Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
Nathaniel Olds’s glasses have four tinted lenses, two of which are hinged side shields. This style was typically worn to protect sensitive eyes from excessive light, dust, or wind. Due to their occasional use during open-air travel, they were sometimes referred to as carriage or railroad spectacles. The painter of this portrait founded the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1854 and soon became one of Cleveland’s wealthiest industrialists. His grandson, Jeptha Wade II, was a founder of the Cleveland Museum of Art and donated the land upon which it stands as a Christmas gift to the city in 1892.
Inscriptions
signed on back: J.H. WADE / 6-37-15 / Farmer Valley
Provenance
Nathaniel Olds (1788–c. 1840s), Farmer (later Interlaken), NY. Sally Avery Olds Roberts (1792–1874), Madison, WI, the sitter's widow, by inheritance. Sarah Jane Olds Tarr (1832–1912), Madison, WI, the sitter's daughter, by inheritance. Maud Ingman Tarr (1872–1963), Madison, WI, the sitter's granddaughter, by inheritance. State Historical Society of Wisconsin (now the Wisconsin Historical Society), Madison, WI, by bequest. Jeptha H. Wade III (1924–2008), Bedford, MA, by purchase in 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, by gift in 1991.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Jeptha Homer Wade (American, 1811–1890)
- Date
- 1837
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 87 x 71.8 x 5.7 cm (34 1/4 x 28 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.); Unframed: 76.5 x 61.2 cm (30 1/8 x 24 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Jeptha H. Wade III
- Accession no.
- 1991.134.2
More by Jeptha Homer Wade in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009243
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