Portrait of Eric Pape

Barnett McFee Clinedinst

The subject of this photograph, artist Eric Pape, was born in San Francisco, California on 17 October 1870. His art studies began at the San Francisco School of Design under Emil Carlsen and he continued his studies in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. At the age of twenty-one, he was represented in the Exposition du Caire, Egypt and following years his work was included in the Paris Salon, the World's Columbian Exposition, and the California Midwinter International Exposition.

Pape opened the Eric Pape School of Art in Boston at the age of twenty-eight. In 1906, he wrote a petition to Congress from the citizens of Massachusetts to preserve the U.S. Frigate Constitution, commonly referred to as Old Ironsides, and secured 30,000 signatures.

In February 1906, Pape presented the petition to the US Congress. The illuminated parchment and scroll is permanently displayed at the Navel Museum in Washington, D.C. This photograph, signed by both the photographer and the subject was taken the day after the event.

There is an ink annotation on the verso of the support that reads "Taken in Washington, D.C., on the day following the presentation of the Petition for the preservation of the Frigate Constitution "Old Ironsides", to the United States Congress."

Barnett McFee Clinedinst, was born on September 12, 1862 in Woodstock, Virginia, son of photographer and viewfinder and "single-lens reflex camera" pioneer Barnett M. Clinedinst (1836-1900) and Mary C. South. He was the brother of painter Benjamin West Clinedinst.

As a young man he operated a circus and was a salesman. Studying photography from his father he and his father opened a photographic studio in Washington, DC, in 1900 at 1207 F St.. He later served as the official White House photographer under the administrations of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft and did their official portraits. As the official presidential photographer Clinedinst was the first to see the commercial possibilities while working with Teddy Roosevelt. His adoption of cutting-edge stop-motion camera equipment invented by his father allowed him to capture TR jumping his Kentucky saddle-horse over fences, walls, and hedges, which was enthusiastically supported by Roosevelt. Newspapers of the time called him Washington's "court photographer."

An early advocate for the use of electric lighting in the studio, his photos were published in newspapers throughout the country. Barnett McFee Clinedinst died at age 90 in St. Petersburg, Florida on March 15, 1953.