American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell (70 page)

The Connoisseur
, 1962

(Collection of Steven Spielberg)

NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES

INTRODUCTION: WELCOME TO ROCKWELL LAND

  
1
. Deborah Solomon, “In Praise of Bad Art,”
The New York Times Magazine
, January 24, 1999, pp. 32–35.

  
2
. Harold Johnson, “Why Parsley?”
The Boston Sunday Globe
, September 5, 1948, p. 43.

  
3
. Kai Erikson, e-mail to the author, August 8, 2012.

  
4
. NR, letter to Dr. Robert Knight, January 13, 1955, fMS Am 2249, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  
5
.
My Adventures
, p. 49.

  
6
. Anne Hollander,
Seeing Through Clothes
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p. 391.

1. THE BIRD MAN OF YONKERS (1830 TO 1888)

  
1
. Donald Walton,
A Rockwell Portrait: An Intimate Biography
(Kansas City, MO: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1978), pp. 29–30.

  
2
. NR, letter to Joseph Kelly at Parke-Bernet, February 28, 1967, NRM.

  
3
. Birth certificates of Susan Ann (born October 1852, can’t read date) and baptized on January 2; Thomas (born October 24, 1855); and Amy Eliza.

  
4
.
New York Tribune
, April 28, 1865, p. 4.

  
5
. Classified ad,
The New York Herald
, March 8, 1869, p. 2. See also ads on August 9, 1869, and December 1, 1868, p. 12.

  
6
. 1870 U.S. Census.

  
7
. Yonkers City Directory, 1877, lists him at 285 Woodworth.

  
8
. He was included in the spring annuals at the Academy in 1881, 1884, and 1885, according to catalog entries, and in the winter show of 1883.

  
9
. Ann Hill’s death certificate, April 25, 1886; courtesy of Yonkers courthouse.

10
. He died on Tuesday, August 17, 1886. The funeral was held on Friday at 3:30 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

11
. Howard Hill’s death certificate, March 6, 1888; courtesy of Yonkers courthouse.

12
. Yonkers City Directory, 1886, p. 27.

13
. According to the 1880 census, Waring was twelve and two “servants”—an Irish maid and a butler—were living in the family’s house.

14
. “Rockwell-Hill,”
The Yonkers Statesman
, July 24, 1891, p. 1.

15
. Genealogy courtesy of Edward Mendelson; see also Auden’s “Family Ghosts” website.

16
. Rockwell never met Captain Perceval, who died in 1902.

17
. Rockwell’s mother, letter to her daughter-in-law, February 26, 1946, NRM.

2. NOT A NORMAN ROCKWELL CHILDHOOD (1894 TO 1911)

  
1
. NR, unpublished interview with Thomas Rockwell, 1959, compact disk, NRM.

  
2
. Rockwell said they moved in after the death of his grandfather’s mother, Mrs. Orilla J. Sherman Rockwell, who died on January 30, 1902, aged ninety-four. His grandmother Phebe died on March 28, 1903.

  
3
. NR, unpublished essay, 1952, from a writing class in Bennington with Francis Golffing; courtesy of Thomas Rockwell.

  
4
. Obituary of Grace W. Johnson,
The New York Herald
, February 19, 1901, p. 1.

  
5
. Grace was married to Ephriam Sherman Johnson.

  
6
. They belonged there until October 1906, according to records from St. Thomas Episcopal in Mamaroneck, to which they then switched.

  
7
. NR, unpublished interview with Thomas Rockwell, 1959, compact disk, NRM.

  
8
.
My Adventures
, p. 41.

  
9
. Phebe Jessup Taylor, letter to
The Saturday Evening Post
, April 9, 1960, p. 6.

10
.
My Adventures
, p. 48.

11
. Ibid.

12
.
The New York Herald
, December 31, 1905, Magazine Section, p. 16. The item mentions that he was living at 832 St. Nicholas Avenue.

13
. Quoted in David Michaelis,
N. C. Wyeth: A Biography
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 35.

14
. Ibid., p. 36.

15
. Ibid., p. 37.

16
. He claimed in his autobiography that he moved to Mamaroneck in 1903, which is incorrect. He was still in New York in December 1905, when he won the
Herald
contest.

17
. At the time, the address was 121 Prospect Avenue.

18
. “Norman P. Rockwell Making a Success at Illustrating,”
Evening Standard
(New Rochelle), February 19, 1916, p. 1.

19
. Office of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, e-mail to the author, January 20, 2012. The Rockwells joined the church on October 24, 1906; Norman was confirmed on April 15, 1908, when he was fourteen years old.

20
.
My Adventures
, p. 52.

21
.
My Adventures
, p. 54. According to the 1910 census, Frank F. German lived at 102 Prospect Avenue; the Titus family lived at 108.

22
.
My Adventures,
p. 49.

23
. Quoted by Michiko Kakutani, in
The New York Times
on August 10, 2001, in a review of John F. Kasson,
Houdini,
Tarzan, and The Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2001).

24
. “Norman P. Rockwell Making a Success at Illustrating,”
Evening Standard
(New Rochelle), February 19, 1916, p. 1.

25
. “Noted Artist has Regular ‘Audience’ of 6,000,000 People,” February 4, 1931, unidentified newspaper clipping from the artists’ files of the New Rochelle Public Library.

26
. NR, unpublished interview with Thomas Rockwell, 1959, compact disk, NRM.

27
. According to his Mamaroneck High School transcript, he completed his junior year.

3. THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE (SEPTEMBER 1911 TO 1912)

  
1
. NR, unpublished interview with Thomas Rockwell, 1959, compact disk, NRM.

  
2
.
My Adventures
, p. 75.

  
3
. League registration cards; courtesy of the Art Students League.

  
4
. Quoted in Gail Levin,
Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), p. 39.

  
5
.
My Adventures
, p. 72.

  
6
. Ibid., p. 68. Art Young later became a well-known political cartoonist whose work appeared in
The Masses
.

  
7
. Fogarty lived on West Seventy-first Street, according to the 1910 U.S. Census, within walking distance of the League.

  
8
.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, May 17, 1912. Also, “News and Notes of the Art World,”
The New York Times
, May 19, 1912, p. SM15. In his autobiography, Rockwell incorrectly described his winning drawing as that of a boy confined to his bed with mumps on July 4, watching as fireworks explode in the sky outside his window. It would be one of Rockwell’s abiding themes: a kid’s feeling of having missed out on something, of being unable to experience pleasure except as an observer on the sidelines.

  
9
. In 1912 the Rockwell family was listed in the Mamaroneck City Directory at 269 Palmer Avenue, which was then a nursery owned by John and Victoria Hallett. The Rockwell family rented rooms here for a brief period before moving back to New York City.

10
.
My Adventures
, p. 97.

11
. Thomas Rockwell, in a letter to Ken McCormick, on September 8, 1959, assured him, in reference to the boardinghouse: “all the names but Mrs. Frothingham have been changed”; box 115, the Ken McCormick Collection of the Records of Doubleday & Company, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

12
.
My Adventures
, p. 106.

13
. Ibid.

4. THE BOY SCOUTS VERSUS THE ARMORY SHOW (SEPTEMBER 1912 TO DECEMBER 1913)

  
1
. National Academy of Art school registration card; courtesy of the National Academy of Art. The card indicates that on October 28, 1912, he entered a life-drawing class taught by Francis C. Jones and George Maynard.

  
2
.
My Adventures
, pp. 94–95.

  
3
. Spring 1919 interview, clipping from unidentified newspaper in the artists’ files of the New Rochelle Public Library.

  
4
. Although Rockwell devotes many pages of his autobiography to his opera experiences, the Metropolitan Opera has no record of him as an extra. His roles were probably less substantial than he recalled.

  
5
. Marjorie Garber,
Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety
(New York: Routledge, 1992), p. 171.

  
6
. Cave is listed in the 1912 Mamaroneck city directory at 53 Palmer Avenue.

  
7
. It was published by Doubleday, Page in 1913.

  
8
.
Boys’ Life
, January 1913, p 2.

  
9
. Although Cave was replaced as editor by Walter P. McGuire in July 1913, Rockwell continued providing illustrations for
Boys’ Life
after Cave left.

10
. It has been reported incorrectly in several books that Rockwell did a cover for
Boys’ Life
every month; his covers were intermittent.

11
. Rufus Jarman, “Profiles: U.S. Artist” (a profile of Norman Rockwell), part 2, in
The New Yorker
, March 24, 1945, p. 40.

12
. NR, unpublished essay, 1952, from a writing class in Bennington with Francis Golffing; courtesy of Thomas Rockwell.

13
. According to the records of the Art Students League, Rockwell signed up for just three monthlong classes in the 1912–1913 school year: “Morning Life” on October 2, “Afternoon Life” on January 6, and “Afternoon Illustration” on February 17.

14
.
Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine
, November 1912.

5. NEW ROCHELLE, ART CAPITAL OF THE WORLD (1914 TO 1916)

  
1
. “Catalog of Paintings on Exhibition,” May 9 to May 23, 1914; courtesy of the New Rochelle Public Library.

  
2
. Unsigned article, “A Champion of Mere Man in Art—Artist Leyendecker Supplies Companions for Gibson Girls,”
The Sun
(New York), July 13, 1913, p. 8.

  
3
. Illustration for “The Magic Football,” by Ralph Henry Barbour,
St. Nicholas
, December 1914, p. 131.

  
4
.
My Adventures
, p. 44.

  
5
. Rockwell said his studio was in the Clovelly Building at 360 North Avenue; although the 1914 city directory lists his studio at 78 North Avenue.

  
6
. A letter to Jarvis at Edgewood Hall is dated July 19, 1915. A letter written the previous April was sent to him at 17 Prospect Street. So they moved to Edgewood Hall between April 26 and July 19.

  
7
.
New Rochelle Pioneer
, October 2, 1915, p. 5.

  
8
. Adelaide Klenke, “Who’s Who,”
The New Rochelle Tattler
, February 9, 1916.

  
9
.
New Rochelle Pioneer
, February 19, 1916, p. 1.

10
. Address provided in the 1907 city directory.

11
. NR, unpublished interview with Thomas Rockwell, 1959, compact disk, NRM.

12
.
My Adventures
, p. 131.

13
. Ezra Pound,
The Cantos of Ezra Pound
(New York: New Directions Publishing, 1996), p. 539.

14
.
Life
, January 24, 1969, p. 53.

15
. Donald Walton,
A Rockwell Portrait: An Intimate Biography
(Kansas City, MO: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1978), p. 87.

16
. Roger Butterfield, “The Best Years of a Long, Full Life,”
Life
, January 24, 1969, p. 55.

17
. Collier Schorr,
The Essential Norman Rockwell
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999), p. 24.

18
. “Rockwell’s Kid Cartoons Are Making a Hit,”
Evening Standard
(New Rochelle), August 4, 1916, p. 1.

6. IRENE O’CONNOR, OR UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU (1916 TO 1918)

  
1
. Richard Rockwell (son of Jarvis and Norman’s nephew), interview with the author, February 11, 2000.

  
2
. His height is given as five foot seven on his World War I draft registration card.

  
3
. Jarvis Rockwell, letter to Caroline Cushman; courtesy of his son, Richard Rockwell.

  
4
. Irene O’Connor was born on July 2, 1890, in Watertown, New York.

  
5
. The 1900 census lists the family in Potsdam, on Prospect Street, along with Irene’s maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather.

  
6
. “Engagement Announced,”
Watertown Daily Times
, September 8, 1914, p. 2.