Portrait of Cleveland Abbe

Name/Title

"Portrait of Cleveland Abbe"

Description

Portrait of Cleveland Abbe (1838-1916)

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil on Canvas

Subject Person

Cleveland Abbe

Context

In 1877, Cleveland Abbe (1838 – 1916) purchased 2017 I Street, NW, (the home of the Arts Club of Washington) and lived there with his wife Frances Martha Neal (Fanny) and their two sons, Cleveland, Jr., and Truman. A native of New York City, Abbe was a Harvard-trained astronomer who worked for the United States Weather Bureau and is recognized for issuing its first official weather forecast. Fanny died in 1908; Abbe remarried the following year and moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland. He rented the house to St. John’s School for Girls and, in 1916, to the Arts Club of Washington, which purchased it from Abbe's heirs in 1918.

Made/Created

Artist

Zachary Bowman

Date made

2020

Dimensions

Height

39 in

Width

27 in

Location

Building

H-102 First floor hallway

Acquisition

Acquisition Method

Gift

Date

2020

Acquired From

Henry Sienkiewicz and Jeffrey Brady

Update Date

August 25, 2025