Mundy, Ethel Frances - portrait of Archibald Graham Thompson Jr

There are other miniature wax portraits by Ethel Frances Mundy in this collection, see 3 American Miniature Portraits: Mundy, Ethel Frances - portrait of ... for examples, where there is also information about the artist.

This one is 140mm (six inches) in diameter. It is inscribed "A Portrait of Archibald Graham Thomson Junior - MCMXV" that is 1915, and at the bottom "Ethel Mundy fecit. While the child is wearing a dress and has bobbed hair, it is still a boy, as it was common to dress boys in this manner until they were aged two or three years old. The wax miniature corresponds with the photo of his mother with a child, which may be AGT or his half brother.

Archibald Graham Thomson Junior was born 9 Sep 1912 at Philadelphia and died on 22 Oct 2003. He was the son of Archibald G Thomson Sr (13 Sep 1869-21 Oct 1917) and Mary Lowber Welsh (8 Oct 1868?-3 Feb 1929, who were married on 29 September 1909. AGT senior was a physician in general practice and also a cricketer in the 1890's, see http://stats.thecricketer.com/Players/27/27362/27362.html AGT Sr and his father William published papers in on color blindness and other eye treatments which are described at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1322325/pdf/taos00146-0113.pdf and at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1322480/pdf/taos00147-0206.pdf and at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1322450/pdf/taos00144-0235.pdf and at
http://ukpmc.ac.uk/articles/PMC1322329/reload=0;jsessionid=WR9HW7fbadnbbPuzaclz.10

The obituary of AGT Sr recorded; Archibald G. Thomson, M.D., Philadelphia ; University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1892; aged 48; formerly a Fellow of the American Medical Association ; a member of the American Laryngological Association ; well known as an ophthalmologist; a member of the staff of University, Wills, and the Orthopedic Hospital ; died in the private hospital of Dr. Francis X. Dercum, Philadelphia, October 22, from heart disease.


The marriage of Mary to AGT was her second marriage, the first being to Thomas Brown Wanamaker who died in Paris (1862-1908) on 27 Apr 1887, son of John Wanamaker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Her first wedding was a huge event in Philadelphia with 12 ushers and 12 bridesmaids.

Mary's two previous Wanamaker children were living with the Thomson family in 1910, after her second marriage to AGT. The family was wealthy as the 1910 census records a butler, a governess, a nurse, three servants and a laborer living in their house in Chestnut Avenue.If her birth year is correct, Mary would have been aged 44 when AGT Jr was born in 1912. Her second marriage was a major contrast with very few guests.

By the 1930 census AGT Jr was living with his half-brother Thomas B Wanamaker and eight servants in Radnor, Delaware. With TBW, then aged 25, declaring an annual income of $140,000 and describing himself as a merchant. AGT Jr was 17 and gave no occupation. By then both his parents had died. His half-brother, Thomas B. Wanamaker Jr. died on Feb. 23, 1991 as reported in the Princeton Alumni Weekly.
Tom came to Princeton from Ardmore, Penn. and Haverford school, and left the campus in June 1924. He led a roving life: on the Main Line outside of Philadelphia; in Pasadena, Calif.; in Hawaii; Darien, Conn.; a retirement community in Florida; and finally in Ridgefield, Conn. George Denniston describes Tom as quiet and reserved and his half-brother Archibald G. Thomson agrees. He had a deep interest in the theater and in music. A contrasting devotion was to outdoor life, and he enjoyed running his Deep Well Ranch in Palm Springs, Calif., and raising Irish wolf hounds in Pasadena. He was intensely interested in tennis, and attended the big tournaments near his residence in Florida. Always ready for adventure, Tom took WWII in stride, enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and made himself useful as a storekeeper in the South Pacific area, which, as other 1927ers know well, was anything but pacific. He was released from the service Jan. 26, 1946 with the rating of Sk 2/c. Tom, obviously a modest fellow, reported briefly for the Class TWENTY YEAR RECORD, but not for our later biographical volumes. One suspects that the reticence veils what must have been one of 1927's most adventurous and colorful lives. The Class renders thanks for information given by Tom's sister-in-law (Mrs. Rodman Wanamaker) and by his half-brother, Archibald G. Thomson.

The brothers made this gift to the Philadelphia Museum;

Costume and Textiles

Chasuble

Made in Italy

Mid- 18th century

Artist/maker unknown, Italian

Silk satin weave embroidered with silk, silver, and gilt thread in couched filling, split, outline, satin, long and short, padded satin, and couching stitches and French knots
Length x Width: 49 1/4 x 29 inches (125.1 x 73.7 cm)

Currently not on view

1942-33-12

Gift of Thomas B. Wanamaker, Jr. and Archibald G. Thomson from the Thomas B. Wanamaker Collection, 1942


They also presented to the Museum this dress. The fabric is a white silk taffeta, hand-painted with a flower, leaf, and trailing-vine pattern.1 Based on the width of the fabric, aspects of the painted design, and evidence of the painting techniques employed, we know that the fabric was woven and painted in China. The cut of the dress is typical of a later-eighteenth-century robe à la française: It has a fitted bodice with rounded neckline and short sleeves, a pleated back (not shown), and a wide skirt with an exposed underskirt. (In this image, the underskirt is not original.) The skirt opening is embellished on both sides with a length of the same fabric, box-pleated horizontally; the width of this decoration increases from the waist to the hem. The neckline is also trimmed with narrow (but vertically oriented) box pleats. These fabric insets are then trimmed with a gold-colored silk fringe, here most easily visible at the neckline.

On AGT Jr's death Sotheby's auctioned a diamond brooch. The cartouche of foliate scrolls anchored by a festoon and pairs of fringes, set with 4 old European-cut and 4 pear-shaped diamonds and with 220 smaller old European-cut diamonds, altogether weighing a total of approximately 16.50 carats, mounted in platinum. Provenance: PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ARCHIBALD G. THOMSON, WAYNE, PENNYSYLVANIA.

AGT Jr appears to have married Mary Hayes Fletcher (daughter of Charles Fletcher and Annie Hamilton Watson). She married (1) Tristram Coffin Colket (which name seems to have been carried through several generations). She married (2) Archibald Graham Thomson,Sr. and had two sons, one also called AGT Jr (III) who died on 7 Nov 2009 aged 71, and a second named Charles Fletcher Thomson. This Mary is likely the one quoted in Sports Illustrated on February 11, 1957 answering the Question: If You Saw Someone Violating The Fish And Game Laws Would You Report Him To A Game Warden?

MRS. ARCHIBALD G. THOMSON
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Housewife
I'm tempted to say I would. But would I? I love to shoot, have gone railbird shooting and have shot pheasant and quail. I also shot grouse from Invercauld Castle in Scotland. I know how people can be tempted. I'd never violate the hunting laws, but I couldn't report others.

AGT III worked most of his career in residential real estate finishing at Prudential Roche in the Rosemont. He specialized in selling very large private houses on the Main Line. At college he was an All-New-England small college soccer player and played goalie. He had lived in the Main Line all his life. Mr. Thomson served in the National Guard and in the First Philadelphia City Troop unit. He had been a member of the Merion Cricket Club and of the Racquet Club in Phila. Always interested in hunting, he liked pheasant and grouse hunting and had also quail hunted several times at plantations in Georgia and once had driven grouse in Scotland with his father. In his later years, AGT III volunteered at local retirement homes often reading to seniors with limited sight. He liked cars and had owned many different sports cars. Always fond of dogs, he owned a series of West Highland Terriers. 1456