{"id":30837,"date":"2018-04-25T11:56:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T15:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=30837"},"modified":"2019-09-04T10:42:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T14:42:31","slug":"newspaper-clue-leads-to-old-family-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/newspaper-clue-leads-to-old-family-painting.html","title":{"rendered":"Newspaper Clue Leads to Old Family Painting"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was looking in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> for articles about Whitman Bailey (1883-1954)<\/a>, celebrated artist of scenes from Stamford, Connecticut.<\/p>\n

I was intrigued by this 1942 newspaper article that describes the discovery of a painting by another artist, Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889)<\/a>. Weir\u2019s painting was found in the attic of Whitman Bailey\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank, Daily Advocate (Stamford, Connecticut), 14 September 1942, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The article reports that:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe professor shown in the painting is thought to be the late Jacob Whitman Bailey, of West Point, grandfather of Whitman Bailey, artist, and in whose homestead the Weir item has just been found.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: \u201cThe Microscope\u201d by Robert Walter Weir, 1849. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whitman Bailey was my cousin \u2013 through the Bailey family line \u2013 so I wanted to know more about this painting and if it was in fact of his grandfather Jacob Whitman Bailey (1811-1857).<\/p>\n

According to the newspaper article, \u201cThe painting found in the garret is of another professor looking through a microscope.\u201d<\/em> That fits \u2013 according to Wikipedia, Whitman\u2019s grandfather \u201cwas an American\u00a0naturalist, known as the pioneer in\u00a0microscopic\u00a0research in America.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Digging further, I found that the painting was acquired by Yale University and is on display there. The descriptive caption posted with the painting reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert Walter Weir captured the mid-nineteenth-century fascination with science and devotion to domestic education in\u00a0The Microscope. In the painting, Jacob Whitman Bailey, the pioneer of American microscopy and a professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, instructs his sons and daughter, Maria, at right. At a time when education for girls focused on music, dance, and needlework, Bailey taught Maria science. The costumes of Maria and her father recall the period of Galileo, evoking the power of science and tempering rational inquiry with fanciful wonderment. As they became affordable tools for home teaching, microscopes took on religious overtones because they unveiled what many believed to be \u2018the inner labyrinths of creation.\u2019 Weir\u2019s portrayal of Bailey as both scientist and father exemplifies the Romantic belief in the sacred duty to educate children.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 Yale University<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, the painting described in the 1942 newspaper article has been preserved \u2013 and it is of Jacob Whitman Bailey and his four children.<\/p>\n

Jacob was a world-renowned scientist. The desert marigold was named for him and is called the Baileya multiradiata<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Baileya multiradiata (desert marigold) in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada. Credit: Stan Shebs; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Without this clue from the newspaper article about Whitman Bailey I never would have known these details about my cousin\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Search GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> today and see what discoveries you can find about members of your own family tree.<\/p>\n

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