The Coolidge examiner., 1933-06-30

as the dscoverer of America, there are legion
But 1t remained for the Yale research stan 10
trace back for the first time all these portralts
to their original source and that orlglnal
source is the "Jovius portrait (shOwn above)'
an engraving which II is believed was first pub
lished in 1875 and which is copy of portrait
that hung in the famous gallery OF Paulus
Jovius archbishop of Nocera a man of vast
wealth who spent a fortune in collecting por-
traits OF the great men of his time and who
was an ardent admirer of the Italian navigator.
It is believed that this is the only portrait of
Columbus painted during his lifetime.
Back Of a portrait which appears In another
volume Of 1.-The Pageant'-'The Winning OF
Freedom" is a typical story Of perseverance
When this volume was in preparation the au-
thors wanted a portrait Of one Of the German
officers who fought under the British flag during
the Revolution. None being available in this
country search was begun through the Amer
lean consul-general in Berlin. After consider
able correspondence with various museums and
private collectors the consul general learned
that an excellent oil painting Of Baron Fried
erich Riedesel, who commanded the Hessians
under Burgoyne, was still hanging In the castle
of Neuenhof bel Eisenach, Hessen. Through the
courtesy of Freherr Albrecht Riedese, de-
scendant of the Eighteenth century baron per
mission was finally granted a year later to make
a Photographic copy OF the original.
Even more devious was the trail which final
" led to an authentic daguerreotype of Will
liam F. Harnden. founder of the express busi-
ness in the United States. While assembling
material for the volume The March of Com
merce" the editors came upon a very poor
woodcut of Harnden in Stimson's History Of
the Express Companies" published in 1858 De-
string the original daguerreotype from which
this reproduction had apparently been made
they enlisted the aid of the officials ef the
American Railway Express company.
Through S. NJ. Baker, general auditor at
Chattanooga, Tenn, they learned that the orig
inal had been in the possession of Harnden's
son. who was living in San Francisco shortly
after 1860. Using the San Francisco direc
tories they addressed Identical letters to sew
eral Harndens listed therein. One of these was
w. K Harnden and he proved to be a grandson
of William F. Harnden w. X. Harnden replied
that he believed the desired daguerreotype was
IN the possession of his elder brother, Frederic,
| then living in Palo Alto
| Such proved to be the case, but the end of
the trail was not yet for the elder brother could
not locate the picture as 1t had been in storage
| for some time. Finally, however, year after
the first inquiry copy OF the daguerre0type
was received just in time TO be reproduced and
included in the pictorial history of the express
business.
| But not all descendants of past notables were
as helpful as the Harndens. The Yale author
tiles tell the story of the search for an authen-
| tic portrait of little known but important fig
ure in the Revolution. They located one of his
descendants in d small New England town, a
woman, who owned contemporary oil portrait
of the Revolutionary fighter But when ap-
pealed to for permission to reproduce the paint
| ing she refused, presumably because of the
reticence and reserve which characterize the
old-fashioned spinster lady of the Yankee type
and also possibly because she feared that some
injury to the painting might result.
So ii was necessary to send a member of the
editorial staff there for the purpose of coaxing
the old lady to make it possible for her ances-
tor to be represented in this important historical
work. The staff member found the portrait
hanging in the parlor where it could not be
photographed on the wall and he experienced
great difficulty In persuading her to let him take
it down from the wall. Then when he secured
| the necessary permission, she would not let him
take the painting out of the house, so he had
to bring a commercial photographer for more
| than one hundred miles in order to make certain
Of getting good copy.
(9 by Western Newspaper UnIon.)