The Mystery of the Ethie

Finding extra materials in a donation is not uncommon; frequently of little consequence, such items can be anything from a piece of forgotten scrap paper to a small folded napkin. Occasionally, however, a piece is found that only adds to the mystery of an already somewhat mysterious collection.

Found portrait of mystery woman. LA2010.032

It was almost like something out of a movie: after removing the back of a frame, it became clear that there were several things in the way of the backing and the item being framed. After freeing these pieces of discolored card stock, there was a thicker board attached to the back of yet another piece of card stock. After detaching this unknown piece, it became clear that this was not just the usual kind of material used to fill a frame. In fact, this was what appeared to be a hand sketched and colored original piece of art! It was a portrait of a woman in a dress, looking serenely off to the side of the drawing. Upon further investigation of this piece it became clear that the image was the only thing on the board. There was no signature, no name, no date – only this picture. So, the questions became: Who is this woman? Where did this picture come from? Well, the second question was easily answered; this framed document was from the pleasure yacht Ethie, a vessel which traveled from England to San Diego with her crew of 5 in the late 1930’s. Could this woman be the namesake of the ship? Could she be someone who made that long voyage?

The next stop for this investigation was in the museum’s archives within the Kiralfy collection. A.E. Kiralfy was the captain of the Ethie when she made her voyage to San Diego, and his family donated many of the documents relating to this voyage and the yacht itself to the museum. These documents were full of information: bills of health from a number of ports, including London, Lisbon, Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal. There is a captain’s log book containing detailed information on positions and weather conditions that the yacht encountered. Various certificates show where the ship went from 1938-1939 as it crossed the Atlantic and traveled to California. In all of this, however, a crucial thing was missing that might indicate who this woman was: pictures. There were no images available to cross reference this image of a woman with any of the extensive documents in the collection. Finally, one document shed a small amount of light on the possible identity of this woman: a bill of sale from 1929 at Cowes Port, London. This document indicated that A.E. Kiralfy was not the first owner of this yacht, and that a Robert H.W. Mander owned it before him. These new answers only led to more questions. Could this image have been on the Ethie before 1929? Could she have simply been forgotten over time?

Bill of Sale for the Ethie, c. 1929. LA2010.032

This led to an extensive, but ultimately fruitless, search to find any records held by Cowes Port of yachts or even sales made in 1929. Robert Mander was also nowhere to be found in any available English records. This was a frustrating moment of what seemed like failure, but there was one more possible avenue to explore. The woman in the image itself was wearing a very specific style of dress, and one could also clearly see the way in which her hair was styled. If there were not external indications to this woman’s identity, possibly more information about her could be discerned from within. After looking at primary sources from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the form of plates and images, it became clear that this woman was likely drawn within the decade of the 1920s, meaning that her identity could very well be the namesake of the Ethie. However, it is likely lost and will remain unknown.

The Ethie herself is a ship that will also only live on in the memory of the museum. The last known document relating to the ship is one from the 1940s – it is a report of the condition of the ship after what would seem to be damage to her hull. Shortly after this, record stops and it is unclear what happened to her. It is possible that she was renamed and moved, or that she met her demise at sea. Whatever the case may be, the Ethie remains a piece of the museum – both displayed in miniature form and recorded in her documents. The spirit of this vessel will be preserved along with all of her mysteries, including this mystery woman.