Henry Lewis Stimson

HENRY LEWIS STIMSON was a delegate at large to the New York State constitutional convention, 1915; entered upon active Reserve service as a major in the Judge Advocate General’s department, 1917; became a lieutenant colonel in the 305th Field Artillery, August 1917; served with American forces in France, December 1917–August 1918; became colonel of the 31st Field Artillery, August 1918; returned to his legal career; was commissioned colonel in the Organized Reserve Corps in 1921 and brigadier general in 1922; was a presidential emissary to Nicaragua, 1927; was governor general of the Philippines, 1927–1929; served as Secretary of State, 28 March 1929–4 March 1933; was chairman of the American delegation to the London Naval Conference, 1930; returned to private life; served again as Secretary of War, 10 July 1940–21 September 1945; presided over the expansion of the War Department and the Army to meet the World War II emergency; was a leader in seeking the enactment of legislation for compulsory conscription, 1940; was closely involved in the decisions to evacuate Japanese Americans and aliens from coastal regions, 1941–1942, and to use the atomic bomb, 1945; retired to his Long Island estate where he died on 20 October 1950. (For details of his earlier life, see page 108.)


The Artist

Fred W. Wright (born 1880) studied at the Art Students League in New York and the Académie Julien in Paris before embarking upon a career as a portrait painter in New York. His work is represented in a number of collections around the country. Robert Brackman (1898– ) was born in Odessa, Russia, came to the United States in 1908, studied at the National Academy of Design, and in the 1930’s joined the faculties of the Art Students League and the Brooklyn Institute of Art. His work is represented in numerous collections. Brackman’s original portrait of Secretary Stimson is in the Skull and Bones Club at Yale University; Mr. Stimson privately commissioned the Wright copy for the Army gallery.

[126]

Portrait, Henry Lewis Stimson

HENRY LEWIS STIMSON
F. Roosevelt Administration
By Fred W. Wright after Robert Brackman
Oil on canvas, 39˝" x 33˝", 1945


page created 9 March 2001


Return to Front Matter