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Even though most American women did not have the right to vote until 1920, many, including Isabella Stewart Gardner, followed politics. She and her husband Jack attended the inauguration of President Grover Cleveland in Washington D.C. on 4 March 1885, and she kept a memento—a photograph—from the day in the Macknight Room.
John Fillis Jarvis (English, 1849–1931), Inauguration of President Grover Cleveland, 4 March 1885
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Isabella kept this photograph in the Macknight Room, near her desk
President Cleveland appointed William Crowninshield Endicott, a relative of Jack’s, as Secretary of War. As a member of the Cabinet, Endicott was able to give tickets to the official functions of inauguration week to his family.1 An opportunity too good to pass up, Isabella and Jack arrived in Washington D.C. well before the Presidential festivities began and in time to attend the dedication of the Washington Monument.
John Fillis Jarvis (English, 1849–1931), Stereoview of people congregating for the dedication of the Washington Monument on a snowy day, 21 February 1885.
Flickr courtesy of John DeFerrari
We don’t have any first hand accounts of Isabella’s impressions of the celebrations, but her biographer Morris Carter noted that she took advantage of all of the invitations. She likely heard many speeches, attended parties, and saw fireworks over the National Mall.
Thure de Thulstrup (Swedish American, 1848–1930) and Charles Graham (American, 1852–1911), The Inauguration of President Grover Cleveland: Night Scene near the White House, 1885
Published in Harper's Weekly, v. 29, 14 March 1885, p. 165. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/00650945/
Her friend—economist, statistician, and President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Francis Amasa Walker—wrote to her several times while she was in Washington.
You have a new President and you have yourself have [sic] helped to inaugurate him! I trust I will be a good augury—and that the sky air will be clearer and brighter, these four years under Cleveland, for your smiling upon his installation.
— Francis Amasa Walker to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 5 March 1885 (ARC.005850)
After the inauguration, Isabella continued to follow the career of President Cleveland and the First Lady, Frances Folsom Cleveland, whom she met on at least one occasion.² They had a mutual friend—Swedish painter Anders Zorn. Isabella was an important patron for Zorn, who she met at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. She collected and displayed many of his paintings in her museum—including his portrait of her in the Short Gallery.
Anders Zorn (Swedish, 1860–1920), Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice, 1894
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
In December 1898, Zorn came to the United States for several portrait commissions, including two for former President Grover and Frances Cleveland. Before traveling to the Clevelands’ home in New Jersey, Zorn stayed in Boston with Isabella, who had recently become a widow. His presence comforted his grief stricken friend. For her birthday in April, Zorn sent Isabella a study for his portrait of Mrs. Cleveland which she installed in the Blue Room. The finished painting is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, along with Zorn’s portrait of President Cleveland.
Anders Zorn (Swedish, 1860–1920), Mrs. Grover Cleveland, 1899
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Isabella’s attendance at Inauguration Week in 1885 likely fueled the patriotism that she wove into the fabric of her Museum. In addition to the oil portrait of Frances Cleveland, she displayed two of Zorn’s etchings of President Cleveland (I and II) in the Short Gallery and dedicated a case in the Long Gallery to Presidents and Statesmen for the exhibition of letters, photographs, and ephemera. Today visitors can see these historical figures in the Museum galleries alongside art works from many different cultures—creating a truly American experience.
¹ Morris Carter, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston: 1925), p. 92.
² Frances Folsom Cleveland (American, 1864–1947), Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C., 28 March 1894 (ARC.001867)