A presentation photographic portrait of financier, statesman, and presidential advisor Bernard M. Baruch, inscribed, signed, and dated by Baruch in 1925.
Washington, D.C. Harris & Ewing Inc., 1925. Photograph. This is an inscribed, signed, and dated 1925 presentation photographic portrait of Bernard Mannes Baruch (1870-1965), New York financier, philanthropist, statesman, and advisor to U.S. presidents spanning Woodrow Wilson to Harry Truman. Baruch wrote in three lines in the bottom border of the 11 x 7.5 inch studio print “To Lois with affectionate regard | BMBaruch | 1925”. The photograph is embossed, in the lower left corner of the image, “© HARRIS & EWING. | WASHINGTON, D.C.” Harris & Ewing Inc. was a Washington, D.C. photographic studio established by George W. Harris and Martha Ewing that offered both portraits and news photo services. Various museums and the Library of Congress hold collections of Harris & Ewing photographs.
Condition of this photograph is better than near fine. The matte finish remains unblemished, the image crisp and clear, the paper substantially clean and entirely complete with sharp corners. We note a tiny chip to the clear finish confined to the blank upper left margin and a few small blemishes to the blank upper right verso. Baruch’s inscription and signature remain distinct.
Baruch would, famously, belittle his influential role as a “Park Bench Statesman”; he told reporters that his only office was a park bench across from the White House in Lafayette Square. The nickname was well-established enough by 1944 to appear in the title of a biography. Baruch’s first formal governmental role had been during the First World War when, in early 1916, President Wilson appointed him to the Advisory Commission of the Council for National Defense. This at a time of machine guns and trench warfare when the first, primitive tanks were being invented and propeller-driven biplanes were just introducing nascent aviation technology to warfare. As a measure of how much the world changed during Baruch’s long, influential role as advisor to American presidents, Baruch’s final formal governmental role was as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
In 1925, when this image was inscribed by him, Baruch had ended his First World War government service and not yet assumed his role as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “In the 1920s Baruch launched a career as an influential economic policymaker and political kingmaker”, supporting William G. McAdoo’s unsuccessful quest for Democratic presidential nomination in 1924, ingratiating himself with Senate Democratic leaders “by significantly funding many of their campaigns for reelection”, and contributing generously to Democratic presidential campaigns.
References: ANB; LOC. Item #008906
Price: $450.00