[Nella Fontaine Binckley at Washington, D.C., to Robert Morton Hughes at Norfolk, Virginia, November 28, 1930, Box 1, Folder 8: Nellie Brinkley [i.e. Nella Fontaine Binckley], 1927-1937, Robert Morton Hughes Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529]
Apt. 700. Portland Hotel [Portland Flats]. Washington, D.C.
November 28th 1930.
Dear Cousin Robbie:--
I received your letter of Sept. 27th and no answer being required, had not intended to send one. But I kept thinking of the matter, and it seems such a pity. And I have tried to think of some way of carrying out the plan.
None of us are young, and we are getting older every day. If anythings happens to me (life is uncertain), the family could make so advantageous an arrangement with any other artist of equal standing.
I am the poorest one of my family -- I have only what I earn -- also I would gladly paint the portrait for nothing, as a tribute to Uncle Joe. I have been wanting to paint one for years. But my expenses are heavy, and I cannot afford to give the time. And the cost of artists' materials has increased so enormously. For instance, a little bottle of retouching varnish I used to buy for 25 cents now costs me 90 cents! And other materials in proportion.
As your branch of the family is so very small, and, more over, its share of the expenses falls entirely on your shoulders alone, I would gladly wait for that $100. till you could spare it. This arrangement could be between us two, and no one else know of it.
If you could do the arranging of the matter with the other branches of the family, and got the thing started, I could get at the work. I paint much more rapidly than most other artists, but a large and important portrait would necessarily take me a good while to do, -- especially from a photograph. From life I can work much more quickly.
As Coralie offered to raise $100 from her branch -- and as their circumstances are, as far as I have heard, substantially the same as at that time -- I should think she could do it. Aunt [Sue?] told me, some time ago, that Joe was retired, on a small pension, I understood. That branch is so large the expense would fall lightly on the individual.
Cousin Lavalette lives here, you know. Her daughter Mary had recently had a legacy, I understand. The last of the Riggs sisters for whom she kept house for many years, died last summer. They were very wealthy -- the Riggs National Bank family, you know.
Our branch of the family is much larger than yours, also, though considerably smaller than Coralie's.
Aunt Sue has a comfortable pension, and her son Bennett is comfortable. Her daughter, Lil, has married again to a man of property, who is also Chief of the Forestry Service,-- without doubt at a very handsome salary.
My sister's husband, as you know, is a man of wealth. My brother George is comfortable, and all three of his children are doing well.
I am the Cinderella of the family. But I am willing to give more, individually, than anyone else,-- unless yourself. The frame would cost at least $100. I am sure.
I wish so much Mother could have had the very great joy and satisfaction which seeing the portrait would have given her. If the matter had only been put through at the time you broached the subject to Aunt Sue, -- more than three years ago -- it could have been concluded before she died, last January. My brother Harvey died this year too, you know.
Aunt Sue is now very old. I hope she may live to see it. It would give her, also, very great joy and satisfaction, I know.
Can you not get the ball rolling, and give her this satisfaction?
It would assuredly be a satisfaction to all of us to have an adequate portrait of Uncle Joe in Richmond and painted, moreover, by one who knew and loved him. I am perhaps the only artist now living who did know him.
It seems to me it would not only be a thing we all would enjoy, but it is also a duty we own to Uncle Joe's memory. There is that statue in Georgia, but nothing in Virginia, -- is there? Except, of course, the bad picture you spoke of.
My own hands are tied in this matter, as you can see. My position is a delicate one. I cannot afford to do the work without some compensation. So I am reluctant to urge the affair, with the others. I am doing so with you as you were the one who proposed the plan to Aunt Sue, and she gave me your letter to answer, suggesting I should paint the portrait myself. And besides, I know you, and moreover, feel sure you will understand.
Coralie and Joe I knew as a child, but not since. The other Richmond cousins I have never seen. I have never been to Richmond. So they have hardly even heard of me. We are complete strangers.
Cousin Lavvie's family I never saw till about two years or so ago, when Mother went to board with them.
If you could write to Aunt Sue and Coralie and ask them to arrange things with their respective cousins, and get things started before some of us die, I would get right to work. Time is slipping by so fast.
Then there are a lot of preliminaries to settle before I could actually begin. The photograph has to be selected by the family before anything else can be done by me. You said you had plenty of them. I have only one, and an engraving. All this detail will take time. Cant [can't] we get at it?
Affectionately your cousin
Nellie
[Ellen/Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (September 1, 1860- April 27, 1951; she was not born in 1877 as she successfully hoaxed some time after returning from the West Coast to the East Coast in the early 1900s)
Cousin Robbie = Robert Morton Hughes, Sr. (1855-1940)
Coralie Henry Johnston (1861-1954), childhood friend of her cousin Nella Fontaine Binckley (1860-1951), educated at Johns Hopkins and Old Dominion, nurse and longtime (for three decades) reference librarian at the Virginia State Library (The Library of Virginia) in Richmond
Uncle Joe = Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891)
Portland Flats (1880-1940)
Aunt Sue = Sue Henry Mitchell/Michel Taliaferro (1845-1940)
Joe = Joseph Beverly Johnston (1859-1943)
Lavalette = Lavalette Estelle Johnston McMullen (1850-1941)*
Mary = Mary McMullen (1872-?)*
Riggs sisters = Alice Lawrason Riggs (1841-1927) and Jane Agnes Riggs (1853-1930)*
Bennett = Bennet/Bennett Crawford Taliaferro (1868-1943)
Lil = Lilian Johnston Taliaferro (1877-1965), first married to John Moncure Conway (1870-1922), then Herbert Augustine Smith (1866-1944)
My sister's husband = Mary "May" Binckley (1875-1969), married to Thomas Armat (1866-1948)
My brother George = George Sydney Binckley (1870-1941)
And all three of his children = Sydney William Binckley (1898-1971), Milton Johnston Binckley (1902-1991) and Helen Louise "Elena" Binckley, later married to Frank Edward Blauvelt (1899-1963)
Mother = Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930)
My brother Harvey = Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928)
*A wealth of material looks to be in the McMullen Family Papers, 1783-1969, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University, link to guide here]
Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration; in this case, specifically to William for providing a scan of the original letter, and in turn thanks to Mr. Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Specialist.
Apt. 700. Portland Hotel [Portland Flats]. Washington, D.C.
November 28th 1930.
Dear Cousin Robbie:--
I received your letter of Sept. 27th and no answer being required, had not intended to send one. But I kept thinking of the matter, and it seems such a pity. And I have tried to think of some way of carrying out the plan.
None of us are young, and we are getting older every day. If anythings happens to me (life is uncertain), the family could make so advantageous an arrangement with any other artist of equal standing.
I am the poorest one of my family -- I have only what I earn -- also I would gladly paint the portrait for nothing, as a tribute to Uncle Joe. I have been wanting to paint one for years. But my expenses are heavy, and I cannot afford to give the time. And the cost of artists' materials has increased so enormously. For instance, a little bottle of retouching varnish I used to buy for 25 cents now costs me 90 cents! And other materials in proportion.
As your branch of the family is so very small, and, more over, its share of the expenses falls entirely on your shoulders alone, I would gladly wait for that $100. till you could spare it. This arrangement could be between us two, and no one else know of it.
If you could do the arranging of the matter with the other branches of the family, and got the thing started, I could get at the work. I paint much more rapidly than most other artists, but a large and important portrait would necessarily take me a good while to do, -- especially from a photograph. From life I can work much more quickly.
As Coralie offered to raise $100 from her branch -- and as their circumstances are, as far as I have heard, substantially the same as at that time -- I should think she could do it. Aunt [Sue?] told me, some time ago, that Joe was retired, on a small pension, I understood. That branch is so large the expense would fall lightly on the individual.
Cousin Lavalette lives here, you know. Her daughter Mary had recently had a legacy, I understand. The last of the Riggs sisters for whom she kept house for many years, died last summer. They were very wealthy -- the Riggs National Bank family, you know.
Our branch of the family is much larger than yours, also, though considerably smaller than Coralie's.
Aunt Sue has a comfortable pension, and her son Bennett is comfortable. Her daughter, Lil, has married again to a man of property, who is also Chief of the Forestry Service,-- without doubt at a very handsome salary.
My sister's husband, as you know, is a man of wealth. My brother George is comfortable, and all three of his children are doing well.
I am the Cinderella of the family. But I am willing to give more, individually, than anyone else,-- unless yourself. The frame would cost at least $100. I am sure.
I wish so much Mother could have had the very great joy and satisfaction which seeing the portrait would have given her. If the matter had only been put through at the time you broached the subject to Aunt Sue, -- more than three years ago -- it could have been concluded before she died, last January. My brother Harvey died this year too, you know.
Aunt Sue is now very old. I hope she may live to see it. It would give her, also, very great joy and satisfaction, I know.
Can you not get the ball rolling, and give her this satisfaction?
It would assuredly be a satisfaction to all of us to have an adequate portrait of Uncle Joe in Richmond and painted, moreover, by one who knew and loved him. I am perhaps the only artist now living who did know him.
It seems to me it would not only be a thing we all would enjoy, but it is also a duty we own to Uncle Joe's memory. There is that statue in Georgia, but nothing in Virginia, -- is there? Except, of course, the bad picture you spoke of.
My own hands are tied in this matter, as you can see. My position is a delicate one. I cannot afford to do the work without some compensation. So I am reluctant to urge the affair, with the others. I am doing so with you as you were the one who proposed the plan to Aunt Sue, and she gave me your letter to answer, suggesting I should paint the portrait myself. And besides, I know you, and moreover, feel sure you will understand.
Coralie and Joe I knew as a child, but not since. The other Richmond cousins I have never seen. I have never been to Richmond. So they have hardly even heard of me. We are complete strangers.
Cousin Lavvie's family I never saw till about two years or so ago, when Mother went to board with them.
If you could write to Aunt Sue and Coralie and ask them to arrange things with their respective cousins, and get things started before some of us die, I would get right to work. Time is slipping by so fast.
Then there are a lot of preliminaries to settle before I could actually begin. The photograph has to be selected by the family before anything else can be done by me. You said you had plenty of them. I have only one, and an engraving. All this detail will take time. Cant [can't] we get at it?
Affectionately your cousin
Nellie
[Ellen/Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (September 1, 1860- April 27, 1951; she was not born in 1877 as she successfully hoaxed some time after returning from the West Coast to the East Coast in the early 1900s)
Cousin Robbie = Robert Morton Hughes, Sr. (1855-1940)
Coralie Henry Johnston (1861-1954), childhood friend of her cousin Nella Fontaine Binckley (1860-1951), educated at Johns Hopkins and Old Dominion, nurse and longtime (for three decades) reference librarian at the Virginia State Library (The Library of Virginia) in Richmond
Uncle Joe = Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891)
Portland Flats (1880-1940)
Aunt Sue = Sue Henry Mitchell/Michel Taliaferro (1845-1940)
Joe = Joseph Beverly Johnston (1859-1943)
Lavalette = Lavalette Estelle Johnston McMullen (1850-1941)*
Mary = Mary McMullen (1872-?)*
Riggs sisters = Alice Lawrason Riggs (1841-1927) and Jane Agnes Riggs (1853-1930)*
Bennett = Bennet/Bennett Crawford Taliaferro (1868-1943)
Lil = Lilian Johnston Taliaferro (1877-1965), first married to John Moncure Conway (1870-1922), then Herbert Augustine Smith (1866-1944)
My sister's husband = Mary "May" Binckley (1875-1969), married to Thomas Armat (1866-1948)
My brother George = George Sydney Binckley (1870-1941)
And all three of his children = Sydney William Binckley (1898-1971), Milton Johnston Binckley (1902-1991) and Helen Louise "Elena" Binckley, later married to Frank Edward Blauvelt (1899-1963)
Mother = Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930)
My brother Harvey = Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928)
*A wealth of material looks to be in the McMullen Family Papers, 1783-1969, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University, link to guide here]
Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration; in this case, specifically to William for providing a scan of the original letter, and in turn thanks to Mr. Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Specialist.
See also related Riggs Family Papers, also at Duke: http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/riggsfamily/#collectionoverview
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad. She is practically on her knees begging.
ReplyDeleteI wish we could go back in time and give her the cash to make the painting!
Delete