St. Botolph Club Remains a Solid and Comforting Home
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Volume 19 Number 1 : Fall 2017 Saint BotolphBulletin Comments from the Editorial Department Buell Hollister & Bill Taylor The world outside 199 Commonwealth Avenue may be chaotic, politics in disarray, common knowledge upended daily, dark matter itself become visible – yet the St. Botolph Club remains a solid and comforting home. We are not, nor ever should be, in lockstep with each other, yet we broadly appreciate the same things in art and science. We have that wonderful thing called comity. We are accepting and tolerant – the big oak door at the top of the steps is closed only against intolerance and small-mindedness. Our club life since the last edition of the Bulletin has been, as usual, vigorous and mind-expanding. Each week brought something new in music, history, art and literature. The Club Night and Round Table venues were crowded with far too many items of musical, literary, historical and otherwise interesting topics to cover in any detail here – nicely iced with great parties having no high-falutin’ values at all. In addition to 12th Night, in which spouses were allowed to see for themselves the deepest Botolphian mysteries for the first time Lisa Bonneville after winning the Caledonian golf match in the Club’s history, we celebrated Bobby Burn’s birthday at Burns Night with a Caledonian golf game that had the walls ringing, or thudding anyway; a New Members Gala, which also celebrated those members, and a visit from our old friend, member Noel Stooky, are just a few of the season’s highlights. After many years as editor (with a few off as president of the club), I am happy to announce that the job of publishing the The world outside 199 Commonwealth Avenue may be St. Botolph Bulletin on a regular basis will now be handled by chaotic, politics in disarray,“” common knowledge upended the capable Bill Taylor. As it is so with many enterprises, new blood is necessary and refreshing. I leave the editorship sure daily, dark matter itself become visible – yet the in the knowledge that the Bulletin is in good hands. St. Botolph Club remains a solid and comforting home. (Continued on page 2) IN THIS ISSUE: 1: Comments from the 4: Tarbell 6: e Work of the House 8: New Members Editorial Department Distinguished Artist and Design Committees 9: New Fellow 2: President’s Letter, 5: Fellows’ Fanfare Pool Cue Duel Your Mind on Art Acknowledgments Annual Meeting Notes New Members 10-12: Photo Gallery and Announcements 7: New Members 3 : Art Happenings Acknowledgments Letter from the President Editor Dear Fellow Botolphians, Buell Hollister Bill Taylor It’s hard to find words to express my gratitude, pleasure and George Gilpatrick, Jr. excitement at being elected 38th president of the St. Botolph Club. Following in the footsteps of Francis Parkman and Contributors his successors is an honor and a challenge, and I hope to be Terry Catchpole worthy of the confidence you’ve shown in me. Peter Van Demark In these days of almost-constant controversy about how our Michael Halperson Steven Foote society is evolving, the mutual respect and close fellowship Pat Squire found behind the great front door at 199 Commonwealth Ken Turino Avenue is a refreshing relief and more important than ever. Of course, all of us have our own ideas, but our oasis provides a congenial setting where we work hard and with pleasure to keep friendships in repair. Ours is a singular group. I look forward to growing our community in its traditional ways even as we welcome new members to help create our vital future. Please share your thoughts and ideas with me; the St. Botolph Club is a collaborative undertaking! Michael Halperson, President Announcements Comments from the Editorial Department (Continued from page 1) Buell Hollister & Bill Taylor Calling All Botolphians – The Club has, since I Thank you Buell for your kind words and We Need Reporters first became a member, for your years of editorial service. I hope the both changed and yet transition will be so seamless that only the most and Photographers! stayed the same. New careful readers will realize that your steady The editor welcomes stories members have replaced hand is no longer on the tiller. My aspiration and articles from members. old ones, new ideas and for the Bulletin is like that of Robertson Davies Help us define and celebrate talents have given us for his fictional local newspaper: to be a our Club with your contribu- more than I could have barber’s chair that fits all buttocks, so that every tions, both written and imagined, yet we are reader should find not only the happenings pictorial. Give us your still centered around around the club but something of personal thoughts and suggestions. the core values we have always had. Art, science, interest. Perhaps for you, gentle reader, fond Email me at buell.hollister@ good conversation and the other essential recollections of club nights you enjoyed or gmail.com. pleasures enjoyed by intelligent, educated hints of the wonders that transpired in those – Buell Hollister people, are ingredients in the mastic that holds you missed. Bill Taylor us all together. Editors To introduce myself: I am known around Gentlefolk, I give you Editor William Taylor. the Club mainly through our ten-minute He will, I am confident, carry on, and indeed plays. You may not remember my scintillating improve on, the traditions and function of performance as fourth cockroach in this publication. Roger-G, but no one could forget the snarling octogenarian rolling through the lobby in a Club Attire Buell Hollister wheelchair howling “Bullsh*t” at the top of his lungs in New Year’s Eve. Members are reminded that St. Botolph Club scarves, But as Editor of the Bulletin, I hope you’ll hardly know I’m there. ties and other accoutrement are displayed in the Bill Taylor Hawthorne Room. Finally, the Editors note with sadness the passing of former Bulletin Editor (2009-2013) and dedicated Botolphian John Herbert Meares III. The Bulletin flourished under his guidance, and the Club will be diminished by his absence. 2 | SAINT BOTOLPH BULLETIN Art Happenings by Pat Squire One of the objectives of the St. Botolph Club Art Committee is to recognize the founding spirit of the club by its adventurous exhibition policy and the encouragement of new talent. How fitting that 2017 started with the Fellows Fanfare, organized by Barbara Lucas and the Fellows Committee. All that was missing was a marching band! March, by contrast, showed the works of Maine artists in an exhibition creatively entitled “Mainestream”, curated by Committee members Shaw Sprague and Richard Milhender, followed in April by the works of two artists, Elena du Plessis and Kim Radochia. The curators of that show, Barbara Lucas and Michael Price, chose well. More works were sold than in Shaw Sprague any recent show! Until mid-September, members were treated to an exhibition of landscapes, an interesting mix of mediums and subjects. It included works both by members and from the collections of members. This show was curated by Michael Allen, Anne Kilguss and Patricia Squire. Please notice, by the way, a small green notebook with a cover designed by Margaret Shepherd. The Art Committee hopes that members and guests will write comments on each show in order to make the staircase walls a participatory project and give the Committee direction and ideas for future shows. The notebook will be on display in the hallway. New to the club’s own collection is a portrait by the noted African-American artist John Wilson (1922-2015) titled “Ashanti”. Members may remember that Wilson had a solo exhibit in 2015 at the club. A Roundtable discussion of Wilson’s work was held in June by noted authority and close friend of his, Edmund Barry Gaither, Director and Curator of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists. From early September through mid-October an exhibit of works from the Museum, co-curated by Michael Allen and Cathryn Griffith. The exhibition sampled a tiny portion of the wide range of the Museum’s holdings of African-American art. It is hoped that Club members will visit the Museum, as the Director uses the exhibit as a “teaser of the treasurers in their keeping.” Finally, the Art Committee encourages members to attend openings, club nights, and Roundtable discussions – and, of course, to consider a purchase of some art! Michael Price VOLUME 19 NUMBER 1 | 3 Tarbell by Ken Turino The Tarbell Charitable Trust was generous enough to lend this painting to St. Botolph Club while the Hood museum is under renovation – a process that will last through 2018. We have a unique opportunity for the club and its members to enjoy this wonderful painting, and members should take the opportunity to view it in the Library’s welcoming setting. The renovations are expected to last through 2018. Before purchasing the Greek Revival Cooper house in New Castle in 1905, the Tarbell family spent their summers in rented cottages along the New England coast. This airy painting at the small, Cape Cod community of Cotuit is the earliest full portrait by Tarbell of his family. Tarbell is known to have enjoyed playing golf at the Cotuit course. Here, everyone except for his eldest daughter is dressed in white; the blue ocean water glistens behind them. Josephine sits in her pink dress reading, her idle hand resting on her brother’s carriage. To her left is youngest daughter Mary; her older sister Mercie pretends to ride a toy horse next to her. On the far left their mother Emeline is seated in profile holding a young Edmund in her lap.