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Allen Memorial Art Museum Oberlin College Bulletin Volume Number 2 Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin Oberlin Volume College XLIX Number 2 1996 3 Charles F. Olney Front Cover Jasper F. Cropsey, and the Collecting of Curiosities Temple of the by Marjorie E. Wieseman Sibyl, Tivoli, 1876, oil on canvas, 43 Charles Olney, Charles Freer, 23.2 x 30.8 cm, Gift of and the History of Asian Art Charles F. Olney, Collecting in America 04.1186. by Charles Q. Mason Back Cover Japanese, Meiji period (1868-1012), 52 Acquisitions 1994-1995 Dragon-Form Incense Burner, bronze, in.8 cm 57 Loans 1994-1995 high, Gift of Charles F. Olney, 59 Museum Staff and Publications 04.723. Published twice a year by the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Back issues available from the Museum. Indexed in the Art Index and abstracted by BHA (Bibliography of the History of Art) and ARTbibliographies. Reproduced on University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Printed by Austin Printing. Copyright © Oberlin College, 1996. ISSN: 0002-5739. Charles F. Olney and the Collecting of Curiosities With perspicacity and intent, during the last Charles Fayette Olney was born in Hartford, quarter of the nineteenth century Charles Fayette Connecticut, on August 27, i83t, and was raised Olney assembled a wealth of art and objects that in the nearby village of Southington (fig. i).1 He not only became the physical beginnings of an was the son of Jesse Olney, a teacher, geographer, art gallery at Oberlin College, but also formed and author of several popular nineteenth-century the conceptual school texts. basis for the Allen Olney s paternal Memorial Art grandfather, Museum's promi Jeremiah Olney, nent function as and his great- a teaching uncle, Stephen collection. During Olney, had both Olney's lifetime been officers in and for a few the Revolution years after his ary War, while death, the collec his more distant tion was displayed ancestors had at the Olney Art been among the Gallery in early settlers of Cleveland. It was Rhode Island.2 bequeathed in its Dissuaded by entirety to his family from Oberlin College entering Yale in 1904, and College and portions were encouraged installed in the newly-built Carnegie Library in to pursue a career in education, Charles Olney t9o8. Olney's collection was impressive in its began teaching in local schools in about 1848, sheer magnitude (it numbered nearly 8000 and later established a high school in Stratford, objects) and encyclopedic diversity. This study Connecticut. He moved to New York City, where reconstructs the growth, presentation and inter he continued to teach in public schools through pretation of Olney's collection both during his the mid-r88os, and was one of the founders of lifetime and after its arrival at Oberlin, and the New York Teacher's Association. In April examines the ideals and motives of the remark 1861 Olney married Louisa Brown of New York. able man behind it. The couple had one child, a girl, who died in infancy. It was after Louisa's death in 1878 that and trustee of the church, was president of the Olney began to build his art collection in earnest, Pilgrim Congregational Society and of the although he had probably already been accumu Pilgrim Church Institute, and founded a Fine lating works of art for some time: "[t]his loss, Arts Club for the Church Institute. and the loneliness it entailed, helped to fix and In 1894, Olney headed the committee that intensify the artistic taste which had always organized the successful Cleveland Art Loan characterized him, but which now became a Exhibition, a public viewing of art lent from refuge as well as a passion. He became interested private collections—both local and national—for in forming a collection of works of art and the purpose of raising funds for the city's unem 3 articles of virtu. " ployed.5 In addition to his administrative role, On November 30,1887, Olney married Olney loaned numerous paintings, sculptures, Abigail (Abbie) Bradley Lamson (born 1830), a and objets from his own collection. He was also childhood friend and the widow of Thomas H. involved in more long-term projects that Lamson. Lamson, who had died in 1882, was a addressed the city's public image and specific prominent Cleveland cultural needs. Inspired businessman who by the Beaux-Arts had amassed a architectural ensemble sizable fortune as the of the Court of Honor head of the firm of at the World's The Lamson and jm Columbian Exposition Sessions Company, of 1893 m Chicago, manufacturers of Olney was a guiding nuts and bolts. His force in the early devel widow inherited this opment of the fortune and a house Cleveland Group Plan, at 137 Jennings which proposed a Avenue (now West similarly unified 14th Street) in arrangement of public Cleveland. Olney buildings around a moved into the ••^•^••I^^^^^^B ^^^•••^^•••P central mall in down house after his town Cleveland.6 marriage to Abigail, bringing with him his large Beginning in January 1900, Olney also served and continually expanding art collection. on the Board of Trustees of the as-yet unbuilt Having become a man of leisure and modest Cleveland Museum of Art; he was closely wealth, Olney devoted the next fifteen years to involved with the legal, financial, and architectur shaping his collection, to constructing and oper al aspects of planning for the new museum, ating the Olney Art Gallery, and to participating which opened only in 1916.7 Olney s most in a range of philanthropic activities that reflect impressive philanthropic and organizational his commitments to education, religion, and the undertaking, however, was the Olney Art Gallery. importance of the arts in civic life. He was a member of the Cleveland Public Library Board, Olney s Art Gallery vice-president and trustee of the Cleveland The Olney Art Gallery was the first public art School of Art and chair of its committee on gallery in Cleveland, anticipating the Cleveland instruction, president of the Cleveland Brush and Museum of Art by more than two decades. It Palette Club, charter member and an early presi opened with a lavish reception on December 13, dent of the Cleveland Council of Sociology, a 1893, and met with a enthusiastic response from trustee of several charitable institutions, and a the 600 invited guests. member of the Society for the Promotion of The Olney home was spoken of in terms of 4 Atmospheric Purity. Both Olney and his wife admiration as the guests passed from room were active in the Pilgrim Congregational to room....The sweet strains of music issuing Church in Cleveland; Olney served as a deacon from the vestibule, the beauty of the gallery, 4 • Hbt~ the paintings and the decorations all united •Mr ^m^j: ••«#' ' to please the senses....Upon the walls are ~-~ ". _. .!.'• works of art by Bouguerau [sic], Lambrinet, v W^ 1 . -- • Corat [sic], Hart, Dupre, Verbeckhoven [sic] and other eminent artists.9 The gallery was regularly opened to the *. } 121 ^ public one day per week, and also offered a full \ • •PRSSBIan HMk^i If^ I 4f 1 schedule of lectures, tours, and receptions. It iii remained in operation in Cleveland for almost ^»|f*Tj 1 **<• Ji fifteen years, until the collection was moved to 7— it * i ~t i i i! If- Oberlin College in early 1908. Throughout the p \**W MSIH^ ^ vVfiJlgB 9fl WrLA Gallerv's existence, charmed visitors recorded guest register:10 A veritable seat of the muses. (February 22,1895) Kind Professor! We leave your beautiful gallery feeling that we have had a ULilH veritable art bath... (May 17,1895) collection it has been my pleasure to visit in the U.S. (May 25,1896) While we honor him who produces let us not grudge to him who assembles and publishes. As I walk through this T rift gallery two names united in my mind —Prof. Olney and Lorenzo de Medici. 51 w (December 28,1896) Must have been saved from shipwreck 'H-l to experience such afternoons as this. (September 3,1897) Metropolitan Art Gallery of NY. City. Opposite: Fig. 2. Coburn and (January 26,1903) Heureux de trouvez a Cleveland, un Gallery (1802-oj), Cleveland. Photo by George H. petit "Louvre." (March 23,1903) Ketteringham; courtesy the At the time of his move to Cleveland in 1887, Western Reserve Historical Olney s collection probably numbered about Society, Cleveland, Ohio. 4000 objects, enough to overwhelm the living Above Top: Fig. j. Olney Art space of the rather modest house on Jennings Gallery, interior view, ca. 1000. Avenue, even by the claustrophobic standards of Bottom: Fig. 4. Olney Art late-nineteenth century interior decoration. Gallery, interior view, ca. /goo. Construction of a gallery addition was underway by summer 1892. Designed by the Cleveland architectural firm of Forrest A. Coburn and Frank S. Barnum in a classical revival style, the fireproof structure was constructed of yellow brick with terracotta ornament (fig. 2). It consisted of a single large room, which could be accessed either through the "annex," which led from the drawing room of the main house, or from a separate entrance facing onto Jennings The profusion and diversity of the Olney Art Avenue (figs. 3, 4). Immediately inside the Gallery was evidently not at all confusing to Jennings Avenue entrance was a foyer or "recep contemporary viewers, however; one visitor tion room." Passing through the foyer into the remarked that it was "the only collection I have gallery, on the left, opposite the doorway leading ever seen so housed that whatever the spectator's to the main house, was an inglenook, a recessed taste, it can be gratified without searching and niche housing a large fireplace flanked by seats.