A Navajo Man's Wearing Blanket. Second Phase Chief's Pattern...

Description

A Navajo Man's Wearing Blanket
Second Phase Chief's Pattern
c. 1865 - 75

native handspun wool, indigo and cochineal dyes

This lot is accompanied by a copy of the red dye test results.

Provenance:
Collected by the current owner's paternal grandfather, William B. Emmons, Sr., more than likely between 1902 and 1906, while living in Laramie, WY. Through the family by descent.

Dimensions: 74 x 54 inches

The William Bacon Emmons Family

William Bacon Emmons, Sr. was born in 1879 to Nathaniel Henry and Eleanor (Bacon) Emmons. Both of his parents' families were wealthy industrialists, and coincidentally both in the shipping business. The Bacons were a prominent nineteenth century Boston family. The elder Emmons raised his family in nearby Falmouth, MA.

Emmons was educated at the prestigious Groton School and Harvard College. Shortly after his graduation from Harvard in 1902, he traveled to Laramie, WY, where he worked on the Bacon family's sheep ranch.

Emmons married out west, but when the marriage failed, he returned to the East, settling in Woodstock, VT, away from the glare of those Bostonians who thought divorce was shameful. In 1908, he purchased Cloudland Farm, which was just up the road from the ancestral farm of Mary Billings French (Laurence Rockefeller's wife).

Emmons married again, in 1912, to Margaret Young. The union produced a son, William Emmons, Jr. Like his father, Junior attended the Groton School and Harvard College (class of 1937). He also earned a law degree from the University of Virginia. In 1950 he returned to Woodstock, VT, to be with his father, who was in poor health. While taking over the farm, Junior also worked locally as an attorney.

Today, Cloudland Farm is run by a third generation, William Emmons III and his wife, Cathy. It is 1,000 acre farm, producing Black Angus beef cattle and pastured chickens and turkeys, among other things. The farm also features a country market and a farm-to-table dining establishment.



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