|
|
|
|
|
The Collar
It just
showed up at the Museum, this mysterious metal collar displayed here. A man’s name, an address and a city were
engraved on it. That was all that there
was to go on. The collar begged the
questions, who was this man, what was the address, how old is the collar, and
what is its history? THE MAN The man’s
name engraved on the collar is Ogden Mills Reid. Ogden Mills Reid was born in 1882 into a very wealthy New York
City high society family. His father,
Whitelaw Reid (1837-1912), had bought the New York Tribune from Andrew
Greely. Ogden led
the genteel life of the very wealthy.
As printed in a New York Times article of June 23, 1900, “The (passenger
ship) St. Paul, which is due today, from Cherbourg (France), brings a large passenger
list. Among those expected to arrive
are….Ogden Mills Reid…” He was eighteen
at the time and traveling alone in France.
Then again, printed in the New York Times, on July 26, 1903, “Many of
his (Reid’s) vacations have been passed abroad in traveling”, and in the
January 18, 1912 edition of the same paper, “Ogden Mills Reid….after graduation
from the Yale Law School in 1904, took an extensive trip abroad.” Ogden attended the University of Bonn,
Germany, before graduating from Yale. * It was
during this time it is thought, that the Collar was created and worn. Ogden would have been alone in Paris for
extended times during this period, and the Palace would have been at his
disposal.
*Camp
Pasquaney Archives, Author: Virgil Mores Hillyer Below is
the only public photograph of Ogden Mills Reid known to have survived his
life. It was found in the Library of
Congress. His own newspaper files, kept
by the New York City Library, had no photographic record of him, nor did the New
York Times. Ogden Mills Reid (1882-1947) Circa 1912 THE
ADDRESS 35, avenue
Hoche, Paris, is the address engraved on the collar. That address happened to be a “palace” (New York Times, December
16, 1912), that Whitelaw Reid (Ogden’s father) took, beginning in 1891, when
Whitelaw was named the U.S. Minister to France (from United States State
Department files) “It was the old mansion of the Countess de Gramont,
whose father had been French Consul-General in Egypt.” There is
no record of the palace being sold until it was converted, built on to, and
became the Le Royal Monceau Hotel in 1928.
It is interesting to note that Whitelaw Reid’s ministerial position in
Paris was exactly the same one that Benjamin Franklin held one hundred twenty
years earlier.
Royal Monceau Hotel, or what was the
Reid Palace
Somewhere
around 1922, Mr. & Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid bought a mansion in Paris, at 4
Rue de Chevreuse in Montparnasse. Mrs.
Reid donated it to Barnard College in the 1950’s for the use of women’s studies
in France after her husband’s death.
Original Drawing for the Reid Home
in Paris
Duke & Duchess of Windsor in
France
Circa 1937 It is
said that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor lived at the Reid’s home in France
after the Duke’s abdication in 1937 from being the King of England. This was
until their home in Paris was available.
In a biography of the couple by Philip Zeigler, writes: "He (Duke of Windsor) relished the
contempt and bullying she (Duchess of Windsor) bestowed on him" and that
"There must have been some sort of sadomasochistic relationship". There
were innuendos that Ogden Mills Reid was Gay, including the book, The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune. It was
also alluded to in the following dissertation: Marguritte Higgins: An
Examination of Legacy and Gender Bias by Peter Noel Murray, Doctor of
Philosophy, 2003. Dissertation was submitted
to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College
Park. “The
paper’s owner, president and publisher (of The New York Herald-Tribune), Ogden
Reid, was an alcoholic. He delegated
most, if not all management responsibilities for his business… Wilbur Forrest, a former reporter, was
chosen by Reid as his alter ego in management of the affairs of the newspaper.
Forrest’s position as president of the prestigious Gridiron Club, the all-male
journalism society established in the 1880’s in Washington, bestowed necessary
status for him to have a close association with his wealthy boss. Forrest’s
athletic demeanor and his love of golf and hunting were attractive additions to
Reid’s weekends as a country gentleman pursuing outdoor activities on his
Westchester County estate. And
Forrest’s personal loyalty to Reid, caring for him during his daily rendezvous
with alcohol, caused many of the staff at the newspaper to refer to him as the
‘Seeing Eye’ or ‘boot licker.’” “Ogden
Reid was publisher of the Herald Tribune, but his wife Helen ran the newspaper.
She was a liberal Republican on the same general track as William Allen White
and Wendell Wilkie, according to Gardner (Mike) Cowles, Jr.; and she took
pleasure in arranging dinners to which industrialists, commentators, and
political leaders were invited to discuss issues of the day.” * Helen
Reid was a force of nature. After
graduating from the tonie, Barnard College for women, Helen Miles Rogers was
hired by Mrs. Whitelaw (Elisabeth) Reid as her private secretary.** *THE LIFE OF JAY NORWOOD DARLING - David L. Lendt - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
In that
capacity she handled the day-to-day management of the Reid estates. This included a mansion in London, when
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Ogden’s father Whitelaw, the United
States Ambassador to Great Britain. By 1910,
Helen had proved herself to be accomplished in all phases of organization and
supervision. In 1911 Ogden married
Helen with his family’s blessings. A year
after their marriage, Whitelaw Reid suddenly died in England. Ogden was elected President and Managing
Editor of the family’s business, the New York Tribune. While Ogden tried to run the paper through
an alcohol haze, Helen was out campaigning for Women’s Suffrage. Helen Rogers Reid with President
Theodore Roosevelt Championing Women’s Suffrage - Circa
1918 
In 1918,
after the Women’s vote was assured, Ogden asked his wife to come work at the
paper as an advertising salesperson, as ad revenue and circulation were both
slipping. She did extremely well, and
raised revenue significantly through her social contacts. Ogden
promoted her to Vice President of Advertising a year later. As ad revenue climbed, so did
readership. Under Helen’s watch the
paper started a women’s section, and a gossip column, which both appealed to
the women of that era. “Irita
Van Doren joined the Herald Tribune in 1926 to take over the Sunday book review
supplement that the paper launched two years earlier. Van Doren was the wife of Columbia University professor Carl Van
Doren, until they divorced in 1936. Her background and intelligence earned her
a special relationship with Helen Rogers Reid, as she is said to have been the
only woman that Reid confided in. In 1938 Van Doren met Wendell Wilkie and
began an intimate relationship that was conducted rather openly in spite of the
fact that Wilkie was married. Van Doren’s daughter remembered that her mother
lived in “a sexually unconventional world” in Greenwich Village and knew plenty
of couples or people who were not married but lived together.”*** The
Reid’s lead a separate existence during their marriage, except for social
occasions. Mrs. Reid seems to have had
a variety of high profile, close women friends throughout her life. Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart being
the most prominent. ***Marguritte
Higgins: An Examination of Legacy and Gender Bias by Peter Noel Murray, Doctor
of Philosophy University of Maryland, College Park Ogden
Reid was not the person to whom emotional outbursts were natural. The following telegram was sent to Amelia
Earhart, after a crash landing, from only Helen. 
Ogden
Mills Reid kept his private life very private. In 1922 Reid bought the New York
Tribune. The paper was renamed the New
York Herald-Tribune. The sale also
included an international edition of The Tribune, which was headquartered in
Paris. It was said that Ogden spent
most of his time with the International edition in Paris. Mr. Reid died January 3, 1947. By 1955 the paper had fallen on hard times,
and Ogden’s son Whitelaw had taken it over from his mother. It was sold three years later in 1958. The paper finally disappeared on May 5,
1967. Helen Rogers Reid died on July
18, 1970 at the age of eighty-seven.
The only publication remaining today of the family’s newspaper empire,
is the International Herald-Tribune, still headquartered in Paris and owned by
the New York Times. Now, all we have left to ponder is the COLLAR! |
|
|
According to the maker’s mark on the collar, the collar was fabricated by a silversmith in Glasgow, Scotland. It may be made of silver, however more testing is necessary.
by Richard Kluger.