Part 348: Thomas G. Moses’ Return to Sosman & Landis in 1896
By 1896, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “In July Mr. Landis dropped in to see me about going back with them, as I was not doing too well. I agreed with the understanding that all my helpers would be taken care of, excepting [Harry] Vincent, who went East where he made a hit. I hustled my unfinished contracts and joined the Sosman and Landis Studios again.” This speaks to Moses’ character as an individual and businessman; helping out those in his employ secure work as he closes the doors on his own business. I wonder how many business owners do that now; thinking about the many employees who show up to work only to see a note on the front door that the business has been closed.
This is the second time that Landis was able to bring Moses back to the studio after branching out on his own. Landis was the salesman after all, yet knew how to handle artists. But there was something more to it when Landis asked, although I am not quite sure of what it was. Maybe he was simply a good salesman, accentuating the future benefits that Moses would receive after joining the studio again. Maybe he acknowledged that there would be problems in any workplace. Regardless, Sosman & Landis offered Moses stability and the opportunity to advance. Whatever it was, Landis’ offer to return was accepted by Moses and he was actively working in the Sosman & Landis annex studio again by late summer of 1896.
Moses would not stay for long, but soon depart to embark on another business venture in New York– Moses & Hamilton. Like the others, it would not last. He returned for the third and final time to Sosman & Landis in 1904. That year, Sosman was the one to ask for Moses’ return; Landis’ failing health caused him to leave the company and Sosman was overwhelmed with administrative activities. I have always thought that Moses returned to help out the Landis family more than Sosman. He would remain quite close with Landis’ son throughout the remainder of his career.
In both 1896 and 1904, Sosman & Landis needed Moses’ help to run one of the two studios. Neither Sosman nor Landis was a young man, even in 1896, and I wonder if there wasn’t a promise made to Moses about his someday running the company. In the following decades, Moses would lament his leaving Moses & Hamilton, as well as New York in 1904. He regretted walking away from and tutelage of Roswell M. Shurtleff, sketching trips in the area, and the Salmagundi Club. Moses continued to miss his friends and the artistic community in New York.
Upon Moses’ return to Sosman & Landis in 1896, he was immediately swamped with work; they needed him desperately to run their annex studio – again. Moses wrote, “I had so much special work to do and it was hard to handle in the Studio. We rented the frames at the Alhambra Theatre and I worked there during the Fall and Winter.”
“Special work,” is repeatedly mentioned in Moses’ typed manuscript, but never defined. My research suggests that “special” work referred to Masonic projects. Moses painted the first scenery collection for Little Rock in 1896, a Sosman & Landis subcontracted project from M. C. Lilley & Co.
It was also the first of three scenery collections for the Albert Pike Consistory in Little Rock. Moses takes direct credit for the 1896, 1902, and 1923 installations. The 1896 Little Rock collection is not the first Scottish Rite scenery installation in the United States, nor in the Southern Jurisdiction. It was the first Scottish Rite collection that Moses took responsibility for at Sosman & Landis Studio. He also listed it as the first of fifty-five Scottish Rite installations that he supervised between 1896 and 1929 on his resumé.
To be continued…
