The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-06-30


Eleventh century in which the first mention of
Vinland discovered by the Norsemen, was made.
After considerable difficulty this manuscript was
located in the Stats Bibliothek In Vienna.
OF portraits of Columbus, popularity regarded
as the dscoverer of America, there are legion.
But it remained for the Yale research staff to
trace back for the first time all these portraits
to their original source and that original
source is the "Jovius portrait" (shown above),
an engraving which it is believed was first pub
lished in 1876 and which is a copy of portrait
that hung in the famous gallery of Paulus
Jovius, archbishop of NOcera, a man of vast
wealth who spent fortune in collecting pOr-
traits of the great men of his time and who
was an ardent admirer of the Italian navigator.
1t is believed that this is the only portrait of
Columbus that was painted during his life
time. The same interest attaches to the portrait
of Pocahontas, now owned by Fountain Edwin,
the Manor House, Booton, Norwich, England. 1t
was painted in 1916, probably short time be-
fore "Rebecca Wrothe, wyff of Thomas Wroth
gent, a Virginia lady borne" tthus does the par
ish register at Gravesend describe the Indian
princess who married Thomas Rolfe) died of
smallpox on the eve of her sailing for her native
land.
Back of portrait which appears in another
volume of "The Pageant'-"The Winning OF
Freedom" is typical story of perseverance.
thors wanted 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
A.
courtesy of Freiherr Albrecht Riedesel, de-
scendant of the Eighteenth century baron, per-
mission finally granted year later to make
a Photographic copy of the original
Even more devious was the trail which final
ly led to an authentic daguerreotype of Will
liam F. Harnden, founder Of the express bust
ness in the United States. While assembling
material for the volume "The March of Com
merce," the editors came upon 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 of 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-
eral Harndens listed therein One of these was
w. K. Harnden and he proved to be grandson
of William F. Harnden. W. K. 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 it had been in storage
for some time Finally, however, year after
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 anthem
tic portrait of a little known but important fig
ure in the Revolution. They located one of his
descendants in small New England town.
woman, who owned a 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 it was necessary to send 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 commercial photographer for more
one hundred miles in order to make certain
of getting good copy.
&c by Western Newspaper union.)