had caught his attention, and sharing her own views on favourite artworks. Both Kingsley and Lucy had spent a great deal of their adult lives alone. Now, finally, they had each found a special companion with whom to share all their thoughts, feelings and dreams. Life had simply never been sweeter.
Later that year the Porters returned to Europe. Life had become a wild, colourful adventure for Lucy as her new husband had an insatiable desire for travelling. Lucy became his beloved companion and indispensable assistant, photographing sculptures and architectural wonders during their many years of research and travel together. On 8 December they travelled home via Lapland and disembarked in New York.39
On 5 April 1914, Kingsley’s review of the research undertaken by his friend and colleague William Henry Goodyear was published in The New York Times.40 Goodyear, the curator of the Brooklyn Museum, had been conducting a series of studies involving the photographing and measuring of European buildings. Kingsley corresponded with Goodyear until his friend’s death in 1923. In the review, Kingsley gave Goodyear the accolade of ‘the first American art historian’.
The Porters had to curtail their travels when, on 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne, was assassinated. Thus began the First World War that lasted for over four years. Civilian travel to Europe was far too dangerous and Kingsley had to content himself with excursions within the States.
Kingsley’s brother Louis had become a successful lawyer in New York. By January 1915 he had four children: Louise Hoyt, called after his beloved mother was aged 11; Louis Hopkins Junior was aged 10; Joyce was aged 6 and Beatrice was aged 4. Their fifth child, christened Arthur Kingsley Porter, had died shortly after birth.41
On 31 March 1915, the misfortune that had dogged the Porters during Kingsley’s early life resurfaced. Louis’s home at Noroton Hill was destroyed by fire, entailing a loss of over $100,000.42 The fire had started on a porch roof when a spark from a plumber’s torch ignited. A fifty-mile-an-hour north-west gale fanned the flames and created an inferno. Luckily, none of the family was hurt in the ensuing blaze. Louis’s wife, Marion, had to be restrained from entering the blazing house to save her jewellery. However, her jewellery collection that was valued at several thousand dollars was destroyed. Louis and Kingsley lost their collection of native birds that was considered the most valuable and rare in America.
In April 1915 the danger of travelling across the Atlantic became abundantly clear when the German Embassy issued a warning that was printed in fifty American newspapers, advising passengers who intended to travel on British ships to do so at their peril.43 On 7 May 1915 the threat became an appalling reality when RMS Lusitania, en route from New York to Liverpool, was torpedoed by a German U-boat, just eleven miles from the Irish coast at Kinsale, Co. Cork. The ship sank within eighteen minutes with a loss of life totalling 1,198 passengers and crew.44 Unknown to the passengers, the ship had been carrying arms and munitions.The casualties included eminent industrialists, politicians, authors, architects, professors and newspaper tycoons, from the United States, Canada and Britain. The Irish art collector Sir Hugh Lane was also a victim, and the priceless case of paintings he was transporting was lost.45 The sinking of the Lusitania and the subsequent outrage at the fact that innocent civilians had been ruthlessly killed by a German military operation was a major contribution to the United States’ entry into the First World War.46
In the circumstances, Kingsley had to be content to remain on home soil. During 1915 he began teaching at Yale, his alma mater, where his family had studied since the 1840s.47 Although noted for his shyness, Kingsley’s students always gave glowing accounts of him. They absorbed his passion for art and blossomed under his original tutoring style. While at Yale, he also began working towards a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Kingsley had fond memories of his undergraduate years at Yale and he quickly threw himself into the university’s stimulating social life. At the Art School he taught five courses that dealt with medieval and Renaissance painting, architecture and sculpture. He also expounded the cultural riches that were on offer at Yale, not only in the subject matter covered in its art and history courses, but also the artistic treasures that were exhibited at the Jarves Gallery.48
During Kingsley’s time at Yale he commuted to college while Lucy remained in New York. Lucy always enjoyed a rich and varied social life, meeting with friends for luncheon in some of the best hotels, dining out in the evening and then taking in a play or a concert. Kingsley’s research and writing always took precedence, and periodically he needed time alone to work on his latest project.
14. Harkness Tower, Yale, New Haven, CT. Michael Cullen.
The first day of January 1916 was the dawning of a sad day for Lucy when her father, Thomas Wallace, died in his eighty-ninth year.49 Perhaps being reminded of his own mortality, Kingsley began formulating a new will. On 28 January he wrote to the President of Yale, Arthur Twining Hadley, stating that he wished to leave a bequest to the university, to establish a Faculty of Art History.50 Kingsley was aware that the setting up of an Art History department at Yale would meet with stiff opposition from some quarters, and he stated: ‘I understand the powers of darkness are strongly entrenched in certain quarters of New Haven.’ The bequest he proposed was the sum of half-a-million dollars that would be used:
1. To provide salaries for professors or instructors in the history of art in the academic department, as might be required.
2. To provide for the running and overhead expenses of such a department, the purchases of equipment, slides, photographs, books, etc.
3. Any residue to be used for the purchase of additional works of art to add to the collection of the Art School, and for the proper maintenance and housing of the same.
Kingsley also offered to bequeath to the university his Italian paintings and other art objects.51 It was indeed a grave disappointment when the university declined his offer. These years at Yale had been some of Kingsley’s happiest, but the refusal to accept his bequest proved that he had little power to influence the university’s authorities. It was a bitter pill to swallow, reminding him of his insignificance within the greater academic circle. For the moment Kingsley bided his time and remained at Yale.
On 1 March 1916, Kingsley wrote to his brother Louis, instructing him to make changes to the draft of both his and Lucy’s wills that were being drawn up. Lucy bequeathed a selection of her jewellery and ornaments to each of Louis’s children: Louis Junior, Louise, Joyce and Beatrice.52
Throughout 1916, Kingsley rekindled his childhood interest in drama by joining the Yale Dramatic Society.53 He took part in Cupid and Psyche that was performed in the magnificent Woolsey Hall on 20 October 1916. This was a glittering occasion in which the Hollywood actress Lorraine Huling, who had recently appeared in the silent motion picture The Fall of a Nation, played the heroine’s role. Kingsley played the Archbishop of Florence, one of the characters from the court scene.
In November, the Porters attended the Davanzati Palace auction held at the Plaza in New York.54 This was yet another interest that the couple enjoyed, browsing around galleries and antique auctions in search of a priceless piece of medieval art. It was also quite a social occasion, where art collector and investor mingled with New York’s elite society. Kingsley couldn’t miss the opportunity of adding further Italian artworks to his valuable collection. He purchased several items, including a panel of St Michael the Archangel by the Venetian artist Il Guariento, at a cost of $425; a Crucifixion panel from a primitive school of Florence for $850; a Madonna and Child panel by Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini for $725; and a painted wooden cross from the Tuscan school for $310. On the afternoon of 4 December, Kingsley gave an illustrated lecture on French medieval art in the ballroom of the Colony Club in New York.55
The year 1917 was a particularly fruitful period for Kingsley. On 20 March he was promoted to Assistant Professor of the History of Art at Yale.56 He also received his Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from Yale. In July, Kingsley’s third book, Lombard Architecture, was published