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Lot 252
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Stanford White AN & TLS re: creation of Brooklyn Prison Ship Monument
Stanford White AN & TLS re: creation of Brooklyn Prison Ship Monument
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Description:

White Stanford 1853 - 1906 Extensive full page Stanford White AN and TLS regarding the creation of the Brooklyn Prison Ship Martyrs Monument.

Single page TLS, 8" x 10.5" on letterhead of McKim, Mead and White, 160 Fifth Ave, New York. Dated "December 9th, 1895" and boldly signed in full by Stanford White as "Stanford White", with a full page autographed note on the verso, and annotations and a post script on recto. Expected folds with three small pencil tip holes, else near fine.

An extensively annotated TLS by Stanford White to "Mac" McMonnies with a full page autographed note on verso, in addition to a post script on the bottom of the recto. Stanford White was working back and forth with McMonnies to create a design for the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Brooklyn, but was struggling with budget constraints of the city's fund for the project. He noted to Mac "I send you a photograph of the design for the Martyrs Memorial. This can be built with a center monument only or with the columns, as they decide. I fear however, that they will not have money enough to build any of it. Will you kindly, however, let me know, so I can submit it, your own price in detail as follows ..."

What makes this letter so especially interesting is that as a child, Mac had played in Fort Greene and recalled how he stood near the gloomy, hideous vault, where the bones of the martyrs now remain. He had a personal relationship with the Former Brooklyn Park Commissioner, Elijah R. Kennedy, and actually offered to do this monument for FREE (as noted in the local Brooklyn Newspapers. However this became a source of contention between Mac, Stanford White, and S.V. White, who was overseeing the funding for the project in addition to spearheading the design elements.

However, Stanford White wrote to Mac for pricing on various designs for the monument, including: "The large bronze relief, For the Eagles, For the groups of 6 and 7 figures typifying the original states surrounding the granite columns, and for the two figures of Crowning Victory on each of the columns."

In the background, a member of the D.A.R (Daughters of the American Revolution), S.V. White was overseeing the design and progress of this impressive monument in Brooklyn. And much was being written about this in the local newspapers as shown below:

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle paper:

Mrs. S.V. White, a member of the Daughters of the Revolution, was principally interested In agitating the subject of this monument, and a Former Park Commissioner, Elijah R. Kennedy went to Paris to see Mr. Macmonnies, and obtain from him some Idea of what might be done. Mr.,Macmonnies was an Intimate friend of the Brooklyn man, and Mr. Kennedy visited him in his studio, In Paris, and told him how the women of Brooklyn were endeavoring to revive Interest in the subject and to atone, as well as they might, for the neglect that had caused these heroes ' of the revolution to be practically forgotten. "I called upon Mr.Macmonnies one afternoon," said Mr. Kennedy to an Eagle reporter this morning, "and found him at work in his studio. I told him what had been done by Brooklyn women and how shamefully the memory of the martyrs had been neglected. To my surprise, I had hardly time to begin before he became the speaker and went over the whole ground with an accuracy and memory of details that would have been surprising in any other man. He told me how he had played in Fort Greene when a boy and how he stood near the gloomy, hideous vault, where the bones of the martyrs now He. He rapidly sketched out in rough, but perfectly comprehensive, lines the scenes he spoke of and told me to call upon him in the morning and he would have a model for the monument for me to look at. It was then late in the afternoon, and early next morning I was at his studio again, but the interval, short as It had been, was more than sufficient for him to work In and there was before me a clay simile of what Macmonnies believed should mark the resting place of the martyrs. "In the first place, his Idea was that of an enormous temple, which should face the plaza of Fort Greene from the place where the vault now Is. And in baas relief upon this tablet was to be represented a great mass of prisoners In the hold of a prison ship, thus suggesting the suffering and death of the - martyrs. In the model that lay be - fore me the emaciated features of the men were depicted, and there, too, were scenes that moved to pity as well as admiration for some suffering heroes helping those more miserable than themselves by permitting them to rest their aching bodies upon their own. It symbolized in one grand picture, like a photographic flash, the most striking incidents of the - time. It was to be, if made, the most magnificent relief in the world. "As a picture must be suitably framed," continued Mr. Kennedy, "so in Mr. Macmonnies' idea this bronze tablet of gigantic proportions was to be relieved and set off with columns, stairways and ornamental stone approaches. This work he preferred to be designed by his friend, Stanford White, the well known architect. He turned to me as he finished his description and said, with beaming face: 'I will do this for Brooklyn and shall not charge anything." I told him his friends would never permit him to do anything of the kind; that if Brooklyn could not pay her share for such a work or If the United States could not pay for it, they did not deserve to possess it. Mr Macmonnies is the very soul of generosity and would give himself away to his friends If they would permit it. But Brooklyn should have that tablet and must have it.

With this as the backdrop of the letter, Stanford White's extensive autographed notes on the verso go into the details of the design, scaling and pricing of the monument.

Today the Prison Ships Martyr Monument still stands proudly in Brooklyn, however this fascinating letter shows the extent of its many obstacles.

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