Sunday, December 28, 2008

Lillian Talbot Clarke



My great-grandmother. Mother of Kenneth Burwell Clarke, father of Richard Talbot Clarke (my father). Lillian was married to Robert Emmett Clarke -- to whom the civil war rifle used when he was 16 in the Tennessee Volunteer Militia. In the family archives, there is a framed envelope from a leter he sent "on the lines".


Talbot Castle outside Dublin, Ireland




Malahide Castle, set on 250 acres of park land in the pretty seaside town of Malahide, was both a fortress and a private home for nearly eight hundred years. The Talbot family lived here from 1185 to 1973, when the last Lord Talbot died.

A Look Around View of the Castle's Grounds

YouTube video of the Castle

The house is furnished with beautiful period furniture together with an extensive collection of Irish portrait paintings, mainly from the National Gallery. The history of the Talbot family is recorded in the Great Hall, with portraits of generations of the family telling their own story of Ireland's stormy history. One of the more poignant legends concerns the morning of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, when fourteen members of the family breakfasted together in this room, never to return, as all were dead by nightfall.

The Castle's Gardens

Private banquets are held in our medieval great Hall for 30-76 persons.

Talbot de Malahide Castle Site

__________________________

Malahide Castle is situated in Malahide Demesne, which is 16 km (10miles) north east of Dublin City off the R107.

* In 1185 Henry II of England granted 600 acres of land in Malahide to Richard Talbot. Malahide Castle was the home of the Talbot family until 1976 when the estate was sold to the Council.

* The castle was originally a Norman Tower House until the last quarter of the 18th century when it was extended and castellated.

* The remarkable apartments have not been modernised. The principal rooms are the Oak Room, the Great Hall, the two Drawing Rooms, the Library, the Nursery and the Bedrooms which are furnished with period furniture. There is also a fine Portrait collection.

* The 5th Lord Richard Talbot married Emily, great grand daughter of James Boswell, biographer of Dr. Johnson and the contents of the Boswell house came to Malahide in 1914. Among the items was the famous cabinet in which the world celebrated Boswell papers were discovered.

* The 7th Lord Milo Talbot was responsible for the internationally famous

* The Castle is run by Dublin Tourism



continuation at

http://talbot-documents.blogspot.com/

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Ken Burwell Clarke

My grandfather.

He was a screenwriter in early Hollywood. Until he was blacklisted. Reason for blacklisting uncertain -- apparently he got angry at the wrong person -- in writing or in person -- not sure. (I remember that the person was WR Hearst -- but Ken [my brother] said he never heard that, so I might be blurring it with something else.)

He also published several sotries in the Saturday Evening Post.

Ken B Clarke, screenwriter, from IMDB

NY Times review of Womanpower

The Boob in 1926 was one of Joan Crawfords first 10 or so films

NY Times review of the Dixie Merchant


NY Times review of Wages for Wives

Wages for Wives and Womanpower -- early feminist screenwriter?

William Kimbel

source Time magazine 1953


Monday, Sep. 07, 1953
New Shoots in the Old South

Ever since Reconstruction, the Democratic South has been the solidest political rock in the U.S. Crushed beneath the rock, the Southern Republican Party has been little more than a collection of private clubs largely run by hard-shelled political opportunists with one aim in mind: to keep the party small so they could control it and reap the patronage rewards in the years when the G.O.P. was in power in Washington. Last year, the Eisenhower landslide ripped wide cracks in the Democratic rock. The biggest political news in the U.S. this week is that a new kind of Republican Party has taken root in the South, and is sending up hardy shoots through the crevices.

continued at
http://kimbel-documents.blogspot.com/

Frank Bulkley

Frank Bulkley -- Uncle of Ruth Bulkley Garnsey. brother of Fred Bulkley, Ruth's father. I found another cite for Fred from a book on Aspen. Was one of the top four in mine owned by Wheeler or Jerome (?). Went to New York with him on new stock IPO for the mines.

Fred was a mining engineer also -- found a technical article and some testimony from him. My mother (June Garnsey Clarke) said she recalled Fred was sick some -- could not do all that Frank did. They were partners of sorts.


"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918) Vol. II


p. 447-448




FRANK BULKLEY.

Almost forty years have come and gone since Frank Bulkley became
a resident of Colorado and since December, 1899, he has made his home
in Denver. Through the intervening period his activities have
constantly broadened and have also deepened in their scope and
importance. He is today prominently connected with many of the
important mining interests of the state and is widely known as a most
capable mining engineer. He was born in Washington, Iowa, July 10,
1857, a son of Gershom Taintor and Fidelia (Groendycke) Bulkley. The
father and the grandfather constructed the first railroad west of the
Mississippi river in Iowa and Frank Bulkley was born while his parents
were temporarily residing in that state. The ancestry in America can be
traced back to the Rev. Peter Bulkley, who came from England to the new
world in 1636 and founded the historic town of Concord, Massachusetts.
Gershom T. Bulkley was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where the
family was represented through many successive generations. In 1836,
however, he sought the opportunities of the growing west and removed
with his family to Michigan.

Frank Bulkley of this review pursued his education in the schools
of Michigan but did not complete his course of study there. He was
given the E. M. degree by the Colorado School of Mines in June, 1876.
He came to Colorado in April of that year, making his way to Leadville,
and was engaged in mining engineering and mine management at that place
until November, 1888. He next went to Aspen, Colorado, where he was
engaged in mine management until December, 1899, when he removed with
his family to Denver, where he has since resided. He has developed and
managed properties for the following companies: the Big Pittsburgh
Consolidated Mining Company of Leadville; the Rock Hill Consolidated
Gold & Silver Mining Company of Leadville; the Aspen Mining & Smelting
Company of Aspen; the Mollie Gibson Consolidated Mining Company of
Aspen; the Bushwhacker Mining Company, also of Aspen; the Park Regent
Mining Company, the Chloride Mining Company and the Morning & Evening
Star Mines, all of Aspen; the Robinson Consolidated Mining & Smelting
Company of Robinson, Colorado; the Summit Mining Company of Robinson,
and others. At the present writing, in the summer of 1918, he is
president of the following active companies: the Crested Butte Coal
Company; the Crested Butte Anthracite Mining Company; the Walsenburg
Fuel Company; the Summit Gold & Silver Mining Company; and the Colorado
Sulphur Production Company. He is the vice president of the Baldwin
Fuel Company and of the Walsenburg Coal Mining Company. He is also
interested in active gold and silver mines and coal mines and his
activities have been a most important factor in the development of the
rich mineral resources of the state, which have constituted in large
part the source of Colorado's wealth, progress and prosperity.

On the 22d of January, 1885, Mr. Bulkley was united in marriage
to Miss Luella Bergstresser, a daughter of Reuben Bergstresser, who was
engaged in merchandising and in railroad building in Illinois. Mrs.
Bulkley was educated in Boston, Massachusetts, and was formerly well
known as a vocalist . of unusual ability. To Mr. and Mrs. Bulkley have
been born four children: Louise Jeannette, now the wife of Harold
Kountze, chairman of the board of the Colorado National Bank of Denver;
Ronald Francis, who married Blanche Rathvon, of Denver, a daughter of
S. F. Rathvon, a well known business man; Ralph Groendycke, a first
lieutenant in the Three Hundred and Forty-first Field Artillery of the
United States army at Camp Funston, Kansas; and Eleanor, who married
Joseph B. Blackburn, a lieutenant of the field artillery at Camp Grant,
Illinois. The family attend St. John's Cathedral.

Mr. Bulkley is a member of the Denver Club, with which he has
been thus associated for twenty years or more. He is also a member of
the Denver Country Club. In politics he may be said to be a democrat
but is of very liberal views and votes according to the dictates of his
Judgment without regard to party ties at local elections, while giving
his allegiance to democratic principles at national elections. He was
elected a member of the Colorado fifth general assembly from Lake
county in 1884, in which year he had the unusual distinction and honor
of being the only democrat elected on the ticket and yet he received
the highest majority of any candidate upon either ticket, a fact
indicative of his personal popularity and the confidence and trust
reposed in him. He was a trustee of the Colorado School of Mines for
sixteen years, from August, 1896, and was president of the board of
trustees during a large part of that time. He has membership in the
American Institute of Mining Engineers, the American Mining Congress
and the Colorado Scientific Society. It would be tautologlcal in this
connection to enter into any series of statements, showing him to be a
man of high scholarly attainments and marked efficiency in his chosen
profession, for this has been shadowed forth between the lines of this
review. He ranks with those men who through the development of the rich
mineral resources of the state have contributed in marked measure to
its upbuilding and progress and no history of Colorado would be
complete without extended mention of him, so closely is his name
interwoven with its mining activity.

source
_____________________________________________

Frank's wedding in Leadville. Ruth Bulkley (Garnsey)[my grandmother] may have been there in that Ruth was born in Leadville. Frank and Fred seemed to move around the same times -- Leadville, to Aspen to Denver. However, I just reread the wedding notice. It was 1885. Ruth was born in 1880s late 80's I think.


MARRIAGES



MARRIAGE BELLS
The Impressive High Church Wedding Yesterday, of Mr. Frank Bulkley and Miss Lelia Bergstresser

There occurred in St. George's church yesterday the most notable event of the society season, and one of the most brilliant weddings that Leadville has ever witnessed, Hon. Frank Bulkley leading to the altar Miss Lolla Bergstresser, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Bergstresser, and a lady who has been, throughout her residence in Leadville, one of the queens of Carbonate society.

At ten minutes before 5 o'clock the triumphal strains of the organ, under the skillful hands of Mr. Nash, began to peal forth a jubilant march. Immediately the vestry door opened and the Rev. John Gray, the rector of St. George's, preceded by four acolytes, Masters Frank Follett, Charlie Fearnley, David Hodges and Ruby Bergstresser, entered the chancel. The acolytes were preceded by four little flower girls - Lily Wood, Katie Wood, Ethel Burrell and Dottie Gray. The altar having been robed with the festal white, and brilliant with the mystic seven candles, together with the white robes of the clergy and the beautiful white array of the children, presented a reverent and lovely scene. In a very few moments the church doors entering the broad aisle were opened, and the bridal procession slowly advanced toward the chancel; the ushers, Mr. S. D. Walling, Mr. Harry C. Burnett, Mr. M. H. Slater, Mr. Ellery Stowell, Mr. D. G Miller, and Mr. Frank W. Owers preceding, followed by the bride leaning upon the arm of her father with Nona Wood, one of the dainty while robed lasses, bearing the train, the bridegroom supporting the mother of the bride.

The whole company advanced as far as the chancel step. The rector, descending from the altar steps to meet them, began the reading of the service, proceeding with the same through the betrothal. At this point the marriage ring was placed upon a silver paten and carried to the altar by Master Frank Follett, where it was blessed for the holy purpose of matrimony by the rector, being then returned to the groom, who placed it upon the fourth finder of the bride's left hand. Again the organ pealed forth a joyful burst of melody, and the bridal party advanced to the chancel rail, where the rector pronounced the marriage declaration, adding, as the entire party knelt, the solemn blessing of the undivided trinity, the boys singing the responses. The strains of Mendelssohn's wedding march filled the sacred edifice with grand harmony, the we maids in white, with baskets of flowers on their arms, strewed the pathway of the happy couple with blossoms as they proceeded down the aisle, and so - they were married.

The service was something never before witnessed in Leadville, being conducted in the manner frequently seen in Trinity church, New York, and other large eastern parishes.

The beautiful interior was fittingly decorated, a satin slipper for good luck hanging above the chancel during the ceremony.

It may be safely said that Colorado has never seen a more lovely bride. The toilet, without a description of which the account would be incomplete, was a cream brocade and surrah satin, falling in soft, luxurious folds, and extending, as has been said, to a train, the stain trimmed with the finest of lace flounces. There was an exquisite corsage and a hand bouquet of tea roses, and the bridal veil in al the fascinating beauty that belongs to it.

The groom, in conventional black, appeared to the best possible advantage, looking every inch the manly gentleman.

Succeeding the ceremony an informal reception to which none but the relatives of the contracting parties, the ushers and the flower girls were invited, occurred at the residence of the bride's parents.

The gifts of congratulation were many, and to be noted for their uniform elegance and the rare taste displayed in their selection. From the groom, a wonderfully exquisite diamond lace pin; from the Leadville Athletic association, a very handsome and delicately chased silver service of eleven pieces; from four of the ushers, Mr. M. H. Slater, Mr. F. W. Owers, Mr. Harry C. Burnett and Mr. Stuart D. Walling, a complete dinner set in tastefully decorated china; from MR. D. G. Miller, a silver mounted chased and engraved carving set, in a velvet case; from Mr. Ellery Stowell solid silver and gold lined berry and sugar spoons; from the brother and sister of the groom, a fruit dish in mannered silver, a set of beautifully hand painted fruit plates, and a silver, porcelain lined oyster tureen; from the brother and sister of the bride, pearl and silver nut picks and an exquisite set of pearl handled fruit knives, and from the mother of the bride, a lovely fancy work casket.

Miss Eva Baker presented a hand-embroidered, plush opera case; Judge and Mrs. L. M. Goddard, a set of frosted silver after coffee spoons; Miss A. V. Fletcher, a beautifully bound volume of familiar quotations; Miss Ethel Burrell, an optic jewel case, Mr. and Mrs. Jervis Joslyn, an ebony vase in chased silver; Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Fox, and embroidered crepe shawl; Mr. and Mrs. Clanton, fine table linen and napkins.

From Misses Katie, Nona and Lillian Wood came a dainty pair of bisque figures; from Miss Frueauff, a lovely hand painted banner; from Fred C. Ewing, of Denver, a silver cologne set; from Major and Mrs. J. F. Frueauff, a fruit dish in craquelle ware; from Mr. Harry Fisher, of Denver, a handsome bronze framed mirror; from Mrs McCov and and Mrs. Becker, a rare piece of artistic work, in a hand painted placque, with a hand-painted plush frame.

From Mr. R. M. McDermott, of Denver, the fortunate bride received a beautiful oil painting of Ute Falls; from Miss Rose North, of Columbus, Nebraska, a ground glass claret set; from Miss Florence Lake, brass candelabra; from Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Bonner, a plush, embroidered glove box; from Mrs. C. W. Crews and Miss McMurtrie, a daintily embossed lass and silver fruit dish, from Mrs. P. J. Cunningham, a pair of bisque vases.

There was also an optic water set from Mr. W. L. Thompson; a clock, cathedral gong, in black marble, from Mr. Henry D. Bates; a sugar spoon in solid native silver, from Mr. F. H. Cole; a gold, chased and engraved pie knife, from Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Harsh; a lovely daisy tidy, from Miss Allie Ritter, of Sedalia, Mo.; an exquisite hand-embroidered mirror and easel, from Mrs. J. W. Smith, and by no means least, a silver water set, from Mr. Michael Finnerty.

From Virginia, Illinois came two elegant fruit plates, from Mrs. Dunaway and Mrs. Jones, relatives of the bride.

The church was filled, almost crowded in fact, while telegrams and letters of congratulations and regret at the non-ability of the signers to attend, came from teh following: Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Black, Tucson, Arizona; C. M. and Carrie E. DAvis, Denver; Mrs. D. J. Swinney, Cheyenne; Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schloss, St. Joseph, Missouri; the officers and directors of the New Pittsburg Mining company, New York; Mr. J. S. Thomson, Lacon, Illinois; Miss Rose North, Columbus, Nebraska; Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Boyd; Dr. Sawyer and family, and Mr. L. L. Johnson, Monroe, Michigan, as well as from a host of others.

Last evening's Rio Grande train carried with it Mr. and Mrs. Bulkley, enroute to Denver, whre they will remain during the session of the legislature, with perhaps occasional visits to the city that has so honored itself in honoring them. They were accompanied to the train by a merry, congratulatory party of friends.

Mr. Bulkley is too well know to require extended mention. His worth and strength of character are as will defined as his popularity; attested by his election to the legislature in the recent contest, when almost his entire ticket was snowed under. He is an old resident of the camp, connected with the Evening Star Mine in its early days and at present resident manager of the New Pittsburg.

Mrs. Bulkley, nee Miss Bergestresser, is known throughout the state as the possessor of a singularly sweet and rarely flexible soprano voice, cultivated by two year's study in Boston conservatories. During the past year she has added greatly to the merit of the choir of St. George's church, and in charity enterprises has always been among the first to respond.

The happy couple, commencing their one life together under such favorable circumstances, THE DEMOCRAT, in behalf of their almost innumerable friends, extend it heartiest congratulations and the wish that they may "grow old together, " finding their pathway through life strewn with as fair and fra grant blossoms as those scattered before them as they left the altar.

Note: From the collection of Kate O'Brien hand written date of January 22, 1885.

source

Leigh Garnsey

Leigh g. Garnsey article in Press Reference Library around 1910 with picture of him probably in his late 20's






Leigh Garnsey cite in Who's Who on Pacific Coast

Anthony Kimbel

___________________________________

picture source


Anthony Kimbel (d. 1895) emigrated from Germany in the late 1840s and partnered with Anton Bembe (d. 1861) to form Bembe and Kimbel in 1854 creating furniture in the Rococo-revival style. Shortly after Bembe’s death in 1861, Kimbel founded a new firm in 1862 with a French born cabinet-maker Joseph Cabus (active 19th c.) known as Kimbel & Cabus.


Fifth Ave. Presbyterian Church, New York
This was a rich congregation, and it spent money on the interior. The prestigious firm of Kimbel & Cabus made all the interior woodwork. Pews were rented on an annual basis. For the first few years, up to a thousand people had to be turned away from services because capacity had been reached.



Inspired by the writings of British designers Bruce J. Talbert (d. 1881) and Charles Locke Eastlake (1836-1906), this firm developed a line of furniture in the “modern” gothic style in the 1870s that is illustrated in this rare catalog. Their furniture in this style, that won great acclaim at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, is characterized by the use of ebonized (blacken or stained) woods ornamented with incised gilt decoration, inlaid tiles and painting, medieval patterns, distinctive strap-like hinges, and forms that reveal the structure of the piece. By the late 1870s, the firm was the leading interpreter of the gothic revival style used for furniture and interiors in America. Kimbel & Cabus was dissolved in 1882 so that each partner could then go into business with their sons. The Library also owns a late 19th century trade catalog from A. Kimbel & Sons that features furniture in a number of revival styles.
Bio source

[note -- I found a full page ad for Kimbel and Sons -- exquisite 5th avenue type place. I think its in the box of family letters or photos I left ken ]

_________________________________________________

picture source
We are offering for sale this rare, original Oak Bembe & Kimbel U.S. House of Representatives Chair bearing the maker’s stencil on the inner seat panel.

Bembe & Kimbel manufactured 131 of these chairs for the 1857 remodel of the House, overseen by Montgomery C. Meigs. The chairs were designed by the architect, Thomas Ustik Walter and his original design drawing for the chair can be seen below.

This chair retains what appears to be the original leather chair back and one of the arm rest pads. The 4 casters are intact and are original. The chair has “XXXXXXII” carved into the underside of one of the armrests.

It is identical to the chair design that Abraham Lincoln used as his favorite portrait chair. The silhouette of the chair can be seen in front of the window in this photo of the Lincoln bedroom in the White House.

An identical chair to this one is in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House even today.

__________________________________________________________

Anthony Kimbel and Joseph Cabus were names associated with fine cabinet making[1] in late nineteenth-century New York City where many other European-influenced firms also thrived in the industrious world of the furniture arts on Lower Broadway. Gustave and Christian Herter arrived in 1848. Edward W. Hutchings (1836-1856), Alexander Roux (1837-1881), Auguste Pottier (1823-1896) worked in the same neighborhood. The luxury hardware business of P.E. Guerin was founded on Jane Street in 1864.[2]

While the names Kimbel and Cabus were spoken together in the same company as Herter and Roux, and they shared clientele with prominent architects like Stanford White, it is baffling that to date, other than a sole trade catalogue, ostensibly no invoices or other business records have been left behind. In spite of this, examples of Kimbel & Cabus furniture turn up in the Cooper-Hewitt, the Brooklyn Museum, the Hudson River Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other public collections. There are also surviving examples in the US Capitol, Henry Ford Museum, and the High Museum of Art. Today Kimbel & Cabus are best remembered for having created and introduced the American version of Gothic Revival[3] style to a very receptive public at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876.


picture source

Kimbel and Cabus [biographical details]

Between 1863 and 1882 in the Madison Square Park area of the City of New York, Anthony Kimbel and Joseph Cabus operated their fine cabinet making[4] ,decorating shop and showroom in the heart of the burgeoning retail district where R.H. Macy, B. Altman, and Lord & Taylor had already established themselves. [5] Their trade card read, “Kimbel and Cabus, Cabinet Makers and Decorators”, and paper labels with the same logo identified their wares.

Anthony Kimbel and Joseph Cabus moved many times during their close to twenty-year partnership, achieving some prosperity, but spent their peak years at 7 East 20th Street, and 458 10th Avenue. The firm achieved a reputation for high quality design and manufacture of furniture in a variety of styles, but gained prominence in the 1870s for developing an American version of Gothic Revival[6] or Modern Gothic style furniture featured in the trade catalogue dating from this period.

Anthony Kimbel’s earliest training as a cabinet-maker was under the tutelage of his father Wilhelm (1786-1869), a master craftsman in Europe, and his godfather Anton Bembe (1799-1861), a furniture dealer and decorator in Mainz, Germany. He continued his education in Paris working with furniture maker Alexandre-Georges Fourdinois and publisher Desire Guilmard before coming to New York in 1847. In New York, Kimbel became the principal designer in the shop of Charles Baudouine and in 1854 established the firm of Kimbel & Bembe with the backing of his German uncle, Anton Bembe. Kimbel’s knowledge of European ornament and style (notably Rococo-Revival) and his ability to produce quality pieces for an American market enabled the firm of Kimbel & Bembe to flourish.




picture source

Joseph Cabus came from a family of French-born cabinet makers who had established a furniture manufacturing business in New York in the 1830s. As a boy, Joseph worked with his father Claude and then trained with the prominent cabinetmaker Alexander Roux in the 1850s before opening his own workshop at 924 Broadway, in 1862. Just a year later, Kimbel & Cabus would open, next door at 928. There in the years following the Civil War Kimbel & Cabus’s factory and showroom expanded greatly, allowing them to move to a quite fashionable site at 7& 9 East 20th Street by 1873[bey1] .

In 1876, Kimbel and Cabus had developed a distinctive enough style of Modern Gothic at the Centennial in Philadelphia for their booth (#327) to be considered “rich and tasteful enough to rank among the very best of American exhibits in household art.” (Voorsanger, Encyclopedia of Interior Design). [INSERT FIGURE OF CENTENNIAL BOOTH]. At the height of their careers then, they were listed as exhibitors in the Official Catalogue of the 1876 International Exhibition in the Main Building’s Department of Manufactures with others — Brown & Bliss (#340), the Kilian Brothers (#338), Daniel Pabst (#361) , and Pottier & Stymus (#373), whose cabinets were similar in design to their own, and sometimes even mistaken for them.


source above and following two pictures

Later commissions included the woodwork interiors and furniture for the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church (1875) and the interiors for a Company Room at the Seventh Avenue Regiment Armory (1879-1880). After Kimbel & Cabus closed their doors in 1882, both Anthony Kimbel and Joseph Cabus continued to work in partnership with their sons. A. Kimbel & Sons was more successful than Kimbel and Cabus and remained in business until 1941.

On his own, Joseph Cabus rose to prominence as a cabinet maker, but it was not until after the dissolution of the Kimbel and Cabus partnership that he landed his most famous commission in building the interior of the Church of the Ascension on lower Fifth Avenue in New York in collaboration with Stanford White in 1884.
Keeping Up Appearances: The new middle-class in late 19th century America



Victorian culture was the first to use the safety pin (1849), the typewriter (1867), the telephone (1875), and the first to profit from balloon frame construction (1832), a popular and inexpensive building technique that allowed people with modest incomes to afford to purchase homes. The mid- to late-nineteenth century in New York alone saw the rise of the first modern hotel (The Astor, 1830s), the first department store (A.T. Stewart Dry Goods, 1846), and the first chain grocery store (New York-based Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, 1864). Nearly six thousand newspapers and magazines were being published in the United States by 1870, with 1.5 million copies issued annually. A large percentage of these publications instructed the new middle class in etiquette, health, home decoration, gardening, hygiene, and taste.

Its members developed a taste for the “new” as a way of “keeping up appearances,” which was not easy at a time when the most idiosyncratic and eclectic designs dominated the culture, especially the decorative arts. A young middle class was beginning to acquire decorative objects, the objects they saw at international fairs and in the lavishly illustrated magazines whose woodcuts they pored over. As long as the new middle class was able to imitate something that pleased their senses and be affiliated with the avant-garde, the demand for novelty would flourish. By 1877, Thorstein Veblen had coined the term conspicuous consumption to describe the drive to show off what you own to your friends and neighbors.




The furniture trades in New York City were thriving. Of the 4.2 million foreigners entering the United States between 1861 and 1877, most came ashore in New York City and would stay there. By 1870, New York was the busiest American seaport and the major distribution and sales center for imported goods in the country. At the same time, a number of skilled craftsmen and artisans arrived from Europe bringing with them both traditional and avant-garde designs which American firms quickly adopted, manufactured and marketed. The confluences of prosperity, technological and industrial innovation as well as the advent of mass merchandising provided opportunities for middle-class consumers to attain home ownership. These Victorians were the first ‘‘consumers” of mass-produced luxury items, made suddenly available to middle-class and wealthy households as one of the benefits of industrialization. As the economy expanded, the new middle class tastefully furnished their new residences with the latest styles and textiles of the day. Idiosyncratic and eclectic designs and products dominated the culture in the decorative arts.

The success of furniture manufacturing and interior furnishing firms such as Kimbel & Cabus was due to the patronage of this young, educated middle-class consumer who had developed a taste for the “new” as a way of “keeping up appearances.” New ideas and trends in etiquette, health, home decoration, gardening, hygiene, and taste, eagerly sought out by middle-class readers, became regular features in the nearly six-thousand newspapers and magazines being published in the United States by 1870. Illustrated serials and mail order catalogues fueled the desire to obtain fashionable decorative household objects as did the publication of a number of popular home decorating manuals. An abundance of popular magazines and manuals of instruction brought the great halls of the wealthy right to the parlors of the reading public. The Ladies Home Journal (first published in 1883), Cosmopolitan (1886) and Vogue (1892) raised the level of expectation for the burgeoning middle class.





How-to books like A.J. Downing’s The Architecture of Country Houses went through nine printings between 1850 and the end of the Civil War. Downing’s choice of furnishings for his audience did much to prescribe the types of furnishings that the new homeowner should choose in establishing an ideal American way of life and emphasizing the practice of attaining prestige. He did much to establish the understanding of the picturesque as beautiful and the unity of design as a form of truth and high morals. In the history of taste, it must be considered one of the nineteenth century’s best “how-to” manuals as well as a primer of the aesthetic interior and its accompanying manners and values.

The opportunity to own a home became affordable with the rise of mass culture, and with the rage for home ownership and the proliferation of the middle classes, the stage was set for craftsmen to sell their wares to a new market. The Victorians were the first “customers” of mass industry, and they wanted whatever elevated their status. The home was the ideal place to display status. The neo-Gothic with its underlying accent on perfection was just the right line of products to pitch to the first mass consumers, who yearned to have the pleasures of the wealthy. With their linearity and pointed features, Kimbel & Cabus’s furnishings offered the connection between the Gothic and good character that Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin established in England through writings that influenced Bruce Talbert and others. With their neo-Gothic interpretation of furniture, whose features pointed to a place nearer heaven, Kimbel and Cabus were able to bring to American households a style that would give its members a firm moral basis in addition to an exciting new aesthetic.


With a fickle middle class that needed to keep up appearances, furnishings with greater refinement, lightness, and delicacy were quick to replace the massive, heavy, linear architectural style of the neo- Gothic that had swept the same population only a decade previous. By 1878 journals were already heralding Queen Anne style as the latest in home furnishings, a style that would foretell the decline of the Aesthetic Movement and firms like Kimbel & Cabus.
Preserving Kimbel and Cabus; or, The Trade Catalogue Itself

The Smithsonian Institution is the keeper of 6500 rare books at its New York library branch and is fortunate to have what some consider the only existing trade catalogue left from the business firm of Kimbel & Cabus. The remarkable documentary artifact, [Furniture Designed and Sold by the New York Firm of Kimbel & Cabus] , comprises the only visual record of their furniture and is the only evidence supporting the existence of the manufacturing firm to be found to date. The original 1870s catalogue, and a modern photographic reproduction of the 1870 catalogue (produced in 1976), are currently housed in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum Library’s rare book room and catalogued on Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ on-line catalogue, SIRIS, http://www.si.siris.edu/ . The original artifact was transferred to its current location at the Cooper-Hewitt when the library and collections of the Cooper Union Museum were moved in 1974.

The photo album contains images of approximately 184 furniture pieces that Kimbel & Cabus designed and manufactured in the 1870s (?). The catalogue reveals a diverse vocabulary which needs to be studied. Pieces in this catalogue include foliated ornament, large metal hinges, pointed arches and trefoil and quatrefoil patterns. A number of other pieces contain elements of the Modern Gothic style, characterized by elements such as ebonized wood with incised, gilded and linear ornament; tiled and painted panels on gold ground with medieval motifs; strapwork hinges and other elaborate hardware; turned wood galleries of spindles, hoof, trestle, or bracket feet; stiff-legged and rectilinear forms; and raised pediments with pointed arches.
In addition to the Modern Gothic, other pieces contain details and motifs inspired from a compendium of historic European and Asian patterns. Ottomans, inlaid work tables and cabinets with semi-circular arches are inspired from Middle Eastern and Moorish patterns while many of the upholstered armchairs, tête-à-têtes, and sofas, with floral motifs, curved forms, and plentiful fringes, are reminiscent of Second Empire style. Elaborate carved panels and ball feet are evidence of the influence of Elizabethan period furniture. Several pieces are adorned with Chinese- and Japanese-influenced details, notably faux bamboo woodwork, intricate oriental fretwork, and panels decorated with cranes, dragons, lions, and human figures in kimonos.


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The catalogue illustrates the distinctive style of Kimbel & Cabus’s work where often the exaggerated sculptural forms, bold rectangular shapes, and decorative ornamentation have been emphasized over their functionality. In fact, the spectacularly ornamented and artistically designed pieces are constructed to be usable pieces of furniture. The range and style of their seating and casework could address the needs of prospective clients, possibly assisting customers in selecting designs to reflect their own needs and tastes – perhaps offering them a choice of a number of accessories or ornamental hardware, tiles or mirrors.

The catalogue contributes to the growing body of scholarship on the influence of the Aesthetic movement in furniture production at that time. It is currently used as a primary source for scholars and students of 19th century American decorative arts, especially the many who have already been consulting it since 1976, when the Cooper- Hewitt, National Design Museum Library opened its doors at the uptown landmark Andrew Carnegie Mansion. The catalogue is an essential resource for identifying actual pieces produced by Kimbel & Cabus in the 1870s -1880s. Without overstating its importance, the digitized trade catalogue offers continuous, reliable access to one of the only information sources about Kimbel & Cabus.

Up until now most if any scholarship has been a superficial gloss over Kimbel & Cabus, a nod of acknowledgement, but nothing much else, especially since we are left with no invoices, no business records, no letters. The fading studio photographs are believed to have been arranged as a practical sales tool, comprised solely of images and what appear to be some code numbers (which may be price codes). Although the numbers and codes have never been deciphered it is important that they be preserved so that further research may be conducted with this important, rare, and delightful glimpse into the world of 19th century New York cabinetmakers and New York Victorian interiors. The Kimbel & Cabus catalogue is also a picture album of the world of the Industrial Revolution – a time when engineering and aesthetics met for the first time, making and using everything from new textiles to springs for upholstered chairs.

Today the names Kimbel and Cabus most often bring to mind the terms neo-Gothic, Aesthetic movement, and Eastlake style, although the original trade catalogue shows a much more diverse inventory, one that included an impressive selection of furniture for every room of the home in styles that include Chinese and Japanese motifs, Moorish and Turkish influences, exotic textiles and Renaissance, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian Revival forms, as well. The original catalogue includes chairs, washstands, sofas, desks, settees, pedestals, revolving book stands, cabinets for -- dishes (cupboards), clothes (presses and armoires), music; wall shelves; dressing tables; buffets; sideboards, hat stands, easels, umbrella stands, many of which are displayed in suites or room arrangements. [INSERT EXAMPLE PHOTO].
Digitizing Kimbel & Cabus

The decision to extend the life of a particular artifact is especially thorny, necessarily limiting material access and providing instead a high-quality surrogate, but considering the level of cultural interest in the material, the trade book provided an ideal project. The digitization is expected to enhance interest in the material — material that can at best support a limited audience in terms of its condition.

Each image of the original catalogue from the 1870s has been scanned to provide access to each page of the trade catalogue, in thumbnail and oversized views, by browsing or by subject selection. The actual album, the paper artifact, will no longer be required for most scholarly work now.

This catalogue is one of the most important among the 6500 rare books in the Smithsonian’s New York collection, one that will continue to be in demand by researchers, staff, students, and others who will continue to use the collection. It cannot be replaced, only copied. The presence of the catalogue on the Internet gives access to the appropriate global audience now.

The web project will extend the life of the existing photographs of the catalogue by at least one hundred years, decreasing the use of the actual artifact to almost zero, and storing the “best possible images” on archival quality disks. The Smithsonian’s plans for long term retention include: [Stephen or Martin]
Technical Information

In accordance to the guidelines established by NARA and the Colorado Digitization Project, three versions of the images were created: a master image, an access image, and a thumbnail image (on server and CDs).

Images were scanned in greyscale at 600 dpi, using a flatbed Epson Expression 1600 scanner and including the Kodak standard grey patches in all scans. All images were scanned from a set of high-quality photographs made in 1976 from the original cards. Scanning the photographs avoids risk to the more fragile originals and also prevents twenty years of further deterioration of the cards. All images were inspected visually for quality assurance. Adobe Photoshop was used to produce smaller images for web display and indexing. Maxell Gold 700 MB CDs , MSM-A Color Therm, Archival quality disks were used to store a backup copy of the thumbnails.

Further Reading


Burke, Doreen Bolger, et. al. In pursuit of beauty : Americans and the Aesthetic Movement. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986.

Burrows, E.G. and Wallace, M. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Cook, Clarence. “Beds and tables, stools and candlesticks. X.” Scribner’s Monthly. April, 1877. vol. XIII, no. 6. pp. 816-820.

Downing, A.J. The Architecture of Country Houses. New York: Dover, 1969. (reprint)

Freeman, John C. Furniture for the Victorian home: from A.J. Downing (American): Country Houses (1850) and J.C. Loudon (English): encyclopedia (1833), 1968.

Gere, Charlotte. Nineteenth-century Decoration: The Art of the Interior. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989.

Hanks, David. “Kimbel & Cabus: 19th-century New York Cabinetmakers.” New York: Art & Antiques, Sept-Oct 1980. pp. 44-53.

Howe, Katherine S., and David B. Warren. The Gothic Revival Style in America, 1830-1870. Exh. Cat. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1976.

Meyer, Priscilla S. Victorian Detail: A Working Dictionary. Armonk, NY: Oak Cottage Farm. 1980.

Otto, Celia Jackson. American Furniture of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Viking Press, 1965.

Spofford, H. “Medieval furniture.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 54, Issue 318, Nov. 1876. pp. 809-830. [Illustrations on pages 825 and 828 are examples of Kimbel & Cabus, not Pottier & Stymus. Attribution corrected in Harper’s Vol. 54, Issue 319, Dec. 1876. p. 143.]

Talbert, Bruce J. Gothic Forms applied to furniture, metalwork and decoration for domestic purposes. London, 1868.

Voorsanger, Catherine Hoover, ed. “Gorgeous Articles of Furniture: Cabinetmaking in the Empire City,” in Art and The Empire City. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. pp. 287-325.

Voorsanger, Catherine Hoover. “Kimbel and Cabus,” in Encyclopedia of Interior Design and Decoration. London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997. pp. 675-677.

Wedgwood, A. Pugin Family Catalogue of the Drawings. Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London: R.I.B.A., 1977.

[1] New York cabinetmakers like John Belter, Charles Baudouine, Alexander Roux
[2] Kimbel and Cabus may have purchased plaques and mounts from the firm, although no records exist to confirm this.
[3] Gothic Revival wavers between a folksy, decorated gingerbread style and a heavy linear medieval throwback.
[4] As you would expect, the terms also spelled “cabinetmaking” or “cabinet-making”, customarily consisted of two words in the nineteenth-century.
[5] “Ladies Mile” would become the name associated with women’s clothing and accessory stores proliferating along Broadway in Lower Manhattan in an area between 9th and 23rd Streets on Broadway and 6th Avenue (now also called Avenue of the Americas).
[6] Gothic Revival wavers between a folksy, decorated gingerbread style and a heavy linear medieval throwback.
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The new issue of Nineteenth Century (a magazine published by the Victorian Society in America) has a four-page article on the Kimbel & Cabus photographic catalog in the holdings of the Cooper-Hewitt library. The article includes a brief history of the firm and provides some context for their work, information on the Cooper Hewitt's accession of the catalog and an overview of the types of objects in the catalog and their stylistic characteristics. It concludes by briefly touching on the use of trade catalogs by furniture makers and how the K&C catalog differs from those used by other firms, and offering several hypotheses for the purpose of the catalog/scrapbook. There are five illustrations; four of them are plates from the catalog, the fifth being an drawing of the K&C display at the Centennial Exhibition. The author is Stephen Van Dyck, chief librarian at the Cooper-Hewitt.

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Link on article about Kimbel and Cabus
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listing of the Kimbel Cabus catalog at the Smithsonian Intitute.

Listing at Smithsonian
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