Oakland is the home of amazing people, both past and present, and James and Henrietta Latham were no exception. James, a Wells Fargo representative and his wife Henrietta, had three children, Charles, Milton and Edith and were dedicated to the value of all living things, including the way children were educated. His brother Milton, a prominent California senator, was the 6th governor of California. James died in 1876 and Henrietta remarried a Mr. Dwight, continuing her passion for “the speechless ones” through watercolor painting, and by writing one of the first vegetarian cookbooks, published in 1898, called The Golden Age Cook-Book. The gorgeous bronze sculpture located at Telegraph and Broadway in Oakland was a gift from their children as a tribute to their humanity. Created by Raphael Charles Peyre, a French sculptor, it depicts several scenes including a cherub restraining a man from beating a donkey, and the bowls surrounding the base were intended as horse water troughs. Henrietta Latham Dwight died in Paris in 1909 and was buried in Oakland in 1910.
The Story Behind the Latham Sculpture
writing on sculpture
