A Woman Has Entered the Competition!

     Some forty years after the close of the Civil War, communities continued to honor their war dead with monuments both above and below the Mason-Dixon line.  In 1904, members of the Grand Army of the Republic, led by Col. J. S. Graham, in Rochester, NY began the lengthy process of choosing and funding a fitting tribute to their fallen comrades.

     Despite the noble cause, by 1906 they realized their task was not going to be an easy one to achieve.  With donations trickling in and a prevailing aesthetic indecision of the committee in charge, Graham reached out to George Eastman, the camera man, to lend his time and, more importantly, his significant name to the cause.  The inclusion of Eastman, Graham felt, would substantiate public appeals with “a greater confidence if they can have the testimony” of such a noted man towards “the artistic character and fitness of the memorial they proposed to erect.”

     Early on, the GAR proposed two monuments to be placed in Rochester’s two largest cemeteries, Holy Sepulchre and Mt. Hope.  They suggested both be shafts of identical design and total $5,000.  Their initial call for submissions garnered designs from three local firms and Thomas and Miller of Quincy, Ma.  After considering all options, the committee failed to meet a majority vote and decided to continue their search.  It was noted in newspapers reporting on the committee’s December meeting that “a woman has entered the competition.”  Sallie James Farnham had informed the group that she would submit “a couple of designs for consideration.”

     How Sally Farnham initially heard of the committee’s dilemma is unknown.  As a child she attended the nearby Mrs. Porter’s School for Girls and had many friends in the area.  Col. Graham may have known her father, Col. Edward C. James, and may have been aware of the success of her  monument in Ogdensburg, NY erected the previous year.  Regardless, she arrived in Rochester in early 1906 to visit the proposed monument sites and discuss the needs of the committee before submitting her designs.  Her warmth and known sense of humor may have helped her cause because her designs were in the hands of the Citizen’s Committee with a note lauding “my whole association with you has been such a pleasant one that I hope the matter will reach a successful completion.”

     Her first sketch suggested a bronze eagle, with an 8ft. wing span “suggesting war”, clutching a bronze flag, which was to extend down the length of an 18ft. Celtic cross.  The cross is a chiseled pink granite featuring graphic, almost ‘modern’ panel designs I believe to represent Catholic symbols.  Some have suggested that the cross was the design of Claude Fayette Bragdon, a local sculptor, architect and member of the committee, but absolutely no evidence of this exists.  He produces a similar cross in the cemetery and this may have led some to infer his involvement further than a decision making one.  Her second proposal centered on a single figure, a 7ft. standard bearer with a “bared and bowed head...suggesting taps, lights out, everything quiet.”  She offered a similar design she named Defender of the Flag to the Ogdensburg monument committee in 1904, but they decided on another of her designs altogether.  Bishop McQuaid, an important and imposing member of the committee, chose the first sketch for his parish’s site at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in April, 1907.  Slight alterations to her original sketch were made, perhaps due to monetary concerns, and the bronze flag was removed from the final design.  Farnham’s proposals came in at $10,000, significantly higher than the committee’s original intent, but both the Citizen’s group and a local veterans group raised the additional funds.

 

     In October, 1907, Farnham traveled to Rochester again to meet with the committee to discuss her designs.  Reporters suggested the closed, informal meeting was “lively” and full of “fireworks.”  As a result, Farnham’s monument for Mt. Hope cemetery gained a “drummer lad” with her suggesting “the intention to express two thoughts, the soldier typifying battles won and the drummer lad battles to win.”  A battle scene was to be presented in a bronze tablet affixed to the granite base.  In the end, the drummer emerged as a bugler boy and the tablet depicted the haunting notes of Taps and the beginning lines of Theodore O’Hara’s famous The Bivouac of the Dead.



 

stonecherubs.org
 

rochesterpublicart.com
 

suvcw.org
 

 

 

     Farnham began at once the process of enlarging her sketches to produce them in bronze in her New York studio at 1947 Broadway.  The committee became impatient at one point and questioned her time frame towards completion hoping to have both monuments in place by June 14, 1908, Flag Day.  She responded that she had another important work that was close to finish.  When asked again about scheduling she responded in a maternal tone, “The new job is satisfactorily accomplished and he weighs ten pounds.  I am nursing him at present and have my oldest boy to install in school and am moving into town for the winter, and I also have a few guests to entertain, but I think I can tackle your monument next week.”  Her childhood friend, Frederic Remington, recorded in his diary that he ran into Farnham at the Roman Bronze Works foundry and admired her “dandy two-figure soldier group.”

Albert R. Stone Negative Collection, Rochester Museum of Science Center, Rochester, NY

  

                    

                                         
 

On September 25, 1908 both monuments were dedicated in a day of grand ceremony.  Crowds gathered at Holy Sepulchre in the morning to unveil the Celtic Cross and then moved to Mt. Hope to follow suit with the bronze figural group, a Rochester newspaper described by the positions of the figures, “it is taken that the war is over and taps has been sounded, and as the strains die away the ‘boy in blue’ drops his head in meditation and reflects at the awful consequences of the war and what it has cost in human sacrifice.”  The works were lauded as they “reflect the master hand and is said to be one of the most unique in the country.”

 

Menagerie

     Sally James Farnham was born with an innate love of animals!  While her father, Col. Edward C. James, was establishing himself as a trail lawyer in NYC, she would write him long letters from Ogdensburg going on about her furry friends and pleading for more!  “I am crazy for an Irish Setter puppy,” she wrote him in 1882, “a little one so I can train it.  The next time you feel like giving me a present you can give me one.”  Her father wrote back that he felt her terrier, Tony, “would be broken at such a rival.  All his Scotch blood would revolt!”



Undated photo of Sally and her best friend, Mary Louise Allen.

     Once married and living in Great Neck, NY, she filled the house with canine friends, even advertising in the Brooklyn Eagle when one of them ran away from the pack.  Her youngest son, Johnny, recalled once bringing one, Sandy McNab, to church!  Her interest in some breeds ( Pomeranians, for example) found her expertise listed in “The Breeders and Exhibitors of Dogs:Guide Book and Directory for 1910: List of Names, Kennels of Breeds and Judges, Handlers, Etc…”.



Johnny Farnham(4 years old), neighbor(in carriage) and Sandy McNab

 

 

     Dogs played a significant part in her studio life, as well.  The Dean of American Illustration, Frederick Gruger, who rented a studio at 57 W. 57^th St. on the top floor near Sally’s, recorded in his diary(January 16, 1923), “Sally’s going out.  I heard the dogs scamper along the hall and be called back and I could hear Sally telling them what for-she said, “Now you get right in there and don’t either of you dare touch the parrot, Kamak, Kamak, you hear me?  After ‘while Eddie(Whitmack) will come along and scrape his stick along the Farnham door and that will bring about a riot.  The dogs will throw themselves madly against the panels and bark and scratch the panels as though they intended tearing everything to bits.”  He would also complain that when he borrowed clay from Sally, it would be covered in dog hair!  The dogs were such a popular feature in the studio, they even made a couple of Sally’s Christmas cards!

                                                         

This love found its way into her work, as well.  Her estate catalogue recorded a 5” tall bronze French Bull Dog and Pekingese. 

Northeast Auctions, Porstmouth, NH, 2003 auction

     The New York Times noted on July 22, 1923 that she was in Hollywood “planning a bronze of Strongheart, the motion picture dog.”  Strongheart was the German Shepard forerunner of Rin Tin Tin.  It is unclear whether the work was a private or public commission as it never was realized past her clay version.

Clay model of Strongheart

     In October, 1931 she donated her time in creating a set of bronze tablets commemorating the furry lives lost during a devastating fire on February 11, 1930 at Irene Castle’s animal shelter, Orphans of the Storm, in Riverwoods(Deerfield), Il.  The works were once placed on either side of the front door, but are now in storage.

 

Orphans of the Storm, Deerfield, Il., 1931

     Aside from dogs, Sally’s lifelong love was horses, a motif seen over and over again in her work.   After her marriage, she returned to her hometown every September to participate in the Ogdensburg Horse Fair, where she was celebrated as much for her celebrity, as for her exceptional equestrian skills. 

Sally James near St. John's Episcopal Church, Ogdensburg, NY, undated

 

 

   

     Her husband, Paulding Farnham, created this silver and cooper chain purse as a loving tribute to his wife’s equine obsession, engraving it, “SJF and Her Pintos, Thanksgiving 1903)

     Dogs and horses were but just some of her beloved tribe.  She had a studio cat named Giminy Christmas, who found fame after falling down seven stories and lived to meow about it.  She purchased an American Bald Eagle in 1905 at a Fish and Hunt exposition in NY.  Her parrots were often so loud, reporters  were amused when she would move cage and all into the bath tub with threats of further action if they didn’t pipe down.  John Baragwanath, Neysa McMein’s husband, also recalled a scene with her pet monkey, “The high spot of the dinner…was Sally’s monkey.  Dessert was crepes suzette, and Sally, evidently following a tradition, gave a nice warm crepe to the little pet who immediately draped it around his shoulders like a shawl and sat there in quiet comfort for the rest of the evening.”

Sally and her sister, Lucia, with furry friend in the library at the family home in Ogdensburg, NY.
 

 

Blogging All Things Sally!

     After more than a decade of researching the life and work of the American sculptor, Sally James Farnham, like a gluttonous packrat, I felt a need to fill the void of accessible information by creating a website devoted to some of my early findings.  In 2004, http://www.sallyjamesfarnham.org hit the World Wide Web as a starting point for those interested in Farnham’s work. 

 

 It was truly a culmination of a personal journey that began as a child, when I found myself fascinated-obsessed-with her ‘Spirit of Liberty’ monument in our hometown of Ogdensburg, NY.  The calming beauty of her winged Victory atop the column drew me in, creating wonder and the spell has never relinquished control !

    

As the Farnham project is privately funded (i.e. by me) , I found updating the website costly.  In the nine years since it’s launch, my research has uncovered exciting new finds which I have shared in a more timely manner through a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/sally.j.farnham).  It has become an educational tool through which I am able to share many facets of Sally’s fascinating life.   But over the past year I have been unsatified with the formats space limitations.  Bringing multi-dimensional stories to life in short sound bites just doesn’t do the robust personality of Sally any due.  I have mulled over the idea of a blog and its potential advantages for a while now.  In short, the moment is at hand!

 

Once a reporter sent to interview SJF and came away bewitched by the full experience culminating in a ‘difficult’ question posed to her readers, “Which is the more fascinating, Mrs. Farnham the woman or Mrs. Farnham the artist.”  This blog aims to present the same question as it focuses on detailed histories of individual works, personal histories and relationships and, in short, all things Sally!