PROCEEDINGS OF
THE
THE CITY
AND THE BOOK V INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
THE AMERICANS IN FLORENCE'S 'ENGLISH' CEMETERY V
SATURDAY, 11 OCTOBER 2008
FLORENCE'S LYCEUM
CLUB AND THE 'ENGLISH' CEMETERY
______
V. American Collectors and Visitors
'Albert Jenkins Jones: The New York Times' Sculpture Critic in Italy, 1860-1876'. Nancy Austin, Independent Scholar
'James Lorimer Graham, American Consul, 1832-1876, U.S. Consul in Florence.' Jeffrey Begeal, Independent Scholar
'Tracking Enigma - A Grave with a Nickname in the 'English' Cemetery'. Margot Fortunato Galt, University of Minnesota and Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota
'Jennie's Gift: The Early Purchases of French Imprints for the Daniel Willard Fiske Petrarch Collection'. Patrick J. Stevens, Curator of the Fiske Collections and Selector for Jewish Studies, Cornell University
'Anne Mac Cracken'. Richard Mac Cracken, Independent Scholar
'Louisa Catherine Adams Kuhn, Florentine Adventures, 1859-1860'. Robert J. Robertson, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas
Nancy Austin, an independent scholar,
is speaking on Albert Jenkins Jones, the sculpture critic for
the New York Times,
1860-1876.
Despite his large gestures, Albert Jenkins
Jones (1821 RI,
The self-educated son of a deceased
mariner, Albert J. Jones was raised in the working class end of
Albert J. Jones’ most important legacy was
the gift of a large bequest that founded the first art museum in
RI. However, the Jones Bequest
triggered a 4-year lawsuit between the Rhode Island School of
Design (RISD) and the Providence Art Club (surrogate) to see
which institution was best suited to take the bequest. Did RISD,
as a design school, have as its mission, the support of art? What was the function of an Art Museum
for designers? For artists? For the people of
My paper for the conference, “
Secondly, my identification of his complete
body of New York Times criticism gives us
another primary source, in context, to mine for gossipy details
and larger themes. Jones can be a complement and foil to his
better-remembered contemporary critics, like James Jackson
Jarves. As a historical actor, Albert J. Jones is an important
case study with which to consider the relationship between
political activism and art criticism; the homoerotic dimension
of neoclassical sculpture and the soldier; the dialogue between
American art patrons and
James
Lorimer Graham, c. 1832-1876, US Consul in Florence
Jeffrey Begeal, Independent Scholar. Paper.
Born the son of Nathaniel Burr Graham and Marie Antoinette
McCrosky in New York City in the early 1830’s, James Lorimer
Graham led a privileged childhood and youth. Both his maternal
uncle, Robert McCrosky, one of the founders of The Chemical Bank
of New York, and his paternal uncle, James Graham, for whom he
was named, played pivotal roles in his education and early
career in publishing. His uncle James and aunt Julia Graham
tutored him and his siblings in their Washington Square mansion.
They were surrounded with original works of European art, a
large library, the study of French and Italian at the home, and
were included in the vibrant social life among the business,
literary and political figures of the times. James’ rise as a
savant was becoming apparent, and the family had him conclude
his studies in France. His family connections opened many
avenues for him, and he relished making the acquaintances of
leading men in various fields.
When James returned to America after receiving his diploma, he
worked for the shipping line of Howland and Aspinwall. The
choice was inspired by two things: his older brother Robert’s
serving in the US Navy and his love of travel. Indeed it was the
news of the Gold Rush in California, promoted by the writings of
Bayard Taylor, and the misadventures of two of the Graham
cousins heading west that captivated the young James. Thus in
December of 1853, Graham boarded the ill fated USS San Francisco, in order to
sail to California. The American poet, Walt Whitman, was a
fellow passenger, and composed a poem about the shipwreck and
fate of the passengers. Graham survived the incident and the
sobering effect was that he returned to New York, lived at his
father’s house, married, and settled into a post working for
Putnam’s Magazine.
During his early career, Graham took an active role in fostering
the work of American artists and literary men. He became a
member of The Century Club, an elite intellectual group, and one
of its first librarians. As was a common practice of the era,
Graham and his wife, Josephine A. Garner, planned a Grand Tour
of Europe. The advent of the American Civil War gave them pause,
but in 1862 they decided to set sail across the Atlantic.
Traveling through England, Scotland, France, and Germany, the
couple made their way to Italy and arranged a stay in Florence.
For their thirteenth wedding anniversary, the Grahams purposely
rented the apartment in the Casa Guidi that the Brownings had
occupied, which they considered as a shrine for poetic
inspiration. It was in London that the Grahams had met the aging
Robert Browning, and they corresponded with him on several
occasions. The Grahams made pilgrimages to every surrounding
place associated with the Brownings, i.e. the Baths of Lucca,
Bellosgardo, and Vallombrosa. In their library back in New York,
the Grahams owned first editions of both Elizabeth Barrett and
Robert Brownings’ works. When they visited the Porta à Pinti
Cemetery to see her tomb, they entered a beautiful memorial
garden that pleased them both.
The Grahams experienced an unexpected decline in their
purchasing power due to the reduced exchange rate of the
American dollar resulting from their country’s civil war. They
returned to New York somewhat downcast, but they vowed to return
to Europe and especially to Florence. Thus in 1866, when their
financial condition had improved through Graham’s work with his
father and uncles at The Metropolitan Insurance Company, he was
honored at a valedictory banquet at Delmonico’s Restaurant in
New York by his closest friends. He and Josephine had announced
that they would return to Europe and live as Americans abroad.
Drawn once again to Florence by their friend Bayard Taylor, who
had been taken seriously ill at the Casa Guidi apartment of the
Brownings which he rented for his family that spring, the
Grahams rented the Villa of Marquese Manelli which was beyond
the Porta Pinti on the road to Fiesole near the Villa Palmieri.
They were just a thirty minute carriage ride to see their
friend, the American sculptor Hiram Powers and his family. The
lease at the Villa Manelli was for six months, the Grahams
intending to buy a property and arrange the transport of their
library and art collection from Manhattan. Circumstances aided
them in their plans.
In 1869, the US Consulship was unexpectedly left vacant by the
departure then sudden death of Timothy Bigelow Lawrence in
Washington, D.C. Many friends lobbied on Graham’s behalf with
the Grant administration to make Graham the next US Consul. This
appointment was a serious political position, for Florence would
become briefly the capital of a united, secular Italy. Graham’s
connections, education and experience served him well, however,
and he served as a consul until his death in 1876. With this
appointment secured, the Grahams settled into the city and
became leading members of the American colony.
Graham operated an efficient office, and he wisely retained the
services of the consulate’s secretary, the Florentine banker,
Joseph Matteini. With his own moderate wealth and standing in
the community, Graham’s tenure was marked by fairness and
honesty. He courted the advice and favor of the retired doyen of
the US diplomatic corps, George Perkins Marsh, then residing in
Italy. Graham did not mix his personal interests with his public
post and thus avoided the scandals that Franklin Torrey, the US
Consul at Carrara, often found himself entangled in. Josephine
became the consummate hostess, and as etiquette dictated, the
couple received all public visitors weekly on Tuesday afternoons
at an open house. The Grahams purchased the Villa Orsini on the
Via Valfonda, a four acre estate next to the train station. Here
Josephine organized charity events and started the tradition of
selling Christmas trees and evergreen boughs to aid the needy
members of the Anglo-American community. From 1869 to 1876, the
Grahams were in residence and had established themselves well.
It was the final year for the couple that tested Josephine’s
strength of will.
Not only did she lose her husband that April, but in the summer,
her brother and sister-in-law were drowned in a yachting
accident off the waters of New York City. Her financial
situation had to be clarified, as the estates she had received
from her husband and father had to provide for minor nieces and
nephews. The bankruptcy also that year of her beloved uncle by
marriage, James Graham, added to her personal sorrows. She
persevered, however, through the financial and legal
settlements, and after the required mourning period of a year,
Josephine accepted a proposal of marriage from her confidant and
friend, Joseph Matteini, the US Consulate secretary. His
faithful service and friendship to both the Grahams was
something the couple always treasured. Thus, Josephine secured
her legal and social position in Florence and would quietly pass
away in 1892 at her small summer residence, the Villa Celli in
Pistoia. Both she and Matteini were buried in the Allori
Cemetery, that at Porta à Pinti having been closed in 1877.
Josephine decided to purchase a plot on the main aisle of the
Porta à Pinti Cemetery near the tomb of Elizabeth Barrett
Browning for her husband’s grand tomb. The couple had witnessed
the interment of many American expatriates in this Protestant
burial ground known familiarly as ‘The English Cemetery.’ Even
though the Grahams had the financial means and political
connections to arrange for their burials in the fashionable
Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York where their families
were buried, they both would choose Florence for their final
resting place. As US Consul, Graham had arranged several burials
in the city and he was in attendance when his good friend Hiram
Powers was laid to rest in 1873. Josephine hired their good
friend, the American sculptor Launt Thompson, to sculpt James’
sarcophagus. It was to feature a profile medallion portrait in
bas-relief and the Graham family coat of arms. Thompson was
working on the tomb even when the cemetery was officially
closed. The poet, Algernon C. Swinburne, devastated by his close
friend’s death, wrote a five stanza poem, entitled Epicede,
which appeared in the Boston Athenaeum. The last memorial
tribute came years later at the dedication of the Graham’s
library to The Century Club in New York when the American
writer, Edmund C. Stedman, composed a poem entitled Ad Grahamum
Abeuntem. Graham was laid to rest in his beloved Florence and
his friends extolled his virtues. He and Josephine had decided
to raise a tomb monument in their adopted country.
Graham’s legacy might have faded into the background as his
unabashed Romanticism was not one of the popular trends of the
late 19th Century. Even though he had become a modern Maecenas
and had fostered the career of many artists and literary
figures, contemporaries who often became life long friends, his
efforts were usually done quietly. Graham’s own large collection
of books, letters, paintings and sculptures, housed in its final
years at the Villa Orsini, were a testament to his interests and
tastes. Josephine kept the collections intact and passed them
and her properties on to her cousins. By 1945, however, the
Villa Orsini was put up for sale by the family who needed the
money more than the property. The new Swiss owner, having bought
the Villa and its contents, discovered several boxes in the
furnace room. They were filled with valuable historical letters
and memorabilia collected by James and Josephine. Many of the
Graham’s personal papers and letters were there. An American
scholar, Clara Louise Dentler, a writer and retired history
teacher who had come to Florence that year to live and to
continue her research and writing, was hired to catalogue the
contents prior to their auction. The Graham’s library had
previously been bequeathed upon Josephine’s death to The Century
Club in New York where it had been catalogued by the historian,
Dr. Paul Leicester Ford, and dedicated in the late 1890’s. The
couple’s art collection had been sold piecemeal over the years,
mostly by their elderly female cousins, who had inherited the
Villa Orsini but not the means to support themselves in the
style that the Grahams had maintained. Thus Graham’s letters,
coins, medals, etchings and historical memorabilia were
auctioned in the late 1950’s in London and New York. Only
Dentler’s catalogue speaks to the scope of this copious
collector.
There were two important pieces in the Graham collection that
revealed something about the couple. One item was a book of
pressed flowers and leaves from places visited by the Grahams on
their European Grand Tour of 1862-63. The couple had made a
point to visit the grave or home of the poet or artist of
virtually every literary and poetical association that the
Grahams had represented in their library. Their itinerary reads
like an intellectual treasure hunt. True to the Victorian times,
they clipped a leaf or a flower from the graves or homes of
these illustrious figures in order to commemorate their visit
and to preserve the memento in this special album.
The other item was Ye Booke
of Ye Goode Fellowes which Graham had begun before his
marriage to Josephine and which she would finish after his
death. It contained the signatures and personal wishes to James
or Josephine of many leading figures of the mid 19th Century.
Perhaps a type of forerunner of today’s autograph book, the
Grahams had the foresight to ask men of importance to
collectively register their names and remarks for posterity. The
book was secured in the archival vault of The Century Club. The
Grahams understood that the contributions of talented men would
endure, because they believed in the saying, Ars longa, vita brevis est,
and it was their hope that their little book would serve as a
witness to their small contribution in meeting and often
supporting such active minds and creative men.
Bibliography
Begeal, Jeffrey. James Lorimer
Graham, Jr. c. 1832-1876. Biography of an American Savant.
Villa de Bella Silva Press: Smithfield, NC. 2004.
Carpenter, Helen Graham. Reverend
John
Graham of Woodbury, Connecticut. Chicago, Monastery
Hill, 1942.
Dentler, Clara Louise. Famous
Foreigners in Florence, 1400-1900. Bemporad Marzocco:
Florence, Italy, 1964.
_____. A Privately Owned Collection of Letters, Autographs and
Manuscripts with Many Association Items. The Getty
Research Institute: Los Angeles, CA.
Furst, Dr. Clyde. The James
Lorimer Graham Library. Address delivered before The
Century Association, 1 May 1926.
Kavalecs, Andrew. James
Lorimer Graham, Jr. Fosterer of American-German Literary
Relations. Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State
University, March 1972.
Taylor, Bayard. Bayard Taylor Papers, 1825-1878 at The
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Varnum, James M. James
Lorimer Graham, Jr. Address delivered before The
Century Association, 17 January 1894.
Wunder, Richard Paul. Select correspondence between Richard Paul
Wunder and Clara Louise Dentler, 1965-1977. Richard P. Wunder
Papers: Wheaton College, Illinois.
_____
Professor Margot
Fortunato Galt of the University of Minnesota and Hamline
University, and a member of Aureo Anello, constantly returns to
her ancestral Italy and to the so-called 'English' Cemetery,
researching Libby Jarvis. She is a writer.
Jennie’s Gift: The Genesis of Daniel Willard
Fiske’s Petrarch Collection
Abstract:
Neither Daniel Willard Fiske nor Jennie McGraw is to be found
among the Americans who repose in the "English" Cemetery of
Florence and thus contribute to the remarkable history of the
place and the city. Abolitionist in spirit, Fiske would have
been well acquainted with many of these American names. However,
Fiske's association with Florence is that of a consummate book
collector who, recently bereft of Jennie McGraw after their
brief marriage, settled in the city in 1883, acquiring Walter
Savage Landor's Villa Gherardesca in San Domenico, and bringing
to near perfection his collections on Iceland, chess, Dante,
Petrarch and Rhaeto-Romance.
This narrative traces the genesis of the Petrarch Collection,
particularly the acquisition of early French translations,
during the last weeks of Jennie's life.
Richard Mac Cracken has been a most generous donor of books on Aristotle, on Brunetto Latino, on French literature, on Art History, to the Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei', and thus a member of Aureo Anello. I asked him to write on a similarly-named possible collateral relative in the 'English' Cemetery.
Anne Mac Cracken (1785 - 1828) Américaine morte à Florence: A Sketch
Richard Mac Cracken, Independent Scholar. Paper.
Who was ANNE MAC CRACKEN? What follows is a 'charcoal sketch' on old paper, so to speak, where the lines have been obliterated by the passage of time and what information we have is minimal, as seen in the text noting her burial in Florence's English Cemetery:
_______Professor Robert J. Robertson of Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas, a member of Aureo Anello, is the prime mover and only begetter of this conference, indefatigably urging that it be given, while assiduously carrying out research on our Louisa Catherine Adams Kuhn.
Louisa Adams was a member of the
Adams family of
Between November 1859 and May 1860, Louisa sent twenty-six letters to her parents describing her adventures in the ancient Tuscan capital. She reported about their perilous travel to Florence, their grand apartment with servants and carriages, social lives, attendance at operas; revels during Carnival, and celebrations of the Risorgimento, the political unification of Italy. These letters reveal much about Louisa’s personal life: her love of family, her infatuations with society and fashion, her concern for her father’s political career, and her position as a quintessential Victorian wife, where she enjoyed status and privilege, yet suffered profound subordination. She was 28, but Charles was ten years older, and held authority over her by virtue of the laws and customs of coverture.
Louisa and Charles came
to
In
Florence
Louisa and Charles rented “a large & elegant apartment” in
Casa Giacomelli, an old palace situated in the Piazza Santa
Maria Maggiore. They had twelve
rooms, including Louisa’s dressing room and bedroom with “a
little passage with water conveniences,” and “two beautiful
great rooms & bath, which Mr. Kuhn has all to himself.”
Rental of the apartment included three servants, including
Giovanni, the footman and indoor man. She
praised Giovanni, saying, “He knows every shop, every address
& every name in all
Louisa
loved
the
city,
saying, “I am very fond of
While
Louisa
and
Charles
enjoyed their lives in
In
Florentine
society, Louisa and Charles made their way in part with the
sponsorship of prominent Italian residents, such as Baron de
Lonenberg and Count Carlo Alessandri. The close relationships
that Louisa and Charles shared with these and other Italians
were noteworthy. Many of the
British and Americans in
They attended parties in various houses—American, British, Italian, Russian, and others. “I enjoy it extremely and go everywhere,” she reported, adding strong opinions about the styles and fashions of the women of the national groups. She praised American women, noting, “We are easier, gayer, better bred, & more hospitable than any others,” and poked fun at British women, who wore “great toques on their heads, their hair all tumbling down in those great rolls which are passé by three years elsewhere—very old ladies with very low dresses, a most unpleasant sight, and more glass beads, dangling wax pearls & rubbish than would stock a warehouse.”
Louisa loved the parties, especially the dancing. “I…dance all night at all the parties, enjoy this divine climate and charming city, am having my beaux jours…I prance about hanging on to Italian epaulettes whose names I don’t know.” Her schedule was hectic. On a Tuesday night, she and Charles went to the Marquis Sabra’s house for a private presentation of plays, where the guests became the actors. Wednesday she dined at “the Countess Bobrinskoy’s & afterwards went to hear a new opera.” Thursday she watched a parade while standing in the broiling sun, an experience that produced a terrible headache. For this an English physician found a “curious” but effective remedy—“a wineglass of iced champagne.”
While
living
in
Florence,
the capital of Tuscany, the Kuhns witnessed major events in
the Risorgimento (1821-1870), the political unification of
Italy, a fifty-year process in which Italian nationalists
expelled Austrian and French rulers and orchestrated the
joining together of the various Italian states into a modern
Italian nation.
At
the
same time that Louisa sent reports about unification in
In terms of Italian
politics, Louisa and Charles cheered openly for the Italian
nationalists. They attended a
grand ball for officers of the National Guard at the Poggio
Imperiale, a palace that Louisa described as “extremely
splendid.” “There were masses of flowers, and …the most
magnificent music I ever heard.” There
was a huge crowd, maybe three thousand persons, including
their friend Count Alessandri. Earlier Alessandri had fought
in the ranks against the Austrians, she explained, and now he
was among the leaders of “the liberal party,” the party that
favored the unification of
“We are liberal,” Louisa declared proudly, explaining that Tuscan society was divided into two camps: Liberals who favored Italian nationalism and opposed restoration of Austrian authority, and the Codini--persons who wanted to bring back the Austrian Grand Duke Leopold II.
“We are annexed to
Piedmont,” Louisa reported happily on March 15, 1860,
announcing the results of a plebiscite whereby Tuscan voters
gave overwhelming approval for annexation to the
She attended a reception for Carignano at the opera. It “was something to see,” she declared. “The house was illuminated with wax candles, and every box was filled with ladies all in full dress. Every great Florentine name was represented,” she said, listing off Alessandri, Strozzi, and others. At the end of the first act, Prince Carignano, Baron Ricasoli, and others entered the hall, at which time the whole house rose with much cheering, clapping, and waving of handkerchiefs. “The actors came forward all with the white crosses on their shoulders…and they sang the beautiful and solemn national hymn to the accompaniment of an orchestra of ninety pieces.” Louisa was enthralled, finding the occasion “lovely and simple and just like these charming affectionate people.” She confessed feelings of sympathy, even patriotism for the country. “Who could help adoring it?” she asked rhetorically—“Lovely Italy”—“the land of poetry & art & beauty.”
For
the
citizens of
The
king
and his entourage traveled to
Louisa painted more word pictures of the crowded street where members of the National Guard formed two lines for the passage of the royal procession. “The music was splendid—one band being stationed in the balcony under us. Our windows faced up the street, and the shouts & cries of Viva il Re told us…how far he was.” It was forbidden to throw bouquets, Louisa explained, for fear of scaring the horses in the royal parade. “But flowers literally rained down from the windows” as the king came into view. “People screamed & clapped their hands & waved thousands of handkerchiefs and finally cried, as I did just because there was nothing else left to do.” She saw King Victor Emanuel clearly. “He was in full uniform with all his orders on—not bowing but saluting in military fashion & jamming his hat over his eyes…so overcome at the nature of his welcome that he cried too & did not like to show his face. He is very ugly,” she reported, “but military & manly, and really kingly in his carriage.” Prince Carignano, Baron Ricasoli, and Count Cavour were with him, as were “all the Florentine noblemen in their grand turn outs.” It was “a splendid pageant,” she concluded, “so brilliant in color & movement & sunshine, and music that it seemed like a dream.”
Epilogue
Later, Louisa and Charles
returned to the
Years later, Henry wrote a brilliant account of
Louisa’s suffering and death, an exposition on the phenomenon
of death, and an allusion to the tragic death of his own wife,
Clover. Louisa “faced
death, as women mostly do,” he recalled, “bravely and even
gaily, racked slowly to unconsciousness, but yielding only to
violence, as a soldier sabred in battle.”
She succumbed to the awful disease 13 July 1870, and in
accordance with her instructions, was buried in the “English”
cemetery in her beloved
Sources
Primary sources include
Louisa’s twenty-six home letters, The Adams Papers,
Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA; the New York
Times; and Karl Baedeker, Italy: Handbook
for Travellers (1869). Secondary
sources include Paul C. Nagel, Descent from Glory: Four
Generations of the John Adams Family (1983); Henry
Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1931); George
Holmes (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Italy
(1997); Giuliana Artom Treves, The Golden Ring, The
Anglo-Florentines, 1847-1862 (1956); Paul R. Baker, The
Fortunate Pilgrims, Americans in Italy, 1800-1860
(1964); Marcello Fantoni (ed.), The Anglo-Americans in
Florence (1997); and Bruno P. F. Wanrooij (ed.), Otherness:
Anglo-American Women in 19th and 20th Century
Florence (2001).
The author is greatly
indebted to Dr. Paul R. Baker, professor retired from NYU-NY
and author of The Fortunate Pilgrims, Americans in
With the Sponsorship of the Comune di Firenze, the United States
Consulate General in Florence, Syracuse University in Florence,
Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography, the Lyceum Club of
Florence, the Chiesa Evangelica Riformata Svizzera of
Florence, and the Aureo Anello
Associazione Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei' e Amici del Cimitero
'degli Inglesi'