Newlyweds in a New City
Our maternal grandfather Leon Harman Grayson (1906-1993) moved from his native Savannah, Georgia to Washington, D.C. in the mid-1930s when he accepted a position in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Justice Department. His bride Mary Julia Bell (1909-2001) soon joined him, and Leon put together a photo album to commemorate these early years in their marriage.
The Tattered Album
The Grayson photo album was among their earthly treasures that ended up in storage boxes in my closet, along with letters, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, loose photos, and photo negatives. The album measures 11 1/2 x 14 inches and is made of cardboard covered with a thin layer of black faux-leather and embossed with decorative flourishes. The spine was initially attached with string to allow for expansion, while the 20 or so black paper sheets on which the photos are mounted have become brittle with age. The photos themselves, 200 or so and all black and white, have faded considerably.
“The Past is Prologue” —
“And history is transformed From A Weltering Chaos into an Epic of Noble and Rythmic [sic] Beauty”
Handwritten photo album dedication
A Poet and an Intellectual?
Leon was a gregarious and affectionate man. He was witty, generous, and college-educated, having graduated with a law degree from the University of Georgia. I’m not sure any of us would have described him as a poet or an intellectual, but perhaps he was both after all. Leon’s creativity and humor shine throughout the album in the numerous notations he made in white grease pencil under and around the photographs. His depth is apparent in his handwritten dedication: “The Past is Prologue” — “And history is transformed From a Weltering Chaos into an Epic of Noble and Rythmic [sic] Beauty.” A profound and poetic thought! The first line is a quotation from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and could reference the seemingly random circumstances that brought Leon and Mary together as it related to their then-unknown future together. The photo album contains numerous pictures of Washington’s monuments, memorials, and federal buildings including the neoclassical National Archives on Constitution Ave., constructed ca. 1935. Outside the Archives stand four 25-foot tall sculptures including “Future,” whose pedestal reads: “WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE.” This may have been his inspiration. The “Weltering Chaos, Epic Beauty” portion of the quotation is unknown, and may be Leon’s original composition.
An Epic of Beauty
Two additional poetic (and seemingly disconnected) quotes in Leon’s handwriting also appear: “The Race Moves On” and “Fighting Against the Things that Are,” while numerous witty quips and inside jokes abound. Below a photo of a polar bear at the zoo: “Dad Pacing his Cell.” Under a photo of Mary in front of the then-new Department of Justice building, “My Future Office” and written nearby, “Wheels of Justice = Grind for Me.” Leon posed bare-chested on a river dock: “A Movie Threat,” while a photo of Mary and a girlfriend reads, “Hollywood’s Greatest Loss.” A photo of Leon and Mary aboard a ship has the caption, “The Cruise I Promised Mary” followed by another photo of the same vessel captioned “Arriving at Mt. Vernon,” a mere 20 miles downriver.
The album’s dedication page reads “From November ’36 to…..” The couple is believed to have eloped in late 1933 and publicly married in 1934. Leon was certainly in DC by early 1935, and Mary joined him no later than October that same year, so we’re not sure of the significance of Nov. ’36. Perhaps that is when Leon purchased the camera? In any case, the only other dates in the album are “1807 Kenyon St. New Years Day ’37” and “Virginia Beach Surf Club 6/10/41.” Our mother Mary Ann was born in August 1942, and does not make an appearance in the album (though as their only child future photos of her are plentiful, as you might imagine).
Mary and Leon lived the rest of their long lives in Washington, D.C. They had their share of human problems – fewer than some though perhaps more than many. Nevertheless, in our estimation, their story is an epic of noble and rhythmic beauty. May we, their descendants, honor their lives and continue their story.
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