USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume II > Part 47
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Still earlier, Bentley comments : "Received from Isaiah Thomas his Almanac for the year 1797. He assures me the work is his own from the rag. His apology for the plates in the work to an American is satisfactory, as we were and perhaps now are behind all the world in the art of engraving and perhaps also in taste for good execution."63
The woodcut probably appeared as early as the engraving. The skill required to cut it was native to the local craftsman, handy with tools ; but the drawing of cuts is commonly crude; not much is known of those who made them. In the Boston "Gazette," February 6, 1758, appeared a rude cut of a man carrying a pack crossing a stone bridge of three arches, to head an advertisement of the Newbury bridge lottery ( Ist part) : the Parker river bridge."64
William Hunt, of Salem, was master of a "Negro Man named Cato," who ran away. Hunt's advertisement offering $2 reward and all charges appeared in the Essex "Gazette," May 14, 1771, accom- panied by a cut of a running black-faced figure. 65
Ezekiel Russell is said to be the first publisher in Salem to make use of woodcut illustrations. The work was generally crude and probably was cut in his own office by himself or by one of his work- men. His almanacs, under various titles, were published from 1776 to 1780 in Salem and Danvers. In the former years appeared a two- page woodcut supposed to be General Joseph Warren; in the latter, a half page cut of Colonel Ethan Allen, "a grotesque figure in conti- nental uniform flanked on the right by an equally crude figure repre- senting the angel Gabriel and on the left by a femal figure holding on a pole a liberty cap."66 An illustration was designed to be impressive, striking, at least, if it was designed at all. Russell published the sec- ond edition of "Mr. Dodge's Narrative of His Sufferings Among the British at Detroit," which contained a portrait cut of George Wash- ington which had previously done duty as John Dickenson. Neither design, nor truth, even, interfered here. Art was for practical show, a means toward an end-sophistication; it didn't matter that little
63. Diary of William Bentley, December 22, 1796.
64. Mentioned by G. F. Dow: "Arts and Crafts in New England."
65. Illustrated by H. M. Brooks: "Quaint and Curious Advertisements."
66. H. S. Tapley : "Salem Imprints."
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thought was given it. It was to be had at all costs, but without the expense of time and imagination. And yet, this spontaneous art of the early republic does not seem oppressed by the conscious labor which bears on the work of a century later; it is comparatively refreshing.
Contemporary with the painter of miniatures was the sculptor who worked with wax. He does not seem to have been as popular as the former.
John Christian Rauschner was a Dane who wandered over the Eastern States and was in Salem in 1809; he is the only maker of miniature wax portraits in Essex County of whom there is any authen- tic record. Examples of his work at the Essex Institute are all profile reliefs neatly modeled and as delicately designed. It is supposed that they were made of white bee's wax, subsequently colored with oil paint. A wax head of Washington in three-quarters relief, to which the color has never been added, is owned by a Topsfield family; the artist is not known.
Another phase of wax work was the traveling exhibition devoted to images of famous and currently notorious personages. The work must have been dramatic, and to have been so may have been fairly competent. The following excerpts from a newspaper notice are typical :
"To the PATRONS of the ARTS Messrs. Stowe & Brady respectively inform the Ladies & Gentlemen of Haverhill and its vicinity that they will open an ELEGANT MUSEUM on Mon- day next for two days only-2 organs 40 wax figures-Daniel Lambert who died at Stamford England on the 20th day of June 1789 aged 39 yrs. at his death he weighed 739 lbs. his coffin measured 6 ft. 4 in. long, 4 ft. 4 in. wide and he meas- ured 9 ft. 6 in. round the body. A representation of a Lady that was drowned at Albany in Dec. 1812 crossing the Ferry holding her beautiful Twin Babes who were saved and are now living in Greenbush. A Scripture Piece representing Jael the wife of Heber, the Kinite, in the act of driving a spike into the head of Sisera, the Commander of the army of Canaan; see Judges 24th Chap., 21st verse. An American prisoner in Algiers represented chained and spiked to the floor & starving
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
to death with an Iron on his Head. A Female Figure weeping over Washington's tomb."67
James Bishop was the author of the figures.68
The foregoing is indicative of the taste of the general populace; such announcements are given frequently. The "patrons of the arts" were flattered, doubtless, as much as patrons of the popular moving picture may be flattered today.
Besides wax portraits and the traveling wax works may be men- tioned the small memorial, often made with wax, colored and elabo- rately fixed within a box-like frame which was hung upon the wall. In many attics, doubtless, these are still to be found. Typical of them is one with inscribed sentiment, dated 1798, commemorating the loss at sea of a young lady, whose spirit, a wax doll, surrounded with imaginative sea life, represents. A wreath of faded artificial flowers, framed with sea shells, and dated 1864, serves a similar purpose. The custom is not limited to a single generation.
There were variations of this sort of work which adorned the houses of the early nineteenth century : quill work designs (made of colored strips of paper rolled round quills), artificial flower compo- sitions, intricate designs composed of human hair, fancy frames made of pebbles and shells or of tiny bits of carved wood pieced together so that the whole has the appearance of a matted but systematic undergrowth. Tools, colors, and a number of examples are in The Essex Institute.
Whether or not such work was done only by women is not known. Young ladies seem to have been encouraged in such modest pursuits besides their samplers and other practical stitching. The latter had always received serious attention though the technique of it changed with fashion. With the vogue for French delicacy which arose about the middle of the eighteenth century, linen or cotton floss was stitched over cambric or muslin according to a predetermined design which was often obtained from "boughten work" (from the shops in the towns). From about 1710 until 1840, capes, collars, pelerines, every- thing from baby caps to wedding dresses passed through the women's
67. "Essex Patriot," Haverhill, May 17, 1817.
68. In speaking of Thomas Bishop, Philadelphia miniature painter, William Dunlap notes that "a lady of this name has exhibited some modelling in wax," and suggests that she may have been the widow of Thomas, perhaps wrongly. (See "History of the Arts of Design in the U. S."-Dunlap.)
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fingers. Even the head of the household profited for "finely stitched and ruffled shirts were as necessary to family dignity as embroidered gowns for women."69
Times were not easy following the Revolution. Industry bore the seed of approbation as well as its own fruits. The Salem "Mercury" of February 6, 1787, exhibited the spirit of condescension toward luxuries, previously noted, in reporting the commendable action of a "young Miss who was to wear a silk gown of her own making-and may it soon be esteemed disreputable by both Ladies and Gentlemen, to wear any silk but of our own manufacture." On April 28 of the same year, the same paper speaks of community spinning and needle- work in Newburyport, where "benevolence was seen smiling in every countenance and the harmony of hearts surpassed even the harmony of wheels."
Spanish lacework from Mexico via New Orleans was done on white or black silk net, the weight of it depending on the design and the thread used. (In Ipswich lace was made on a commercial scale in the homes from about 1790 until 1824, and then in factories until about 1833.)
The cross-stitch of the sampler triumphed over embroidery when it became practically applied in the so-called Berlin wool work, which consisted of colored wools or silks cross-stitched on canvas; some- times broadcloth or velvet were used as a foundation. Pictorial imi- tations of fruits, flowers, animals, and distorted people then covered sofas, chairs, footstools, and firescreens (used to deflect the fire's glare from the face while the rest of the body might be comfortably warmed).
Hooked rugs date from about 1800. It was a thrifty art which made use of scrap material. A recent revival, begun about 1905 in Ipswich, has continued until the present time, principally in the sea- coast towns, where the majority of summer tourists pass.
In general, industry of the middle nineteenth century absorbed these arts ; women left their homes for factories, and save for sporadic revivals or exceptions of leisure, local variation due to individual design and imagination ceased.
The occupations mentioned were not all; paints were feminine as well. In an announcement of the opening of Bradford Academy,
69. Candace T. Wheeler : "Development of Embroidery in America."
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
in 1803, a list of the course of studies was included; boys were offered such subjects as English, mathematics, geography, the classics; in addition to the subjects which girls might study were drawing and painting.7º Art was of no importance to an active career, but suitable only for protected idleness; suitable, also, for the moneyed class. In a later notice, 1805, the price of normal tuition is given as $3 a quar- ter, "to those who paint and embroider, $3.50."71
Painting was frequently done on materials other than canvas- gauze and catgut, silk, velvet; some of the flower pictures on velvet are very beautiful. "Oriental painting" (made by arranging colored tin- sel behind framed glass) was a fad which appeared, perhaps, toward the middle of the nineteenth century, as was the painting of local scenes on bricks taken from favorite places of visit.
Women were not content to dabble only. Their names are com- mended among painters. (Although painting was considered a "feminine" occupation with respect to the active history of the county, the majority of eminent artists have been men.) Hannah Crownin- shield was a favorite pupil of William Bentley. In 1807 her third drawing was an allegorical composition with symbolic figures, wherein "a view of the life of Ashly Bowen was compared to the sailing of a ship." Bentley himself added an ancient Sea-God to the work which was taken from a manual by Wright. Manuals seem to have been freely employed in all the arts. In his diary, Bentley mentions a red crayon portrait of Major-General John Stark, done by Hannah Cruikshank, of Salem, in 1810. Sarah Allen did portraits in Salem in 1820. There were others.
The painting of Essex County during the past one hundred years has been competent, although the artists have been better known locally than nationally.
Colonel Henry Sargent (1770-1845), born in Gloucester, student at Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, was in Salem in 1822. He was prominent in political and military affairs of the State, which occupied time during which he might otherwise have painted. Here was an artist with a very different point of view and background from the sign painter who had turned to portraits. Indeed, Dunlap, writing in 1834, was much impressed with the peculiar character of his
70. Haverhill "Observer," May 27, 1803.
71. Salem "Gazette," April 9, 1805.
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ARTS AND CRAFTS
training. Fine portraits by Smibert and finer by Copley (he notes ) adorned the walls of the Sargent home, but until the age of twenty "he had evinced no partiality for the study of the fine arts. . . . . He was first incited to attempt drawing by some rude sketches in common chalk made by one of his brothers on the walls of their sleep- ing apartment. Success made him continue the practice. He found he could outdo his brother and the walls were soon covered with their rival productions."72 Expression by means of any of the arts of design is natural to many who never make the discovery.
Sargent is worth more than passing attention because his indul- gence in painting between other occupations is more characteristic of the general attitude of Essex County people toward art today than of his own time. The arts have been appreciated, perhaps equally, at both ends of the century, by those who have had leisure to do so. At present there is evidence of greater active participation than formerly ; art schools, shops that supply materials, galleries and the summer colonies at Marblehead and Cape Ann attest the fact. Rarely is artis- tic excellence developed from surroundings which are unsympathetic to its interest; there is promise that from a high level of common effort higher peaks may be gained.
James Frothingham ( 1786-1864) is an example in point. He was a chaise painter by early training, who obtained the help of Gilbert Stuart, but was largely responsible for his own instruction. Felt writes, 1818, that he was in Salem for six or seven years. "He painted numerous portraits. He excelled in natural coloring and exact resem- blance."73 But his pictures describe a penetration greater than this, and the speculation arises as to whether his talents might not have lifted him to greater artistic distinction had he been surrounded by the stimulus of an intelligently critical public.
Thomas B. Lawson ( 1807-88) began painting at Newburyport in 1832. He is known best for a portrait of Daniel Webster, but other portraits are said to be excellent.
Charles Osgood (1809-90) painted many portraits in Salem where, with the exception of a year or so in Boston and another in New York, he lived most of his life. About 1828 he got from $25 to $100 for his portraits, according to size and quality.™+ Compared with
72. William Dunlap: "History of the Arts of Design in the United States."
73. J. B. Felt : "Annals of Salem."
74. J. B. Felt : "Annals of Salem."
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STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
other work in the county, his is prominent because of the extent of it as well as because of its general good quality.
A number of Essex County painters acquired success within their own localities, but were little known beyond them. William Bartoll painted portraits in Marblehead about 1840. A number of his paintings, including a damaged self-portrait, are in the Lee house there. He is not recorded elsewhere.
Others went further afield.
J. Appleton Brown ( 1844-1902) was born in West Newbury, went to Boston in 1865, returned from studies in Paris, 1868, was in Europe 1874-78 and in England in 1886. He was a member of the National Academy and other societies. When at home he painted landscapes in the Merrimac Valley.
Ross Sterling Turner ( 1847-1915) was born in New York State, was in Munich in 1876 and later in Italy. He lived in Salem after he was married, in 1885, and painted variously in oil and water color.
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) studied in Boston and then in Paris and was a teacher in New York from 1895-1904, about which time he promoted an artistic interest in handicraft, textile, metal, and pottery in Ipswich, his native town, for, with the growth of the indus- trial process the old crafts had ceased.
The carvers had dwindled as well; hand-shaped ornaments and figures had become scarce. "Gingerbread" architectural forms had been machined for a quarter century; ships' ornaments disappeared with the commercial sailing vessel. It was during this social change that sculpture became valued for its own merits aside from its worth as applied decoration. The eighteenth century carver was not dig- nified with the name of sculptor, the first in Essex County so-called seems to have been E. Godfrey who, advertising in 1792 that he was to be in Salem for two months, gives notice that he "executes in the various parts of sculpture," but of what this consisted is not known.
William W. Story (1819-95) was born in Salem, but like some of the Essex County painters, grew restless and spent much time in Italy. Hawthorne met him in Rome in 1851 and again in 1858 and wrote warmly of his "perplexing variety of talents." Judging by examples of his work in The Essex Institute, it seems that such praise was lib- eral, but ideals have changed during the course of seventy-five years.
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If his statuary is considered by its own day, nineteenth century emo- tion was successfully cut from a block of classicism.
John Rogers (1829-1904) was born in Salem, but his family moved away while he was still a schoolboy. He did not live in the county afterwards. Following a few years of engineering and a few months of study in Paris and Rome he returned to this country to model according to his own ideas and soon settled in New York. His importance is considerable, for ignoring imitations of the classic ideal, he worked on such subjects as he found in the life around him. It had been forgotten, if ever it was realized, that art arises from individual observation and is given form by individual imagination. He was the first consciously native sculptor, although the carvers, stonecutters, and waxworkers who preceded him were as genuine.
The genuineness of the contemporary artist likewise depends on the degree to which he is, consciously or unconsciously, sensitive to his environment. Whatever art is to be discovered in the future history of Essex County will be found to have its origins in these individual reactions. When collective industry succeeded to the position held by the crafts, the individual was lost, and design was lost in the con- fusion of standardizing and specializing that took place. Subseqently, design, which is always necessary whether the work is done by machine or by hand, was conceived by a detached few, but the factory employee became a servant who neither thought of his work in terms of a fin- ished product nor gave any personal imagination to it. Art exists with difficulty where the shaping of materials is divorced from the thought which dictates what the shape should be.
It is commercially impractical to combine the two directly in the way that the individual craftsman was able to do, which implies that the entire burden is thrown on the designer. The finish with which the detail is executed, the texture, the color, and the particular refine- ment of volume and surface are within his province. His understand- ing of the relationship which his work bears to the whole product and which the whole bears to other contemporary surroundings-clothes, furniture, tableware, domestic decorations of metal and fabric, paint- ing, sculpture, architecture-will determine the extent to which indus- try can be an art of those who compose it. Industry can encourage art as art can encourage industry to provide a fuller life for all people in common.
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STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
BIBLIOGRAPHY : E. B. Allen : "Early American Wall Paintings."
C. L. Avery: "Early American Silver."
H. W. Belknap : "Artists and Craftsmen of Essex County."
E. S. Bolton : "Silhouettes."
T. Bolton : "Early American Portrait Painters in Miniature."
H. M. Brooks: "Quaint and Curious Advertisements."
Boston "Gazette," November 2, 1862.
C. O. Cornelius : "Early American Furniture."
F. Cousins and P. M. Riley : "The Woodcarver of Salem."
J. J. Currier : "History of Ould Newbury."
Diary of William Bentley.
G. F. Dow: "Notes on Pewter -- Old-Time New England," Vol. XIV, No. I.
G. F. Dow: "New England Sailing Ships," 3d series.
G. F. Dow : "Arts and Crafts in New England."
G. F. Dow : "Old-Time New England," Vol. XVII, No. 4.
W. A. Dyer : "Early American Craftsmen."
William Dunlap: "History of the Arts of Design in the United States."
"Essex Patriot," Haverhill, May 17, 1817.
J. B. Felt : "Annals of Salem."
H. M. Forbes : "Old-Time New England," Vol. XIX, No. 4.
Haverhill "Observer," May 27, 1803.
"History of Essex County, 1888."
A. Jenny : "Early American Trade Cards."
E. A. Jones : "Old Silver of Europe and America."
J. B. Kerfoot : "American Pewter."
R. H. Kettell: "Pine Furniture of Early New England."
J. Seymour Lindsay: "Iron and Brass Implements of the English and American Home."
H. C. Mercer : "Old-Time New England," Vol. XVIII, No. I.
N. V. McClelland: "Historic Wall-papers."
Newburyport "Herald," October 12, 1798.
New Hampshire "Gazette," February 26, 1805.
W. Nutting: "Furniture Treasury."
S. Perley : "Essex Antiquarian," Vol. III, No. 12.
ARTS AND CRAFTS 1105
C. A. Place : "Old-Time New England," Vol. XIII, Nos. 2, 3, 4; Vol. XIV, No. I.
Proclamation of the General Court, 1651.
Robinson and Dow: "Sailing Ships of New England," Ist series. Salem "Gazette," April 9, 1805.
E. Singleton : "The Furniture of Our Forefathers."
M. M. Swan: "Samuel McIntire and the Sandersons."
H. S. Tapley: "Salem Imprints."
T. F. Waters : "Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony."
H. B. Wehle and T. Bolton : "American Miniatures, 1730-1850." C. Wheeler : "Embroidery in America."
Essex-70
Index
Index
Abbot, Amos, 578, 900. Abbot, Benjamin, 612. Abbot, George, 139. Abbot, Joseph, 139.
Abbot, Josiah G., 414, 415. Abbot, Nehemiah, 211, 212. Abbot, Samuel, 659-661, 663.
Abbot, Sarah, 579. Abbot, Timothy, 139.
Abbot, Willis John, 369, 384.
Abbot Academy, 559, 561, 578-580, 589, 936. Abbot Public Library, 606, 612.
Abnaki Indians, 49, 67, 141, 148.
Acadia, 31, 174, 520, 523-525, 647.
Accidents, see Great disasters and strange phenomena, 973-1028. Acoriana Relief Association, Ladies', 966.
Adams, Abraham, 1000.
Adams, Brooks, 685.
Adams, Harriet, 969.
Adams, Henry, 711, 740.
Adams, James Truslow, 333, 544, 633, 685, 813, 826.
Adams, John, 495, 569, 772, 815, 821, 822, 1078.
Adams, John Quincy, 594, 699, 717, 770, 776, 788, 946.
Adams, John T., 388.
Adams, Nehemiah, 1075.
Adams, Robert, 103.
Adams, Robert B., 948.
Adams, Samuel, 821.
Adams family, 346, 574.
Adams printing press, 924. Adams, Berkshire County, Mass., 587.
Addington, Isaac, 208. Adirondack Mountains, 164.
Africa, 107, 244, 269, 356, 376-378, 537, 595. 600, 675. 713, 933, 956, 1075.
Agamenticus Mountain, 12, 80.
Aganeticus, 798.
Agassiz, Louis John Rudolph, 7, 41, 159, 1022.
Agawam, Mass., 653, 655, 693, 745, 954, 1039.
Agawam Indians, 50. Agricultural Society of Philadelphia, 395. Agricultural Library, 612. Agriculture. 387-408. Ahepa, The, 965. Aix-la-Chapelle Treaty, 523.
Alaska, 10, 38, 578.
Albany, New York, 496, 809, 1097.
Albemarle Sound, 352.
Albree, John, 606.
Alden, John, 221, 224-226.
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 739.
Alfred, Maine, 781.
Algonkin Indians, 38, 49-51, 65, 69, 148. Allen, A. WV., 962.
Allen, Edward B., 1090, II04.
Allen, Ephraim W., 712.
Allen, Ethan, 1096.
Allen, Frederick James, 452.
Allen, Glover Morrill, 177.
Allen, Sarah, 1100.
Allen, Warren B., 948.
Allen, Morrill and Wardwell, 936.
Allerton, Isaac, 997.
Alps, New England, 10, 14, 17.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 258, 699, 872. American Anthropologist, 69.
American Antiquarian Society, 55, 59.
American Bell Telephone Company, 506. American Benefit Society, 962, 964.
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 676, 678.
American Economic Association, 883, 912. American Electric Company, 436, 437.
American Electric Illuminating Company, 437.
American Geographical Society, 31, 277, 333.
American Geologist, 31.
American Home Missionary Society, 673. American Industrial Fair, 262.
American Legion, 960, 966, 967, 1042, 1044.
American Legion Auxiliary, 966-970.
American Legion of Honor, 963. American Lithuanian Alliance, 966.
American Naturalist, 166, 597, 925.
American Order of the Golden Cross, 964. American Protective Association, 965. American Red Cross, 543, 986, 988. American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, 935. American Telephone & Telegraph Com- pany, 502, 506. American Tract Society, 935.
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STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
American Woolen Company, 420, 422- 424, 428-431. Americus, Georgia, 541. Ames, Fisher, 257, 816. Ames and Parker, 931.
Amesbury, Essex County, Mass., 7, 9, 18, 19, 89, 140, 142, 143, 149, 213, 251, 252, 256, 262, 339, 343, 345, 346, 369, 370, 382, 383, 427, 428, 433, 435, 444- 448, 453, 466, 516, 520, 521, 529, 535, 537, 549, 581, 638, 641, 646, 647, 657, 731, 751, 762, 819, 845, 847, 848, 892, 898, 899, 945, 948, 949, 954, 956, 957, 962, 967, 969, 1001, 1040, 1041, 1046, 1084.
Amesbury Chronicle, 927.
Amesbury Cooperative Bank, 904.
Amesbury Daily News, 927.
Amesbury Flannel Manufacturing Com- pany, 427.
Amesbury Hat Company, 447, 448.
Amesbury High School, 522.
Amesbury shipbuilding, 343, 345-347, 370, 382, 383.
Amesbury Woolen and Cotton Manufac- turing Company, 427.
Amesbury and Salisbury Agricultural Association, 405.
Amesbury Ferry, 347, 369, 447, 448, 466.
Amesbury Ferry shipbuilding, 346, 369. Amherst College, 736, 936.
Amory, Susan, 704.
Amur Valley, 38. Analabu port, 358.
Ancient Essenic Order, 965.
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