Dana Ripley Pond (1881-1962) belonged to a noteworthy family in Winchester, Massachusetts, where his father, Handel Pond, had lived since 1869. Dana Pond's uncle Preston Pond was a businessman who was also a selectman, park commissioner, hospital incorporator, president of a home for the elderly, and member of other committees. His aunt Katherine was the town librarian from 1875 to 1889. Aunt Caroline became the town's foremost piano teacher. Handel Pond's wife Amelia Herrick was the daughter of prosperous businessman Moses Herrick and his wife Jane Ripley Hubbard, daughter of Boston artist Charles Hubbard (who himself lived in Winchester for several years).
During the year after his father went into partnership in the Ivers and Pond Piano Company, Dana Ripley Pond was born, on April 8, 1881. Dana Pond was educated at Worcester Academy and studied art in Boston and abroad. While his brothers entered their father's piano company and assumed its management after their father's death (1908) Dana Pond became an artist and maintained a studio in New York City.
He was a member of the National Academy of Art and of the Salmagundi Club. He traveled widely and painted in Europe, particularly in Spain and France. Pond also had a studio in Paris. In fact, he was living in Paris when World War I broke out, and he joined the Red Cross Ambulance Service. In 1918 he used one of the halls in Versailles as a studio to paint a series of portraits of allied commanders, including Marshall Petain, Gen. Pershing, Gen. Bliss, Adm. Benson, and Col. House. This series was exhibited at the Knoedler Galleries in New York in October 1919.
In later life, Pond returned to Winchester. His brothers having died in 1945 and 1957, he was the last of his family to live in the family home on Cambridge Street (which no longer exists). He never married.
Dana Pond died on August 21, 1962 at home and was buried in Winchester's Wildwood Cemetery.
The following information is from William F. Morgan Jr. Deputy Dir, RDD, US Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and National Vice President of the Military Intelligence Corps Association. (MICA)
Your records reflect that Dana Ripley Pond joined the Red Cross Ambulance Service. It however does not reflect that he also later became an officer serving as an interpreter during the Paris Peace Conference. I have personally seen his uniform with the tailors tag from Paris.
We discovered the uniform when assembling a collection of insignia for Army Intelligence in 2013. A noted insignia collector found the uniform in a Paris military surplus store. It sold for about $50. Since then we have been doing research of official records to determine his relationship to President Wilson, Colonel House, General Pershing, General Bliss, Colonel Van Deman and others linked to the Paris Peace Talks.
We can supply photos of the tailors tag from the uniform. Would like to make sure people know the whole story on Dana Ripley Pond.
