HAMMER, MRS. D. HARRY
MRS. D. HARRY HAMMER. Born in Ohio, but many years ago transplanted to Chicago, Mrs. D. Harry Hammer has cherished her affection for her native state, and her accomplishments as an art collector, as a writer and speaker have brought her distinction that make her one of the most noted of Ohio's native daughters. Her maiden name was Mary Amaryllis Bower. She was born in Pike County, but was reared near Athens, in Athens County, Ohio. Her parents were Moses and Delitha (Rev) Bower. Mrs. Hammer was educated in the Miller Seminary at Guysville, and Russell Carpenter of Athens County. Mr. Carpenter was a veteran of the Civil war. He had enlisted at the age of sixteen, his size enabling him to pass inspection at eighteen, the minimum age for enlistment. He was promoted to and attained the rank of captain in the Eighteenth Ohio Infantry. He served nearly five years, throughout the war period, and when he was discharged in 1865 he had just reached the age of twenty-one.
Born in Ohio, but many years ago transplanted to Chicago, Mrs. D. Harry Hammer has cherished her affection for her native state, and her accomplishments as an art collector, as a writer and speaker have brought her distinction that make her one of the most noted of Ohio's native daughters. Her maiden name was Mary Amaryllis Bower. She was born in Pike County, but was reared near Athens, in Athens County, Ohio. Her parents were Moses and Delitha (Rev) Bower. Mrs. Hammer was educated in the Miller Seminary at Guysville, and Russell Carpenter of Athens County. Mr. Carpenter was a veteran of the Civil war. He had enlisted at the age of sixteen, his size enabling him to pass inspection at eighteen, the minimum age for enlistment. He was promoted to and attained the rank of captain in the Eighteenth Ohio Infantry. He served nearly five years, throughout the war period, and when he was discharged in 1865 he had just reached the age of twenty-one. By her first marriage Mrs. Hammer had one daughter, Mrs. Maud Freshel, now living at Boston, Massachusetts. Mrs. Hammer came to Chicago in 1874. Subsequently she was married to D. Harry Hammer, who died in 1904. Mr. Hammer was a prominent Chicago lawyer, served several years as an alderman, was a justice of the peace, and held various positions in public affairs. He made a considerable fortune in real estate. Mrs. Hammer for a number of years has occupied a beautiful home at 3903 Lake Park Avenue, Chicago. By her marriage to Mr. Hammer she has a son and a daughter: D. Harry Hammer II, in the bond business in Chicago, and Hazel Harry, wife of Lucius Humphreys, of Denver Colorado. Her son was a naval volunteer in the World war, and rose to the rank of lieutenant, and still maintains his connection with the navy.
For many years Mrs. Hammer has been a conspicuous figure in society and club life in Chicago and a leader in worthy civic affairs. She organized and was the first president of the Mothers' Relief Association. She is the former president of the Illinois Colony Club, which had over twelve hundred members. She is a past president of the Dames of the Loyal Legion of Illinois; president of the Poetry Lovers of America; president of the Andoka Philanthropic Club, member of the Illinois Woman's Press Association; a member of the Woman's Athletic Club, the Chicago Woman's Club, and president of the Colonial Coverlet Guild of America. Mrs. Hammer organized in 1914 the Chicago Society of Ohio Women, and was elected its first president. She held that office for three years, and in May, 1923, was again elected president of this notable organization, which includes about two hundred and twenty-five members, all of them natives of the great State of Ohio. Mrs. Hammer for many years has been as extensive writer, writing on a great variety of subjects, mainly matters connected with art and civic affairs. She possesses a style that is very individual, and that style, combined with her keen sense of humor, also gives power to her work as a public speaker. In February, 1920, when the Chicago Society of Ohio Women gave a reception in Chicago to Senator and Mrs. Harding, Mrs. Hammer introduced the Senator to a Chicago audience as "our next President," a prediction full verified in the following November election.
However, the object of her greatest and most sustained enthusiasm has been the collection of art objects, and the world of art and art critics have paid her some of the highest compliments for her collections of etchings, cartoons, posters, brass, bric-a-brac. She became interested in collecting many years ago. She and Mr. Hammer spent some ten years in England, with numerous visits and excursions to all the capitals and interesting places of Europe, Indian and Asia. Since then her travels have included all the principal cities of America. In all her journeying she has kept a watchful and eager eye for the objects cherished by the collector. The result is that her home in Chicago has treasures that make it the mecca for art lovers. Perhaps the most notable feature of her art treasures is her collection of cartoons of Uncle Sam. She began collecting these in 1897, and the Spanish-American war of the following year, with the numerous representations of Uncle Sam in the newspapers, gave her a splendid start. In her researches she discovered that the picture of Uncle Sam had its beginning in 1842, with a drawing of "Brother Jonathan" in London Punch, of which she secured a copy. She also found that the first delineation in America of "Uncle Sam" as the world has since known him appeared in "The Lantern," in New York, in 1852. Through the aid of clipping bureaus and thoughtful friends she has continued this collection of Uncle Sam cartoons until they now number almost 40,000, all mounted, classified and indexed, and covering all periods of American history since 1852. This is in itself a rare and notable gallery. Her collection of cartoons of a general nature include those of such great artists as Sir John Tenniel of London (including cartoons of almost the entire history of the Victorian reign), and of such great American cartoonists as Nast, Keppler, Wales, Bellow, and such moderns as Homer Davenport, McCutcheon, Gibson, Carey Orr and others. Through her interest and work as a collector Mrs. Hammer has found personal friends in many of the modern artists, and for a number of years they have been sending her the originals of their cartoons. Beginning in 1914, she made a collection of cartoons of the World war, comprising from two to eleven for each day from August, 1914, to 1920, and these afford a graphic history of that long struggle. It is said that from these a graphic history of the great struggle could be written. Her collection of etchings numbers about 500 and include examples by all the great artists of the world. One of the rarest and most treasured is one by Bartolozzi after Cipriani. Other artists represented in her etchings are Rembrandt, Albrecht, Durer, Whistler and Seymour Haden. It has been pronounced one of the finest private collections of etchings in the world. As a collector of brass Mrs. Hammer has specialized in bells. These are suggestive of romance and essential in every part of the world, and they aggregate in number about 300. As Mrs. Hammer herself has expressed it, her bells would "chime around the world." She has cow bells, camel bells, sheep bells, church bells, from Ceylon, Benares, Mandalay, Syria, Tibet and the southern coast of Asia Minor, Italy, France, England and other countries, including a marriage bell used in connection with a wedding ceremony in India. Her collection of brass, said to be the largest in the Middle West, includes brass lamps, candle sticks, braziers from Turkey and other parts of the Orient, and other objects of art in brass gathered from every part of the glove, including Russian urns and samovars, Circassian wine jugs, Japanese garden lamps. Mrs. Hammer has collected about 100 tobeys (ale mugs), gathered for the most part in England. She also has collected a number of Colonial bed spreads, and one department of her gallery which cannot be noted in detail is a collection of posters.
OHIO HISTORY
The American Historical Society, Inc.
1925 Volume V, page 421-422
Copyright © 2004
Pike Co. Genealogy Society a Chapter of O.G.S.
P. O. Box 224,
Waverly, Ohio 45690