Nathaniel Olds (1837): Art, History and Details

Nathaniel Olds (1837) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jeptha Homer Wade (American, 1811–1890).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Nathaniel Olds
• Date: 1837
• Creator attribution: Jeptha Homer Wade (American, 1811–1890)
• Culture: United States, Ohio, Cleveland
• Type: Painting
• Technique: 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.)
• Collection: American - Cleveland School
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1991.134.2

A detail from the museum

This painting has a distinguished history inspiring Halloween costumes in the Cleveland area.

Collection credit

Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Jeptha H. Wade III

Further reading listed by the museum

• Smee, Sebastian, "This Obscure Portrait Has a Cult Following for its High-Fashion Flair," Washington Post, August 8, 2024.
• Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (1993): 38-79.
• Wade, Jeptha H., Holly Rarick Witchey, and Ellery Sedgwick. The Autobiography of Jeptha Homer Wade, a Modest American: A Transcription and Accompanying Essays. 2018, 8.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.