(c) 2015 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Teobaldo "Bolgi" Travi in the North Cloister, Fenway Court

photographer Thomas E. Marr (Canadian-American, 1849 - 1910)

subject Teobaldo Travi (Italian, 1863 - 1944)

Date1904

Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America

MediumGelatin silver print

Dimensions25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in.)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberARC.Marr.9323.b

eMuseum ID719571

EmbARK ObjectID23159

TMS Source ID8317

Last Updated8/9/24

Status

Not on view

Web CommentaryA native of Italy, Teobaldo “Bolgi” Travi (1863-1944) immigrated to Boston and first came to the Museum to work on its construction. Isabella Stewart Gardner was impressed with the care that Bolgi handled the sculptures and architectural elements integrated into the building. Once construction was complete, she hired him to be her “majordomo,” chief supervisor of the museum’s staff. This photograph shows Bolgi in his majordomo’s uniform, custom designed by the artist Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950).

BibliographyNotes

Diana Seave Greenwald, "Bolgi: The Caretaker and Protector of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 15 April 2020, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/bolgi-first-caretaker

Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), pp. 98-99, fig. 49.

ProvenanceNotesCommissioned by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the photographer Thomas E. Marr (active Boston, 1910-1942) in 1904.