766. The Real Name of Thom Winslow

Many names and dates mentioned in the previous two blog posts need correcting. Names have been misspelled in various publications and on websites, and birth years and even nationalities have been mixed up. But I think we’ve sorted it out. The solution began to emerge thanks to an email from Martin Steenson of Books & Things in London (here is the the shop's website): 'I would have thought there is a possibility that Mrs Winslow (nee Thomas) had a nickname of Thom.'

To get straight to the point: that’s correct. Mrs Henry Winslow must be the ‘Thom’ to whom Ricketts gave this copy of Beyond the Threshold as a gift upon its publication.

Charles Ricketts, dedication to 'Thom Winslow'
in Beyond the Threshold (1929)

The name Marius Winslow appears as an owner's entry at the front of the book. 

Martin Steenson found the name of Marius Winslow on a genealogy website (Ancestry). There, the name is linked to Florian Carr, which was the name taken by the Winslows’ daughter after her second marriage. She was apparently his ‘probate’. 

The website states that his name is Marius Kempton Winslow, and that he was born in 1917 and died on 20 December 1959 (or 1969, the website mentions two dates). That would explain the later gift of a painting to the Ashmolean Museum 'in memory of Helen, Henry and Marius Winslow' in 1975, undoubtedly by the same Florian Carr.

However, the site introduces an error about Florian, stating that she was the elder 'son' of the Winslows, born on 17 March 1914. (All dates on this webside are questionable.) Of course, Florian was their only daughter. The mother is introduced as 'Helen Sterling' (1880-1943). This cannot be correct. Sterling was not her family name, it was her middle name. She was not born in 1880 in Cleveland, and in 1960 was very much alive, when she was mentioned in a note about deaths in The Times of 13 January 1960: 

On 9th January, 1960, suddenly, at his house in Switzerland, Henry Winslow, husband of Helen Sterling. 

This is supported by a notice in the 'In Memoriam' section of The Times, dated 30 January 1976:

WINSLOW. - In memory of Helen Sterling Winslow, painter in tempera, died 28th January, 1973.

These notices tell us that Henry Winslow did not die in 1953 or 1955, as several sources including the British Museum assert, but in 1960. We still have to assume that he was born in 1875.

The names of both children and their mother can be found in The New York Times of 31 October 1936:

The New York Times, 31 October 1936

Helen Sterling Wilson was the sister of Gertrude S. Thomas who died on 2 October 1935. There were to be two trust funds for 'Florian Winslow Johnstone [...] and Marius Winslow', niece and nephew of the deceased. From this we can conclude that Helen was not a British painter born in 1890, but an American. The genealogy of the Thomas family has partially been published in The Sterling Genealogy by Albert Mack Sterling (New York: The Grafton Press, 1909). Gertrude Streator Thomas and Helen Sterling Thomas were children of Helen Gertrude Streator and Eben B. Thomas, the former a descendent of William Sterling of Haverhill, Mass., the latter a railroad manager who became president of the Lehigh Valley Railway system. Gertrude was born on 5 June 1873, Helen was born on 18 November 1877. 

Around 1900 she published stories, and kept doing so, see for example 'The Heart's Desire in Blue Sky (May 1900), 'The Wonder-Worker' in Scribner's Magazine (August 1914) and the 'Tytgat the Toy-Man' (in the same, June 1921).

The New York Times of 2 September 1911 carried a notice on 'Marriage':

WINSLOW - THOMAS. - In Paris, France. Sept. 1. Helen Sterling, daughter of Mr. and Mrs E.B. Thomas, to Henry Winslow.

Helen Sterling Thomas was in her early thirties when she married in Paris, and apparently the couple moved to London shortly afterwards, where their daughter and son were born. At around that time she turned to etching and painting. Her middle name was spelled 'Stirling' by herself on some of her paintings, such as 'Pieta' (Christie's auction 2008), which helped to create confusion.

Signature of Helen Sterling Winslow on 'Pieta' (undated tempera painting)

In short, Henry Winslow (c.1875-1960) was an American painter, who went to art school in Paris where he may have met Helen Sterling Thomas (1877-1973). She was an American author and painter whose nickname may have been Thom. This would explain Ricketts's dedication to the American painter: 'To Thom Winslow | This Victorian masterpiece | From its | British author'. 

The Winslows owned at least two paintings by Ricketts, 'The Trojan Women', donated by the Winslows to the Manchester Art Gallery in 1948 and 'Jephthah's Daughter' which was presented by them to the Ashmolean Museum in 1946. They had leant these paintings to the memorial exhibition for Ricketts in 1933, which also included four designs for stage costumes from their collection: drawings for 'A Winter's Tale', a costume for Siegmund and two designs for Shaw's 'Saint Joan'. The Winslows also had acquired paintings by Charles Shannon: 'Toilet Scene I' and 'Toilet Scene II', both given to Manchester Art Gallery, also in 1948. Both artists and collectors must have been close to Ricketts's heart. Ricketts oversaw the interior design of their St John's Wood house. In January 1929 he trusted them with news about Shannon after his accident so that he himself would not be bothered too much in the stressful situation. To Thomas Sturge Moore he wrote:

Dont write I find letters upsetting. News is given to friends at about 12 oc at the 'phone Primrose Hill 0570. The Winslows are kept informed.

Sturge Moore saw to it that two of Ricketts's stories in his posthumous Unrecorded Histories were dedicated to Henry and Helen Winslow.