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Portrait of Hiram Pease by Alonzo Pease, 1860 PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OBERLIN COLLEGE ARCHIVES
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Archivist and College Friends Rescue Portraits Relating to Early Oberlin History
AUGUST 24, 2000--Thanks to the initiative of Oberlin College archivist Roland Baumann and the generosity of several friends of the College, a 19th-century portrait of Hiram Abiff Pease has been rescued from obscurity and restored. Hiram Pease was the brother of Oberlin's first settler, Peter Pindar Pease. Also rescued and restored is a portrait of Hiram's wife, Lydia Pease. The artist was the couple's son, Alonzo Pease (1820-1881), who painted portraits of several prominent early Oberlinians.
The Hiram Pease portrait now hangs in the office of Oberlin College acting president Clayton Koppes. Lydia's portrait awaits a suitable College site. The two paintings, circa 1860, are among the College's collection of 10 portraits and a small watercolor of the town by the Ohio artist. Several of Alonzo Pease's works hang in the boardroom of the Cox Administration Building.
A crayon artist and photograph tinter as well as a painter, Alonzo Pease came to Ohio with his parents in 1828 from Massachusetts. In 1834, the family settled in Oberlin, where efforts to make Alonzo into a student failed: "Cicero and Virgil had no charms, alongside of the palette, brush and canvas," wrote a reporter for the Oberlin News at the time of Pease's death. However, Pease took some classes at the College and his painting Demosthenes at the Sea Shore was displayed at Oberlin's 1844 commencement.
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Portrait of Lydia Pease by Alonzo Pease, 1860 PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OBERLIN COLLEGE ARCHIVES |
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