Annie Shinn Revisited

Hello, world, it's been a minute. I've been busy with the first year of my Public History MA. You can see some of that work in a website I helped edit, Hayward is Home—my section is about Bird Nerds.

My other recently-published work, in East Bay Historia, strays much further afield, focusing on the death and legacy of a nineteenth-century Argentine guerrilla fighter, Ángel Vicente Peñaloza, better known as "El Chacho" ("Bearded, Barefoot, and Barbaric: The Bandit-ification of “El Chacho” Peñaloza and his Guerrilla Montonera, Argentina, 1820s-1863," starting on pg. 198).

Gaucho followers of Ángel Vicente “El Chacho” Peñaloza taken prisoner by Commander Pablo Irrazábal in the Battle of Caucete, 1863.

And then this past semester, I dove into researching mental hospitals in nineteenth-century America, and more specifically, California's first mental hospital, the Stockton Insane Asylum. But more on that in a future entry...

Meanwhile, back on the (Shinn) ranch...

I figured to dip my toes back into this blog I could give some updates on my previous entries about Annie. After all, it's not often that one gets updates about someone who died almost 150 years ago!

Painting of Sim Cottage in its original location by Alameda Creek with a girl reading on the front porch, painted by "Cousin Lue" (as Lucy Hooker (Clark) Tichenor is called in the Lucy Letters), 1875.

I didn't include this painting in my first two posts about Annie Holbrook Shinn because we weren't certain who the girl sitting on the porch was. Recently, we ran across a document prepared by the Vice Admiral Allen Mayhew Shinn, where he shares that family lore is that the girl on the front steps of Sim's Cottage is Annie herself, reading a book.

Detail of girl reading book on front porch of Sim Cottage.

Herman Schnabel painting of Shinn House, ca. late 1880s

In sorting through the many boxes of papers, books, and other treasures that have been stored in the basement for decades, we ran across some notes from the VADM about this painting of the Shinn House by Herman(n) Schnabel. 

Included at the end is a nota bene about the painting of Sim Cottage.

Transcription is as follows:

"PAINTING OF SHINN HOUSE

(HANGING IN DAY ROOM)

Written by Allen M. Shinn

May 6, 1995

This painting is by Herman Schnabel, a Bavarian artist of the late 1800's–early 1900's. He was married to Lucy H. Clark (born 1844), niece of my grandfather, James Shinn—favorite "Cousin Lu" of my father, Joseph Clark, and my Aunt Milicent W. Shinn. 

Portrait of Lucy Hooker (Clark) Tichenor, 1878

Lucy H. Clark also was an artist, and in the late 1800's, after her first husband Henry B. Tichenor died, she

traveled in Europe, met and married "Herr Schnabel"—as the family always referred to him. They lived in Munich and a villa in Berchtesgaden-Haus Lubeck (long before Hitler!). It was still standing in 1953 when I visited there.

Not long after their marriage she returned to California with him to visit her family in San Francisco and her Shinn relatives in the house painted here. (Picture is now in the Shinn House.) Both my grandfather and grandmother and my father and Aunt Milicent were living in the house at the time of the visit and often spoke of it when I was young. Herr Schnabel was not attuned to Milicent Shinn's quite forthright feminist opinions! [emphasis mine]

This painting of the Shinn House was done by Herr Schnabel during their visit and given to the family at that time (1888 or 1889). The Schnabels also visited the Mendocino Coast during their California journey,

painted a number of scenes of that coastal area, including some Indian settlement and canoes, and especially of the redwoods and the redwood saw mill area at Navarro. This mill and extensive forest area, as well as some schooners in the San Francisco and Alaska trade had belonged to Lucy (Clark) Schnabel's first husband, Henry B. Tichenor. The newspaper report of probate of his estate stated that she inherited "one million dollars," a sizable sum in the 1880's, which enabled her to travel in Europe and indulge in her love of painting. Their California visit probably involved settling some matters in the Tichenor Estate, as well as a family visit. 

Painting of Navarro(?) River, possibly by Lucy Hooker (Clark) Tichenor Schnabel, ca. 1870s-1880s

When I was young there were numerous Schnabel paintings of Berchtesgaden and the Bavarian Alps, such as the Koenig See (one I remember). I have been told—but have not proof—that he had sold paintings in Europe and also in San Francisco. If so, that would explain the European paintings, perhaps brought out here in hope of sale. I have learned that an appraiser of Schnabel's paintings (as of a few years ago) stated that Herr had in 1889, a showing at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco, at S.F. Art Institute in 1900 and Marks Hopkins Institute in 1903. During WWI, Herr Schnabel, a patriotic German, prevailed upon Cousin Lu to invest her entire fortune in Imperial German Bonds. They became worthless after the Kaiser abdicated, and as an old lady she was brought back to California and supported by the Shinn family. At one time, there was an 8-inch thick stack of those worthless bonds in the house. I saved a few of them when the house was deeded to the City of Fremont and still have them—if I can find them! [

San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 1893

Note: I think it was more complicated than Cousin Lue inheriting a million dollars and losing it all during WWI. The mill went under at some point in the 1890s during a lumber bust, and she was "stripped of her fortune"—but maybe more on that in another entry.]

NOTA BENE:

Before going to Europe, after her first husband died, Lucy H. Clark was painting, and in 1875 she painted the 1854 cottage which was the Shinn family's first residence in California. It is the "Simm's [sic] Cottage," which stood originally on the bank of Alameda Creek, which runs through the middle of the Ranch. In the 1950's, my mother, Florence Mayhew Shinn, had the cottage moved to its present site in the Park, because the creek banks were being dug out for gravel. The person sitting on the front step in that painting was Anne Holbrook Shinn, my father's oldest sister. The date of the painting is 1875 when Lucy H. Clark was first married to Herman Schnabel [Note: I think he meant H. B. Tichenor; Lue was married to Mr. Tichenor in 1868, and he died in 1883] and while the Shinn family was still living in the cottage. (This painting hangs in the entrance hall in the Shinn House.)

It is unfortunate that the many Schnabel paintings have been dispersed and many lost; but a few no doubt have found homes are now displayed somewhere. [Note: Including at the Washington Township Museum of Local History and the Camron-Stanford House!]"

The Vice Admiral was the family historian of his generation, and we are constantly running across little notes on the backs of pictures, in letters, etc.—thank you, Vice Admiral!

And for a bonus tidbit, we found this sewing kit in a box in the basement, including a note written in Milicent's handwriting: "This needle book was Lue's in her girlhood; she gave it to Annie when she was 12 or 13 and Annie used it all the rest of her life."

And finally, a little mystery that may never be solved: In a letter to Mission Peak Historical Foundation, there is a brief mention of a book the VADM was looking for—"a photo album that used to be kept on the settee by the fireplace in the day room. It had a black cover and small palm trees on the cover. It is Annie Shinn's, baby book and he wants it back." What I wouldn't give to take a look at her baby book!

Until next time...