<--PREV Doc #535  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #537 Document #536; November 9, 1953 To Grayson Louis Kirk Series: EM, AWF, Name Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part III: The Space Age Begins; October 1957 to January 1958 Chapter 7: Beef and Budgets   Dear Kirk: Upon inquiring in my office, I find that the difficulty concerning Mr. Lester W. Bentley arose over what now appears to be a misunderstanding.1 My staff got the impression that Mr. Bentley would require some three or four hours of my time as a "sitter"; this they very properly decided was an impossibility. If your understanding is correct that he would require from me "only one or two brief sittings at some future time" a completely different question is posed. For one or two sittings--neither of which would exceed one half hour--I could make the necessary arrangements and would be glad to do so because of the interest of the University and of Mr. Chapin. While for some time I have declined to have my portrait painted by anyone except the one individual who has now become so accustomed to me that he requires only the briefest moments of my personal time, yet I will be glad, because of the reasons given, to make this exception.2 I have given a copy of this letter to Mr. Thomas Stephens. For any future arrangement, Mr. Bentley should contact him.3 With warm personal regard, Sincerely 1 On November 5 Kirk, president of Columbia University, had written to Eisenhower concerning the acceptance of a commission of a portrait by Samuel M. Chapin (LL.B. Columbia Law School 1925), of New York. Shortly after the 1952 election, Chapin had told Kirk that he wanted to present a portrait of Eisenhower to the Columbia Law Library as a token of his "great personal admiration" and his "happiness over the outcome of the election." Kirk notified Chapin that the university "would be pleased" to have the portrait. Subsequently, Chapin wrote that he wanted the portrait painted by Bentley, who would require only one or two brief sittings because he would prepare sketches from photographs. He went on to say that Bentley had communicated with someone in the White House but had been unable to make the necessary arrangements. Apologizing for accepting Chapin's offer without conferring with Eisenhower, Kirk said that if the sittings would not fit into Eisenhower's schedule, he would "call the whole affair off." If time could be found, however, it would avoid an embarrassing situation and "satisfy a great many alumni and friends of the University who have felt that we ought to have a better portrait of you than the one which is now in Butler library" (AWF/N: Columbia-Grayson Kirk). 2 For background on portraitist Thomas Edgar Stephens see Eisenhower Papers, vols. VI-XI; for Eisenhower's opinion of Stephens see Galambos, Columbia University, no. 493. 3 White House aide Thomas Edwin Stephens would arrange for Eisenhower to sit for Bentley for thirty minutes on January 9 and one hour on March 6. The portrait of the president emeritus, wearing the hood of the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree (received from Columbia in 1947), would be presented to Columbia University on April 5 (New York Times, Apr. 6, 1954). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Grayson Louis Kirk, 9 November 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 536. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/536.cfm <--PREV Doc #535  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #537

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