Item 170: Two Portrait Photographs, 1901, 1969 October 23

Item — Box: 21, Folder: 170

Staff Only

Two Portrait Photographs, 1901, 1969 October 23

Dates

Created: 1901, 1969 October 23

Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities

Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.

Access:

All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.

Extent

1 items

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Type of Material:

Photograph & Watercolor

Condition Note:

Good, no issues.

Measurements:

8 in. x 10 in.

Title:

Two Portrait Photographs

Description:

The item number contains two portraits, one of a physical person and another of a painted portrait. On the back of each manuscript, an unknown author has written a brief history on the piece. The first depicts an adolescent girl wearing what appears to be a sailor’s uniform. The note on the back of the image states that the subject is Sarah Henry Atherton, taken in 1901, which captures her in her youth. The second photograph captures a watercolor painting of an elementary-aged boy also wearing a naval outfit. In the note, the author mentions that the painting was thrown away by the previous owner. The painting is done by Eleanor Barnard, an English painter and high class woman who was brought to the country by Henry Ford so that she may paint his grandchildren. This note is signed S. A. B, in 1969. Born on January 6, 1889 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Sara Henry Atherton was born to Thomas Henry Atherton and Anna Melanie Parke. On June 30, 1920, she married Donald Storrs Bridgeman and they had at least one son and daughter. She lived in both New York City and Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut in 1950. She died in Pennsylvania, on February 12, 1975 at the age of 86. Born July 30, 1863, Henry Ford was an American industrialist and businessman. He is credited with being the chief developer of assembly line mass production and the founder of Ford Motor Company. He created the first automobile that was affordable to the middle-class American. He died April 7, 1947.

Transcription:

Sally - At 12 - (for Director Cohen etc. high black balloned shoes, black stockings.

Sarah Henry Atherton at about 12 yrs of Age, 1901. before Empzema turned her into a hunch-back, an enlargement of one in a group. I [remembered] my duty to look peaceful + pleasant (worlds leading hypocrite + compulsion neurotic).

Photograph Boy:

A portrait, discarded in the trash can, by Eleanor Barnard, posh painter of English nobility brought to this country duty the first Henry Ford, to paint his grand children. S.A.B. Oct 23 ‘69.