Page 87 - Family History

Family Stories

The Search for Pe-Te’s Caricature

I remember once seeing my grandmother, Athelene Augusta Poulsen (Fisher)

with a caricature of her father Elmer Ellsworth Fisher. I don’t remember who she
was talking with at the time – nor anything that was said, however, years later,
a single page, poor quality photocopy of the caricature somehow ended up in my
genealogy stack.

Where did it come from? Small “clues” hint to the fact that the caricature is
related to politics and family knowledge was that E.E. Fisher – nickname “Pe-
Te”, was (among other things) a Washington State politician. In 1999 I wrote to
the Washington State Capitol Museum to see if they could help me figure out
where the caricature came from. They wrote back they had forwarded my letter
but were unable to help and I never heard anything further. Many years later I

tried again to research the source of the caricature on my own – via the internet
and – finally, I was successful!

With nothing to go on but the photocopy itself, I began by doing a search on the

caricature artist’s distinctive signature “Renfro” – plainly visible along with
the date 1911.

This lead to links on Beaux Arts Village – an artist’s colony founded on the
shore of Lake Washington (what is now Bellevue, WA) by three artists, one of
them being Alfred Renfro.

Reference: https://www.beauxarts-wa.gov/history

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