In addition to her work at ICA, Holly Witchey is also the Director of the Wade Family Project. For six generations Wade gifts of land and operating funds for orphanages, primary schools, hospitals, higher education, museums, and other cultural institutions and collections have helped to transform the Cleveland landscape; yet the Wade stories, and particularly the stories from earlier generations, are largely forgotten. Witchey will introduce us to:
• Jeptha H. Wade (1811-1890), a co-founder and one-time President of Western Union Telegraph, a larger-than-life individual, whose career was punctuated by periods of enormous energy followed by traumatic health concerns and tragedies.
• Jeptha’s son, Randall P. Wade (1835-1876), handsome and creative—his surviving documents are a testament to a good-humored family man, well-liked by his friends, but lacking his father’s drive and determination. A scandal and his early death, in 1876, make Randall a largely forgotten Wade.

• And Randall’s son, Jeptha “Homer” Wade II (1857-1926) who despite his many contributions to Cleveland—including his role in the foundation of the Cleveland Museum of Art—remains something of a cipher.

Zoom link will be provided before the event.