Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/122

Rh Joseph Balch Braman, of the same place, then a member of the Boston Bar. In 1872 they went to the city of Los Angeles, Cal., where her husband practiced law until the spring of 1874, when

he resumed law practice in Boston. Soon after their return to Boston, Mr. Braman required some one to assist him in his Boston office as commissioner for the different States to which he had just been appointed, and Mrs. Braman volunteered to become his assistant. She proved so competent that it was decided to ask for her appointment also, so that she could act, especially when clients called for a commissioner during Mr. Braman's temporary absence from the office. Each State governor was written to. Governor Long adding his endorsement, but only ten governors could then be found who either believed in a woman's being appointed or thought they had the power to grant the commission to a woman. Soon Mr. and Mrs. Braman removed to New York City to practice, and then it was determined to continue asking for the appointments from the governors until she had them all. She lacks only about eight States, which will shortly fall into line and give her their commission, as President Harrison has recently done. Soon after settling in the metropolis she became a regular partner with her husband. They have a down-town day office in the Equitable Building, 120 Broadway, and an uptown office and residence at 1270 Broadway. Mrs. Braman is a thoroughbred lawyer and is enthusiastic in her liking for the law. The extent and variety of what she accomplishes in a field generally supposed to be the exclusive property of men may be seen in a mere mention of her titles. She is a lawyer, a notary public, a commissioner of deeds for the States, Territories and District of Columbia, the United States Court of Claims, a United States passport agent at New York, and a consular agent She holds about fifty commissions and appointments from the President of the United States and from governors of States Mrs Braman's uptown office is in her residence, and it is never closed. Her theory seems to be that a person who carries on business should always be ready to attend to business, and to that end her office is kept open, night and day, every day in the year, making no exception even for Sundays and holidays. Here she keeps the laws, blanks and forms for all the States. She is an energetic, intelligent, agreeable woman, and her advice and services are sought by women as well as by men having legal business to transact. She has made a good record for accuracy in the intricate work of her profession.

BRAUMULLER, Mrs. Luetta Elmitta, artist, born in Monson, Mass., 4th December. 1856. Her family name, Bumstead, is still a familiar one in Boston, where it was among the foremost before and after the Revolutionary War. Bumstead Hall, which was built next after Faneuil Hall, and Bumstead Place are still old landmarks in that city. Her line of ancestry on the mother's side is Puritan, the family, Wood, having come to America in 1638 and with others founded the town of Rowley, near Boston. Mrs. Braumuller's earliest recollections are closely allied to the pencil and brush, and at the age of eight years she received her first instruction in art. Since that time until the present, with the exception of a few short intervals, she has applied herself to the study of drawing and painting in all its branches. In 1880 she made her first trip to Europe, and remained nearly one year in the best studios of Berlin. In 1882 she made a second visit to Paris and Sevres, in which cities she studied porcelain painting exclusively under celebrated ceramic artists, and later in the same year she continued with a noted practical china and glass painter in Berlin. In 1889 she went to Dresden, where she acquired a knowledge of the methods of the Dresden artists. In 1890 she was again in Paris, where

she pursued the study of flesh-painting after the method of Hortense Richard. Mrs. Braumuller is distinctly a figure painter, although she has a complete knowledge of every branch of work connected