Edward Hornor Coates
| Edward Hornor Coates | |
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Portrait of Edward H. Coates. Robert Vonnoh, 1893, oil on canvas, 50⅛ × 40⅛ in (128 × 103 cm), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
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| Born |
November 12, 1846 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | December 23, 1921 (aged 71) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Occupation | Banker Patron of the Arts and Sciences |
| Spouse | Florence Earle Coates |
Edward Hornor Coates (November 12, 1846 – December 23, 1921) was a Philadelphia businessman, financier, and patron of the arts and sciences. He served as a director of the Mechanics National Bank in 1873, was chairman of the Committee on Instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1883 to 1890, and held the position of Academy president from 1890 to 1906.
He was the son of Joseph Potts Hornor Coates and Eliza Henri Troth, a family of Quakers. An 1864 graduate of Haverford College, he married (first) Ella May Potts in 1872, who died on 9 May 1874 at the age of 22. He married (second) Florence Earle Coates in 1879, the daughter of prominent Philadelphia lawyer This was also a second marriage for Florence, her first husband – William Nicholson – died in 1877 after only five years of marriage. Coates would eventually adopt Florence's daughter from her first marriage, Alice Earle Nicholson. Florence and Edward had one child together in 1881, but the baby, Josephine Wisner Coates, died in infancy.
The family had a city house at 1018 Spruce Street and a suburban house — "Willing Terrace" — in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. A frequent guest was literary and social critic Matthew Arnold, whom they would host during his stays in Philadelphia. Mrs. Coates was both inspired and encouraged by Mr. Arnold to pursue her interest in writing poetry. This would eventually lead to the publishing of nearly three hundred poems in the leading magazines of her day, as well as five volumes of collected verse. The family spent the summer months in the Adirondacks, where they owned "Camp Elsinore," a summer retreat by Upper St. Regis Lake. There they entertained, rested, and escaped the humidity of Philadelphia summers. Many of Mrs. Coates' nature poems were inspired by the flora and fauna of the Adirondacks. About 1908, the couple moved to a city house at 2024 Spruce Street, near Rittenhouse Square, where they resided for the remainder of their lives.
Painter John McLure Hamilton, in a chapter about Coates from his book (1921), describes Coates' tenure at PAFA:
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