Provenance:

Stephen Bonsal (1865-1951), Washington, D.C.

Phillip Bonsal (1903-1995), Washington, D.C., by descent from the above.

Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Lot Essay:

Stephen Bonsal, the subject of this sketch, was a war correspondent for the New York Herald, covering various conflicts including the Spanish American War. As a Lt. Colonel in the AEF American Expeditionary Forces during World War I he was associated with the forerunner of the “Psychological Warfare” unit. During the negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Versailles he served as private interpreter for both President Woodrow Wilson and Colonel Edward M. House. Wilson ordered Bonsal to keep a diary of secret meetings they attended during the negotiations. In 1944 he turned this diary into book form titled: “Unfinished Business, Paris Versailles 1919.” For this work he was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in History. His son, Philip Bonsal, served as U.S. Ambassador to various countries, including the last U.S. Ambassador to Cuba from 1959-60. This sketch was found among Philip Bonsal’s estate papers and has never been on the market.

The sketch was completed in early June 1898, likely at the Tampa Bay Hotel, where Bonsal, Remington, and fellow war correspondents Richard Harding Davis, and Caspar Whitney were staying until troop transports could take them and U.S. Volunteers, including Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, to Cuba to engage the Spanish. Remington was working for the New York Journal as a special war correspondent and illustrator to cover the conflict. In the images for this lot, a photograph depicting all four men sitting together on a porch in Tampa with Bonsal wearing the same hat as depicted in this sketch.