Quick Reference

Time Period:
Unknown

Location:
NA

Medium:
Print

Type:
Bookplate

Category:
Bookplate

Size:
NA

Exhibited:
NA

Purchased:
NA

Provenance:
NA

Noteworthy:

Made for Norman Bruce Ream who back in about 1900, was one of the wealthiest men in America (in the top 10 at the time).

Related Links

Featured Artwork: Ashleigh Bookplate

Ashleigh Bookplate

RSW's Diary Comments

None.




Additional Notes

Ashleigh Estate
Carolyn Hall, Estate of Norman B. Ream

"Back in about 1900, one of the wealthiest men in America (in the top 10 at the time), Norman Bruce Ream, built a magnificent estate in Thompson, Conn. and he called it Carolyn Hall. On the main entrance to his estate, just on the left, was an old home, very beautiful, built in the late 1700s. This home was later purchased by Mr. Ream and called Ashleigh either by Norman or someone in his family. The building still stands and is today a dorm house for an upscale prep school called Marianapolis. Marianapolis purchased the estate from the Ream family in the 1930s. You can see pictures of both the estate and Ashleigh in the book called "Echoes of Old Thompson", available on Amazon.com." (This information courtesy of Joseph Iamartino of the Thompson Historical Society)."


Ashleigh Estate
Pictures of Norman B. Ream in a series from 1865 to 1905
Ashleigh Estate
A Book on Norman B. Ream

Norman B. Ream (1844-1915) was an American businessman. A Civil War veteran where he became the youngest man to be promoted from private to First-Lieutenant in the Union Army., After the war, Ream became a millionaire by investing in steel, railroads, insurance, and banking. Ream served on the Board of Directors of the National Biscuit Company, later known as Nabisco, U.S. Steel, Pullman Company, several insurance and rail companies.

Ream may have had a part in introducing Woodward to Mrs. Ada Moore, wife of one of the principal founders of the National Biscuit Company, William Moore. She would later become an important patron of Woodward when he leaves bookplates behind to be a professional landscape artist.

However, this early in his career the link to Ream through Mrs. Moore was most likely initiated by Mary "Minnie" Eliot, Woodward's primary advocate prior to Mrs. Moore's sponsorship of Woodward. Minnie, wife of Amory Eliot of Boston, is the cousin of RSW 's dear friend and classmate at Bradley Polytechnic and the Museum of Fine Art School Joseph Cowell. It is Cowell that recruited Minnie to help RSW after the accident that left him paralysed.