|
 Bob
Rubin's first awareness of New Hampshire's prominent
Gilman family stemmed from a love of conversation,
camaraderie and—well—cigarettes. "I
was a habitué of the A.C. Gilman buttroom,"
Rubin, a member of the class of 1969, recalls.
So when noted Americana collector Eddy Nicholson
put up for sale an 18th century miniature of Nicholas
Gilman, Bob, himself a Colonial period cognoscente,
was first in line. "I loved the multiple Exeter
connections of the piece," he notes.
Rubin,
a founder and former director of AIG Trading Group,
a subsidiary of American International Group,
Inc. (the worldwide insurance and financial services
firm) attributes his interest in art and artifacts
of the 1700s to his time at Exeter, which, he
explains, "was really my first sustained exposure
to the Colonial ethos." A friendship with David
Firestone '70 and David's father, Ed, a fine jewelry
and silver specialist and proprietor of the Boston
firm Firestone & Parson, further nurtured
Bob's interest. "Ed was a jovially effective teacher,"
Bob recalls. "He told me, for example, that Paul
Revere had the unfair advantage over his peers
of a great press agent after the fact—Longfellow."
Years
later, Bob began building his own collection of
18th century Americana, much of which, including
the Gilman miniature, was recently sold at auction
(Sotheby's New York, January 2003). The miniature
painting, by artist John Ramage (c. 1748-1802),
is a finely detailed portrait of Nicholas Gilman,
an Exeter native and descendent of John Gilman,
one of the earliest settlers of Exeter in the
17th century. According to the Sotheby's catalogue
description, Nicholas Gilman was something of
a political dynamo. As a Representative from New
Hampshire to the Constitutional Convention, he
helped frame the United States Constitution. From
1789-97 Gilman served as a Representative to Congress
from New Hampshire. Later, after switching political
parties, he continued his work in government,
serving as a Republican Senator from 1805 until
his death in 1814, while en route to Exeter from
Washington. 
Bob
generously donated all proceeds from the sale
of the miniature, which drew twice the expected
price at auction, to the Academy as his 2002-03
Annual Fund gift. Because Annual Fund dollars
are put to work immediately in support of faculty,
students and physical plant, leadership gifts
such as Bob's are critical to ensuring that Exeter
remains a place of inspired teaching, learning
and living.
In true Exonian fashion, Bob is currently taking
his passion for the past in a new direction. Having
left AIG, he is now a second year doctoral student
in architectural history and theory at Columbia
University. Perhaps, as a future research project,
Bob could try to determine just what ever became
of the A.C. Gilman buttroom. 
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