Oil Painting, Baby Doe Tabor
Description
Elizabeth McCourt Tabor (Baby Doe Tabor) known for her rags to riches and then back to rags story has been the subject of an opera, a Hollywood film, and numerous books and articles. Born in 1854 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin she became one of the most popular figures in Colorado history. Known for her beauty and rebellious nature, she divorced her first husband, Harvey Doe, in 1880 after three years of marriage. Moving from Central City to Leadville, Colorado, she met wealthy miner, Horace Tabor. Having a secret affair, he married Baby Doe in 1882 before his divorce from his loyal wife of twenty years was final. Horace and Baby Doe had a luxurious life in their Denver mansion, but given the scandalous nature of their union, Denver's elite shunned them. Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893 brought an end to their life style and fortune. Horace's health failed and he died nearly penniless in 1899 leaving Baby Doe with their two daughters. She returned to Leadville to the spent, flooded Matchless Mine living in a tool shed. One daughter left to work in Denver, the other moved to Wisconsin. For the next thirty-five years, Baby Doe lived alone in the cabin, writing in her journals and known in the area as the "mad woman." She was found there in 1935 frozen to death., Charles Waldo Love was born in Washington D.C. His early art training was in Denver with Henry Reed at the Reed Art School He won a scholarship to the Art Students League in New York City. He studied in Paris, worked in New York as a commercial artist, and returned to Denver where in 1937 he began a twenty-year career at the Denver Museum of Natural History. There he created habitat backgrounds, many of them atmospheric, colorful dioramas. He did a number of historical portraits for the Colorado State Historical Society of Colorado figures for the WPA. He traveled and painted widely in the West and Southwest, and his work is in the Santa Fe Railroad Collection. During retirement he worked on special projects for the Museum painting thirty-three panoramas in the habitat section. Ask/ARTs Biographical Sketches.
Object Information
Date Created:
1935
Local ID:
H.6130.33
Collection:
CHS Scan #10027230
Provenance:
This painting was done by C. Waldo Love, staff artist for SHS (now History Colorado) in the 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration/New Deal program.
Count:
1
Rights:
No Known Copyright
