“Dabsville” Gathering at Red Roof (October 13, 1907)
Red Roof Guest Book, Volume I (1902—1912); Gloucester, Massachusetts; Gift of Corinna T. Fisk and Piatt A. Gray, 2012.148.1.
Sleeper belonged to a close community of Eastern Point friends that went by the collective name “Dabsville,” an acronym drawn from the first letters of their surnames. Seen here in 1907, the group included just two men: Piatt Andrew and Sleeper, seated at lower left alongside two visitors to Red Roof. Standing from left to right are Caroline Sinkler, whose home Wrong Roof lay between Beauport and Red Roof; Joanna Davidge, director of a New York City girls school; iconoclastic art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner; and painter Cecilia Beaux. Witty, arts-loving, irreverent — and at this stage, all unmarried — the group was snobbish about merit but leery of social pretension.