42

Family papers of sculptor Sarah Fisher Ames, including letters on her bust of Ulysses S. Grant.

Various places, 1868 to circa 1910s
30 items, generally minor wear.

  • Notes: The sculptor Sarah Fisher Clampitt Ames (1817–1901) was best known for a bust of Abraham Lincoln, among many others produced over a long career. She also served as a nurse during the Civil War. This lot includes:

    Cabinet card portrait of Ames, produced in Firenze, Italy circa the 1890s, inscribed on verso "Your great-grandmother Sarah Fisher Ames."

    Pair of photographs of Ames with her granddaughter Gwendolen Whistler (1885-1963), mounted together, circa early 1890s.

    5 letters addressed to Ames regarding her bust of Ulysses S. Grant, 1868-1893. General Daniel Edgar Sickles wrote on 5 October 1868: "I beg you will send me a copy of your bust of Gen'l Grant. Admirable as a work of art, it is the best likeness of him I have seen." Grant's brother-in-law General Frederick Tracy Dent wrote on 2 November 1868: "I am more than well pleased with your Grant. You have given that pleasing expression he has when in his family circle, and yet you have preserved . . . his firmness, tenacity, self-reliance, his generosity and amiability." Other similar letters are from U.S. Representative Samuel Hooper; author Sara Jane Lippincott (signing with her pseudonym Grace Greenwood); and General Edward Davis Townsend. 

    A subscription list for procuring a marble copy of the bust to be presented to Grant, dated the day after Grant was elected to the presidency. It has only one signature, the New York Ledger publisher Robert Bonner.  New York, 4 November 1868.

    12 photographs of Ames's family members including son Robert Fisher Ames and daughter Sophia Ames Whistler, circa 1890-1910s.

    6 letters in support of a military appointment for Ames's son Robert Fisher Ames, signed by prominent Senator George Hoar, Edward Davis Townsend, abolitionist Wendell Phillips, poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, General Charles Sawtelle, and author Richard Henry Dana Jr., 1878-1879. 
  • Condition:
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November 20, 2025 10:30 AM EST
New York, NY, US

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