D. K. E. Bruce [Framed Inscribed Photograph]

1951. Presumed one of a multiple original, but uniquely inscribed. Photograph [Framed]. Good. Frame is approximately 12.25 inches by 16 inches. Image area is 7 inches by 9 inches with a further cut out below for inscription which states "To my friend, Donald D. Shepard With warmest regards from David Bruce, July 4, 1951. Black and white image is of a standing Ambassador Bruce in a living room with his wife holding a toddler on her lap and an older female child standing between her mother (the former Evangeline Bell) and her father. A resting dog is in front of the family group. Frame has some wear and soiling. Matt also appears soiled. Label on the back indicated this was framed by Mickelson's of Washington, D. C. for Donald D. Shepard. Also a stamp stating it was the property of D. D. Shepard. Donald D. Shepard was the personal counsel to Andrew Mellon, the executor of Mellon's will and a trustee of the Mellon endowment. Ambassador Bruce was at one time married to Andrew Mellon's only daughter, Ailsa. This picture is with his second wife. The girl is presumably their only daughter Alexandra (called Sasha). The toddler is presumed to be David Surtees Bruce, the couple's second child. The third child, Nicholas Cabell Bruce, was--as they say--not in the picture yet! David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce was the some of William Bruce a distinguished United States Senator representing Maryland (1923 - 1929) and Pulitzer Prize winning author. David was educated at the University of Virginia, graduating in 1920, then to the Law School at the University of Maryland and later, Princeton University. He was admitted to the bar in Maryland and served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1926 - 1928. Ten years later he would serve in the Virginia House of Delegates (1939 - 1942). David served his country in the United States Army during the First World War; served as an agent in the Office of Strategic Services in London and later, in 1944, observed the liberation of Paris. Family life for David began on May 29, 1926 when he married Ailsa Mellon (1901 - 1969), daughter of banking tycoon and diplomat Andrew W. Mellon. Bruce further served his country diplomatically under three Presidents. Beginning in the administration of Harry Truman he served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce (1947 - 1948), Chief of the Economic Cooperation Administration to France (1948 - 1949), Ambassador to France from 1949 to 1952 and Under Secretary of State (1952 - 1953). During the Eisenhower administration David served as Ambassador to West Germany, which post he held from 1957 -1959. After a break he was called once more to ambassadorial duty by John F. Kennedy, who appointed him Ambassador to Great Britain in 1961, a posting he held until the end of the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson. He was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976. Like his father, David Bruce exhibited a literary prowess and authored several books, most notably: Seven Pillars of the Republic (1936), Sixteen American Presidents: From Washington to Lincoln (1936) and Revolution to Reconstruction (1939).