Diversity – Sleeper

Henry Davis Sleeper’s inner life remains an enigma, and his life at Eastern Point seems to have centered on developing Beauport and socializing with his next-door neighbor, the Harvard economist A. Piatt Andrew, and what Wheaton College art historian R. Tripp Evans calls the “collection of personalities” drawn to Andrew. Evans continues, “Beyond Andrew’s considerable intellectual gifts, he was an impressive athlete, a connoisseur of the arts, an indefatigable host, and a man blessed with movie-star good looks… For his part, Sleeper—four years younger than Andrew, and possibly his most ardent acolyte—often looks strangely ill at ease in the photographs” of Andrew’s gatherings. Evans notes that Andrew’s “demonstrative attitude toward male guests might suggest same-sex desire to modern viewers, yet we must place these images within their period context: a time when affectionate friendships between men were far more easily expressed.” In 1915, Andrew sailed to France to establish the American Field Service, for which Sleeper soon volunteered.