{{Short description|American publisher and heiress}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}} {{Infobox person | image = Barbara_Harrison_Wescott.png | caption = | name = Barbara Harrison Wescott | birth_name = Barbara Harrison | birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|10|27}} | birth_place = New York City | death_date = {{death date and age|1977|4|7|1904|10|27}}<ref name="burke"/> | death_place = [[Rosemont, Hunterdon County, New Jersey|Rosemont, New Jersey]] | alma_mater = [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] | occupation = [[Publisher]] | years_active = | spouse = [[Lloyd Wescott]] | parents = [[Francis Burton Harrison]] (father)<br>Mary Crocker (mother) | children = | relatives = [[Constance Cary Harrison]] (paternal grandmother)<br>[[Burton Harrison]] (paternal grandfather)<br>[[Charles Crocker]] (maternal grandfather)<br>[[Monroe Wheeler]] (brother-in-law) }} '''Barbara Harrison Wescott''' (October 27, 1904 – April 7, 1977) was an American [[Publishing|publisher]] and [[Heir apparent|heiress]]. She and [[Monroe Wheeler]] established Harrison of Paris, a press publishing limited-edition deluxe hard-cover books. She was also an avid collector of artwork.
==Biography== Barbara Harrison Wescott was born on October 27, 1904, in New York City. She was the second daughter of [[Francis Burton Harrison]] and his first wife Mary Crocker, an heiress from San Francisco. Her maternal grandfather was [[Charles Crocker]], a self-made multi-millionaire who founded the Central Pacific Railroad and, with three other men, took over the Southern Pacific Railroad and built the transcontinental railroad. Harrison's mother was killed in a car accident in 1905 at age 23 when Barbara was barely a year old.<ref name="sanfrancall"/> According to a 1914 article in [[The Washington Post]], her inheritance from her mother was then worth some $1.8 million;<ref name="wapo"/> {{Inflation|US|1800000|1905|fmt=eq}}. In 1922, she moved to England where she studied for three years at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], and then moved to Paris in 1925.<ref name="amwell"/>
==Publishing company== While living in [[France]], she worked closely with other American [[expatriate]]s in the [[literature|literary world]]. She and [[Monroe Wheeler]] established Harrison of Paris, a press publishing limited-edition deluxe hard-cover books, with rare typefaces, and [[Canson|Montgolfier Frères]] paper or [[Iridescent]] [[Imperial Japan]] paper.<ref name="amwell"/> From 1930 to 1934, [[Harrison of Paris]] published thirteen titles, including [[Lord Byron]]'s ''[[Childe Harold's Pilgrimage]]'', ''[[Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem)|Venus and Adonis]]'' by [[William Shakespeare]], ''[[Fables of Aesop]]'' with drawings by [[Alexander Calder]], ''[[A Gentle Creature|A Gentle Spirit]]'' by [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]], and two new works by [[Glenway Wescott]], Wheeler's longtime companion.<ref name="amwell"/> In 1934, the press relocated to New York, where it published a final title, [[Katherine Anne Porter]]'s ''Hacienda''.<ref name="harrison"/> Glenway Wescott's 1940 novel ''The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story'', "fictionalized a real day in Harrison's [[Rambouillet]] home with Harrison and her guests",<ref name="amwell"/> and Porter's 1962 novel ''[[Ship of Fools (Porter novel)|Ship of Fools]]'' was dedicated to Harrison.<ref name="amwell"/>
==Move to New Jersey== In 1935 she married Glenway's brother [[Lloyd Wescott]], and the next year the couple bought a farm along the Mulhocaway Creek in [[Union Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey|Union Township]] near [[Clinton, New Jersey|Clinton]] in [[Hunterdon County, New Jersey|Hunterdon County]], [[New Jersey]].<ref name="amwell"/> She continued her patronage of the arts throughout her life and was a noted collector of artwork.<ref name="notable"/> She began her collecting in Paris, and some of her notable pieces include works by [[Gustave Courbet]], [[Paul Gauguin]], [[André Derain]], [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Eugène Delacroix]], [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]], [[Pierre Bonnard]], [[Chaïm Soutine]], [[Claude Monet]], [[Maurice Utrillo]] and [[Pavel Tchelitchew]].<ref name="amwell"/>
In 1959, she and her husband bought a farm from the big band leader [[Paul Whiteman]], in Hunterdon County, near the community of [[Rosemont, Hunterdon County, New Jersey|Rosemont]] in [[Delaware Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey|Delaware Township]], after their Mulhocaway Creek farm was taken by the State of New Jersey under [[eminent domain]] in order to create the [[Spruce Run Recreation Area|Spruce Run Reservoir]].<ref name="amwell"/> In 1966, they donated part of their land to the state, to create the [[Hunterdon County, New Jersey#Points of interest|Wescott Nature Preserve]].<ref name="amwell"/>
She died at her home in [[Rosemont, Hunterdon County, New Jersey|Rosemont, New Jersey]] in 1977.<ref name="burke"/><ref name="nytimes"/> In May 1977, there was a groundbreaking ceremony for a garden dedicated to her at the [[New Jersey State Museum]].<ref name="amwell"/> American artist [[Ben Shahn]] created mosaic murals for the sculpture garden.<ref name="asbury"/>
==References== <references>
<ref name="amwell">{{cite news |last1=Rosco |first1=Jerry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231229045410/https://www.mtamwell.org/sites/default/files/NewsletterAmwellVol5No1-final_0.pdf |archive-date=December 29, 2023 |title=Art Patron Barbara Harrison Wescott - Connected to National and Local History |work=The Mount Amwell News |date=Spring 2011 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–3 |url=https://www.mtamwell.org/sites/default/files/NewsletterAmwellVol5No1-final_0.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="asbury">{{cite news |title=Sculpture Garden To Open On Sunday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbury-park-press-sculpture-garden/137598814/ |work=Asbury Park Press |date=April 27, 1977 |location=Asbury Park, New Jersey |page=A8}}</ref>
<ref name="burke">{{cite news |last1=Burke |first1=Hollis |title=Mrs. Lloyd B. Wescott 73; Daughter of Congressman |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-news-wescott/137594398/ |work=The Courier-News |date=April 8, 1977 |location=[[Bridgewater, New Jersey]] |page=A6}}</ref>
<ref name="harrison">{{cite web |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1423 | title=Harrison of Paris Records | hdl=10079/fa/beinecke.hop | publisher=[[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]}}</ref>
<ref name="notable">{{cite book |title=Notable Women Throughout the History of Hunterdon County |publisher=Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission |year=2000 |url=http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/pdf/c&h/notablewomenofhuntco.pdf |access-date=2009-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326112926/http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/pdf/c%26hnotablewomenofhuntco.pdf |archive-date=26 March 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |title=Barbara H. Wescott |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/09/archives/barbara-h-wescott.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 9, 1977 |access-date=2010-02-09|id={{ProQuest|123220022}}}}</ref>
<ref name="sanfrancall">{{cite news |title=Mrs. Francis B. Harrison Killed In Auto Wreck |work=The San Francisco Call |date=November 26, 1905 |volume=48 |issue=179 |page=1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-call-and-post-francis/137593702/ |location=San Francisco, California}}</ref>
<ref name="wapo">{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-washington-post-million/137592366/ | title=At Eight She Has Million|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=July 10, 1914|page=4}}</ref>
</references> {{portal bar|Biography|France|Literature|New Jersey|Visual arts}}
==External links== *[https://exhibitions.lib.umd.edu/kaporter-correspondence/id/0414efd2-a519-48fd-b361-28c79082f58b Card from Barbara Harrison Wescott to Katherine Anne Porter] at University of Maryland Libraries Special Collections *[https://exhibitions.lib.umd.edu/kaporter-correspondence/id/c74277d3-3ec5-4c57-a773-4bb24fd5922d Letter from Katherine Anne Porter to Barbara Harrison Wescott] at University of Maryland Libraries Special Collections
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wescott, Barbara}} [[Category:1904 births]] [[Category:1977 deaths]] [[Category:American paperback book publishers (people)]] [[Category:Crocker family]] [[Category:American book publishing company founders]] [[Category:20th-century American publishers (people)]]