28 June—The shocking news today is that Chris Kimball’s 177milkstreet.com culinary powerhouse up in Boston is selling a box of seven peaches for $38.00. That’s seven peaches, not 70 peaches. Of course, they’re genuine Georgia peaches and the price includes “$14 Expedited Shipping per box,” although not directly from Georgia and the “weight varies.” That comes out to $5.42 a peach. Enough said on that.

Today’s Second Amendment observance is the 13^th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago. The ruling is really that, through the incorporation doctrine, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment extends the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms to the states, although, as in Heller, it’s not unqualified and thus applies only to traditional, lawful purposes, such as self-defense.

Before leaving guns, five days ago I neglected to observe the first anniversary of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, in which SCOTUS, reversing the notoriously anti-gun Second Circuit, held last year that New York State’s “proper-cause” requirement for obtaining an unrestricted license to carry a concealed firearm violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Moving forward to yesterday, then, diligent research on the artist who made the reverse-image etching from the James Calvert Smith painting confirmed that it was in fact Bernhardt Wall, one of my suspects. He was born in 1872 and died in 1956. An admirer of Abraham Lincoln, aspects of whose life he depicted many times, Wall produced a huge oeuvre of western themes in several media.

Wall illustrated so-called “propaganda cards” during World War I, as well as over 5,000 largely comic postal and greeting cards through the years, thus earning the sobriquet “Postcard King.” Since Wall was an experienced lithographer and etcher, none of whose other works appear to be printed in reverse, I have no idea why he did that to poor Sarah Pierce. I wonder if his plates and stones are still around?

I haven’t been able to find anything regarding Bernhardt Wall’s connection with James Calvert Smith, though it may be through a common interest in American history. Or his connection with or interest in Litchfield, Sarah Pierce, and young ladies.

On the other hand, there’s George Catlin, who did the portrait of Sarah Pierce. Born in 1796, he died in 1872. He was a traveler, adventurer (whatever that is), author, painter, and lawyer. He specialized in portraits of Indians—sorry, Native Americans—in the Old West. It’s pretty safe to surmise that Catlin painted Sarah Pierce because he actually knew her. In Litchfield.

Even though he ended up marrying a non-alumna from Albany over a decade younger than himself, Catlin may even have dated one or more of the young ladies at the Litchfield Female Academy. (Assuming young ladies and gentlemen did things like that in proper old Litchfield, of course.) Because, even though he never wanted to be a lawyer, Catlin attended Tapping Reeve’s law school on South Street, following in his father’s footsteps. It was after being admitted to the bar and lawyering for a couple of years that he followed his heart, as it were, becoming a traveler, artist, and writer.