Daniel Scott Lamont

DANIEL SCOTT LAMONT was born on his family’s farm in Cortland County, New York, on 9 February 1851; attended Union College at Schenectady, New York, but did not graduate; was employed as engrossing clerk and assistant journal clerk in the state capitol at Albany; was a clerk on the staff of the Democratic state central committee, 1872; was chief clerk of the New York department of state, 1875–1882; was employed on and later acquired a financial interest in the Albany Argus, 1877–1882; was assigned by his mentor, Daniel Manning, to New York Governor Grover Cleveland’s staff as a political prompter; became private and military secretary with the rank of colonel on the governor’s staff, 1883; was appointed private secretary to President Cleveland, 1885; was employed by William C. Whitney in his business ventures, 1889; served as Secretary of War, 5 March 1893–5 March 1897; urged throughout his tenure the adoption of a three-battalion infantry regiment as a part of a general modernization and strengthening of the Army; recommended the construction of a central hall of records to house Army archives; urged that Congress authorize the marking of important battlefields in the manner adopted for Antietam; recommended that lands being used by Apache prisoners at Fort Sill be acquired for their permanent use and their prisoner status be terminated; was vice president of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, 1898–1904; was a director of numerous banks and corporations; died in Millbrook, Dutchess County, New York, on 23 July 1905.


The Artist

Samantha Littlefield Huntley (1865–1949) was born in Watervliet, New York. She studied under John Twachtman and Henry Mowbray at the Art Students League in New York, 1893–1897, then pursued her studies in Paris at the Académie Julien, École des Beaux Arts, and École Normale d’Enseignement du Dessin, 1897–1900. Mrs. Huntley’s portrait of Secretary Lamont, executed from a photograph in 1912 some seven years after his death, was presented to the department by Mrs. Lamont with a request that it replace one painted from life by Raimundo de Madrazo, which Mrs. Lamont thought was not a good likeness.

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Portrait, Daniel Scott Lamont

DANIEL SCOTT LAMONT
2d Cleveland Administration
By Samantha Littlefield Huntley
Oil on canvas, 42" x 29", 1912


 

page created 2 March 2001


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