Frances Prindle Taft collection

Frances (Franny) Prindle Taft was born on December 21, 1921 in New Haven, Connecticut to Mildred Bradley Prindle and William Edwin Prindle. Both of her parents were from families with a long New England history. They married on May 17, 1916, and raised their family in a small house on Autumn Street in New Haven. Franny had two older siblings, William (Billy) Edwin Prindle Jr. and Sarah (Sally) Emily Prindle (Sherwood). The family vacationed at the resort community of Pine Orchard, where the family owned a summer home that had been in the family since 1890. This annual trip was a ritual that lasted Franny's entire life. IT was at Pine Orchard where Franny developed her love for sports, particularly tennis and sailing. She participated in local classes and small leagues. Pine Orchard also hosted a Labor Day Finale each year, which included a parade and sporting competitions. Franny later brought this Labor Day sporting event to the Pepper Ridge community in Cleveland where she lived as the ‘Labor Day Olympics’.

The stock market crash in 1929 brought despair to the family when Franny’s father, who worked for a brokerage firm, lost all of his money and suffered a mental breakdown. William Prindle was admitted to the Institute of Human Relations at Yale Medical School and remained there until Franny’s senior year of high school. The Depression brought many changes to the Prindle family. In order to save money, public schools began to 'jump' students, or skip them ahead a year if they had good grades. With the threat of Franny being 'jumped' at the public school, but with limited funds, Franny’s mother decided to work at Mrs. Day’s School, a private girls school, thus allowing both of her daughters to attend without having to pay the tuition. Franny excelled and graduated at the top of her class. She performed well in sports including tennis, field hockey, skiing, swimming, and diving. Franny graduated from Mrs. Day’s School on June 9, 1938 having already accepted a scholarship to Vassar College.

Franny’s first day at Vassar started dramatically with a New England hurricane crashing into the coast of Connecticut, severly damaging the Prindle family home. Despite this, Franny arrived safely. She majored in zoology, determined to be a biologist and illustrator for biology textbooks. It was not until her sophomore year that she became interested in art history. Franny took classes in studio art, photography, and art history, which she found so interesting she decided to make art history her minor. In her junior year, Franny was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She joined tennis, field hockey, swimming, diving, basketball, and squash teams as a way to make friends, and was elected president of the Athletic Association at the end of her junior year. Franny’s passion for tennis remained her entire life. She was a nationally ranked tennis player until a shoulder injury took her out of the game in 2006.

At Vassar, Franny became friends with Sylvia Taft, who was in the same freshman chemistry class.Through Sylvia, Franny met her brother, Seth Chase Taft (1922-2013), who she asked to escort her to Senior prom. The Tafts came from a politically prominent family in Cincinnati. They were the grandchildren of President William Howard Taft, and the children of Charlie Phelps Taft II. Charles Taft, a Republican, served as the Hamilton County Prosecutor, a member of the Cincinnati City Council, Director of U.S. Community War Service, the State Department's Director of Economic Affairs, and one term as the Mayor of Cincinnati. The Taft family became an important part of Franny's life.

Franny graduated from Vassar on June 6, 1942, but her Vassar connection did not end that day. When she later moved to Cleveland, Franny joined the Cleveland Alumnae Association of Vassar College. She was also president of the Alumnae Association of Vassar College (AAVC) from 1965 until 1971, and served as a trustee, secretary, chair for her class's 25th anniversary, and trustee for the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Franny was an active volunteer and supporter of Vassar College and treated it like her second home.

After graduating, Franny already had secured a job in Yale University’s medical illustration department, but the Second World War disrupted those plans when Dr. Himburger, with whom she would be working, was sent to Austria with the Yale medical unit. She was then placed with cancer researchers Dr. Hooker and Dr. Pfeiffer in Yale's anatomy department. Franny’s job was to care for the mice that were their research subjects. While she was not particularly fond of the work, Franny was able to visit her sister and Seth Taft, who were both going to school at Yale. On the weekends, Franny and Seth would go to Pine Orchard to sail, golf, play tennis, and dance at the club.

In 1942, the U.S. Navy created the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES) in order to release servicemen for sea duty. Franny was curious about this opportunity, and in August 1942 she made inquiries. Less than a month later she took the oath enlisting in the U.S. Navy. She was given orders to report on October 7, 1942 to the Naval Reserve Midshipman School at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Seth proposed to Franny while she was still in school, but their engagement was not announced until the day after her WAVES commencement on January 8, 1943. With school and graduation completed, Franny was given orders to stay at the Naval Officers Training Center to serve as a faculty member in the Communication School. Franny found fulfillment in teaching.

Respecting the Navy’s regulation that an officer could not fraternize with an enlisted man, Franny and Seth waited until Seth completed his accelerated degree at Yale and also became an officer in the Navy to wed. By special permission from her commanding officer, Franny wore a wedding gown instead of her uniform when she and Seth were married on June 19, 1943. She then continued her duties at the Naval Officers Training Center. Seth was assigned to the USS Doran, Destroyer Number 634 which would later become Mine Sweep 634. Seth continued his naval service after the war, sweeping the Pacific for mines. Franny officially became a Lieutenant when the Secretary of the Navy promoted all of the WAVES from the first graduating class in 1943. By 1944, it became apparent that the war was coming to an end. Plans were made for the last class of the communication school to graduate in February 1945. By October 1944, Franny suspected that she was pregnant and reported her condition to the doctor, who told her that she needed to resign. Believing her pregnancy was not affecting her ability to work, she went to her captain for permission to stay on at the station until it closed. With permission granted, Franny finished her service with the Navy when she helped close down the station in February 1945. Franny headed back to her parents' home on April 1, 1945 where Franny and Seth’s first son, Frederick Irving Taft, was born on June 26, 1945. Seth Taft was mustered out of the Navy a few months later.

After World War II, with help from the GI Bill, Franny and Seth both decided to go back to school. Franny attended the Yale Art School for a graduate degree in art history and Seth attend Yale Law School. While in school, Franny continued her teaching career. She taught biology and art appreciation at the Gateway School during the 1946-1947 academic year. Once Franny and Seth both received their degrees, Seth looked for a place to practice law. He decided to not return to Cincinnati where his prominent family resided. The Taft family moved to Cleveland in early 1948 where Franny and Seth welcomed three more children: Thomas Taft (born July 19, 1948), Cynthia Taft (born May 24, 1950), and Seth Tucker Taft (born March 4, 1953).

Knowing very few people from Cleveland, Franny became actively involved in a number of groups. She also applied for teaching positions in biology and fine arts at Laurel and Hathaway-Brown schools. By the end of 1948, Franny was tutoring at Laurel School and the next year she was a substitute teacher for biology. She remained active at Laurel School after she quit at the end of 1949 by serving on the school's board of trustees. In the early 1950s, Franny taught a course in crafts to mothers for Grazella Shepherd’s Association for Continuing Education. She also participated in the Cleveland Vassar Club, Karamu House, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Junior Council (later the Womens Council) and board of trustees, and the Cleveland Association of Phi Beta Kappa.

All of these groups and teaching opportunities gave Franny the opportunity to meet many prominent members of the Cleveland cultural community, including Lawrence Schmeckbier, head of the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA). Upon the sudden death of the art history professor, Dean Otto Ege, Schmeckbier was in desperate need of another professor. He knew that Franny was a perfect candidate. By now, Franny had three children. She agreed to take the position only if she was given time to find help caring for her young family. She accomplished this in three days. Franny taught art history at CIA from 1950 until 2012, making her the longest serving faculty member of the school. She helped integrate the art history department into the curriculum, and served as head of the art history department. Franny became close friends with many of the other professors, and enjoyed going to lunch with fellow colleagues and luminaries of the Cleveland School of Art including John Paul Miller, Frederick Miller, and Kay Dorn Cass. When the Institute was trying to become an accredited five-year school in the 1960s, the liberal arts offerings needed to expand. Franny willingly agreed to teach courses on Pre-Columbian Art. With no formal education in the field, Franny researched this area of art history and in Fall of 1965 Franny offered her first course in Art of the Americas before Columbus. Franny remained a passionate student of Pre-Columbian art for the rest of her life.

At the same time Franny began teaching at CIA, she and Seth decided to build a new home. Seth met architect Robert Little and his wife, Ann, through his work on urban renewal and city planning projects. The Littles and Tafts wanted to bring contemporary residential architecture to Cleveland. With enough interest generated from other families who wanted to be part of the community, a piece of land was purchased in Pepper Pike and planning began.The road that the homes were to be built on was called Pepper Ridge. The incorporation papers were completed for the Pepper Ridge Community on May 1, 1950. The road was paved by June 1951. A common area including a pool and tennis court was included in the community plan.The Pepper Ridge Labor Day Olympics, spearheaded by the Tafts, began in 1958. As they planned their own home, the Tafts had their contractor, Herb Shepherd, complete the framing, roofing, wiring, heating and plumbing in 1953. They completed the rest of the work themselves, including painting, tiling, and woodwork in 1954. Once the family was officially moved in, the Tafts held an anniversary party, inviting all those who had helped them with the home.

Franny and Seth Taft were known for their large collection of works by Cleveland School artists. Many of these pieces were by Franny’s colleagues, friends, and students including John Paul Miller, Frederick Miller, Bill McVey, and Leza McVey. Franny purchased art at CIA student and faculty exhibitions. One student, Nancy Bunch, painted a portrait of Franny which she entered in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 1957 May Show. The piece won first prize, and Nancy gave Franny the portrait. Franny also purchased art through the Cleveland Art Association (CAA, and later CARTA). This organization held an annual lottery for members who selected works of art to take home for a year. At the end of the year the member had the option of purchasing the piece. Franny and Seth were members of the Print Club of Cleveland, which commissions and publishes an annual print for members. The Tafts art collection grew so large, they had to build an addition on their home. Keeping with Bob Little’s design, they added an art gallery added onto their home.

Franny and Seth were avid travelers. Seth had been to France as a young man, but Franny realized that she was teaching art history about art that she never actually saw. In the summer of 1961, the entire family made a ‘Grand Tour of Europe’. In preparation for her first Pre-Columbian art course, Franny and Seth went on a trip to Mexico in January 1966. Franny photographed works of art and historic sites in order to make slides for the CIA’s slide collection. Between January 1966 and 2000, Franny took nineteen trips to Meso America. Later, she used money saved up from her years of teaching to take herself, Seth, their four children, and their entire families on Taft family trips to the Galapagos Islands, Tuscany, Elk Lodge in the Adirondacks, and Martha’s Vineyard. Franny and Seth were able to visit over thirty countries together, and Franny actively documented each trip in travel journals, watercolors, photographs, and films.

Franny frequently stated that much of her success in life was due to the support that she received from Seth, both in her career and the care of the home. Just as Seth supported Franny, Franny supported Seth. Seth ran for a number of political offices, including Ohio State Senate, Cleveland mayor, Cuyahoga County Commissioner, and Ohio governor. Franny added politicking for Seth to her calendar that was already full with her job at CIA, four children, and obligations with committees and clubs. With Seth’s interest in politics, community planning, and urban development; and Franny’s interest in art, archaeology, and education; the two had a wide range of interests that they enjoyed sharing throughout their life together. Regretully, Seth was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2002. He died on April 14, 2013. Franny passed away on May 14, 2017.

Franny Taft’s life and career was marked by many special awards and achievements.These include CIA’s Award for Excellence in 1994, the Cleveland Arts Prize Special Citation in 1995, the Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College Award for Outstanding Service to the College in 2001, the Judson Smart Living Award for the Arts in 2007, the Cleveland Artists Foundation’s Visionary Collector Award in 2009, and the Viktor Schreckengost Teaching Award in 2010. The Cleveland Institute of Art also created a scholarship in her name in 2003.