The Breese family occupies a colorful and complex place within the larger Lawrence family network—distinguished by artistic brilliance, scientific and engineering innovation, and, in some cases, reckless extravagance. The connection between the two families was established when Josiah Salisbury Breese (1812–1865) married Augusta Eloise Lawrence (1829–1907), a descendant in the fifth generation of William Lawrence the Settler (1622–1680). Through this marriage, the Breeses became entwined with one of New York’s oldest and most influential families. Augusta was the fourth cousin five times removed of the post–World War II Smith generation.

All the Breeses included in this section descend from Josiah and Augusta. The family’s trajectory, from early mercantile and clerical respectability to artistic daring and mechanical genius, reflects both the opportunities and the excesses of the American Gilded Age and its aftermath.

Family Origins and Notable Relations

The family’s American branch descends from Colonel Samuel Breese, a Revolutionary War officer who married Rebecca Hall Finley. Their daughter, Elizabeth Ann Breese, married the Reverend Jedidiah Morse, the geographer and Congregational clergyman. Their son was Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791–1872)—the polymath who invented the telegraph and Morse Code. Though now chiefly remembered as a scientist, Morse was first and foremost a painter and served as Professor of Painting and Sculpture at the University of the City of New York (now New York University).

The Breeses inherited both sides of Morse’s divided genius—the aesthetic and the inventive. Across several generations they produced photographers, sculptors, architects, automobile designers, engineers, and aviators, as well as patrons and friends of leading artists from Alfred Stieglitz to Georgia O’Keeffe. Yet, like Morse himself—whose strident anti-Catholicism and political fervor scandalized even his allies—they often mixed artistic inspiration with controversy and self-destruction.

Artistry and Innovation

The Breese family’s creativity found expression in almost every field of modern art and technology.

James Lawrence Breese (1851–1934), stockbroker, engineer, and pioneering photographer, was one of the first amateurs to work successfully in color photography and carbon printing. He built the celebrated “Carbon Studio” on East 16th Street, where he photographed leading society figures and artists such as Ruth St. Denis. His notorious midnight parties, however, became infamous for their decadence and ultimately linked him with the scandal surrounding Stanford White’s “Pie Girl” dinner.

His brother Sydney Salisbury Breese (1883–1974) co-founded the BLM Company, which produced some of the earliest American sports cars and later contributed to naval aviation experiments with Alexander Graham Bell.

James Lawrence Breese II (1884–1959) carried the inventive tradition into the 20th century, serving as engineer and co-pilot of the NC-4—the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic—and later inventing the thermostatically controlled “Breese Burner.”

His descendants continued this inventive and artistic lineage: his daughter Ann Breese (1922–2019) became a painter of distinction in Santa Fe and Denver; his granddaughter Gretchen Elizabeth Breese (1954–2016) was a sculptor, philosopher, and art theorist who taught at the New England Conservatory.

Social Standing and Excess

The Breeses moved in elite New York and Southampton circles, often intertwined with the Lawrences, Alexandres, and other Gilded Age dynasties. They were patrons of art, music, and architecture, associated with John Singer Sargent, Louis Saint-Gaudens, and Will Shuster. Yet their lives also reflected the era’s moral volatility. The lavish entertainments of James Lawrence Breese, the eccentricities of Frances Tileston “Tanty” Breese, and the turbulent marriages that linked the family to British aristocracy (notably through Eloise Lawrence Breese, Countess of Ancaster, and Anne Parsons Breese, Lady Innes-Ker) illustrate the blend of glamour and instability that characterized their social world.

Scientific and Humanitarian Legacy

Later generations turned the family’s energy toward science, exploration, and public service. William Lawrence Breese II (1882–1915), educated at Harrow and Cambridge, renounced his U.S. citizenship to join the British Army and was killed testing an experimental mortar in France. His son, William Lawrence Breese III (1909–2000), became a diplomat and humanitarian, founding the Longview Foundation for Education in World Affairs. Sydney Salisbury Breese Jr. (1922–2006) pursued viral research at Walter Reed and Plum Island, contributing to early studies in animal virology.

Character and Reputation

The Breeses were remembered, even by their contemporaries, as a family of extravagant contrasts—visionary artists and engineers, daring aviators and social provocateurs, philanthropists and scandal-makers. They embodied both the brilliance and the moral ambiguity of America’s transformation from the genteel nineteenth century to the modern age. Their story is that of invention and audacity, a lineage where beauty, intellect, and excess were inextricably bound.