1930s antique SCRAPBOOK larz ISABEL ANDERSON theater photo articles letters SCROLL DOWN for MORE PHOTOS in DESCRIPTION Click HERE to view or search ANTIQUE.COTTAGE listings.From Larz and Isabel Anderson's personal estate... Scroll way down to see photos of each page.
This listing is for the scrapbook shown. Isabel, local society woman, wrote plays like dick whittington, the gee whizz, the spell of belgium, she wrote books, has creative group contents at the District of Columbia League of American Pen Women washington dc, travels, thank you letters to her, a japanese play at boston, and so much more.
Over 120 pages. All pages photographed.
*MUSEUM WORTHY* As the Anderson's were well-to-do politically, in theater and otherwise, we have several bound magazines from their estate where they had been written about (as well as other historical items).
This is one of several archives from the estate of Lars Anderson and Isabel Weld Perkins.
-----> For more items from this estate, :
Larz Anderson From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Larz Anderson Larz Anderson LCCN2014686036.jpg Born Larz Kilgour Anderson August 15, 1866 Paris, France Died April 13, 1937 (aged 70) White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, United States Nationality American Alma mater Harvard College (A.B., 1888) Occupations Diplomatcollectorbon vivant Known for Participating in American elite society 1897-1937 Spouse Isabel Weld Perkins Signature Signature of Larz Anderson.png Larz Anderson (August 15, 1866 – April 13, 1937) was an American diplomat and bon vivant. He served as second secretary at the United States Legation to the Court of St James's, London; as first secretary and later charge d'affaires at the United States Embassy in Rome; as United States Minister to Belgium; and then briefly as the Ambassador to Japan. He also unsuccessfully sought appointment as Ambassador to Italy.
Life Early life Anderson was the son of Brevett Major General Nicholas Longworth Anderson and Elizabeth Coles Kilgour Anderson. He was born in Paris on August 15, 1866,[1] while his Cincinnati, Ohio, parents, who had married on March 28, 1865, were on their planned year-long honeymoon, which was extended six months due to the birth of their son.[2] He was the great-grandson of Lieutenant Richard Clough Anderson Sr., who served in the American Revolution. He was also the grandnephew of Brigadier General Robert Anderson, who defended Fort Sumter at the beginning of the American Civil War.
Anderson attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, before attending Harvard College.[1] At Harvard, he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, the A.D. Club, the Institute of 1770, Alpha Delta Phi, and Delta Kappa Epsilon. After graduating in 1888, Anderson set out on a year-and-a-half grand tour that included his first visit to Japan.[1] When he returned to the U.S., Anderson attended Harvard Law School for two semesters during the 1890–91 academic year.
Diplomatic career
Anderson wears his self-designed, bespoke diplomatic uniform and medals, including the insignia of the Society of the Cincinnati in this 1914 portrait by DeWitt M. Lockman. In June 1891, after Anderson had dropped out of Harvard Law School, his father interceded with his 1858 Harvard classmate Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln, who was then serving as the U.S. minister to the Court of St. James's in London. Lincoln offered Anderson the job of second secretary of the American legation in London.[3] In 1894, after three years in London, Anderson was appointed first secretary of the American embassy in Rome and then, in 1897, served for several months as charge d'affaires, until he resigned to return to the U.S. for his wedding to Isabel Weld Perkins.[1] His resignation was at the time controversial, and American newspapers reported on his months-long efforts to be released from his post by the U.S. Department of State.[4][5]
Anderson returned to the diplomatic corps in 1911 as United States Minister to Belgium, serving from November 18, 1911 until November 15, 1912, when he was appointed Ambassador to Japan. He held this post as a fully accredited and confirmed American ambassador for only one day, March 3, 1913, though he was in Japan from December 28, 1912, until his return to the United States on March 16, 1913. He resigned when the Republican administration of William Howard Taft was replaced by the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson.[6][7] The exact reasons for his resignation and departure from Japan are not clear. One American newspaper reported that he left his Tokyo post "because the Japanese government had declined to receive him."[8]
When Anderson was appointed Minister to Belgium, he had an elaborate diplomatic uniform made for himself in London by the firm of Davies & Son, tailors to British royalty. Though he was famously photographed and painted wearing it, he never wore the elaborate, custom-made quasi-military uniform in public, once writing in his journal that the "Diplomatic uniform is in the dress of a minister of the 'first-class' (which I am) and is the one which I do not wear."[9] Some have claimed based on the photograph that Anderson's uniform was one of the few worn by an American diplomat since the early 1800s, but a public law dating to 1867 prohibited diplomats from wearing any uniform not approved by Congress, and Anderson observed that law.[10] In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proscribed American diplomats from wearing any uniform. Anderson's uniform is on display at Larz Anderson House.
Though it has often been said that he "retired from the diplomatic corps" after leaving Japan, he remained open to another assignment. In 1923 he actively though unsuccessfully sought nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Rome under President Calvin Coolidge.[11] He later recalled that he was "the first American to rise all the way through the diplomatic ranks from the lowest position to the highest." Anderson and his wife, Isabel, spent the next twenty-five years traveling extensively at home and abroad; collecting memorabilia and decorative arts; expanding the mansion and gardens of their summer home "Weld" in Brookline, Massachusetts, now the Larz Anderson Park; funding the construction of the Anderson Memorial Bridge across the Charles River in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts; and funding the construction and interior decoration of the Lady Chapel of the Washington National Cathedral.
According to sources cited by his biographer, Anderson's diplomatic record was an embarrassment to President William Howard Taft; the Senate Foreign Relations Committee refused to confirm him as United States Ambassador to Japan in 1913 even after he had assumed his post there. Richard W. Leopold, reviewing a volume of Anderson's letters, wrote that they contained "little of value":
Comments on those vital economic, social, and intellectual forces that shape foreign policy are wholly absent. Anderson seems to have been blissfully unaware of or unconcerned with the factors making for Anglo-American friendship in the early [eighteen]-nineties. His diaries shed no new light on Italian-American relations during the same decade. Although he was at Brussels just before the World War and at Tokyo in a critical moment in Far Eastern affairs, Anderson recorded nothing of importance. Instead, his pages are devoted solely to royal receptions, embassy parties, and other trivialities that are merely the trappings of diplomatic life.[12]
George E. Mowry wrote that Anderson "never allowed his official duties to interfere with his lengthy and verbose unofficial reporting of society's meaningless activities ... If the selections published are a true sample of the bulk of the writings that Mr. Anderson chose to preserve for posterity, they say little for the author and as little for the government that hired him for responsible positions."[13]
Military service In 1898, he registered to serve with the U.S. Volunteers during the Spanish–American War. He was commissioned May 12 as a captain and served for four months as an assistant adjutant general at Camp Alger in northern Virginia.[1] He later received the Spanish War Service Medal, awarded to all who served on active duty in the United States Army anytime between 20 April 1898 and 11 April 1899 who were not deployed to a combat zone. During his service, he rode a famous horse, "Soldier Boy," that had once been owned by Buffalo Bill Cody, and was immortalized by Mark Twain in his novel "A Horse's Tail." Twain called Soldier Boy "a wonder of a horse" with "a reputation which is as shining as his own silken hide."[14][15]
Marriage to Isabel Weld Perkins Main article: Isabel Weld Perkins In 1896, while serving as First Secretary at the United States Embassy in Rome, Italy, Anderson met Isabel Weld Perkins, a young debutante from Boston who was then on her grand tour of Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land. Their mutual friend Maud Howe Elliott introduced them to each other on the roof of her home, the Villa Rusticucci in Rome.[16] Both Larz and Isabel's families established themselves in America before the American Revolution. The Anderson family had arrived in Jamestown 1634; and the Welds in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632. The Anderson family's wealth was primarily in land and real estate holdings in the midwest, but their resources did not compare to those of the Weld Family.
In 1881, when Isabel was five years old, she inherited slightly more than 5 million dollars from her grandfather, William Fletcher Weld.[17] Her inheritance was held in a trust for her until her twenty-fifth birthday.
Larz and Isabel were married at Arlington Street Church in Boston on June 10, 1897,[1] and they embarked on a life of luxury combined with public service and adventure. They traveled widely across the world as well as through North America, visiting five continents and becoming among the first Westerners to visit countries such as Tibet and Nepal. No children were born to the marriage. Isabel authored several books, including a history of the Weld shipping enterprise, Under the Black Horse Flag.
Memberships Anderson was an Episcopalian. He was a member of several organizations, including the Sons of the Revolution, the Loyal Legion and the Naval and Military Order of the Spanish War.
Anderson was admitted to the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati in 1894, following the death of his father. He was eligible for membership in the Society of the Cincinnati by virtue of being the great grandson of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Clough Anderson of Virginia, one of the founding members of the organization. Normally, members of the Society join the Society of the state from which their ancestor served. In Anderson's case, the Virginia Society was inactive and 1894 and would not be revived until 1896.
Anderson was a loyal member of the Society and had various motifs based on the Society's insignia incorporated into the decoration of their Washington mansion, Anderson House, along with those of other organizations he was connected with. After his death, Isabel Anderson donated Anderson House to the Society. It now serves as its international headquarters.
Because of his diplomatic service, Anderson was admitted to the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italy), the Order of the Crown (Italy), the Order of the Rising Sun (Japan), and the Order of the Crown (Belgium).
1913 American Ambassador to Japan.
Isabel Weld Perkins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Isabel Anderson Mrs. Larz Anderson, Born Isabel Weld Perkins
29 March 1876 Boston, Massachusetts Died 3 November 1948 (aged 72) Boston, Massachusetts Nationality American Other names Mrs. Larz Anderson Occupation(s) Writer (novels, plays, poetry, travel, history) Known for Author, war volunteer, society hostess Spouse Larz Anderson
Isabel Anderson (March 29, 1876 – November 3, 1948), nee Isabel Weld Perkins, was a Boston heiress, author, and society hostess who left a legacy to the public that includes a park and two museums. Life Mrs Larz Anderson, 1901, by Cecilia Beaux Early life Main article: Weld Family
Born at 284 Marlborough Street in Boston's Back Bay,[1] Isabel Weld Perkins was descended, on her mother Anna Weld Perkins' side, from a wealthy family of Boston merchants who traced their history back to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Isabel's father was Commodore George H. Perkins of Contoocook, New Hampshire, who was the commander of the USS Cayuga during the American Civil War. The commodore's father, Judge Hamilton Eliot Perkins, was a prosperous businessman and attorney who built mills in Contoocook and for a short time ran a shipping firm in Boston that sailed clipper ships between the U.S. and West Africa.
In 1881, when Isabel was only five years old, she inherited approximately $3 million from her grandfather William Fletcher Weld, though this amount later increased to about $5 million after the Weld estate was probated.[2] For more than a century, it was assumed that she had inherited $17 million from her grandfather, though that amount has been proven incorrect. The first erroneous report of the $17 million figure appeared when the Boston Globe ran a front page story on the Isabel's marriage to Larz Anderson in 1897.[3] The historical record, however, shows the $17 million to have actually been the final value of William Fletcher Weld's $20 million estate, after other bequests and estate taxes were deducted, leaving a residual $17 million that was shared equally among Isabel and Grandfather Weld's three other grandchildren, William Fletcher Weld II, Charles Goddard Weld and Mary Bryant Weld.[4][5]
Isabel Perkins started traveling at a young age. She spent summers as a child at the Weld homes in Newport and winters with her parents in Boston.[6] Spring and fall she spent at the Perkin's estate in New Hampshire. At the age of nineteen, Isabel took a year long trip to Europe with her chaperone Maud Howe Elliot. It was in Rome where Isabel met her future husband Larz Anderson and married after two years. Marriage to Larz Anderson Main article: Larz Anderson The Andersons
Larz and Isabel married at the Arlington Street Church in Boston on June 10, 1897.[3] The Andersons then embarked on a life of luxury combined with public service and adventure. They traveled widely, making four trips around the world and throughout Europe and Asia. Anderson held a number of diplomatic posts, including a short stint as United States Ambassador to Japan.
A writer for the Boston Globe sums up Isabel and her marriage by saying:
...these Andersons? They were idle rich, born to money and accustomed to privilege -- but they were interesting people who left us something...Isabel did what rich young women did back then -- she "came out," summered in Newport, "springed" in New Hampshire, wintered in Boston, partied aplenty. In 1896, the debutante went to Europe, a young attractive woman with a considerable inherited fortune. She met Larz; he was smitten; they were married. He did the diplomat thing; she wrote books and plays. They split their time between Washington, D.C., and Brookline.[1]
Work as an author
Isabel wrote a number of books; those that concern her family specifically are those of the most interest to historians. She also wrote several travelogues, volumes of poetry, and many children's stories.
Her book Under the Black horse flag: Annals of the Weld family and some of its branches describes the transportation empire begun by her great-grandfather William Gordon Weld and details his descendants up to the time of writing.
She also edited the papers of her American Civil War hero father-in-law and published them as The letters and journals of General Nicholas Longworth Anderson; Harvard, civil war, Washington, 1854–1892.
Among her other works are Circling Africa, On the Move, The Spell of Japan, The Spell of Belgium, The Spell of the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines, Topsy Turvy and the Gold Star, Yacht in Mediterranean Seas and Zigzagging the South Seas. Most of her own personal papers are now part of the collection kept at Larz Anderson Auto Museum. Others are stored at New England Historic Genealogical Society. Service in World War I
During World War I, Isabel worked for the American Red Cross as a volunteer of the District of Columbia Refreshment Corps. She was a leader of Washington's Red Cross activities and Belgian relief work, then spent eight months in 1917 and 1918 caring for the war's sick and wounded in France and Belgium. Isabel returned to Washington to find Americans suffering from an influenza epidemic and volunteered to assist those in need. Her contributions as a nurse resulted in being awarded the American Red Cross Service Medal, the French Croix de Guerre with bronze star, and the Medal of Elisabeth of Belgium.[7] Perkins Manor Main article: Perkins Manor, Contoocook
In addition to her Weld inheritance from her mother's family, Isabel inherited a stately manor in New Hampshire from her commodore father. Larz and Isabel spent considerable time here and she even opened the doors of this regal mansion to the public for a few summers. This stately manor was called the Larz Anderson estate during this time but has since been divided into eight apartments and is again known as Perkins Manor.[8] Memberships and honors
Like her husband, Isabel was active in patriotic and hereditary societies including the Daughters of the American Revolution and The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America.
In 1930, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Boston University.[9] Death
Isabel died in 1948. Her ashes are interred in the Anderson Tomb in the St. Mary Chapel of the Washington National Cathedral with her husband Larz Anderson. Estates and collections Anderson House Main article: Larz Anderson House
Weld money funded a luxurious mansion at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. The Andersons used this as their winter residence from approximately New Years through the beginning of Lent, except when they were traveling abroad or aboard their private steam yacht, The Roxana. After Larz died, Isabel gave the property to the Society of the Cincinnati, of which Anderson was a member. Anderson House now serves as the society's national headquarters and a museum. Anderson Memorial Bridge Main article: Anderson Memorial Bridge
Isabel Anderson's money also built a bridge across the Charles River connecting Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The project was undertaken by Larz Anderson in honor of his father, Nicholas Longworth Anderson, Harvard Class of 1858. The bridge stands next to Weld Boathouse, a local landmark named after and paid for by her uncle, George Walker Weld. Weld Estate Main article: Larz Anderson Park A view of the gardens of Weld, Brookline, 1911
Isabel purchased 64 acres (260,000 square meters) in Brookline, Massachusetts, from her 1st cousin. To this estate, which had been in Isabel's family for generations, the Andersons added a twenty-five room mansion that they used for summers and Christmas holidays. The mansion, overlooking the Boston skyline, was remodeled to resemble Lulworth Castle, an ancestral home associated with the Welds. They named the place "Weld" in honor of Isabel's grandfather. Isabel willed this property to the Town of Brookline and it is now Larz Anderson Park.[10] Auto collection Main article: Larz Anderson Auto Museum
Shortly after they wed, the Andersons began assembling an extraordinary collection of horse-drawn carriages, sleighs and motorcars. In donating these along with the property, Isabel Anderson stipulated in her will that these be known as the "Larz Anderson Collection." Fourteen of the original thirty-two vehicles remain in the collection and are still on display as part of the Larz Anderson Auto Museum, the oldest collection of motorcars in the United States.[11] Bonsai collection Main article: Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection
After Larz's death, Isabel donated 30 of their bonsai to the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University along with the funds necessary to build a shade house for their display. Following her death, the remaining nine trees were donated to the Arboretum including an 80-year-old hinoki cypress that had been given to the Andersons by the Emperor of Japan.[12] The BC Eagle Main article: The BC Eagle
The Andersons' residence in Tokyo was adorned with a gilded bronze eagle sculpture which stood in front of their home. The Andersons brought the eagle back to the United States and it remained on their Brookline property after their death.[13]
In 1954, the gilded sculpture was donated to Boston College and is now considered synonymous with the "BC Eagle", the university's mascot.[14]
Excellent original early family and/or town genealogy, history, antique, collectible heirloom and/or ephemera.
CONDITION: Clean contents, lightly worn cover and spine. See listing description and photos.
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