Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 65

SNF Opens Drive for Tesla Memorial at Libertyville-

$2000 PUBLIC AID SOUGHT

        PITTSBURGH, PA. - The Serb Nat'l Federation Executive Board has acted quickly to implement a Convention decision to honor the memory of the illustrious Dr. Nikola Tesla.

        At its first meeting of October 8, the Board drafted a resolution calling on all SNF members and good Serbians to help finance a memorial project for the late scientist-inventor genius.

        This would stand before the entrance of the Monastery in Libertyville, Ill.

        Cost of the contemplated project, which would clarion to the world that Dr. Tesla was a Serbian, is estimated at $3000. The Convention voted $1000 to the cause and a hand collection among 122 delegates yielded several hundred dollars more.

        Kinsman Milos Konjevich of Joliet, Ill., gave $200.  

Public Aid Sought

        Balance of the needed sum is now being sought thru good-will offerings of the general Serbian populace in the United States and Canada.

        A fund, similar to the one being conducted to help defray mortgage experies on Shadeland, has been established.

        It is hoped to raise the necessary monies and complete the project in time for the world-wide Centennial celebration for the genius next year.

        Spearheading the movement for recognition, especially among American elements, is the TESLA SOCIETY, founded by scientist-engineer Leland Anderson, a fanatical admirer of the late Dr. Nikola Tesla.

        Mr. Anderson right now is conducting a search for a famous portrait of the Serbian electrical wizard done at the turn of the century in New York.

Seek Missing Portrait

        In his current TESLAIAN publication. Mr. Anderson revealed the work, by Princess Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy, is missing.

        Reviewing development, Mr. Anderson wrote:

        "On March 1, 1916, the Princess gave a reception in her new studio in New York especially to exhibit her latest portrait of Nikola Tesla. An article in the NEW YORK TIMES for March 2, 1916, stated-

        "'It was one of the beliefs of Mr. Tesla that there was something unlucky about posing for a picture and he never sat to any before he entered the studio of the Princess. The room which she had chosen did not have a sky-light in it and the much desired North exposure was missing.

        "'At the suggestion of Mr. Tesla, a cluster of powerful incandescents was put up in the corner of the apartment and the rays, filtered thru blue glass, were just the right quality. The portrait was shown under the same illumination.

At Ease for Sitting

        "'Mr. Tesla, having solved the problem of the artificial sun, fell to thinking about other parts of the universe, and there he sat oblivious to his surroundings.

        "'The painter was able to produce a likeness in which there is no evidence that the subject was conscious that anybody was watching him, much less studying his features from the other side of the eased.

        "'Among those who attended the reception were Mrs. C. B. Alexander, Henry P. Davison, the Countless de Rittenburg and Mrs. E. T. Isham.'"

        After the Princess died, in 1923, her studio and all objects of art, was sold at auction.

        The TESLA portrait, 53x48 inches, appeared on the cover of TIME magazine (July 20, 1981) and in the ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER (January 1919), Mr. Anderson says.

        Its location is not how known.