lished "The Journal of an African Cruiser" (New York, 1845), the authorship of which is usually accredited to his classmate, Nathaniel Hawthorne. The book was, in fact, edited by Hawthorne from Bridge's notes. In 1846-'8 he cruised in the Mediterranean and off the African coast in the frigate "United States." From 1849 till 1851 he was stationed at Portsmouth navy-yard. Near the close of 1851 he sailed for the Pacific in the "Portsmouth," and while on this cruise was ordered home and assigned to duty as chief of the bureau of provisions and clothing, the duties of which he faithfully performed for nearly fifteen years, covering the whole period of the civil war, and involving transactions and disbursements to the amount of many millions of dollars. In July, 1809, he resigned this place, and was assigned to duty as chief inspector of provisions and clothing until he reached the legal limit of age for active duty, when he was retired with the rank of commodore.
BRIDGES, Fidelia, artist, b. in Salem, Mass.,
19 May, 1835. She removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., in
1854, and in 1859 went to Philadelphia, where she
was a pupil of W. T. Richards. In 1865-’6 she
spent eighteen months studying art in Italy, Switzerland, and Prance. She sent to the national academy, in oil, "Winter Sunshine" and "Wild
Flowers in Wheat " (1869); "Blackberry Bushes" and "Views on the Ausable" (1870); "Thistles and Yellow-Birds" (1873); and "Cornfield " and "Salt Marshes " (1874). She began painting in water-colors in 1871, and has been very successful. Some of her water-color pictures are "Daisies and
Clover" (1874); "Lily Pond" (1875); "Mouth of a River " (1876); "Rye-Field" (1877); and "Morning-Glories " (1878). In 1876 she sent to the centennial exhibition at Philadelphia "A Flock of Snow-Birds," "Kingfisher and Catkins," and "Corner of a Rye-Field," all in water-colors. She
was elected an associate of the national academy of design in 1873, and member of the water-color society in 1874. In 1878-9 she spent a year in
England. Among her later pictures are "East Hampton Meadows" (1884) and "Pastures by the Sea" (1885).
BRIDGES, George Washington, lawyer, b.
in Athens, McMinn co., Tenn., 9 Oct., 1821; d. there, 16 March, 1873. After working several years at the tailor's trade, he made enough money
to educate himself, and, having graduated at the
university of Tennessee, Knoxville, studied law,
and was admitted to the bar. He became attorney-general of the state in 1848, and held the
office until 1859, when he resigned it. He held
also the places of bank attorney and railroad director, and was a presidential elector on the Douglas ticket of 1860. In August, 1861, he was elected
to congress as a unionist, but was arrested by the confederate authorities while on his way to Washington, and taken back to Tennessee, where he was kept a prisoner for over a year. Finally escaping, he took his seat in the house, 25 Feb., 1863, and served until 3 March. He was commissioned as lieutenant-colonel of the 10th Tennessee cavalry in 1864, and in 1865 was elected judge of the fourth judicial circuit of Tennessee.
BRIDGES, Robert, colonial iron-factor, lived
in the 17th century. Little is known of him personally, save that, according to Edward Johnson, of Woburn, author of "The Wonder-Working
Providence" (Boston, 1651), "he was endued with able parts, and forward to improve them to the glory of God and his people's good." In 1645 he
was appointed a commissioner to confer with the
governors of the French provinces to the north of
New England. He appears as a member of the
general court in the colonial records, and in 1646
was elected a speaker of that body. He settled at
Lynn, Mass., and in 1643 formed a company to
work the large deposits of " bog iron-ore "found
in the vicinity. He went to London and organized "The Company of Undertakers for the Iron Works," consisting of eleven wealthy Englishmen
who advanced £1,000 to begin work. A foundry was established on the western bank of Saugus river, and expert foundrymen and iron-workers
came from England and Scotland to develop the industry. These works furnished most of the iron used in the country for several years, and, but for
the scarcity of money in the colony and the consequent difficulty of making collections, gave every indication of success. The enterprise ultimately
failed, though on a small scale the works were continued for more than a century. Capt. Robert Bridges was probably the first American promoter
of an American mining scheme involving the investment of British capital.
BRIDGMAN, Frederick Arthur, painter, b. in Tuskogee, Ala., 10 Nov., 1847. His parents were from Massachusetts. At the age of five years he declared he would be an artist, and at sixteen he removed to New York and became an apprentice in the engraving department of the American Bank-Note Company. He remained there two years, studying meanwhile at the Brooklyn art school and at the school of the national academy of design in New York. He went to Paris in 1866, and was one of the first American students to enter the studio of Gerome as a pupil. He studied at the ecole des beaux arts in Paris for five years, the interval of study being devoted to diligent outside work at Pont Aven and elsewhere in Brittany. He first sent a picture to the Paris salon in 1868 ; it was entitled "Jeu Breton," and, like its almost yearly successors in that exhibition, had the good fortune to be hung " on the line." During this period he contributed to the salon of 1869 " The Breton Children in Carnival Time," of which an engraving was published in the illustrated papers. In 1870 he sent "The American Circus in Brittany." In 1871 there was no salon because of the Franco-Prussian war. His contribution in 1872 was "Apollo carrying away Cyrene." Tlie winter of 1872-'3 he passed in Algiers, and returned to the Pyrenees in the summer of 1873 and painted "The Diligence." An excursion through the Pyrenees in 1872 furnished the suggestion of "Bringing in the Maize" (near Bayonne), which was exhibited that year, and is one of his most successful works. Later, in 1873, he went to Egypt, and, after working for a time at Cairo, went with friends as far up the Nile as the second cataract. His sketches taken at this time furnished the theme of his contributions to the salon on his return to France: "The Funeral of a Mummy" (1877); "Pastimes of an Assyrian King" (1878): and "Procession of the bull Apis " (1879). The last of these is now in the Corcoran art gallery, Washington. "The Funeral of a Mummy " was one of the successful pictures of the Paris international exhibition of 1878, where it was awarded a medal of the second class, and at the same time the artist was "decore" by the "legion of honor." Many oriental and archa;ological pictures were produced during these years, several of which were engraved in "Harper's Monthly Magazine," October, 1881. In 1871 he began to exhibit pictures in the New York national academy, sending for that year's exhibition "Illusions in High Life." In 1874 he exhibited the salon picture of the preceding year,
