Portraits: New York, 1852-53

b. 4 Oct 1811, Caledonia (Livingston County), NY - d. 6 Dec 1860, St. Augustine, Florida; co-founder with brother Reverend Donald C. Mann of the Rochester American, a local newspaper, and other publications; on March 10, 1849 married Jane Caroline Parker (1824-1922), daughter of a Canadian expatriate once charged with treason; Caroline herself became an editor of a Rochester woman's publication and bore Alexander two sons, Donald and John Parker, who went by "Parker" and who became a Hudson River School landscape painter; Alexander, a Whig, was deeply involved in the struggle for political power in NY between Democrats, Know Nothings, Republicans, and other factions (he predicted a Republican demise by 1856); joined the New York Times (1858) and moved his family to NYC (18 West Street); soon Alexander's pleurisy drove him and his family to St. Augustine, FL, where he farmed; though his "affections traveled North again," he never made it and died of a stroke at 49. There are interesting parallels between the lives of Mann and Cook [see Cook Biography]: their chronic illnesses and flirtation with the Know Nothings, Mann apparently corresponded with Millard Fillmore, whose son was painted by Cook [see Millard Power Fillmore], Boy with Hobby Horse was exhibited in the Arcade, across the street from Mann's office in Rochester's American Building. Mann's portrait was sent to the National Academy of Art & Design, NYC, for exhibition, 1852, cat # 363.

b. 22 March 1809, Troy, NY - d. 24 June 1887, Rochester, NY; buried Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester; son of Isaac and Elizabeth Clarke; went into business at 15 years old, became bank cashier in Albion, NY; m. Henrietta J. Ward (1833); moved to Rochester (1845) and became officer of numerous railroads, telegraph and financial institutions, including Clarke National Bank; delegate to Whig National Convention (1852), Vice President of first NY Republican Convention (1852); elected to House of Representatives (1863-65, 1871-75); appointed by Lincoln as Comptroller of the Currency (1865-67), during which time important financial legislation was enacted, including national banking system; returned to business career late in life; trustee of University of Rochester. Photographs exist of Clarke as an older man, sometimes with a beard; Cook's oval portrait, shows a man with ample muttonchops and a youthful, cheery countenance. The Frick Art Reference Library provides this description of the portrait: "Brown hair and side whiskers, brown eyes. Black coat, waistcoat, and stock, white collar and shirt. Paper on table is inscribed: 'Rochester, July 22, 1852.' Subject holds a white quill. Red chair at left, red table in foreground. Brown background." Signed on reverse: "Painted by Nelson Cook / Rochester, NY / 1852".

b. 2 Oct 1814 - d. 30 Oct 1890; buried Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester; daughter of Dr. Levi Ward, land agent in New York for State of Connecticut (1810-), landholder, businessman; m. Freeman Clarke 1833; she was the mother of many children who were well-educated and well-traveled and became active in law and business; at least two children died young: Henry at age 7 (1848) and Elizabeth at 18 (1854); In lieu of the availability of a color version of this portrait, the Frick Art Reference Library offers this added detail: "Brown hair, gray eyes. Brown dress, white lace guimpe [a blouse worn under as dress], cameo brooch, red scarf. Brown frame chair with green upholstery. Brown background." Signed on reverse: "Painted by N. Cook / Rochester, N.Y. / 1852". 

Could this be Alexander Mann, painted the same year?

Unclear if this is the same portrait as Anonymous Man. Sold at auction in Massachusetts for an unknown price in 1989. Auction description read: "Framed painting. Fine study of a handsome young man dressed in a formal black suit, and seated in a red upholstered Victorian chair. Signed, located and dated on reverse, Painted by N. Cook -- Rochester -- 1852."

b. 6 Oct 1816, Seneca, NY - d. 12 Sep 1864, Lima, NY; 6 Sep 1838 married Emily Bennett; graduated from Wesleyan University in 1838 and in that year became principal of an academy in Elmira, NY; later (1841-44) taught Natural Science at the Oneida Conference Seminary (today Cazenovia College which permanently closed June 30, 2023 due to the effects of the pandemic and high inflation); ca 1844 joined the faculty of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, NY, and served as Principal there 1847 - 1851; 1851 appointed Professor of Mathematics at Genesee College, Genesee Wesleyan's companion school in Lima (the Seminary faced financial problems as the railroad displaced the Erie Canal and bypassed Lima; Genesee College itself eventually was seen as too remote by the Methodist Episcopal Church, which established Syracuse University, 90 miles away, in its place in 1870); served at Genesee College until his death, part of the time as acting president. His portrait was described by the Rochester Daily Democrat (15 March 1852) as "a very excellent half-length portrait." Noted by the Genesee Country Village and Museum.

  Noted in an article in the Rochester Daily Democrat on July 1, 1852:

The portrait of a “Gentleman of Pittsford,” in Mr. Elder’s window, is a very correct as well as artistic picture. Mr. Cook, the artist, is a worthy gentleman, industrious and pains-taking in his profession, and has very few superiors as a portrait painter.

b. 2 June 1799, Clinton, ME - d. 1 July 1859, Buffalo, b. Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester; son of Abial and Abiah [Wade] Pitts; with his identical twin brother Hiram Abial Pitts (d. 10 Sep 1860, Chicago) this Maine native obtained a number of farm equipment patents, including one in 1830 for a portable, horse-powered treadmill, another in 1834 for the "Pitts Endless Chain Rotary Pump" signed by President Andrew Jackson, and probably their most lucrative patent in 1837 for the first threshing and separating machine, which was belt-driven and powered by horse or water wheel and called the "Pitts' Patent Separator". The two brothers developed separate manufacturing facilities, with John's factories moving over the years from Albany to Rochester to Springfield, OH and ultimately to Buffalo; John's threshers were known as "Dayton-Pitts" during his Ohio years, and eventually became known as "Buffalo-Pitts Threshers" (see below) following his death; John also received a gold medal at the 1855 Paris Exposition for a thresher attachment which measured and registered the number of bushels bagged. As evidenced by his more costly three-quarter length pose with exposed hands, John Avery Pitts was a man of means, which speaks to his great success as an inventor and the 50-year agricultural standard that was to be set by the Buffalo-Pitts Thresher. Mr. Pitts is shown proudly holding the plans for his thresher, and the words "Pitts' Patent Separator" are legible on the documents. Interestingly, Cook has seated Mr. Pitts in a green chair, a departure from the artist's characteristic preference for red, which may indicate a further customization of the portrait's composition to include furniture actually present in the Pitts's home. Only Mr. Pitts's portrait is signed by the artist, "Painted by N. Cook 1853", on the front at lower left. Both this painting and that of Mrs. Pitts below have undergone considerable restoration, including a great deal of overpainting and canvas repairs. Despite both portraits having significant amounts of new canvas added to the rear sections, small holes and tears still appear in each painting. The portraits in non-period frames were sold as a pair by Skinner, Inc. of Boston in December 2007 for $940.

b. 20 Oct 1801, North Wayne, ME - d. 15 Sep 1876, Buffalo; daughter of Nathaniel and Tabitha [Ford] Jennings; m. John Avery Pitts in North Wayne, ME on 22 March 1826 and bore six children, two of whom died at a young age.

b. 1 Jun 1819 in Bavaria - d. 11 Dec 1890 in Rochester, NY; buried Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester; a clothing merchant; probably the first Jewish Mason in Rochester; had a least one daughter, Henriette, who worked with Susan B. Anthony to raise the necessary funding for the University of Rochester to admit woman and Henriette's two daughters were among the small group of woman who were the first to enter the University as students in 1900.

b. 23 Mar 1827 in London, England - d. 6 Oct 1885 in Rochester, NY; buried Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester; The Frick Art Reference Library provides this information about the portrait: "Brown hair and eyes. Black dress, white lace collar, red scarf. Brown and gold earrings and brooch. Brown frame chair with red upholstery. Brown background. Signed and dated on back."

b. 1835 - d. 1908; second wife of Byron Daniel McAlpine (1824-1894); both buried Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester; Susan was one of five siblings, including sister Mary Elizabeth Potter Hart, born to Henry Sayre Potter and Harriet Benedict Potter. Henry was an extremely successful businessman, first as a general store owner in Pittsford, NY for 32 years and then for another 34 years beginning in 1850 in Rochester as founder/director of Eagle Bank and the largest shareholder and first president of the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, which eventually became The Western Union Telegraph Company, where Potter became its first president in 1856. Susan's portrait is one of only a few full-length Cook renderings known to exist [see Judge Halsey Rogers and Millard Powers Fillmore]. Although only a black and white photograph is available, a description of the painting at the Frick Art Reference Library says: "Brown hair, gray eyes. Green dress, white lace undersleeves, brown parasol with white handle, red scarf on table at lower right. Olive-brown background." Signed on reverse: "Painted by Nelson Cook / Rochester, NY / 1853."

b.2 Jan 1831 in Pittsford, NY - d. 13 Apr 1891 in Rochester, NY.; buried Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester, NY; sister of Susan Julia Potter and possible companion piece to her portrait; wife of Charles Edward Hart (1827-1894) and mother to their three children, Harriet, Howard, and Mary Belle. Noted by Rochester Historical Society.

  b. 4 Jan 1838 in Bridgeport, CT - d. 15 Jul 1883; buried Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, CT; birth name was Charles Sherwood Stratton, who was a normal sized baby but grew extremely slowly after six months of age and had a height of only 3 feet 4 inches at the time of his death; given the stage name of "General Tom Thumb" by P.T. Barnum, who first met the boy at age five and taught him to sing, dance, mime, and impersonate well-known people; toured the United States and Europe with Barnum and performed for the likes of Queen Victoria and President Lincoln; married Lavinia Warren, another "little person" in 1863 and they had no children; retired from performing in 1882 and died of a stroke about one year later. On January 31 1878 the Weekly Saratogian newspaper of Saratoga Springs, NY printed the following: "One of the best-known likenesses of General Tom Thumb, the veteran dwarf, was made about a quarter of a century ago by Nelson Cook, the portrait painter, formerly of Saratoga Springs, now a resident of Rome [NY]. Mr. Cook saw the General but once and afterwards painted the portrait from memory." Cook also referred to this portrait in a letter of 30 May 1880 in which he claimed a gallery owner said he could find someone to buy the work for $175. The painting's final disposition has yet to be determined.

Wamsley is listed as owner of Portrait of a Gentleman in record of National Academy of Art & Design   

Exhibition in NYC  (catalog number 196). Could Wamsley himself be the "gentleman"?  Cook also suggested in a May 1860 letter from New York City that he is to do a portrait of a "Mrs. Wamsley." However, it is unclear if her portrait was ever done by Cook, or if Edward’s portrait still exists.

For many years the above references were the only information the caretakers of this site had about Edward Wamsley and his wife. But, with a high degree of certainty, further research has finally identified the Wamsleys. Based on advertising Cook ran in Rochester newspapers in 1853 and 1854 and from his letters, we know the artist had studios in the city, first at the Blossom Hotel, and then at the Crystal Palace Block. For reasons discussed below, at precisely these same times and from these same two locations, the three “Wamsley Brothers” ran their milliner and silk business. The three brothers were Thomas, Joseph, and………Edward! Further, this Edward Wamsley had ties to both Rochester and New York City, which, per Cook’s May 1860 letter, is consistent with what could have been a wealthy Mrs. Wamsley’s occasional visits to NYC. Certainly, this Edward Wamsley would have had ample opportunity to commission Cook to paint his portrait at some point in the mid-1850s. So, at long last, here is the rest of Edward Wamsley’s story.

b. 1820, in Enniskillen, Ireland (Now Northern Ireland) - d. 30 August 1893 New York, NY; buried Fort Plain (NY) Cemetery; married Maria Lighthall (1826-1900) circa 1853; little is known of Wamsley’s early life, other than he immigrated to New York from Ireland in 1838 at the age of 18, and at some point he and his two brothers established themselves as dry goods merchants in Poughkeepsie, NY; Edward and his brothers then relocated to Rochester in about 1850, and set up shop as milliners and silk merchants on Main Street; they relocated their business to the Blossom Hotel in May 1853, and in January 1854 the hotel and their business were totally destroyed by the most disastrous fire ever to hit Rochester; [From Cook’s letters, we know the artist’s Blossom Hotel studio was nearly destroyed by this fire and that Cook was able to remove some of his art materials before the fire leveled the entire area, but even so, some of his painting “specimens” were still lost to the fire, which exhausted him from “overexertion” for a period of time in 1854. Cook then moved his studio to the Crystal Palace Block of Rochester.]; after the fire the Wamsley Brothers also moved their business to the Crystal Palace Block, and in the meantime, on the site of the same block demolished by fire, began construction of what was to become the “Marble Palace,” which was described at the time as “a magnificent block, equal, if not superior, to anything in Westen New York;” with construction completed about 1 January 1855, Edward and his brothers moved their business to the new building where their “elegant” sales room occupied the entire ground floor; brother Joseph died in 1856, but in 1857 Edward and his surviving brother, Thomas, began construction of another building adjacent to their original “Marble Block,” and upon completion in 1858 moved into their new location (the expanded block described as “now the finest in the State out of the city of New York”) to sell “the new Parisian styles of millinery and fancy goods!”; the two Wamsley brothers continued in the millinery business, but did so with separate enterprises from 1860 to 1871 (See Edward’s 1860 advertisement to the right), when they teamed up again, presumably until 1876 when Edward permanently retired to New York City, where he died in 1893; as a post-script, in 1904 the Wamsley’s Marble Block also was totally destroyed by fire.