February 11, 2026
Pittsburgh's Dapper Dan boxing match,1952, Duquesne Gardens
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| Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 20, 1952 |
Ten new Golden Gloves champions were crowned at the Duquesne Gardens as part of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Dapper Dans tourney.
February 19, 1952. The 7th annual tournament played out before a roaring crowd of 5,102 in two-minute affairs. The rounds in the final matches were the regulation three minutes.
"While the crowd was predominantly male, the women were much in evidence, too. And who can get more excited and vocal than the gals!" ("Glove Fans Arrive Early, Stay Late," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Feb. 20, 1952, p. 18)
My mother was a sophomore at Carnegie Tech's School of Art in '52. That semester she took her first class in "Pict - Struct Design," most likely taught by Howard Worner. Her abstract painting placed in a school art show in March.
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| "The Boxing Match, Duquesne Gardens, 1952" Watercolor or gouache on brown paper, Barbara Boyd Carter © Barbara Boyd Carter / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
"CROWD" (bottom right) must have been the title of the assignment. I couldn't find a crowd photo of a boxing match at Duquesne Gardens, but here's one of a political rally held there on October 18th, 1948 for presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace.
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| The Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 19, 1948 |
My mother always talked about her painting as "The Boxing Match," whenever we walked past George Bellows' Dempsey and Firbo painting at the Whitney. I added Duquesne Gardens and the year to the title.
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| Dempsey and Firbo, 1924, George Bellows Whitney Museum of American Art |
I wonder why my mother didn't paint in the boxers? Was it an instinctive choice in the picture's composition, like the dabs of red at the left and bottom right of the ring, in the center of the picture?
Her painting can be seen in a group show at the Huntington Arts Council, February 17th thru March 22nd. 123 Main Street (Rte 25-A), Huntington, Long Island. Hours: Tues-Fri 11-4 pm, phone 631-271-8243
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| "The Boxing Match, Duquesne Gardens, 1952" Watercolor and gouache on brown paper, Barbara Boyd Carter Framed by James McDonough at J. Pocker, Manhattan |
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| 'Placed' stamp on back of "The Boxing Match, Duquesne Gardens, 1952" |
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| Her photo of instructor Robert Worner and classmates at Carnegie Tech |
She took painting and design classes every semester until her graduation in 1954 (BFA, Pictorial Design).
Contact: Debbie Carter, VillagerExpat@aol.com, (212) 925-3721. More paintings posted on Flickr at BarbaraBoydCarter.com
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November 24, 2025
Remembering A. Fitz & Sons butchers on First Avenue, 1987
A. Fitz & Sons meat market and Pescatore Seafood were neighbors for many years on First Ave., at the corner of 52nd Street. Greta Garbo and Katherine Hepburn shopped there.
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| Midtown butcher, 1987 painting of A. Fitz & Sons, est. 1867 © Barbara Boyd Carter / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
Butcher David Adams and, on the phone in the back, Selma Schwartz, granddaughter of founder Abraham Fitz. In 1992 the business was sold to Simchick Meats & Poultry, now located at 988 First Ave., bet. 54th/55th streets more ...
My mother composed her large watercolor and pastel in her Beekman Place apartment from on-site sketches and photos she took for reference.
In November 2022, the painting came up on #ArtOnLink in Times Square.
This year I posted this painting and others on my apartment door for Thanksgiving.
Contact: Debbie Carter, VillagerExpat@aol.com, (212) 925-3721, and more paintings from her "Midtown Merchants" series at BarbaraBoydCarter.com
October 19, 2025
My mother's work as an art student at Carnegie Tech in the early 1950s.
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When my mother was living in Morewood Gardens in the early 50s, she woke up to an inch of soot on her windowsill every morning.
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| In her dorm room, 1950s © Barbara Boyd Carter / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
In her senior year, with my dad away at Fort Bragg, she turned serious about her art.
For a "House Analysis" project, she went sketching in Oakland. One day, when absorbed in her sketching, a cinderblock landed at her feet, thrown from a bridge.
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| House Analysis, a printer's guide, 1954, Barbara Boyd Carter |
"The places I used to go!"
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| artist reference photo |
Page 2 of "House Analysis"
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| House Analysis, a printer's guide (pg. 2), 1954, Barbara Boyd Carter |
She did this casein of the College Club, formerly the Farrell/Bailey mansion, at 143 No. Craig Street, a few years before it was demolished. I'm looking for a public space for this painting where it will be preserved for years to come.
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| House in Oakland, Barbara Boyd Carter, 1954 © Barbara Boyd Carter / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
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(Overview: View of Oakland with St. Paul’s Cathedral), Clyde Hare, 1953, Carnegie Museum of Art (link) |
Contact: Debbie Carter, VillagerExpat@aol.com, (212) 925-3721, full art portfolio at BarbaraBoydCarter.com, Pittsburgh pictures at this link.
May 10, 2025
Chasing the rents on the Upper East Side
This was my parents' neighborhood. I never thought I'd move here but the street has a village-y feel. I found a prewar apartment at tree level with a view of old brownstones of art galleries, practically a whole row of them.
I was living in Northport, Long Island when I saw the listing for this apartment. I wanted to move back to the city but wasn't looking on the Upper East Side.
StreetEasy must have recognized the similar layout to my old apartment in Midtown and threw it into the mix of searches. I'd show you pictures of the inside but it's a workspace, a bit of a mess. I still have unpacked boxes of books and my mother's artwork stored in the open, despite the four closets. You never get enough space in New York.
Back in the 90s I went with my mother to the Macy's flower show, sometime around Mother's Day. This picture was taken with a Kodak instamatic. It's too dark but you can see the flowers at top right. How about those old wooden counters? I miss that old New York look.
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| Barbara Boyd Carter art show at Daniel Gale Sotheby's in Northport, and a friendly wave from Carolyn Luckow |
The art show (Oct-Dec 2024) of my mother's watercolors and prints made my brief stay in Northport worthwhile.
HGTV's house hunting shows gave me the idea to move out there last year when my apartment on 56th & Lex became a 24-hour construction zone. But the arts & culture scene and my genealogy project drew me back to the city. I know now that where I live is more important than having a nice house.
Contact: Debbie Carter, VillagerExpat@aol.com, (212) 925-3721
March 6, 2020
Mount Adams, painted by my mother in the 1950s when she lived in Cincinnati
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| Mount Adams, ca. 1956, by Barbara Boyd Carter casein on board, 15 in. x 20 in. |
Followers of the FB page "Greater Cincinnati History Group" have posted 123 likes so far to my mother's picture of Mount Adams. Painted in 1956, my dad had just completed his two years in the service at Fort Bragg, NC, and accepted a spot in GE's management training program.
My parents lived in an apartment in Glen Meadows. It was two years since my mother had graduated Carnegie Tech's College of Art and would be two years before she became a mother.
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| No pictures on the wall? My parents must have just moved in |
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| Barbara Boyd Carter original illustrations for a Cincinnati glassware company The Libbey Glass Company (Etsy) |
Contact: Debbie Carter, VillagerExpat@aol.com, (212) 925-3721
2 comments:
These works, as well as two paintings of Potter's Field, were accessioned into the Cincinnati History Center collection, 2024
Reply- AnonymousJanuary 8, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Link to Potter's Field, 1957, casein, https://flic.kr/p/2oK91Pn
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February 27, 2020
Lost artwork: a search to recover my mother's missing paintings
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| 50th Street snow scene, 1986 by Barbara Boyd Carter |
Here is a watercolor of a 50th Street snow scene my mother painted from her apartment window on Beekman Place. It's part of her series "Midtown Merchants" which is featured in this week's East Midtown Partnership newsletter. Here is a link to the Midtown Merchant Series on Flickr; a movie appears below.
While this blog began with a search for an apartment in Greenwich Village after I made the mistake of moving away, the need to fix this has evolved into other subplots about what's missing in my life. An even deeper desire to find a permanent home for my mother's artwork has led to a search for missing paintings that were lost in moves. In the mid 80s my father sold their house in Lloyd Harbor, Long Island during real estate boom to buy a company in Palmer, Massachusetts, because he was tired of working for other people. Ten years later they moved again to retire in NYC. My parents thought the city's art museums and restaurants would make New York the perfect place to retire, but a noisy apartment drove them out and they moved back to the tranquility of Lloyd Harbor, Long Island, where my dad could indulge his hobby of caring for a lawn and my mother could paint and garden.
Pictures change in 15-second intervals
"Midtown Merchants" series, 1986-87
My mother's lost artwork has been on my mind. Movers will tell you that the truck is empty and drive off, and when you realize there are pieces missing, it can be too late. The reasonable thing is to brush myself and move on, but I'm holding out hope that these paintings can be recovered.
My mother said that all the paintings in the series were wrapped in the large flat package she kept stored under her bed when she was living at Cedar Crest Village in Pompton Plains, NJ. I wanted to include one or two in the art shows they were having but she refused to allow it, saying the pictures would cost too much to frame, that I wasted money, but I could do whatever I wanted with them after she was dead. An overreaction to criticism, really. So the package went unopened until I was at an art studio to have them scanned and discovered it was missing. This is very upsetting. My mother never mentioned that it had been sold or given away. Could a decorator who sold lithos of her pen & inks at the time have sold it to a company? Or was it lost in a move?
Here is a photo of a painting of diners at The Golden Dolphin, a restaurant on Route 25A in Huntington, Long Island, the town's Main Street. She lived in Huntington on two occasions, between 1977-87, and again from 1996-2008.
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| Dolphin Diners, Huntington, Long Island, 1983 by Barbara Boyd Carter |
I remember my mother saying that this painting was lost. In between moves from NYC to Brimfield, Massachusetts and back to NYC, all my parents' belongings were put in storage. It's a painting with merit, and I would be surprised if someone threw it out.
I haven't called storage facilities in Massachusetts or NYC, or the apartment building in NYC where they had a storage bin, so those are options. Maybe her pictures will turn up in an antiques store.
Artist Barbara Boyd Carter graduated from Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon, in 1954 with a BFA in Pictorial Design from the College of Art. She studied with Andy Warhol's teachers.
Contact: Debbie Carter, VillagerExpat@aol.com, (212) 925-3721
Artist Barbara Boyd Carter graduated from Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon, in 1954 with a BFA in Pictorial Design from the College of Art. She studied with Andy Warhol's teachers.
Contact: Debbie Carter, VillagerExpat@aol.com, (212) 925-3721
September 11, 2019
Veterans Fishing Station, a/k/a The Clam Bar, Cold Spring Harbor
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| Photo courtesy of Jeff Springsteen, used by permission |
Do you remember those days hanging out at the Village Green?
Engineer boots, leather jackets and tight blue jeans
--Billy Joel,
"Scenes From an Italian Restaurant"
Last week I had the pleasure of seeing two lithos of my mother's at the financial services firm Deloitte U.S. in Rockefeller Center (below). One is an image of the Veterans Fishing Station in Cold Spring Harbor, a/k/a The Clam Bar, next to the Village Green that Billy Joel sings about. The Whalers Inn across the street is now the Harbor Mist restaurant. Many thanks to Huntington town historian Robert C. Hughes for identifying the site and to Jeff Springsteen for sharing the photo of his friends from 1978-79 ("I Grew Up in Cold Spring Harbor" Facebook page).
The lithos were sold in 1982 to Touche Ross by an interior designer and family friend for display in the firm's offices at World Trade Center. My mother and I thought the lithos were lost or destroyed, but this spring I contacted Deloitte, which merged with Touche Ross in 1989, and they kindly arranged for me to see the lithos in their office last week.
Here is a scan of the original pen & ink from my mother's collection.
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| Veterans Fishing Station, Cold Spring Harbor ca. 1982 Barbara Boyd Carter pen & ink, 7.5 in. x 10.5 in. |
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| Veterans Fishing Station, Cold Spring Harbor ca. 1982 Barbara Boyd Carter watercolor, 12 in. x 17 in. |
I wanted to go back and take a photo of the Veterans Fishing Station as it looks today but I was sorry to hear it was lost in a fire in 1988. A new building is in its place at the site of Powles Marina. If someone has a picture of the marina or fishing station, past or present, feel free to share it in the Comments section.
Top photo courtesy of Jeff Springsteen, used by permission.
Contact: Debbie Carter, VillagerExpat@aol.com, (212) 925-3721
Pretty cool article. Thank you for the mention!
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