Yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday post was a picture from the Library of Congress’ photo collection on Flickr. I did a search for the term “Vanderbilt” and this was one of the results. It came up because someone posted a comment asking if the young boy in the picture was Frederick William Vanderbilt. However, it is not, as someone else commented, but his brother, William Osgood Field.
In the picture are three individuals, William Osgood Field, his mother on his right, Mrs. Lila Vanderbilt Sloane Field and her mother-in-law and William’s grandmother, Mrs. Augusta Currie Bradhursrt Field. The picture was taken between 1910-1915. When I found this picture, I decided to build up this family’s tree a litte further.
Lila was married to William Broadhurst Osgood Field and she was a great-grandaughter of the Commodore. His eldest son, William, was her grandfather. They would have four children, of which little Osgood was the oldest – he was born in 1904. In my quick research, I found a passport applicaiton of his father’s from 1923 and there are pictures of Willam B. Osgood Field Sr., and his two sons, Wiliam Osgood Field Jr. and Frederick Vanderbilt Field. I am not sure which one is William & which one is Frederick, but I am going to guess that since the passport application lists William Jr. first and then Frederick, the one on the far left is William. On this trip, their father was taking them over to Switzerland for school purpose [link to application on Ancestry.com] Here is the picture that was in the application.
I learned quite a bit about this family from the finding aids of the papers of William Broadhurst Osgood Field Sr. that are housed at the New York Public Library.
William Osgood Field Jr. would go on to become a glaciologist, and a leader in the study of glaciers. The National Glacier Bay website of the National Park Service had this picture of him taken in 1966 at Muir Inlet.
William died in 1994. I wonder if his family has this picture of him with his mother and grandmother? His oral biography, With A Camera In My Hands, was published 10 years after his death. I plan to put this on my list of books to check out, and I have added it to the blibliography page.
