In March 1969, Guy Bryan Holt, great-great grandson of Laurent Clerc retired as the President of the Board of Directors at the American School for the Deaf (ASD). Elected to the board in 1949, this Clerc relative became the board president in 1953 and oversaw the expansion of ASD for 13 years. Guy B. appeared to be the most involved Clerc relative and took a person interest in what happened at ASD, the school that his great great grandfather, Laurent Clerc helped found and open on April 17, 1816.
In order to honor Guy B. and his contributions to ASD, the school decided to have a portrait painted by a local but increasingly well known artist, Mrs. Sylvia Davis-Patricelli. The portrait hung for many years in the Guy B. Holt Dorm at ASD. I enjoyed seeing it the few times that I visited it over the years.
However, in order to preserve it, the painting was transferred to its present resting place, the library on the 2nd floor of the Cogswell Hertiage House Museum on campus. There it hung for many years before one of the museum curator and long time ASD teacher, Brad Moseley took pity on it and paid for its restoration. Thank you Brad!
Now one of Brad's jobs at the museum is to search through old issues of the America Era magazine produced by ASD for decades and decades. Brad compiles data on each year and records the names and events for the databases. He often sends me articles related to my family or that are specific to Laurent Clerc.
This week Brad sent along an article that appeared in the America Era. It is represented in the first photo on this page. It is the unveiling of his portrait and Mrs. Sylvia Davis-Patricelli is standing with him. I love this portrait as it is the only one that I know was painted of Guy B. Now Guy B. was a stand up guy. Yale graduate, banker and President of the Trust Department at CBT in Hartford. Most of my advantages in life are the result of Guy B's careful stewardship of our family. I recently posted his obituary and I was surprised to learn of his commitment to the Hartford and West Hartford community.
So was he deserving of his own portrait, I think he might have been. But what of his artist, Mrs. Sylvia Davis-Patricelli? Who was she and what was her story?
I googled her and found that Sylvia had immgrated from Australia as a war bride after having found some success in her home country.
She was intimiately contexted to the West Hartford social scene that included the director of ASD. So when they were thinking of a portrait for Guy B. they did not have to look too far. Sylvia was commissioned to create this masterpiece.
As fate would have it, at the bottom of her biography was an email of Susan Patricelli Regan of Granby, CT. So I sent off an email to her thanking her mother for creation of the portrait. You never know what is going to happen when you send a "cold call" email to strangers. But within hours Susan contacted me about the photo, which she had never seen before. She told me about Sylvia's connection to the ASD adminstration and her business of doing commissioned portraits.
She was known for painting some significant personages in our nations history. One of her most famous was a very flattering portrait of Elenor Roosevelt. Here she is at an opening of an exhibition with Elenor in tow.
After Sylvia passed away, Susan helped to create a foundation that provides scholarships to young inspiring artists, https://www.sylviadavisartfoundation.org.
What an exciting find for me and some very fascinating connects to ASD. To boot, Susan and her husband, Bill, are producers of an award winning interview format series, CT Valley Views, that makes it to CT Public Television stations. And Susan thought that it would be a wonderful idea to do a segment on the portrait story, ASD's museum and Sylvia's foundation. Telephone calls and emails started to fly and plans are being made. We will keep you updated on this exciting new project.
-Laurent-
Comments