Birgitta Moran Farmer: The Life and Collected Works of an American Miniaturist

By Therese Ellsworth, John James Kalamarides and Kathleen Kalamarides

Birgitta Kathleen Moran Farmer, artist, wife, mother, and community volunteer was born 23 May 1881. She died 17 January 1939 leaving her husband and four children.

Her life, work and legacy are enduring examples for our children and grandchildren and all her relatives as they (paraphrasing Birgitta) remember the power of good example, inform themselves in the duties of their life, improve themselves by good reading, and study the arts."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524553517

Therese Ellsworth

Kathleen Kalamarides was very fortunate to have inherited a great deal of material about the family from her parents and, in trying to put it in a useable format for her children to read, became interested in sharing it with the rest of the family. Her grandmother’s paintings developed into an intriguing topic. She lives in Wilton, CT with her husband, John. They have three children and ten grandchildren. Therese Ellsworth is a musicologist specializing in the concert life of 19th-century London, in particular women pianists. Her publications include The Piano in Nineteenth-Century British Culture co-edited with Susan Wollenberg (Ashgate, 2007), book chapters and journal articles. She lives with her husband in Washington, DC. They have three children and five grandchildren. John James Kalamarides is the oldest son of Kathleen. Jamie is an executive with Prudential Financial and advocates for public policies to expand financial security for low and moderate-income families. He is also a board member of the Corporation for Enterprise Development and serves on the Archdiocese of Hartford’s Pastoral Council. He lives with his wife, Diana, in West Simsbury, CT. They have five children.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Kathleen C. Kalamarides, Therese M. Ellsworth and John James Kalamarides. 707342

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016917684

ISBN:   Softcover     978-1-5245-5350-0

             Hardcover   978-1-5245-5352-4

             EBook         978-1-5245-5351-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 01/25/2017

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

BIRGITTA MORAN FARMER:

THE LIFE AND COLLECTED WORKS OF AN AMERICAN MINIATURIST

by

Kathleen C. Kalamarides

Therese M. Ellsworth

and

John J. Kalamarides

Table of Contents

Preface

About the Authors

List of Figures

Abbreviations

Chapter 1   Childhood and Early Education (1881-1902)

Chapter 2   Undergraduate Years at Syracuse University (1902-1906)

Chapter 3   Fellowship Year in Paris (1906-1907)

Chapter 4   Paris in 1906

Chapter 5   Mrs. Whitelaw Reid’s Club for the American Girl in Paris

Chapter 6   Early Career (1907-1913)

Chapter 7   Professional and Family Life (1913-1939)

Chapter 8   A Brief Art History of the Portrait Miniature Revival

Chapter 9   Genealogy

Appendix    Art Works by Birgitta Kathleen Moran Farmer

Catalogue

Preface

Birgitta Kathleen Moran Farmer, artist, wife, mother, and community volunteer was born 23 May 1881. James Garfield was president of the United States, a country that comprised thirty-eight states. In the same month, Clara Barton established the Red Cross. Others born that year included artist Pablo Picasso, composer Béla Bartók, film director and producer Cecil B. DeMille, writer P.G. Wodehouse, entrepreneur William Boeing and Pope John Paul XXIII.

She died 17 January 1939 leaving her husband and four children. In 1992, Mary Margaret McAfee, their oldest child, wrote four pages of family history that began Often I think of opportunities I missed to quiz an older generation about our heritage—our family history. Today I realized that I am the ‘Keeper of the Flame’. The last of Birgitta’s children died in 2014 and now we, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, find ourselves the keepers. And so we have taken up that flame and worked to produce this memoir of our ancestor in order to pay tribute to her and to preserve her memory for succeeding generations.

The idea began with John James Kalamarides and his mother, Kathleen Kalamarides (daughter of Anne Farmer Cooney) who over the years has collected genealogy information on the several families that comprise our grandparents. She has shepherded this project, collected the information about extant works and constructed the catalogue of the surviving artworks by Birgitta Moran Farmer. Jamie Kalamarides challenged and encouraged his mother, contributed financial support and wrote on the historical context of the lifetime of Birgitta Moran Farmer. With her extensive research and writing experience Therese Ellsworth, daughter of Kathleen Farmer Nicholson, has contributed the biographical sections of the book.

We are very grateful to all of the owners of Birgitta’s works for permission to publish them in this catalogue.

In addition to the art itself, sources comprise family letters and postcards, newspaper clippings, obituaries, a partial diary by Birgitta during her graduate year in Paris, photographs, and other documents and memorabilia that have been passed down and are currently in the possession of her grandchildren. We have uncovered new information or verified family sources through archival and historical research. Although we would wish to have had more letters and other material written by our grandmother, the numerous letters to her and the Paris diary have contributed to our understanding of the family she grew up in, to our knowledge of events in her life, and to an appreciation of the character and strength of this woman.

Unfortunately, Grandmother’s early death meant that none of us met her. But we are grateful to have known her through the memories of her children and by means of this project. We hope her life, work and legacy are enduring examples for our children and grandchildren and all her relatives as they (paraphrasing Birgitta) remember the power of good example, inform themselves in the duties of their life, improve themselves by good reading, and study the arts.

Kathleen, Therese & Jamie

September 2016

About the Authors

Kathleen C. Kalamarides was very fortunate to have inherited a great deal of material about the family from her parents and, in trying to put it in a useable format for her children to read, became interested in sharing it with the rest of the family. Her grandmother’s paintings developed into an intriguing topic. She lives in Wilton, CT with her husband, John. They have three children and ten grandchildren.

Therese M. Ellsworth, granddaughter of Birgitta Farmer, is a musicologist specializing in the concert life of 19th-century London, in particular women pianists. Her publications include The Piano in Nineteenth-Century British Culture co-edited with Susan Wollenberg (Ashgate, 2007), book chapters and journal articles. She lives with her husband in Washington, DC. They have three children and six grandchildren.

John James Kalamarides is the oldest son of Kathleen. Jamie is an executive with Prudential Financial and advocates for public policies to expand financial security for low and moderate-income families. He is also a board member of the Corporation for Enterprise Development and serves on the Archdiocese of Hartford’s Pastoral Council. He lives with his wife, Diana, in West Simsbury, CT. They have five children.

List of Figures

Figure 1 Moran House at 42 Phelps St, Lyons, NY c 1895

Figure 2 Moran Family in Front of 42 Phelps St Lyons, NY

Figure 3 Birgitta Moran in Crouse Hall at School of Fine Arts, Syracuse, NY

Figure 4 Birgitta’s Graduation from Syracuse University 1906

Figure 5 Reid Hall et ses Jardins (Toile attribué à une artiste américaine c 1900)

Figure 6 Front of Académie de la Grande Chaumière

Figure 7 Plaque on front of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière

Figure 8 Birgitta in a Fashionable Dress with Corset

Figure 9 Wedding Photo of Birgitta Moran Farmer, 1913

Figure 10 912 N. Alvord Street, Syracuse, NY

Figure 11 Farmer Family c 1927

Figure 12 Birgitta Moran Farmer, probably Early 1920s

Figure 13 206 Sedgwick Drive, Syracuse, NY

Figure 14 Thomas Patrick Farmer

Figure 15 Letter from Birgitta to her Family, 7 December 1936, page 1

Figure 16 Letter from Birgitta to her Family, 7 December 1936, page 2

Abbreviations

Chapter 1

Childhood and Early Education (1881-1902)

When Birgitta Kathleen Moran was born on 23 May 1881, she was the seventh of eight children of Bridget Fitzpatrick Moran and Daniel Moran. The family lived a comfortable life in Lyons, NY, a small, prosperous town along the Erie Canal. Daniel Moran (1833-1914) had emigrated at age seventeen with his family from Ireland to the United States. They settled in the Finger Lakes region of New York State where his father established a clothing business in Waterloo, located between the northern tips of Lake