Bole, Roberta Holden (1876-1950)
Dates
- Existence: 1876 - 1950
Biography
The Cleveland Museum of Art was one of many educational, cultural and charitable institutions to benefit from the dedication of Roberta Holden Bole. She served the CMA on the Advisory Council and was a trustee from 1936 to her death in 1950. In 1932 Bole and her siblings gifted to the museum Filippino Lippi’s The Holy Family with St. Margaret and St. John (15th century) as a memorial to their mother. In 1935 the CMA received her gift of Redon’s Vase of Flowers (1905). In addition to her contributions to the CMA, Bole supported other arts institutions and endeavors. She served as a trustee and vice president of the Cleveland School of Art (Cleveland Institute of Art) and was active in support of the Ten-Thirty Gallery. She herself was a painter and sculptor and wrote a play about the life of Benjamin Franklin.
Roberta Holden was one of nine children of Liberty Emery Holden and Delia Elizabeth Bulkley Holden. Her father purchased the Cleveland Plain Dealer with the fortune he earned in silver mining in Utah. In 1907 Roberta married Benjamin P. Bole, president of the Plain Dealer. Together they helped establish the Frederick H. Goff educational scholarship for the Cleveland public school system for the establishment of classes for gifted children. Roberta was a cofounder of the Hawken School for Boys. In 1942 Cleveland’s mayor appointed her a member of the distribution committee of the Cleveland Foundation. Active in relief work during both world wars, she was a vice chairwoman of the British War Relief Society until 1945.
Roberta Bole was the driving force behind the founding of the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, established through funds left by her late brother Albert. The original 100 acres on which the arboretum was located adjoined the Boles’ former summer home. She and Ihna Thayer Frary helped found the Historic Dunham Tavern Corps to raise funds to save the tavern from demolition. Bole was a constant benefactor of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where her son was a trustee and research associate in mammalogy. Her other activities included membership of the Intown Club, the Women’s City Club, the Union Club, the Kirtland Country Club, and the Western Reserve Historical Society.
Roberta Bole’s husband died in 1941. After a long illness Roberta died in 1950. Of the portion of her estate not left to her son, she bequeathed seventeen percent to the CMA.
Sources
Ingalls Library clipping file
“Bole, Roberta Holden,” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. https://case.edu/ech/articles/b/bole-roberta-holden.
-Biography by Anne Cuyler Salsich, 2025