Bunker Hill Monument
The Bunker Hill Monument was erected to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill, among the first major battles between British and Patriot forces in the American Revolutionary War, fought there June 17, 1775. The 221-foot granite obelisk was erected between 1825 and 1843 in Charlestown, with granite from nearby Quincy conveyed to the site via the purpose-built Granite Railway, followed by a trip by barge. There are 294 steps to the top. An exhibit lodge built adjacent to the monument in the late 19th century houses a statue of fallen hero Dr. Joseph Warren. Bunker Hill is one of the sites along the Freedom Trail and is part of Boston National Historical Park; the monument underwent a $3.7 million renovation, completed in 2007, that included repairs, handicap accessibility improvements, new lighting. The Bunker Hill Museum across the street was dedicated in June of that year and includes many exhibits about the battle. No admission charge applies to the monument; the monument was one of the first in the United States.
An earlier memorial at the site had been erected in memory of fallen Bunker Hill hero Dr. Joseph Warren, a Mason, in 1794 by King Solomon's Lodge of Masons, was an 18-foot wooden column topped with a gilt urn. In front of the obelisk is a statue of Col. William Prescott, a native of Groton, another hero of Bunker Hill. According to popular stories, he coined the famous Revolutionary War phrase, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" during the battle. However, various writers attribute it to Israel Putnam, John Stark, Prescott or Gridley, while a few question whether it was said at all; the monument is not on Bunker Hill, but instead on Breed's Hill, where most of the fighting in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill took place. The Monument Association, which had purchased the battlefield site, was forced to sell off all but the hill's summit in order to complete the monument. Breed's Hill is a glacial drumlin located in the Charlestown section of Massachusetts, it is located in the southern portion of the Charlestown Peninsula, a oval, but now more triangular, peninsula, connected to Cambridge in colonial times by a short, narrow isthmus known as the Charlestown Neck.
It is best known as the location where in 1775, early in the American Revolutionary War, most of the fighting in the Battle of Bunker Hill took place. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the peninsula's shape and connections to other landforms were altered, with the waters of the Charles River between Cambridge and Charlestown filled in. Much of the hill is now occupied by residential construction, but the summit area is the location of the Bunker Hill Monument and other memorials commemorating the battle; the hill is about 62 feet high, is topped by Monument Square, site of the Bunker Hill Monument. The hill slopes steeply to the east and west. In addition to its historic sites and tourist-oriented facilities, the hill is the site of a great deal of residential property, as well as supporting municipal and retail infrastructure, it is about 700 yards from Bunker Hill. The Americans, having caught word of a British plan to fortify the Charlestown peninsula, decided to get to the peninsula first, fortify it, present sufficient threat to cause the British to leave Boston.
On June 16, 1775, under the leadership of General Putnam and Colonel Prescott, the Americans stole out onto the Charlestown Peninsula with instructions to establish defensive positions on Bunker Hill. A redoubt, a small and temporary defensive fortification, was constructed on nearby Breed's Hill due to its closer proximity to Boston compared to Bunker Hill; the next morning, June 17, the British were astonished to see the rebel fortifications upon the hill and set out to reclaim the peninsula. The resulting conflict was called the Battle of Bunker Hill because, where Prescott intended—and was ordered—to build the fortifications; some people considered Breed's Hill a part of Bunker Hill, while others called it Charlestown Hill. British soldiers under Howe sent 2,400 men to attack Breed's Hill. A force of 1,500 colonists held off three British attacks retreated when the colonists ran out of gunpowder. 450 colonists were wounded, compared to 1,150 British casualties. In 1825, the Bunker Hill Monument Association began construction of the Bunker Hill Monument, acquiring 15 acres of land for the purpose.
William Ticknor, a well-known Boston lawyer and antiquarian, first suggested the memorial. An interested group of men met for breakfast at the home of Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, including William Tudor, Daniel Webster, Professor George Ticknor, Doctor John C. Warren, William Sullivan, George Blake. On May 10, 1823, the first public meeting was called; each member subscribed five dollars, on June 7, 1823, the Bunker Hill Monument Association was established and the work of raising money was begun. Famed nineteenth-century philanthropist Amos Lawrence contributed $10,000 to the monument's erection. In the spring of 1825 the directors had purchased about 15 acres on the slope of Breed's Hill, but had not yet chosen a design; the first design committee consisted of Webster, noted engineer Loammi Baldwin, Jr. George Ticknor, Gilbert Stuart, Washington Allston. One hundred dollars was offered for the best design. Choice was soon narrowed to a column and an obelisk and a new committee was appointed to procure designs and estimate expenses for each.
At the next meeting the majority voted. The directors laid the cornerstone on June 17, 1825; the Marquis de Lafaye
Massachusetts
Massachusetts the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, New York to the west; the state is named after the Massachusett tribe, which once inhabited the east side of the area, is one of the original thirteen states. The capital of Massachusetts is Boston, the most populous city in New England. Over 80% of Massachusetts's population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history and industry. Dependent on agriculture and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, Massachusetts's economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a global leader in biotechnology, higher education and maritime trade. Plymouth was the site of the second colony in New England after Popham Colony in 1607 in what is now Maine.
Plymouth was founded in 1620 by passengers of the Mayflower. In 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of America's most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, including interchangeable parts. In 1786, Shays' Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, originated from the pulpit of Northampton preacher Jonathan Edwards. In the late 18th century, Boston became known as the "Cradle of Liberty" for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution; the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a powerful commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist and transcendentalist movements.
In the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U. S. state to recognize same-sex marriage as a result of the decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams and Kennedy families. Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, with the largest financial endowment of any university, Harvard Law School has educated a contemporaneous majority of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Kendall Square in Cambridge has been called "the most innovative square mile on the planet", in reference to the high concentration of entrepreneurial start-ups and quality of innovation which have emerged in the vicinity of the square since 2010. Both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most regarded academic institutions in the world.
Massachusetts' public-school students place among the top tier in the world in academic performance, the state has been ranked as one of the top states in the United States for citizens to live in, as well as one of the most expensive. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous population, the Massachusett derived from a Wôpanâak word muswach8sut, segmented as mus "big" + wach8 "mountain" + -s "diminutive" + -ut "locative", it has been translated as "near the great hill", "by the blue hills", "at the little big hill", or "at the range of hills", referring to the Blue Hills, or in particular the Great Blue Hill, located on the boundary of Milton and Canton. Alternatively, Massachusett has been represented as Moswetuset—from the name of the Moswetuset Hummock in Quincy, where Plymouth Colony commander Myles Standish, hired English military officer, Squanto, part of the now disappeared Patuxet band of the Wampanoag peoples, met Chief Chickatawbut in 1621; the official name of the state is the "Commonwealth of Massachusetts".
While this designation is part of the state's official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has powers within the United States as other states, it may have been chosen by John Adams for the second draft of the Massachusetts Constitution because unlike the word "state", "commonwealth" at the time had the connotation of a republic, in contrast to the monarchy the former American colonies were fighting against. Massachusetts was inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, these tribes were dependent on hunting and fishing for most of their food. Villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. In the early 1600s, after contact had been made with Europeans, large numbers of the indigenous peoples in the northeast of what is now the United States were killed by virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, measles and leptospirosis.
Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed ap
Historic districts in the United States
Historic districts in the United States are designated historic districts recognizing a group of buildings, properties, or sites by one of several entities on different levels as or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures and sites within a historic district are divided into two categories and non-contributing. Districts vary in size: some have hundreds of structures, while others have just a few; the U. S. federal government designates historic districts through the United States Department of Interior under the auspices of the National Park Service. Federally designated historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but listing imposes no restrictions on what property owners may do with a designated property. State-level historic districts may follow similar criteria or may require adherence to certain historic rehabilitation standards. Local historic district designation offers, by far, the most legal protection for historic properties because most land use decisions are made at the local level.
Local districts are administered by the county or municipal government. The first U. S. historic district was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931, predating the U. S. federal government designation by more than three decades. Charleston city government designated an "Old and Historic District" by local ordinance and created a board of architectural review to oversee it. New Orleans followed in 1937, establishing the Vieux Carré Commission and authorizing it to act to maintain the historic character of the city's French Quarter. Other localities picked up on the concept, with the city of Philadelphia enacting its historic preservation ordinance in 1955; the regulatory authority of local commissions and historic districts has been upheld as a legitimate use of government police power, most notably in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York; the Supreme Court case validated the protection of historic resources as "an permissible governmental goal." In 1966 the federal government created the National Register of Historic Places, soon after a report from the U.
S. Conference of Mayors had stated Americans suffered from "rootlessness." By the 1980s there were thousands of federally designated historic districts. Some states, such as Arizona, have passed referendums defending property rights that have stopped private property being designated historic without the property owner's consent or compensation for the historic overlay. Historic districts are two types of properties and non-contributing. Broadly defined, a contributing property is any property, structure or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make a historic district, listed locally or federally, significant. Different entities governmental, at both the state and national level in the United States, have differing definitions of contributing property but they all retain the same basic characteristics. In general, contributing properties are integral parts of the historic context and character of a historic district. In addition to the two types of classification within historic districts, properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are classified into five broad categories.
They are, structure, site and object. All but the eponymous district category are applied to historic districts listed on the National Register. A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is governmental acknowledgment of a historic district. However, the Register is "an honorary status with some federal financial incentives." The National Register of Historic Places defines a historic district per U. S. federal law, last revised in 2004. According to the Register definition a historic district is: a geographically definable area, urban or rural, possessing a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of sites, structures, or objects united by past events or aesthetically by plan or physical development. A district may comprise individual elements separated geographically but linked by association or history. Districts established under U. S. federal guidelines begin the process of designation through a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register is the official recognition by the U.
S. government of cultural resources worthy of preservation. While designation through the National Register does offer a district or property some protections, it is only in cases where the threatening action involves the federal government. If the federal government is not involved the listing on the National Register provides the site, property or district no protections. For example, if company A wants to tear down the hypothetical Smith House and company A is under contract with the state government of Illinois the federal designation would offer no protections. If, company A was under federal contract the Smith House would be protected. A federal designation is little more than recognition by the government that the resource is worthy of preservation. In general, the criteria for acceptance to the National Register are applied but there are considerations for exceptions to the criteria and historic districts have influence on some of those exceptions; the National Register does not list religious structures, moved structures, reconstructed structures, or properties that have achieved significance within the last 50 years.
However, if a property falls into one of those categories and are "integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria" an exception allowing their listing will be made. Historic dis
Joseph Warren
Joseph Warren was an American physician who played a leading role in American Patriot organizations in Boston in the early days of the American Revolution serving as President of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes on April 18, 1775, to leave Boston and spread the alarm that the British garrison in Boston was setting out to raid the town of Concord and arrest rebel leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Warren participated in the next day's Battles of Lexington and Concord, which are considered to be the opening engagements of the American Revolutionary War. Warren had been commissioned a Major General in the colony's militia shortly before the June 17, 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill. Rather than exercising his rank, Warren served in the battle as a private soldier, was killed in combat when British troops stormed the redoubt atop Breed's Hill, his death, immortalized in John Trumbull's painting, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775, galvanized the rebel forces.
He has been memorialized in the naming of many towns and other locations in the United States, by statues, in numerous other ways. Joseph Warren was born to Joseph Warren and Mary Warren, his father was a respected farmer who died in October 1755 when he fell off a ladder while gathering fruit in his orchard. After attending the Roxbury Latin School, Joseph enrolled in Harvard College, graduating in 1759, taught for about a year at Roxbury Latin, he studied medicine and married 18-year-old heiress Elizabeth Hooten on September 6, 1764. She died in 1772, leaving him with four children: Elizabeth, Joseph and Richard. Before his death in 1775 he was engaged to Mercy Scollay. While practicing medicine and surgery in Boston, he joined the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew, which had received a warrant from the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1756, he was Master of the Lodge in 1769 at the same time. Warren was appointed Grand Master of the newly established Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in that same year.
He became involved in politics, associating with John Hancock, Samuel Adams, other leaders of the broad movement labeled Sons of Liberty. Warren conducted an autopsy on the body of young Christopher Seider in February 1770, was a member of the Boston committee that assembled a report on the following month's Boston Massacre. Earlier, in 1768, Royal officials tried to place his publishers Edes and Gill on trial for an incendiary newspaper essay Warren wrote under the pseudonym A True Patriot, but no local jury would indict them. In 1774, he authored a song, "Free America", published in colonial newspapers; the poem was set to a traditional British tune, "The British Grenadiers."Joseph Warren joined the Scottish Rite Freemasonry, being initiated in the St. Andrew's Lodge, becoming Past Provincial Grand Master of Massachusetts; as Boston's conflict with the royal government came to a head in 1773–75, Warren was appointed to the Boston Committee of Correspondence. He twice delivered orations in commemoration of the Massacre, the second time in March 1775 while the town was occupied by army troops.
Warren drafted the Suffolk Resolves, which were endorsed by the Continental Congress, to advocate resistance to Parliament's Coercive Acts, which were otherwise known as the Intolerable Acts. He was appointed President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, the highest position in the revolutionary government. In mid-April 1775, Warren and Dr. Benjamin Church were the two top members of the Committee of Correspondence left in Boston. On the afternoon of April 18, the British troops in the town mobilized for a long-planned raid on the nearby town of Concord, before nightfall word of mouth had spread knowledge of the mobilization within Boston, it had been known to rebel leadership for weeks that General Gage in Boston had plans to destroy munitions stored in Concord by the colonials, it was known that they would be taking a route through Lexington. Some unsupported stories argue that Warren received additional information from a placed informant that the troops had orders to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
However, there is little evidence of this as the troops had no such orders. Regardless, Warren learned there was some British expedition to begin that night, so sent William Dawes and Paul Revere on their famous "midnight rides" to warn Hancock and Adams in Lexington. Warren slipped out of Boston early on April 19, during that day's Battle of Lexington and Concord, he coordinated and led militia into the fight alongside William Heath as the British Army returned to Boston; when the enemy were returning from Concord, he was among the foremost in hanging upon their rear and assailing their flanks. During this fighting Warren was nearly killed, a musket ball striking part of his wig; when his mother saw him after the battle and heard of his escape, she entreated him with tears again not to risk life so precious. "Where danger is, dear mother," he answered, "there must your son be. Now is no time for any of America's children to shrink from any hazard. I will set her free or die." He turned to recruiting and organizing soldiers for the Siege of Boston, promulgating the Patriots' version of events, negotiating with Gen. Gage in his role as head
Charles River
The Charles River is an 80-mile-long long river in eastern Massachusetts. From its source in Hopkinton the river flows in a northeasterly direction, traveling through 23 cities and towns before reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston; the Native-American name for the Charles River was Quinobequin, meaning "meandering". The Charles River is fed by 80 streams and several major aquifers as it flows 80 miles, starting at Teresa Road just north of Echo Lake in Hopkinton, passing through 23 cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts before emptying into Boston Harbor. Thirty-three lakes and ponds and 35 municipalities are or part of the Charles River drainage basin. Despite the river's length and large drainage area, its source is only 26 miles from its mouth, the river drops only 350 feet from source to sea; the Charles River watershed contains more than 8,000 acres of protected wetlands, referred to as Natural Valley Storage. These areas are important in preventing downstream flooding and providing natural habitats to native species.
Harvard University, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are located along the Charles River. Near its mouth, it forms the border between Cambridge and Charlestown; the river is lined by the parks of the Charles River Reservation. On the Charles River Esplanade stands the Hatch Shell, where concerts are given in summer evenings; the basin is known for its Independence Day celebration. The middle section of the river between the Watertown Dam and Wellesley is protected by the properties of the Upper Charles River Reservation and other state parks, including the Hemlock Gorge Reservation, Cutler Park, the Elm Bank Reservation. A detailed depth chart of the lower basin of the Charles River, from near the Watertown Dam to the New Charles River Dam, has been created by a partnership between the MIT Sea Grant College Program and the Charles River Alliance of Boaters. Online and hardcopy charts are available as a public service; the river is well known for its rowing, canoeing, paddleboarding and sailing, both recreational and competitive.
The river may be kayaked. The "Lower Basin" between the Longfellow and Harvard bridges is home to Community Boating, the Harvard University Sailing Center, the MIT Sailing Pavilion; the Head of the Charles Regatta is held here every October. In early June, the annual Hong Kong Boston Dragon boat Festival is held in Cambridge, near the Weeks Footbridge; the Charles River Bike Path runs 23 miles along the banks of the Charles, starting at the Museum of Science and passing the campuses of MIT, Harvard and Boston University. The path is popular with bikers. Many runners gauge their distance and speed by keeping track of the mileage between the bridges along the route. For several years, the Charles River Speedway operated along part of the river. On July 13, 2013, swimming for the general public was permitted for the first time in more than 50 years. Long before European settlers named and shaped the Charles, Native Americans living in New England made the river a central part of their lives; the native name for the Charles River was Quinobequin, meaning "meandering".
Captain John Smith explored and mapped the coast of New England, naming many features naming the Charles River the Massachusetts River, derived from the tribe living in the region. When Smith presented his map to King Charles I he suggested that the king should feel free to change any of the "barbarous names" for "English" ones; the King made many such changes, but only four survive today, one of, the Charles River which Charles named for himself. In portions of its length, the Charles drops in elevation and has little current. Despite this, early settlers in Dedham, found a way to use the Charles to power mills. In 1639, the town dug a canal from the Charles to a nearby brook. By this action, a portion of the Charles's flow was diverted, providing enough current for several mills; the new canal and the brook together are now called Mother Brook. The canal is regarded as the first industrial canal in North America, it remains in use for flood control. Waltham was the site of the first integrated textile factory in America, built by Francis Cabot Lowell in 1814, by the 19th century the Charles River was one of the most industrialized areas in the United States.
Its hydropower soon fueled many factories. By the century's end, 20 dams had been built across the river to generate power for industry. An 1875 government report listed 43 mills along the 9 1⁄2-mile tidal estuary from Watertown Dam to Boston Harbor. From 1816 to 1968, the U. S. Army operated a gun and ammunition storage and production facility known as the Watertown Arsenal. While it was key to many of the nation's war efforts over its several decades in operation, not the least of which being the American Civil War and World War I, its location in Watertown so near the Charles did great environmental harm; the arsenal was declared a Super Fund site, after its closure by the government it had to be cleaned at significant expense before it could be safely used again for other purposes. The many factories and mills along the banks of the Charles supported a buoyant economy in their time but
Washington Allston
Washington Allston was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting, he was well known during his lifetime for his experiments with dramatic subject matter and his bold use of light and atmospheric color. Allston was born on a rice plantation on the Waccamaw River near South Carolina, his mother Rachel Moore had married Captain William Allston in 1775, though her husband died in 1781, shortly after the Battle of Cowpens. Moore remarried to Dr. Henry C. Flagg, the son of a wealthy shipping merchant from Newport, Rhode Island. Named in honor of the leading American general of the Revolution, Washington Allston graduated from Harvard College in 1800 and moved to Charleston, South Carolina for a short time before sailing to England in May 1801, he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in London in September, when painter Benjamin West was the president. From 1803 to 1808, he visited the great museums of Paris and for several years, those of Italy, where he met Washington Irving in Rome and Coleridge, his lifelong friend.
In 1809, Allston married sister of William Ellery Channing. Samuel F. B. Morse was one of Allston's art pupils and accompanied Allston to Europe in 1811. After traveling throughout western Europe, Allston settled in London, where he won fame and prizes for his pictures. Allston was a published writer. In London in 1813, he published The Sylphs of the Seasons, with Other Poems, republished in Boston, Massachusetts that year, his wife died in February 1815, leaving him saddened and homesick for America. In 1818, he returned to the United States and lived in Cambridge, for twenty-five years, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1826. He was the uncle of the artists George Whiting Flagg and Jared Bradley Flagg, both of whom studied painting under him; the first American exhibition of Allston's work was in 1827 when twelve of his paintings were shown at the Boston Athenæum. In 1830 Allston married Martha Remington Dana, the sister of the novelist Richard Henry Dana.
In 1841, he published Monaldi, a romance illustrating Italian life, in 1850, a volume of his Lectures on Art, Poems. Allston died on July 9, 1843, at age 63. Allston is buried in Harvard Square, in "the Old Burying Ground" between the First Parish Church and Christ Church. Allston was sometimes called the "American Titian" because his style resembled the great Venetian Renaissance artists in their display of dramatic color contrasts, his work influenced the development of U. S. landscape painting. The themes of many of his paintings were drawn from literature Biblical stories, his artistic genius was much admired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson was influenced by his paintings and poems, but so were both Margaret Fuller and Sophia Peabody, wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The influential critic and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold dedicated his famous anthology The Poets and Poetry of America to Allston in 1842. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 17 years after Allston's death, wrote that: "One man may sweeten a whole time.
I never pass through Cambridge Port without thinking of Allston. His memory is the quince in the drawer and perfumes the atmosphere."Boston painter William Morris Hunt was an admirer of Allston's work, in 1866 founded the Allston Club in Boston, in his arts classes passed on to his students his knowledge of Allston's techniques. Washington Allston was the first to use the term Objective Correlative in 1840 which subsequently revived and made famous by T. S Eliot in essay on Hamlet; the term denotes a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion. The west Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Allston is named after him, as is Allston Way, in the "Poets Corner" neighborhood of Berkeley, California. A Landscape after Sunset, c. 1819, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Allston, Lectures on Art and Poems, 1850. 3 paintings by or after Washington Allston at the Art UK site Washington Allston in the New Students Reference Work.
Google Art Project, Washington Allston Guide to Washington Allston's papers at Houghton Library, Harvard University Washington Allston at American Art Gallery Works by Washington Allston at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Washington Allston at Internet Archive Works by Washington Allston at LibriVox Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Allston, Washington". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press. Washington Allston letter fragment, 1818 Mar. 2 from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art Washington Allston at Find a Grave Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections
William Ticknor
William Davis Ticknor I was an American publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, a founder of the publishing house Ticknor and Fields. William Davis Ticknor was born on August 6, 1810, on the outskirts of Lebanon, New Hampshire, the oldest boy of nine brothers and sisters, his parents and Betsey Ticknor, were prosperous farmers. His cousin was historian George Ticknor; as a boy, Ticknor worked on the family farm during the summers and attended the district school during the winters. In 1827 at age seventeen he went to Boston, he was first employed in the brokerage house of his uncle Benjamin. When his uncle died a few years he was offered a position at the Columbian Bank, a position he held for a year or two. In 1832 he went into partnership with John Allen forming the publishing house of Allen and Ticknor which operated out of the Old Corner Bookstore; the following year Allen withdrew and Ticknor carried on the house under the name William D. Ticknor and Company, which would remain the legal name of the firm until his death.
In 1837 he published the national monthly American Magazine of Entertaining Knowledge. On December 25, 1832 he had married Emeline Staniford Holt, they had seven children together. Their three sons Howard Malcom, Benjamin Holt and Thomas Baldwin Ticknor all graduated from Harvard and entered into their father’s firm. During the Civil War, Benjamin Holt Ticknor enlisted in the Forty-Fifth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers and was commissioned as second lieutenant of Company G until May 1863, he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Second Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. He was commissioned at captain of Company E and was in command of the recruiting camp at Readville, Massachusetts, he resigned from service shortly after his father’s death. In 1845 the imprint of the firm was changed to Ticknor and Fields, after John Reed and James Thomas Fields were admitted as partners, it continued under this imprint until 1854 when John Reed withdrew and the name was changed to the well-known Ticknor and Fields.
With the varying but well matched talents of the two partners and Fields grew to become one of the leading publishing houses in the 19th century. Ticknor was the first American publisher to pay foreign authors for the rights to their works, beginning with a check to Alfred Tennyson in 1842. From the Old Corner Book Store and Fields published the works of Horatio Alger, Lydia Maria Child, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, John Greenleaf Whittier; the firm published the Atlantic Monthly, Our Young Folks, the North American Review. During his life Ticknor was involved in the Baptist church, he was a director of the Boston Lyceum, treasurer of the American Institute of Instruction, a trustee of the Perkins Institute, a leading member of the School Committee, he was a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Shortly after the firm contracted for Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Ticknor became a close friend and advisor to Hawthorne.
In the spring of 1864 Hawthorne's health was failing. Both Ticknor and Sophia Hawthorne insisted on a restorative health trip. During their trip, Ticknor's health failed, he caught what he assumed was a cold before leaving Boston, Hawthorne wrote home that his friend had eaten bad oysters. By the time they reached New York, his illness was determined to be pneumonia. Ticknor was more concerned about Hawthorne, writing to Sophia, "You will be glad to hear that your patient continues to improve." In Philadelphia, the duo visited Fairmount Park and Ticknor offered Hawthorne his jacket for warmth before they returned to the Continental Hotel. Hawthorne wrote to Fields that "our friend Ticknor is suffering under a billious attack... He had seemed uncomfortable, but not to an alarming degree." A physician offered various medicines, but Ticknor died on the morning of April 10, 1864. George William Childs arrived shortly after and accompanied the distraught and grieving Hawthorne back to Boston; the sudden loss of Ticknor was devastating to the failing health of Hawthorne, who would die about a month on May 19.
Ticknor was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Ticknor's catalogue of Christmas and New Year's presents, for 1842. J. C. Derby, "William D. Ticknor", Fifty Years Among Authors and Publishers, New York: G. W. Carleton & Co. Caroline Ticknor and his Publisher, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, OCLC 756324 The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston: Published by the Society Fiske, John.. Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, New York: D. Appleton and Company Works by or about William Ticknor at Internet Archive American National Biography Online "Ticknor, William Davis". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1889
Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). . Encyclopedia Americana.
Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). 
