1902
Butler completes his supervision of Andrew Carnegie’s residence on Fifth Avenue and obtains Carnegie’s support for construction of Lake Carnegie at Princeton University.
“I painted my first portrait of Andrew Carnegie as he sat in the library of his new house, after his Breakfast, reading his newspaper. This is the portrait that hangs central of his gallery, of which Mrs. Carnegie considers best of all the portraits which were painted of him.”
“ I think it was during one of these sittings that he was almost bragging of the four lakes which he had built, all of which I had seen. To make conversation I told him of my scheme which I had for the lake in Princeton. In my college days, as already told, I had been a coxswain of the six oar college barge. We rowed on the Delaware and Raritan Canal—a dangerous matter, for the canal then was filled with boats, many of them propelled with steam, and it was not easy to pass them on half a car. So the idea of cleaning out the marshes, which extended from the campus to Kingston, building a dam, and floating them, became a dream for all of us and often in the evenings we would sit toasting our toes on an open stove, a kind known as the Blushing Maiden, and discuss the great project. To my surprise Carnegie was very much interested. ‘Wouldn’t it be a great place for students to curl?’ he asked.” –Howard Russell Butler
