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Sarah Lawrence College

Bronxville, NY

1900-1949

Violet Oakley had a long and influential relationship with the founding family of Sarah Lawrence College, who lived in Manhattan and Bronxville, New York. Louise Lawrence was the roommate of Hester Caldwell Oakley (1871–1905), Violet’s sister, at Vassar College in the class of 1891. After Hester’s death, Oakley maintained her friendship with the Lawrences, painting portraits of Louise and her parents, William Van Duzer Lawrence and Sarah Bates Lawrence.

In 1909, after the success of the pageant celebrating the anniversary of William Penn's founding of Philadelphia, Mr. Lawrence immediately recruited Oakley to organize a pageant for Westchester County, in Bronxville. He encouraged Oakley to join the upscale residential community he was developing in Bronxville and, in 1910, the artist hired New York architects Carrère and Hastings to build a Tudor revival house and studio for herself and her mother in Lawrence Park West. But a new commission to decorate the Senate Chamber of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in 1911 prevented Oakley from relocating to the new residence.

When Sarah Bates Lawrence, an advocate for higher education for women, passed away in 1926, the Lawrence family founded a women’s college in her name in Bronxville and asked Oakley to design the seal. Although the seals of women’s colleges were typically coats-of-arms or mythological figures with mottoes in Greek or Latin, Oakley rejected this approach and designed the seal in the style of a coin with a portrait of the head of state. Mrs. Lawrence is drawn in profile encircled by the inscription: “Sarah Lawrence College 1926” and the motto “Wisdom with Understanding.” Oakley’s design was adopted as the official seal of Sarah Lawrence College in 1927.

Works in Woodmere’s Collection

Portrait study of Mrs. William Van Duzer Lawrence (Sarah Bates Lawrence)

Drawings-watercolors

Full-length portrait study of Mrs. William Van Duzer Lawrence (Sarah Bates Lawrence)

Drawings-watercolors

Portrait study of William Van Duzer Lawrence

No items found.

Portrait study of Louise Lawrence Meigs

Drawings-watercolors

Portrait head study of Louise Lawrence Meigs

Drawings-watercolors

Three-quarter length portrait study of Louise Lawrence Meigs

Drawings-watercolors

Portrait study of [mother and daughter] Louise Lawrence and Hester Oakley Meigs

No items found.

Portrait study of [mother and daughter] Louise Lawrence and Hester Oakley Meigs

No items found.

Portrait study of [mother and daughter] Louise Lawrence and Hester Oakley Meigs

Drawings-watercolors

Works in Other Collections

Historical Images

No items found.

Related Works in Woodmere’s Collection

Study for Germantown Friends School seal, c. 1924, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for Plastic Club seal, c. 1897, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for Episode I: "The Song of William of Nassau," Scene Second: "The Coming of Jonas Bronck," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909) Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Detailed written description (on verso) of Study for Episode I: "The Song of William of Nassau," Scene Second: "The Coming of Jonas Bronck," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909) Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for Episode IV: "The French," Scene First: "The Huguenots," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Detailed written description (on verso) of Study for Episode IV: "The French," Scene First: "The Huguenots," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for Episode VI: "The Revolution," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Detailed written description (on verso) of Study for Episode VI: "The Revolution," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for Episode VII: "The Young Nation and the 19th Century," Scene: "Washington Irving at Sunnyside," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Detailed written description (on verso) of Study for Episode VII: "The Young Nation and the 19th Century," Scene: "Washington Irving at Sunnyside," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for the final tableau, "At the Hague," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Detailed written description (on verso) of Study for the final tableau, "At the Hague," Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Poster (and possibly book cover) design study for Westchester County Historical Pageant (May 29 and June 1, 1909), Bronxville, NY, c. 1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Illuminated text study of Prologue [page 15] for The Book of the Words: Westchester County Historical Pageant: 1614, 1846 [Philadelphia?, c. 1909], c.1909, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)