Skip to main content
Gift of the Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation, 2011.344.969  © 2013 The Connecticut Historical  ...
Henry S. Thorne in Bath at "Schoonhoven"
Gift of the Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation, 2011.344.969 © 2013 The Connecticut Historical Society.

Henry S. Thorne in Bath at "Schoonhoven"

Photographer (American, 1843 - 1926)
Dateabout 1898
MediumPhotography; gelatin silver print
DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (image height x width): 7 3/4 x 5 13/16in. (19.7 x 14.8cm) Sheet (height x width): 7 3/4 x 5 13/16in. (19.7 x 14.8cm) Other (mat height x width): 19 1/4 x 14 1/4in. (48.9 x 36.2cm)
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation
Object number2011.344.969
DescriptionLittle boy in a metal bathtub below a window. He is sitting up in the tub and facing the camera. The bathtub is not in a bathroom; there is what appears to be a chest of drawers behind it and a carpet on the floor of the room it is in. Other pieces of furniture, including a chair and some kind of small cart, are visible.
NotesSubject Note: Schoonhoven was the Thornes' name for their summer home on Black Rock Point in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was designed in 1881 either by Stanford White or Bruce Price and was completed in the summer of 1882. It was the largest individually-owned property on the point, and featured a nine-hole golf course, a bowling alley, a wharf, vegetable and flower gardens and St. Mary's by-the-Sea chapel. Schoonhoven was home to Harriet's photography studio, packed with props, costumes, backdrops and furniture. A fire gutted the top story in 1903 and after Jonathan's death in 1920, Harriet closed the studio, asked her sons to dispose of its contents. She moved to Bridgehampton, New York, for the summer months. The estate changed hands at least twice after 1920 before being razed sometime in the twentieth century.

From "Black Rock: A Bicentennial Picture Book" (Dick Jones, Charles W. Brilvitch), articles in the Bridgeport Standard (January 5, 1881, May 16, 1882) and the Bridgeport Post (September 9, 1903), and Rollie Thorne McKenna's essay for the 1979 Yale exhibition.
Status
Not on view