the Athenaeum from 1839-1879.