Boston City (part 13 of 67)

1 [This cut is based on a water-color painting, the theatre, forming the design on a medal given r4 by 7^ inches, representing the theatre on fire, to the architect, Mr. Charles Bulfinch, will be with groups of allegorical figures in the fore- found in the chapter on Architecture in Boston, ground. The sketch is from a scrap-book, ar- - Ed.]

ranged by the late Mrs. Ann Bromfield Tracy, 2 [A heliotype of the bill for the opening of Newburyport, and was kindly furnished for night is given herewith, following an original this work by Miss. E. S. Quincy. The fa9ade of owned by Colonel Clapp. - Ed.]

The opening of the Haymarket Theatre introduced to the public several actors who made Boston their permanent residence ; and it was also marked by the first appearance on any stage of Mr. James A. Dickson, who subse¬ quently became the manager of the Boston Theatre, and also achieved a high reputation as an actor. He was born in London in I774> received a business education, and his coming to Boston from Philadelphia was one of those accidental moves which was regarded only as a temporary expedient to secure a few months' change, but proved of lifelong continuance, - -Mr. Dickson becoming in 1806 joint lessee with Snelling, Powell, and John Ber¬ nard, of the Boston Theatre. He was manager and actor for some fifteen years, and died in this city, April 1, 1853. He gave a tone to the theatre by his personal deportment, and won many friends by his deeds of charity. PJe closed the theatre on days of public fast and church days, and he gave liberally of his receipts for charitable purposes. He crossed the ocean in search of theatrical talent some forty times in sailing ships; and it was

1 [This cut follows a water-color painting now in the Boston Public Library. It was painted by Robertson, in 1798; was once owned bv John Howard Payne ; it is also engraved in Drake's Landmarks. The arch on the right is on the spot where the West-Street gate of the Common now is. On the opposite side is the haymarket, tak¬ ing most of the space lying now between Mason and Tremont streets, and which for a long time was a part of the Common. The theatre is the large building nearly on the spot where the Evans House now stands, as appears by Os¬ good Carleton's map of 1800. To the right of it is a house where now Hotel Pelham stands. The waters of the back bay stretch beyond. The wall on the extreme left bounds the estate of James Swan, which later (1815) became the Washington Gardens. - Ed.]

through his efforts, in connection with managers of New York and Phila¬ delphia, that George Frederick Cooke, Edmund Kean, and other notabilities came to the United States. The Idaymarket witnessed the first appearance in Boston of Thomas A. Cooper, the tragedian, in 1798. His daughter did the honors of the White House under the administration of her father-inlaw, President Tyler.

The Haymarket was never a paying theatre, and was taken down in 1803. The large window was carried to Dedham by Mr. Dowse, where it was put in a house, which was occupied for many years by the late Edmund Quincy; the window is still in existence. The Boston Theatre, notwithstanding the protestations of many citizens, was rebuilt, - Mr. Bulfinch, the architect, receiving high praise for his skill in the interior arrangements. It was re¬ opened to the public on Oct. 29, 1798/ under the management of Mr. John Hodgkinson, and was continued till 1835, when it was converted into a public lecture-room, under the name of the Odeon. In 1846 it was re¬ converted into a theatre, and was opened under the management of Mr. O. C. Wyman. With varied fortunes, it continued as a place for dramatic performances until 1852, when it gave place to a block of warehouses, which were destroyed by the great fire in 1 872.

The scope of this chapter will not permit of a record in detail of the dra¬ matic events of the past sixty years, nor is it, perhaps, desirable in a paper designed to be only an outline sketch. The drama has flourished in Boston to the same extent as in other cities. The earlier managers, with the excep¬ tion of Mr. Dickson, were totally lacking in that knowledge of business affairs which is requisite to success. Mr. Dana, of the Tremont Theatre, was a good business manager; and Mr. William Pelby, of the old National, had qualifications to meet the requirements of the strictly business duties which secure success. For sixty years no manager accumulated a fortune, and it was reserved for the present generation to see examples in Boston of men of acute perceptions, shrewd in their financial conduct, bringing to the management of theatricals the same talents which are exhibited by suc¬ cessful traders and merchants.

The Boston Theatre, from 1798 to 1827, was the only thoroughly ap¬ pointed theatre in Boston, though entertainments were given in halls and museums, and from time to time the small theatre in the Washington Gar¬ dens was used by travelling companies and by amateurs. For nearly thirty years the larger theatre had a monopoly, but with the exception of Mr. Dickson none of the several managers acquired large fortunes. The theatre in winter opened at five o'clock, and the performance began at six ; and in the spring months half an hour later was the time for the curtain to rise. It was beneath this roof that Hodgkinson, Fennel (the first to give Shake¬ spearian readings in Boston), Cooper, John Howard Payne (then a youth¬ ful prodigy), Wallack, Bartly, Edmund Kean, Macready, Forrest, Conway,

1 [Mr. Edmund Quincy has described this view of the building is given in Snow's Boston , opening in his Life of Josiah Quincy , p. 40. A p. 334. - Ed.]

Junius Brutus Booth, Charles Matthews, Sr., and other lesser lights inter¬ preted the masterpieces of the great dramatists. It was here that the Kean riot took place, when the great actor was driven from the stage (Dec. 21, 1825). During a previous visit to Boston he had refused to perform on account of the small audience assembled to witness his performance. This was made the pretext for an organized opposition, which was intended merely to prevent his playing, but which resulted in the destruction of prop¬ erty inside the theatre to the amount of about eight hundred dollars. The riot act was read, but no arrests were made, and Kean escaped,1 though no intention whatever of doing him personal injury was entertained. A dozen policemen of the present day would have speedily brought the riot to a close. On Nov. 3, 1831, there was an incipient riot at the I remont I heatre. Mr. J. R. Anderson, an English singer, with his wife, - formerly Miss Bartollozzi, - were announced to appear in Guy Mannenng. On his passage from England to New York his servant was treated badly by the colored stewards, and a difficulty arose between one of the passengers, an American, and Mr. Anderson on this account. A very trivial affair was so magnified that the indiscretion of a hot-headed foreigner became a topic of public interest. Mr. Anderson was accused of speaking " disrespectfully of the American people," which in those days was regarded as an offence worthy of most signal rebuke. He was driven from the stage at the Park Theatre in New York, and came to Boston. There was considerable opposition manifested when he appeared on the stage, which subsided till late in the evening, when a large crowd collected outside, broke a few of the windows, and rushed into the theatre, the cry of " fire ! " being raised. Mr. Anderson made his escape that night, but he resumed his engagement with partial suc¬ cess, and the public became convinced that a riot instigated by New York¬ ers, based upon a few hasty words, was not very creditable to the city of Boston. This was the last theatrical disturbance of any magnitude. It is a gratifying feature of the present dramatic period that theatrical riots have ceased to interrupt performances. The busy community no longer take an interest in the personal quarrels of rival actors, or attach importance to their opinions of our institutions.

It was the custom in the earlier days of the theatre to signalize passing events by such appropriate notice as the resources of the stage would per¬ mit. The proposed launch of the frigate " Constitution," which was set down for Sept. 20, 1797, was regarded by Manager Hodgkinson as an event worthy of his attention. In forty-eight hours he completed a very passable piece, and announced its performance. The historic frigate moved only a few feet on the first attempt to launch it, and a second trial was abortive ; but the third trial, Oct. 21, 1797, proved successful. At the theatre the

1 [Kean fled to a house in Roxbury, and the next morning started for New York. Drake's Town of Roxbury, p. 160. The heliotype, given herewith, of the letter from Mr. Kean is a fac¬ simile of the original, which was addressed to Mr. James A. Dickson, the manager of the Bos¬ ton Theatre, and presented by him to Colonel Clapp. - Ed.]

launch of the new piece was more successful, for it took place according to the programme. It abounded in patriotic allusions, and its songs, in keep¬ ing with the spirit of the times, became very popular. In December, 1799, the death of Washington cast a gloom over the whole nation. The theatre remained closed during the week, and was reopened on the evening of Jan. 10, 1800, - on the day devoted by the citizens to public obsequies. The commemorative ceremony at the theatre, which followed the play, was thus announced : -

" A Monody, on the death of General Washington, by Mrs. Barrett, in the charac¬ ter of the Genius of America weeping over the tomb of her beloved Hero. With a solemn March of Officers, Drums, Fifes, Band of Music, Soldiers with Arms and Colors reversed, forming a Grand Processional Dirge. After the recital, Military Hon¬ ors will take place over the Monument of the Departed, but never to be forgotten, Saviour of his Country.

The capture of the British frigate " Guerriere " by the American frig¬ ate "Constitution" induced a patriotic effusion on Oct. 2, 1812. In the course of the entertainment the following scenery and incidents were introduced : -

"Scene i. - State Street. Huzza for the 4 Constitution .' Scene 3. - Cabin of the ship. Song, A Cruising we will go. Duett, Conquer, or Die. The 4 Guerriere ' is seen through the cabin-window under sail ; orders are given to clear the ship for action, and scene changes to a view of the ocean. The ' Guerriere ' is seen under easy sail, and the ' Constitution ' in chase. The action commences, - the mizzenmast of the 4 Guerriere ' goes by the board ; the action continues, and the ' Guerriere ' loses her foremast and mainmast, - fires a gun to the leeward, and surrenders to the 4 Constitution.' Scene last. - State Street. American officers, sailors, and marines enter with American colors, and the piece concludes with a song and chorus, called The Good Ship 4 Columbia.' "

In 1813 The Heroes of the Lake, or the Glorious Tenth of September, was produced, to commemorate the brilliant victory of the youthful Perry. In the following spring Commodore Perry came to Boston and visited the theatre, where his presence was greeted with the wildest applause. The treaty of peace with England was also duly celebrated by an occasional piece ; and when the frigate 44 Constitution " returned to Boston, the day was made notable by the production of scenes interspersed with songs, entitled The Sailor's Return , or 44 Constitution" Safe in Port , which proved not only attractive, but stimulated the spirit of patriotism, and in a measure educated the audience to a proper appreciation of passing events. Mr. Dickson, in 1823, arranged a pageant in commemoration of Shakespeare. The house in which the dramatist was born at Stratford-on-Avon was represented with fidelity by the scenic artists, and a procession of the most celebrated characters, and a selection of scenes, was made from his plays, d he prize ode by Charles Sprague was recited by Henry J. Finn, who became one of Boston's most popular actors. The visit of Lafayette to the theatre in 1825 was noted by a new and appropriate drop act.

The second dramatic temple of note in Boston was the Fremont I heatre, which opened its doors to the public, under the management of William

Charlotte Cushman.1

Pelby, Sept. 24, 1827. The first season was an unprofitable one, and the contest between the two theatres was disastrous to both. Mr. J. B. Booth, Richard Russell, George H. Barrett, Francis W. Dana, Thomas Barry, J. S. Jones, Andrews and Preston, were charged with the management. The the-

1 [Charlotte Cushman was born in Boston, July 23, 1816, and made her first appearance on the stage at the Tremont Theatre, April 8, 1835. She had previously appeared at a concert. She died in Boston, Feb. 18, 1876. Emma Stebbins pub¬ lished in 1878 Charlotte Cushman ; her Letters , and Memories of her Life. See also Belgravia,

May, 1S76, and Blackwood's Magazine , August, 1878. The City of Boston built a public school on the site of her birth-place, and the school was named for her, - indicating a striking change in public sentiment from even days within the mem¬ ory of living, citizens. She was present at the dedication, and made an address. - Ed.]

atre in 1843 was sold to the Baptists, and the closing performance occurred June 23, 1843. The most notable events of the sixteen years of its exist¬ ence were the appearances of Charles John Kean, Master Burke, Charles Kemble, Fanny Kemble, Charles IT. Eaton, Tyrone Power, the Woods, J. Sheridan Knowles, Fanny Jarman, Charlotte Cushman, James E. Murdoch, Ellen Tree, John VandenhofF, Fanny Ellsler, Buckstone, and John Gibbs Gilbert. The theatre had its profitable seasons, but they were not numer¬ ous, and its financial history differs but little from that of the old Boston Theatre. Mr. Thomas Barry was manager for seven years, without profit to himself, though his efforts to advance the legitimate drama were worthy of large success. The theatre was too small to enable even crowded houses to meet the extraordinary expenses incidental to great attractions.

The City Theatre, before alluded to, at Washington Gardens was so named in 1823. It was formerly an amphitheatre and intended for summer presentations. It was located in the rear of the present St. Paul's Church. Private theatricals by amateurs were often produced at this house. Of the more modern establishments devoted to the drama we cannot give more than a mere outline as a matter of historic record.

Warren Theatre, Portland Street, near corner of Traverse Street. - Opened July 3, 1832, by William Pelby, having been remodelled from the American Amphi¬ theatre, which had been opened Feb. 27, 1832, by William and Thomas L. Stewart, for equestrian performances. Reconstructed in 1836 by Mr. Pelby, and reopened Aug. 15, 1836, as the National Theatre. In 1848 Thomas Barry became stage man¬ ager under Mr. Pelby, and so continued until Mr. Pelby's death, which occurred May 28, 1850, when he became acting manager for Mrs. Rosalie Pelby. Mrs. Pelby retired from the proprietorship Feb. 28, 1851, and March 3 of the same year the house re¬ opened under the proprietorship and management of Messrs. Barry, Wright (John B.), & Co. The season closed June 13, 1851. For the season of 1851-52 Messrs. Wright, Fenno (Henry W.), and Bird (George) were the managers, Mr. Fenno having been for several years the treasurer, and the previous season one ot the joint managers. April 22, 1852, the theatre was burned. It was rebuilt and reopened Nov. 1, 1852, by Joseph Leonard. Mr. Leonard was manager for one year (season of 1852-53), and W. M. Fleming during the seasons of 1853-54, 1854-55, and a part of 1855-56 (to Dec. 8, 1855). For the remainder of the season the theatre was under the manage¬ ment of the stock company until December 26 ; Mr. Cushing, of Cushing's New York Circus, from Dec. 31 to Feb. 23, 1856; G. H. Griffiths, from March 3, two weeks; and James Pilgrim, from March 19 to June 4. The house then had a checkered existence. Sept. 8, 1856, it was opened as Willard's National Theatre, Henry Willard manager. Mr. Willard's term of management ended early in Decem¬ ber ; and Dec. 10, 1856, the house was opened as the People's National Theatre by a committee of management, with Henry Farren as acting manager. Soon after Mr. Farren's name appeared as stage manager, and James Pilgrim as acting manager. This season closed Feb. 6, 1857, and February 9 there was a reopening by James Pilgrim. March 2 Mr. Pilgrim appeared as lessee, and William B. English as manager. March 30 Mr. English's name alone appeared, and he remained sole manager until the clos¬ ing of the season, July 30, the house having meanwhile resumed its old title of National vol. iv. - 47.

Theatre. The ensuing season he opened the house Aug. 31, 1857, and remained as manager until Feb. 20, 1858. April 5 it was opened for a brief period under the man¬ agement of Charles R. Thorne, Sr. For the season of 1858-59 it was opened, August 23, by James Pilgrim and John Moran. Mr. Moran retired Jan. 1, 1859. The house, after being closed a short time, was reopened January 15 by James Pilgrim. This season was brief, and February 14 the theatre was opened, with Walter Gay as the ostensible, but William B. English as the real, manager. Mr. English closed his season

John Gilbert.1

July 4. For the season of 1859-60 the establishment was opened under the manage¬ ment of Henry Willard, who retired October 3, to be succeeded (from October 3 to 22) by F. B. Conway. November 9 it was reopened as the People's National Theatre by William B. English, with whom John Moran became associated December 9. This firm continued in control during most of the winter. March 10, i860, E. B. Williams and Thomas Hampton became managers for a time, the season closing May 15. Dur¬ ing the season of 1860-61 J. C. Myers and C. J. Boniface were the managers, the

1 [This cut follows a photograph taken some by Dr. John Lathrop in the Old North Church, years ago, and furnished by Mr. Gilbert. Mr. Gil- and made his first appearance here, at the Trebert was born in Boston in 1810; was christened mont Theatre, Nov. 28, 1828. - Ed.]

house again being known as the National Theatre. In 1861-62, William B. English was again the manager, and during a part of the time, beginning in January, 1862, it was known as the Union Concert Hall, and devoted largely to variety performances. During the season of 1862-63 Mr. English was also manager, and the house resumed its former name of National Theatre. Dramatic and variety entertainments were given up to, and including, March 23, and the theatre was burned March 24. The stage fix¬ tures, to a considerable extent, had been removed to the new Tremont Theatre upon the opening of that house in the early part of 1863.

Opened Jan. 11, 1836, by James Raymond and others of New York for dramatic and equestrian performances, E. C. Weeks being at the head of the establishment. In 1839 L was converted into a lecture and concert hall by John Redman, and known for a time as the Mechanics' Institute. It was then leased by the Handel and Haydn Society who opened Dec. 29, 1839, as the Melodeon. For a series of years this was the leading concert and exhibition hall in Boston. In 1844 it was temporarily converted into a theatre, by Leander Rodney, for a series of performances by William Charles Macready and Charlotte Cushman, who opened there October 2, with Henry J. Con¬ way as stage manager. Subsequently it was occupied chiefly for concerts, lectures, and entertainments, but rarely for theatrical entertainments. When the Boston Theatre was built in 1854, the Melodeon became the property of the corporation owning that estab¬ lishment, but some years later it was sold to other parties. In 1857 it was occupied for a short season by E. Warden as the Melodeon Varieties, and then resumed its former name ot the Melodeon. In 1859 the hall was rebuilt, and the New Melodeon was opened Dec. 12, 1859, by the Melodeon Minstrels, J. W. Anderson manager. After a six weeks' season Mr. Anderson and the Minstrels retired, and for two seasons the hall was under the control of J. P. Ordway. It continued to be let for concerts, lectures, panoramic, minstrel, and other exhibitions. From April 2 to May 12, i860, - six weeks, - Mr. and Mrs. Henri Drayton gave a series of parlor operas. In September, 1S60, they returned, but were prevented from appearing by the enforcement of a restric¬ tion against dramatic performances which had been placed upon the Melodeon by the owners of the Boston Theatre when the Melodeon was sold by them. March 4, 1862, a company of French Zouaves appeared in a semi-dramatic entertainment, but two nights later were transferred to Allston Hall, where they appeared from March 6 to 11. During the National Sailors' Fair, held in the Boston Theatre from Nov. 9 to 22, 1864, amateur theatrical entertainments were nightly given in the Melodeon for the benefit of the Fair, by Arthur Cheney, H. C. Barnabee, John F. Pray, and others. The Me¬ lodeon eventually became a billiard-hall, and continued as such until 1878, when it was leased to Jason Wentworth, who opened it, Oct. 15, 1878, as the Gaiety Theatre, the restrictions against theatrical performances having expired some years previous.

Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts, Ti'emont Street , between Montgomery Place and Bromfield Street. - Opened by Moses Kimball and others, June 14, 1841. For two seasons musical and olio entertainments were given, and the first dramatic entertainment took place Sept. 4, 1843, W. H. Smith being stage manager. Mr. Smith was engaged as stage manager at the old and new establishments eighteen years. The closing dramatic performance in the old house was given Aug. 8, 1 846. Signor Blitz subsequently exhibited there, giving his closing exhibition Sept. 12, 1846.

Eagle Theatre, corner of Haverhill and Traverse streets. - Built in 1841 as an amphitheatre, and for its first season occupied for equestrian performances. Opened

June 27, 1842, as the Eagle Theatre, by Wyzeman Marshall, the company being an especially strong one. On account of the excellent character of the performances and the low prices at this theatre, and especially its proximity to the National Theatre, then under Mr. Pelby's management, the latter establishment began to fare badly, and Mr. Pelby had recourse to strategy in order to get even with his rival. Obtaining possession of a part interest in the property, he proceeded, under cover of improving his portion of the building, to render the whole useless. This was done by cutting away some of the supports of the roof. The last performance was given on the even¬ ing of March 22, 1843, and Mr. Marshall took his company to Providence, where he opened April 3.

Howard Athen/Eum, south side of Howard Street. - Formerly the Millerite Tabernacle. Fitted up as a theatre and opened Oct. 13, 1845, by W. F. Johnson, W. L. Ayling, Thomas Ford, and Leonard Brayley. Burned Feb. 25, 1846. Rebuilt, and reopened Oct. 5, 1846, by James H. Hackett & Co. as managers, and W. H. Chippendale as stage manager. Mr. Hackett relinquished the management to Thomas Ford, Feb. 23, 1847. Season of 1847-48, - began with Thomas Ford as lessee and manager, and W. L. Ayling as stage manager; leased by Sands, Lent, & Co.'s Circus, and also by Astor-Place Opera Company. Season of 1848-49, - began under Ford; leased by John Brougham and W. E. Burton for the appearance of Macready, who opened October 30 ; latter part of season under Ayling's direction. Season of 1849-50, Charles R. Thorne, manager. Season of 1850-51, - began by Messrs. Baker & English as managers ; before the close, W. L. Ayling assumed the management. Season of 1851-52, - Wyzeman Marshall, manager. Season of 1 85 2 - 5 3, - Henry Willard, manager. Season of 1853-54, - Henry Willard, manager'. Season of 1854-55, - opened by Henry ^Villard, who disappeared Aug. 29, 1854; house closed, but reopened September 18 for a short season, with W. Palmer as manager, and J. B. Strong as acting manager; opened November 6 for two weeks, with an Indian exhibition, D. Swain manager. November 20, - opened by Pentland's Circus, which remained until January, 1855 ; Feb. 28, 1855, Henry Willard resumed management. Season of 1855-56, - opened Sept. 19, 1855, with J. M. Field and T. Placide as managers ; October 24, Mr. Field became sole manager ; this season closed about November 1 ; November 26, reopened with T. W. Buckland and Henry Farren as managers, who continued until Jan. 28, 1856, when J. W. Buckland became sole manager ; Mr. Buckland closed February 2 ; house reopened Feb¬ ruary 2 1 for two weeks, with B. Duffy as manager ; theatre occupied by Buckley's Serenaders from March 24 to April 12 ; by the Chinese Jugglers from April 17 to May 10, and later for benefits, etc. ; Buckley's Serenaders had a summer season from Tuly 14 to 26. Season of 1856-57, - opened Aug. 18, 1856, by F. A. and J. Munroe, F. Harrington, and E. B. Williams, who closed in November; from Nov. 18 to Feb. 14, 1857, occupied by the Marsh children, R. G. Marsh manager; from April 27 to May 19 by an entertainment of magic, and from June 1 to 13 by Donetti's dogs and monkeys ; June 15, opened with dramatic performances, with H. Ashley business man¬ ager, and John Gilbert stage manager; July 6, E. L. Davenport became manager, and Jacob Barrow business manager, and August 11 J. Barrow lessee and manager, and H. Ashley acting manager, the season closing August 29. Season of 1857-58, - from Aug. 31, 1857, to December 5, occupied by the Marsh children, R. G. Marsh manager; Dec. 21 to Jan. 9, 1858, H. Ashley was manager, and from March 1 to July 26, J. Barrow. Season of 1858-59, - August 19, Zavistowski's Juvenile Ballet

Iroupe opened for two weeks; September 3, the "regular" season opened, and closed about the middle of October; from November 1 to 27 the Martinetti and Blondin Troupe appeared, J. N. Buckland manager ; from Nov. 29 to Jan. 8, 1859, Nixon's Circus appeared; from January 17 to 29 E. A. Sothern was manager; from January 31 to February 5, T. E. Mills; and February 28 the house was opened with E. L. Davenport as manager, who brought the company from the Boston Theatre. Season of 1859-60, - E. L. Davenport manager, opening Aug. 29, 1859, and closing July 9, i860. Season of 1860-61, - E. L. Davenport manager, closing in June, 1861. During the summer of 1861 Frank Rivers's company from New York gave a series of variety performances. Season of 1861-62, - E. L. Davenport manager until November, 1861 ; the North American Circus then appeared, after which W. M. Fleming assumed the management, continuing until spring, when Wyzeman Marshall became manager April 14, 1862, the season closing August 30. Season of 1862-63, - Wyzeman Marshall manager, opening Sept. 1, 1862, and- closing May 2, 1863. Season of 1863-64, - Henry Willard manager. Season of 1864-65, - Henry Willard manager. Season of 1865-66, - opened with Henry Willard as manager, who was superseded, May 1, 1S66, by Isaac B. Rich (previously treasurer) as lessee and manager; the house was reopened under Mr. Rich's management, May 14. Season of 1866-67, - Isaac B. Rich manager. Season of 1867-68, - Isaac B. Rich manager. In 1868 a summer dramatic season was managed by Messrs. B. F. Lowell and Morris Simmonds, with F. S. Chanfrau as an attraction, and Kate Fisher afterward appeared. Season of 1868-69, - opened Aug. 10, 1868, as a variety theatre, by Isaac B. Rich and J. C. Trowbridge as lessees and managers, and Josh Hart as stage manager; two months later the firm became Rich, Hart, and Trowbridge. Season of 1869-70, - opened with the same managers, but Mr. Hart and Mr. Trowbridge retired before the close of the year; Jan. 1, 1870, John Stetson became a partner with Mr. Rich in the manage¬ ment, and from that time until the end of the season of 1875-76, six and a half years, Messrs. Rich and Stetson were managers ; Mr. Stetson then became sole mana¬ ger, and so continued two seasons, - namely, 1876-77 and 1877-78. Season of 1878- 79 (opening Aug. 31, 1878, and closing June 21, 1879), - B. F. Tryon and Fred. Stinson, managers. Season of 1879-80 (opening Sept. 8, 1879), - - Josh Hart and B. F. Tryon, managers. Season of 1880-81 (opening Aug. 23, 1880), - William Harris, manager. Since 1868 the entertainments have consisted of variety and drama, the former species of entertainment predominating.

Boston Museum, east side of Tremont Street , betweeii Court and School Streets. - Opened by proprietors of old establishment. Nov. 2, 1846. W. H. Smith continued as stage manager until the end of the season of 1859-60, and was succeeded at the opening of the season of 1860-61 (Aug. 6, i860) by E. F. Keach as acting manager. Mr. Keach continued as manager three and a half years, until his death (Jan. 31, 1864), and was succeeded Feb. 13, 1864, by R. M. Field, who has continued as mana¬ ger to the present time. In the summer of 1880 the interior of the house was entirely rebuilt, and its seating capacity increased. The new establishment was thrown open on the first night of the fortieth regular season, Saturday, Aug. 28, 1880. It has been the most continuously successful theatre that Boston ever possessed.

Brougham and Bland's Boston Adelphi, on Court Street. , between Cornhill and Brattle Street. - Opened April 5, 1847, by John Brougham and W. H. Bland; con¬ tinued under the same management through its first season and through a portion of its second season, which began Sept. 6, 1847. Mr. Brougham retired from the manage- ment, and in February, 1848, the house was called simply the Boston Adelphi, and at a later period Bland's Boston Adelphi. Mr. Bland also retired from its management at the end of the season ; and subsequently, during the latter half of 1 848, the year 1849, and the early part of 1850, it was occupied for exhibitions of various kinds, chiefly of the minstrel class, under different managers. Jan. 7, 1850, it was opened for minstrel entertainments under the name of the Adelphi Saloon. A little later it was converted to business uses;

Bland's Lyceum, east side of Sudbury Street , near Court Street. - Opened Sept. 19, 1848, by W. H. Bland, after the termination of his management of the Adelphi, on Court Street. Early in November Bland and Skerrett were both announced as managers. The house was kept open through the winter, spring, and early summer, and was reopened by Mr. Bland for a second season, Aug. 13, 1849. From Novem¬ ber 5 until December 29 it was occupied by Dumbolton's Minstrels, Mr. Bland having retired from its management. Jan. 21, 1850, it was opened under its former title of Lyceum Theatre, by C. J. Smith, but, as before, minstrelsy soon usurped the place of the drama. March 19, 1850, it became the Odeon, under the management of G. Crouta and L. Mestayer. June 10 of the same year G. C. Howard began a short term of engagement. August 12, Parker's Ethiopian Troupe began a short season. For the season of 1850-51 it was open at irregular intervals. Oct. 13, 1851, it resumed its old name, - the Lyceum. In May, 1852, after having been closed for a time, it was opened as the Eagle Theatre, and the season continued until July 5. There was a reopening August 3, with J. H. Robinson as acting manager. December 13, the name of Mrs. H. Lewis was put up as manageress, and that of Thomas Ward as stage-manager. In March, 1853, after having been closed for a time, it assumed the name of Goodall and Olwine's American Theatre, W. R. Goodall being the stagemanager, and Wayne Olwine acting manager. As early as April 9 of the same year Mr. Goodall's name disappeared, Mr. Olwine's name remaining as the sole manager. April 25 Henry Willard became sole manager; but his term was short. June 12, 1853, the house was opened under the management of J. H. Robinson, as the Eagle Theatre. Dramatic performances were continued under his management through the summer and early autumn ; and its later occupants were a gymnastic troupe, opening December 5, and the Philharmonic Vocalists, opening December 31, 1853. Soon after the minstrel season, the site of the theatre was turned over to business uses.

Dramatic Museum, north side of Beach Street , near United States Hotel. - Opened Oct. 16, 1848, with R. Hamilton as manager. December n Mr. Hamilton's name appeared as stage manager, and Joseph Proctor's as acting manager. Jan. 3, 1849, Mr. Proctor's name alone appeared ; and March 23 it was replaced by Mr. James Anderson's. The house was kept open through the season ; and for the ensuing season was reopened August 20 as Thorne's American Museum, C. R. Thorne, Sr., manager, and James Anderson stage manager. It was not long continued under this name, and October 31 it became known as the Beach-Street Museum. December 24 L. Gilmore became lessee and manager. During 1850 it was closed most of the time. October 2 1 in that year, however, it was opened by G. Crouta as the Olympic. Mr. Crouta's season was short, and the establishment was then closed, never to be re¬ opened for dramatic purposes.

Boston Theatre, west side of Washington Street , above West Street. - Opened Sept. 11, 1854, Thomas Barry, manager. Mr. Barry continued as sole manager five years. In the summer of 1859 the corporation owning the property was reorganized, and during the season of 1859-60 the theatre was managed by the directors, with Mr. Barry as their representative. During this season the house was not open continu¬ ously, and there was no regular stock company. The reopening under the new cor¬ poration took place Sept. 13, 1859. For the season of 1860-61 the house was leased to Bernard Ullman, who, with Max Strakosch, had managed an opera season in Janu¬ ary, i860. Under Mr. Ullman's management the house became known as the Academy of Music. Mr. Ullman let the theatre to various operatic, dramatic, and circus mana¬ gers, from time to time, the house being closed when not thus occupied. During the season of 1861-62 it was let in the same manner to various parties for short periods,

- the Ravels, James Nixon (for Edwin Forrest), and Henry C. Jarrett being among the principal lessees. In February, 1863, Wyzeman Marshall became the lessee, and March 23 the theatre was reopened under his management, and under its old name of the Boston Theatre. At this time Mr. Marshall was also manager of the Howard Athenaeum. The season closed June 22. The succeeding season (from Aug. 24, 1863, to June 13, 1864) was also under Mr. Marshall's management. In August, 1864, Messrs. B. W. Thayer and Orlando Tompkins obtained control of the stock, and henceforth were virtually the managers, although the lease was held by other parties,

- namely, Henry C. Jarrett for two years, seasons of 1864-65 and 1 865 - 66 j Edwin Booth and J. S. Clarke one year, season of 1866-67 > and J- B. Booth six years, be¬ ginning with the season of 1867-68, and ending with the season of 1872-73. At the beginning of the season of 1873-74 (Sept. 1, 1873), the names of Messrs. Thayer and Tompkins first appeared upon the bills as proprietors, with L. R. Shewed as manager. Mr. Shewed continued as acting manager five years, ending with the season of 1877-78, which closed June 17, 1878. Mr. Thayer died in December, 1875, and Jan. 1, 1876, Noble H. Hid became associated with Mr. Tompkins in the proprietorship, the firm title being Tompkins & Hid. Since Mr. Shewed retired from the management Eugene Tompkins has been acting and stage manager.

The Aquarial Gardens, on Central Court , off Washington Street. - Opened to¬ wards the end of i860 by James A. Cutting, who had previously, in Bromfield Street, a similar but smaller establishment. H. D. Butler became associated with Cutting in the management of the newplace. Dramatic entertainments began Feb. 25, 1861, with C. H. Wilson as stage manager, and continued until about the middle of April. June 16, 1862, opened by P. T. Barnum, as Barnum's Aquarial Gardens, with a dog show, followed soon after by a baby show. Dramatic performances were given from Dec. 16, 1862, until Feb. 14, 1863. Then called Andrews's Hall, and occupied for bads, and occasional exhibitions and fairs. Oct. 2, 1865, opened as Theatre Comique by Jason Wentworth, with James S. Maffitt and W. H. Bartholomew as acting and stage managers respectively, for performances of variety, pantomime, and light spectacular pieces. Continued by Mr. Wentworth under this title four seasons. July 1, 1869, Wentworth sold to John Stetson, who rechristened it the New Adelphi, under which name it was opened Sept. 6, 1869, with William Horace Lingard as manager. Comedies, light pieces, and Lingard sketches were played until November 27, when Lingard's term of management expired. Reopened November 30 as a variety theatre, under management of George F. McDonald. Continued two seasons for variety and dra¬ matic performances (chiefly burlesques) under various managers, including McDonald, the Worrell Sisters (Sophia Worrell, directress), H. G. Clark, Maffitt & Tyler, James S. Maffitt, and John L. Hall, who acted chiefly for Stetson, who retained control as lessee. From Aug. 29 to Oct. 8, 1870, known as the Worrell Sisters' Adelphi. On its reopening, Oct. 24, 1870, it resumed its old name of Adelphi. So continued until Feb. 4, 1871 (John L. Hall, manager), when it was burned. Rebuilt lor business uses.

New 'Fremont Theatre, Studio Building , entrance from Tremont Street , near Music Hall. - Remodelled from Allston Hall, and opened Feb. 9, 1863, under the management of Mrs. Jane English, with a ballet and pantomime troupe, which was succeeded by other dramatic features. May 11, Juignet's French Dramatic Company appeared, followed by the Holman Opera Troupe, etc. Opened for the season of x 863-64, November 30, with Mrs. Julia Bennet Barrow and Mark Smith as managers. The house closed after a brief season, and was reopened Jan. 7, 1864, under the di¬ rection of Mrs. Barrow. The house was then kept open continuously, the French company closing the season. During the season of 1864 - 65 it was occupied by various parties and combinations, including Morris Brothers, Pell & Trowbridge's Min¬ strels, after the burning of their Opera House on Washington Street, Oct. 25, 1864, from October 31 to December 22; MM. Juignet and Drivet's French Dramatic Company, two engagements, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 11, 1865, and from April 3 to 15 ; Messrs. E. L. Davenport and J. W. AVallack from May 1 to 27, and Mr. Davenport as manager from May 27 to June 10. During the latter part of 1865 the theatre was let to the Cotton & Murphy Minstrels from October 2, for five weeks, and MM. Juignet and Drivet's Dramatic Company from November 13 to December 23. The house was let for occasional exhibitions subsequent to this, but in 1866 was converted to business uses. Since reopened as Allston Hall for pedestrian matches, etc.

Continental Theatre, south corner of Washington and Harvard Streets , on the site of the Apollo Gardens , where for several years concerts and other entertainments had been given. - Opened Jan. 1, 1866, with Lon Morris as manager, and J. L. Saphore as stage manager. Mr. Morris closed his season March 10, 1866. Opened by Messrs. Wilder, Sloat, & Co., March 12, and continued under their direction until April 14. George Iv. Goodwin was then manager from April 16 to May 12 ; and Albert Cassedy, for a brief period, from May 1 4. Opened for its second season Aug. 20, 1866, as Whitman's Continental Theatre, with B. F. Whitman manager, and E. L. Davenport stage manager ; season made memorable by the production of " The Black Crook," which revived the fortunes of the house ; last dramatic performance of the season, July 4, 1867. For the season of 1867-68, opened September 2 as the Con¬ tinental Theatre, under Mr. Whitman, who remained as manager until Jan. 25, 1868, when he was succeeded by C. H. Garland. Mr. Garland's season closed February 22, and the house then remained closed, with the exception of two performances on Fast Day, April 2, under the management of J. Wentworth & Co., of the Theatre Comique, until April 13, when it was opened for a series of German dramatic performances by Madame Fanny Janauschek, who on that date made her first appearance in Boston. Madame Janauschek's engagement continued one week, and the theatre remained closed for the remainder of the season. Aug. 31, 1868, it was opened as Willard's Theatre, under the management of Henry Willard, who continued at the head of affairs until September 30. Mile. Marie Zoe played October 1 and 2, and on the latter date the performance came to an untimely end, on account of a series of "strikes" among the employes. Mr. Willard had in the meantime disappeared, and the house had passed into the hands of the managers of the Boston Theatre. Oct. 21, 1868, it was opened under the name of the Olympic Theatre, by Madame Fanny Janauschek (her second engagement here). Madame Janauschek's name appeared as directress, and Oscar Guttmann as stage manager. Ten performances in German were given, the concluding one November 5. November 16, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Florence began a season of three weeks (W. H. Bowditch, business manager), which closed Decem¬ ber 5. December 21, the theatre was reopened under the management of J. B. Booth, with the Elise Holt Burlesque Company. The burlesque season continued until Jan. 30, 1869, six weeks; and Stone & Murray's Circus Company appeared from February 8 until March 6. Variety performances were given July 4 ; and similar entertainments from July 26 to August 2S were under the management of John Stetson. MacEvoy's Hibernicon was exhibited in the summer also. During the season of 1869-70 the theatre was not open continuously, but was occupied by various attractions, - namely, from September 13 to October 30, under the management of Kate Fisher; Novem¬ ber 22 to December 8, by Sharpley's Minstrels; Jan. 31, 1870, for a short season, by Allen, Pettingill, Delehanty. & Hengler's Minstrels ; March 21, for a week of dramatic performances, under the management of J. B. Booth ; April 18, for a short season, by the New York French Dramatic Company ; May 23, for a short time, by MacEvoy's Hibernicon; and from July 18 to 30, for representations of a military drama by Post 7, G. A. R. During the season of 1870-71 the theatre was opened in the same irregular way, - namely, from Septembers to 10 by Colville's Novelties; from Sep¬ tember 26 to October 1 for dramatic performances, with John G. Nagle as manager and N. D. Jones as stage manager; from November 21 to 26 for dramatic perform¬ ances, by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Watkins; from Dec. 20 to Jan. 7, 1871, three weeks, for the performance of a military drama by Post 7, G. A. R. ; January 31, for a spar¬ ring exhibition ; February 14 to 18, by the Adelphi Theatre Company, which had been burned out ; February 20 to 25, by Morris Brothers' Minstrels ; April 10 to 22, by the Boston Theatre Company, J. B. Booth manager; and May 31 to June 3, by the Bos¬ ton Theatre Company. For the season of 1871-72, opened Aug. 14, 1871, as the St. James Theatre, with J. C. Trowbridge & Co. as lessees and managers, and W. B. Cavanaugh as director of amusements. Variety and pantomime formed the staple attractions. The season continued until December. Feb. 12, 1872, opened for dra¬ matic performances, under the management of W. H. Leake, who was succeeded June 24 by Ada Harland, the season closing July 6. Aug. 26, 1872, the house was reopened by Mr. Leake with a minstrel company for one week, followed September 2 with a dramatic company for one week. September 9, McGill & Strong's Tableaux of Ireland appeared ; dramatic entertainments from September 16 to 19 ; the Tableaux of Erin, October 23 ; dramatic entertainment, November 9 ; and further dramatic per¬ formances under Mr. Leake for a few nights, beginning November 1. The theatre was soon after closed and converted to business uses.

Selwyn's Theatre, east side Washington Street, just north of Essex Street. - Built by Arthur Cheney and Dexter H. Follett, and opened Oct. 29, 1867, with John H. Selwyn as manager. In 1869 Cheney became sole proprietor. In 1869 (from June 7 to August 7) there was a summer season, under management of William Horace Lingard. In the season of 1869-70 Thomas Barry was stage manager, Selwyn retain¬ ing the position of manager, which he continued to hold through that season. July 4, 1870, last performance of any kind given in Selwyn's Theatre, the establishment afterward assuming the name of Globe Theatre. Under latter title, opened Sept. 1 2, 1870, with Charles Fechter "sole manager." Fechter remained as manager until fan. 14, 1871. Jan. 16, 1871, W. R. Floyd became manager, and so continued until the burning of the theatre, May 30, 1873. Rebuilt by Mr. Cheney, with the aid of an association of right-holders, and reopened Dec. 3, 1874, with D. W. Waller as VOL. iv. - 48.

manager. In the season of 1875-76 (opening Sept. 13, 1875), W. R. Floyd was again manager, and he continued in the same capacity through the season of 1876-77. From Dec. 30, 1876,63 March 12, 1877, the theatre was closed for reconstruction under the orders of the Building Inspectors. Last season under Cheney's control ended May 26, 1877. House leased by John Stetson, and opened by him Sept. 3, 1877, since which time it has been under his management. In the summer of 1880 the house was in a measure reconstructed and greatly beautified, the reopening taking place Sept. 6, 1880.

Gaiety Theatre, Washington Street, adjoining Boston Theatre, and on site of the old Lion Theatre and the later Melodeon. - Reconstructed from the Melodeon (second structure of that name), and opened by Jason Wentworth, Oct. 15, 1878.

Park Theatre, west side of Washington Street, north of Boylston Street. - Recon¬ structed from Beethoven Hall, and opened April 14, 1879, Henry E. Abbey, of the New York Park Theatre, manager. John F. Schoeffel, who was associated with Mr. Abbey in conducting the Park Theatre in New York, and various other theatrical en¬ terprises, including Sarah Bernhardt's professional visit to America, became connected with the Boston Park as associate manager, the firm title, Abbey & Schoeffel, first appearing March 8, 1880.

Vaudeville Saloon, Boylston Hall, over Boylston Market , south corner of Wash¬ ington and Boylston Streets . - Opened by Wyzeman Marshall, July 13, 1840. Season closed Aug. 28, 1840.

Olympic Saloon, 253 Washington Street ( old number ), between Bromfield and Winter Streets. - Opened June 14, 1841, by William Lee, as Lee's Grand Saloon, for musical entertainments and dancing. Opened for dramatic performances March 14, 1842, by a portion of the company formerly at the Tremont Theatre. Season closed on or about June 22. Reopened for musical entertainments, etc., as Lee's Grand Saloon, July 14, 1842.

In addition to the theatres already enumerated, there have been several establishments devoted to variety entertainments, and at these light dramatic performances have sometimes been included as incidental features.

The events of recent interest in the dramatic record are still fresh in the public mind, and brief allusion only can be made to them. Mr. Edwin Booth made his first appearance on any stage at the Boston Museum, Sept. 10, 1849, when he performed the part of Tressell to his father's Richard III. He first came to Boston as a star at the Boston Theatre, opening April 20, 1857, where to many he developed a new dramatic revelation. Rachel's brief engagement at the Boston Theatre, which began Oct. 2 1 , 1 85 5 , gave to our citizens the first and only opportunity they enjoyed of witnessing the classical acting of the leading actress of France. Adelaide Ristori came Oct. 29, 18 66, and Madame Janauschek followed April 2, 1868, at the Olympic Theatre, as interpreters of their respective schools of acting. In later years Salvini, John McCullough, Clara Morris, Lawrence Barrett and Mile. Bernhardt have delighted large audiences by their mas¬ terly display of histrionic genius, and the remembrance of Miss Neilson's charming performances of Shakespeare's heroines is mingled with regret at her early death. " The palmy days of the drama," so frequently spoken of by lovers of dramatic representations, is a period which is without date in the calendar. Measured by a pecuniary standard, the present time is the most propitious era which the drama has ever witnessed in the United States. The stage was regarded fifty years ago as a school for culture, and the theatre was the resort of those who sought something more than mere amusement. To-day, ninety per cent of the patrons of the drama seek at the theatre not mental food, but relaxation from the routine cares of business. Even in our largest cities, where a floating population composed of strangers make up the night's changing audiences of the theatres, it would be impossible to make a season profitable to the management if the so-called legitimate drama were on the programme. The society comedy has taken the place of even the old English standard plays. Shakespearian revivals are not of long continuance, even when the leading parts are sustained by eminent actors. The star system, which has been regarded as so pernicious in times past, is still retained. There have been many instances in Boston where a single actor of eminence has received more for a week's performances than was left in the treasury to pay the expenses of the stock actors and the running ex¬ penses of the theatre. Attempts have been made to render the theatre selfsupporting, by depending upon a good corps of actors ; but the thirst for novelty on the part of the public has rendered this effort futile.

Within a few years the stage has witnessed an innovation which threatens to revolutionize the drama in this country. In the early days of the drama in England travelling companies had their circuits, and with well-organized corps appeared from time to time in smaller places, where a week or two ex¬ hausted the patronage of the place. In some of our larger cities the regular dramatic season was supplemented by a summer season in some smaller city. The theatre and the drama were identified, for the manager of the theatre had his organized corps of actors, which possessed sufficient talent to pro¬ duce plays in the absence of stars. The theatre was an institution. The new departure threatens to take from the theatre the prestige it derived from its company, and to make its management entirely dependent upon what are known as travelling companies. Mr. Forrest and other eminent actors had their own pieces, and they carried with them one or two actors to support them. It was stipulated in Mr. Forrest's engagement at times that so much should be allowed for the salary of his leading lady or his leading support. The idea has expanded, and now not only the play is the property of the actor, but he brings his own company, properties, etc. The duration of the engagement is brief, rarely extending beyond two weeks. It is true that the play may be better performed, as practice makes perfect; but the managers of theatres must either keep their own companies on the road when their theatres are leased by these travelling corps, or they must dispense with stock companies and become mere dramatic landlords. It is certain, however, that the effect upon the stage of this modern idea of furnishing novelties to a novelty-seeking public must prove detrimental to the drama.

There have been several very successful plays written by American authors, which have derived their chief claim to celebrity by the acting of the leading actor, who has secured the special right to these plays. No Boston author has as yet written a play which is likely to keep possession of the stage. It is only within a very few years that there has been any pecuniary incentive to induce authors to devote their talents to this branch of literature. A single play, written by a resident of Boston but recently, has, owing to its merits and the happy acting of the stars, netted the writer some ten thousand dollars. This, however, is quite exceptional. Boston has witnessed the production of many local pieces which have not been without merit, but not one is likely to hold more than a temporary place in dra¬ matic literature.

It may or may not be true that the verdict of a Boston audience is more highly valued by artists than that of any other city ; but Boston may be justly credited with a public possessing an appreciative sense of dramatic talent. Not a few of the most popular stars have received their earliest in¬ centive to exertion from the encouragement of a Boston audience, while the most eminent foreign actors have found their warmest welcome in this city. The leading theatres in Boston are to-day under the management of those who fully understand that excellence can alone command permanent suc¬ cess. Of late years we have witnessed, both in the scenic illusions and the minor accessories, a great advance upon the crude representations of thirty years ago. Criticism, kindly but just, may be credited with a potent influ¬ ence in securing these improvements, and thereby elevating the tone of the drama.

The theatre, within the remembrance of the patrons of the drama of the present day, has yielded to a healthy public sentiment and has become puri¬ fied. There is no longer a portion of the house set apart by custom for the abandoned and profligate of both sexes, and the sale of intoxicating liquors is prohibited in the saloons attached to theatres. There are many who hope to see the theatre take a position so elevated as " a school of morals and of manners, of dress and deportment," that it shall become " the ally of the church, an adjunct of the school-room and the college, and a succursal to the public library, picture gallery, and museum of every large and populous city." Every lover of the drama will cordially accept this standard. Its realization, however, depends upon the public.

The story of the drama in Boston, since it can be said to have been fairly planted, differs in no essential point from the record it has made in every other city where the English language is spoken. The same vicissitudes have marked the stage everywhere. The drama flourishes, declines, revives, only to decline and revive again, as the years roll on. The theatre has be¬ come one of the necessities of a large city. It may instruct at times, but this element is not vital to its success. Its influence as a teacher has not kept pace with its importance as one of the institutions of a great metropolis. Without any Government subsidy or protection as an aesthetic institution, it maintains itself by its inherent claims to consideration ; and while it is thus made self-dependent it must seek to please the popular taste of the period, in order to secure an existence.

Eminent Actors. - The following is a list of several of the prominent actors who have appeared in Boston. The date preceding their names is the year when they first appeared in Boston, and the other dates represent the year of their birth and death :

The Theatres and Places of Amusement. - The following list shows the order in which the various theatres and places of amusement in Boston have been opened : interpretation of the Scriptures frowned on everything like graven images, and set themselves grimly to the work of ruling and strengthen¬ ing the community they had founded for conscience' sake, in a moral atmosphere too cold to cherish any of the softer graces. Not until a hun¬ dred years after its foundation do we find any traces of art in Boston. By that time the severe race of Puritans had passed away; the young col¬ ony had prospered, and drawn over from England many who held less sad views of life, who saw no harm in fine clothes, and hung on the walls of their houses a few good pictures brought from their old homes. Portrait painting is usually the first branch of art which springs up naturally in a young country; and while the sober and serious minded were glad to haye the features of their favorite minister handed down for the veneration of fu¬ ture church members, more worldly citizens got their own portraits painted in the bravery of dress which marked its wearer as one of the gentry, or at least as a prosperous merchant.

Bishop Berkeley, then Dean Berkeley, came to America in 1728, with the benevolent design of establishing a college for heathen children. Two years later he returned to England, disappointed and mortified. So far as the infant heathen were concerned, the scheme had proved an utter failure; but the Dean left behind him a verse, - and the first portrait painter of any skill whom Boston had known. Whether there had been any such here previously is not certain, - per¬ haps Pelham, of whom we shall hear later, may have already done a few heads in order to engrave them ; 1 but certainly our earliest artist worthy

1 [There is a surmise that one Tom Child, See also some notes on presumably earlier porwho died in Boston in 1706, was a still earlier trait painters in Mass. His. Soc. Proc., Sept., 1S67, limner of features. See Sewall Papers , ii, 170. p. 47. - Ed.]

painter. He attracted the notice of some picture dealers, who employed him to make copies ; so that he soon found himself rich enough to carry out the wish of his heart, and to visit Italy. There he worked hard for three years, copying the old masters, and was employed by the Grand Duke to take the portraits of some Siberian Tartars, presented to the Duke by the Tsar. When Smybert afterward landed in Narragansett Bay, " he instantly recognized the Indians to be the same people as the Tartars," - thus counting himself among those who have traced an Asiatic origin for the red man. On his return from Italy to London he obtained a good deal of business, but gave it up to accept the post of Professor of Drawing, Painting, and Architecture, in the college which Berkeley destined to civilize the American barbarians.

When the scheme was abandoned by its founder, Smybert moved from Rhode Island to Boston. He married a daughter of Nathaniel Williams, who was the Latin schoolmaster of the town for fifty years, and had two children, - one of whom, Nathaniel, was already showing promise as an artist when he died, still young. Smybert had been well recommended to the quality of the Province. Chief-Justice Lynde entertained him as his guest; and his host's portrait is one of the best of his pictures which have come down to us. Though not a great painter, Smybert had a dry sincerity of style which makes his portraits interesting and valuable as memorials. Peter Laneuil,1 the Chief-Justices Lynde2 (father and son), Sewall 3 and Oliver, Judge Edmund Quincy, and many other leading men of the day, their wives and daughters, still look out more or less grimly from his canvases.4

Smybert died in 1751. A year before, there had come to Boston - some say from Connecticut, where his father had travelled about painting por¬ traits - one Jonathan B. Blackburn, who succeeded Smybert as the painter of the quality. His style was much like Smybert's, generally rather harder and dryer, yet on the whole so similar that it is often impossible to be sure to which of the two a picture should be attributed, unless the date of it decides. More than fifty portraits by Blackburn are now known, most of them in or near Boston. They were all painted within fifteen years,; then he suddenly left the town. The reason why he did so is not known; but Mr. Perkins, in his Memoir of Copley , hazards the guess that

4 Mr. A. T. Perkins, in his notice of Smy¬ bert, enumerates more than thirty of his por¬ traits still existing here. [Smybert lived on Court Street, between Cornhill and Brattle Street ; and his painting room was afterward occupied by Trumbull when he retired from the army. In later years Allston had a studio on the same spot. - Ed.]

The Fine Arts In Boston

this young painter's increasing success may account for Blackburn's de¬ parture. If this was his reason, it was perhaps a wise step. Copley was then painting at least as well as his older rival, with every promise of paint¬ ing better before long; his social position naturally made him the favorite with the upper classes, who were the chief patrons of art, - and there was hardly room for two portrait painters in Boston. So it was good policy to move on to some untrodden ground, and leave this field to the rising young artist who threatened to seize it for himself ; and Blackburn left the town in 1765.

In the sister art of copper-plate engraving some progress, not much, had been made in the young colony. Peter Pelham may be considered its founder here. He may indeed be reckoned our earliest painter, too ; for although none of his paintings exist, he certainly did use the brush occa¬ sionally, though only in order to provide subjects for his graver.1 Were it not for his distinguished step-son, however, his name would be of little interest, - of no more than those of Francis Dewing,2 who engraved Captain Bonner's Map of Boston in 1722, or of Nathaniel Hurd,3 who was born here in 1730 and was a pupil of Pelham, or of a dozen others whose names have been discovered and set down by earnest searchers of colonial records, and of whom no more is known than that they lived and engraved. The art was in a rude state at best; and Paul Revere's name is familiar to our ears through the memory of a certain ride he took, on a spring evening in 1775, rather than because his patriotism found a vent in prints of political cari¬ catures and of the " Boston Massacre," or because he engraved the plates, made the press, and printed the bills of the paper-money ordered by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, in session at Watertown.4

In Limerick, Ireland, one Mr. Richard Copley had married Squire Singleton's daughter, and emigrated with his young bride to America ; and on July 3, 1737, John Singleton Copley was born in Boston. About the same time Richard Copley died in the West Indies. Some time before the future artist was eleven years old, the widow married Peter Pelham, already spoken of, - surveyor, painter, and engraver. "The household of Peter Pelham was perhaps the only place in New England where painting and engraving were the prominent pursuits," says Mr. Perkins in his Memoir. Young Copley was born with a love of art; and family tradition speaks of

1 | Copies of engravings after Pelham's like¬ nesses of John Moorhead and Timothy Cutler are given in Vol.II.p. 214; and Pelham's engrav¬ ing of Greenwood's portrait of Thomas Prince, in Vol. II. p. 222. The knowledge we have of Pelham and of some of his contemporaries is contained in W. H. Whitmore's Notes Concern¬ ing Peter Pelham and his Successors, prior to the Revolution, Cambridge, 1867, which had previous¬ ly appeared in a less perfect state in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., 1866-67. See also Heraldic Journal, iv. 177. Mr. Whitmore reported what he sup¬ posed to be an early work by Copley, and a VOL. IV. - 49.

3 [Copley painted his friend Hurd once or twice, and an engraving of him is preserved in the New England Magazine. See Perkins's Life and Paintings of Copley, p. 76. - Ed.]

4 [Some specimens of Revere's work will be found in his views of Boston, given in Vol. II. pp. 41 1, 532; and his portrait of Hancock, in Vol. III. chapter i. See references to other engrav¬ ings of his, in Vol. II. pp. 130, 438. His portrait is given in another chapter. - Ed], his sketches on the walls of his nursery and in his school-books. It is hard to believe, therefore, that his son, Lord Lyndhurst, was quite correct in writing that he " was entirely self-taught, and never saw a decent picture, with the exception of his own, until he was nearly thirty years of age." There were Smyberts and Blackburns in plenty in Boston, besides a few good pictures which had come from Europe with the richer settlers, and now hung on their walls; and during the three or four years of Pelham's married life he, something of an artist as he was, must surely have pleased himself by pointing out their merits to his step-son, and giving all the help he could to the young artist's first attempts.

Pelham died in 1751, and the widow and her sons were left to live in a small house near the Quaker meeting-house, in Tindall Row. In the next year Copley painted a portrait of his step-brother, Charles Pelham, and a year later he painted and engraved a head of the Rev. William Welsteed,1 of Boston. Major George Washington, visiting Boston in 1755, sat to him for a miniature;2 and the portrait of General Brattle, in the uni¬ form of a British officer, dates from the year following. Little is known of him in the next few years, except that he painted diligently, steadily im¬ proving. His style gained breadth ; and his portraits had an air of high breeding so superior to those of Blackburn, that it is likely enough that the elder artist saw the prudence of retiring before his young rival In 1769 Copley married Miss Susan Clarke, daughter of Mr. Richard Clarke, a distinguished merchant. At that time he moved in the best society, where his courtly manner and genial disposition made him a general favorite.

His pictures show us the faces and forms of the aristocrats of Boston, of the time when there were aristocrats here. Winthrop, Boylston,3 Quincy,4 Langdon, Hubbard,5 Adams,6 Hutchinson,7 Hancock,8 Pepperell, - almost every great name of the day is found in the list of his sitters ; so that some one has said that one of these ancestral pictures is a Bostonian's best title of nobility. Their air is worthy of the subjects. Smybert's and Black¬ burn's people often look like bourgeois; Copley's are all gentle-folk, - fine ladies and courtly gentlemen, who thought well of themselves and of their place in the world. This unconscious seizing and embodying the peculiarities of his age are characteristic of Copley. Like Sir Peter Lely he was a born court-painter: and, like him, he often went too far, and elegance became affectation and even awkwardness. He was not a good painter of flesh, which he left hard and dry ; though his hands were always well shaped and delicately moulded. But his draperies were admirable. The costume of the time gave him full opportunity to indulge his taste and skill.9 Silks, satins, and all rich stuffs, elaborately dressed heads or wigs, pearl necklaces, laced waistcoats and embroidered coats, swords and cocked hats, curtains whose heavy folds, contrasting with the small heads and slen¬ der throats, afford a glimpse of park or fountain beyond, - these outward signs of elegant and aristocratic life were managed skilfully, giving his por¬ traits an air of courtly grace. His method of painting was exceedingly tedious. He used to match with his palette-knife a tint for each part of the face, thus occupying himself and the sitter a long time before he touched the canvas. We hear of one lady sitting to him fifteen or sixteen times, six hours at a time. Yet it is said on good authority that he left more than two hundred and fifty oil paintings in America, besides crayons and minia¬ tures,1 - all done in twenty years.

In 1771 Copley wrote that he was making a comfortable income; and two years later he owned all the land which lies between Charles, Beacon, Walnut, and Mt. Vernon streets, Louisburg Square and Pinckney Street, - about eleven acres.2 Twenty-five years later the estate had risen greatly in value, and was sold by his agent to Jonathan Mason and H. G. Otis. The price, some $18,000, did not satisfy Copley, who tried to annul the bargain,

- even, as the story goes, sending his son John to Boston for this purpose. In 1774 he took a step which changed the whole course of his life. Some time previous he had painted a portrait of his half-brother, Henry Pelham,

- the " Boy and the Squirrel." The picture is not dated, and accounts differ widely as to the exact year. The painter sent it to England to be exhibited at Somerset House. A letter which should have accompanied it did not arrive; and West, to whom it was consigned, could only guess it was an American picture from the wood of the stretching frame, and be¬ cause the flying squirrel is an American animal. In his enthusiasm he declared the coloring worthy of Titian. The rule excluding anonymous works was waived, and the picture was received. The praise of the best judges reached the artist and his friends in America. They urged him to go to London. It was a bold step, and he hesitated long before taking it; but finally he went, and never returned. After travelling and studying for two years on the Continent he went back to London, and was soon joined by his family. Then began a career of uninterrupted success. It was his own opinion, shared by later critics, that his best pictures were painted in America. In England, however, he executed several larger and more important works ; he was the fashion, and many of the nobility sat to him, including the three princesses, daughters of George III. He took up his¬ torical painting, following the fashion of the day, - painting the "Death of Chatham," now in the National Gallery, and well known through Bartolozzi's engraving; "The Siege of Gibraltar," in the Guildhall of London; and other large pictures.3

1 [His miniature of Governor Bowdoin is en- Charles I. demanding in the House of Commons graved in Mr. Lodge's chapter in Vol. III. - Ed.] the five impeached members, 1641," which now

The Boy And The Squirrel

1 [Mr. A. T. Perkins printed privately in 1873 A Sketch of the Life, and a List of some of the Works, of John Singleton Copley ; and added a Supplement later. See also Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Jan. 1873; an illustrated paper on Copley by his grand-daughter, M. B. Amory, in Scribner's Monthly, March, 1S81, p. 759 ; Tuckerman's Book

[The futui e Loid Lyndhurst was born in Boston in 1772, and died in England in 1863. His sister, Mrs. Gardiner Greene, died in Boston in 1866, aged ninety-five. - Ed.J

Another young American, who was to be our best portrait painter, had gone to England two years before Copley left Boston, - Gilbert Stuart. Born in Rhode Island in 1755, he began to paint almost in his cradle; and by the time he was thirteen had taught himself so much that he had orders for portraits. A11 artist named Cosmo Alexander, here on a visit, was so struck with the boy's talent that he took him back to England in 1772, promising to put him in the way of learning his art; but he died almost as soon as he reached home, and Stuart was left alone. After a two years' struggle to support himself and get an education at Glasgow University, he returned to America. For a year he painted, not without success. But the times were stormy; the colonists had other things to think of besides art; and Stuart, conscious of his deficiencies, and determined to conquer them, sailed again for Europe in the last vessel that left Boston harbor before the blockade, in 1775.

Reaching London, without any introduction he called upon West, who must have seen great promise in his attempts ; for Stuart became his pupil at once, and was soon after living in his family, working hard, attending Reynolds's lectures, and studying anatomy. Before long he was assisting West in his pictures; and by 1785 had left his master, and set up for himself; and with immediate success, - no one but Reynolds and Gains¬ borough getting as large prices for their pictures as he. His house was the resort of clever men of all ranks and parties, half-a-dozen guests finding places every day at his hospitable table. All through his life Stuart's love of good company was next to his love of art, and sometimes interfered with the devotion which art demands of her followers. In 1786 he married; and then made a trip to Ireland, where he had the same social and professional success. But in 1792 he grew homesick, suddenly abandoned friends and engagements, and sailed for New York. After painting there for two years with much success, he moved to Philadelphia; thence to Washington; and finally came to Boston, which was his home for more than twenty years, until his death, July 27, 1828.1

Here he gained the same popularity as an artist and as a genial com¬ panion which he had met everywhere. Charmed by his powers of conver¬ sation, yielding to his wonderful faculty of entering into the train of others' thoughts, each sitter wore his own characteristic expression while in Stuart's chair; and the finished portrait often revealed habits of thought and feeling known only to intimate friends. No artist ever surpassed, perhaps none ever equalled, him in this faculty. " He seemed," in the words of Allston, " to dive into the thoughts of men ; for they were made to rise and speak on the surface." Even in his more careless works this quality is hardly ever absent. Like Copley, Stuart painted the best people of his day ; but his

1 [Stuart was buried in the burying-ground on Street, near Edinboro' Street. Drake's Landthe Common, but the precise spot is not known. >7iarks, p. 407. During the war of 1812 he lived He lived and had his painting-room in Wash- in the Bartlett House in Roxbury. Drake's ington Place, Fort Hill, and later on Essex Town of Roxbury, 305. - Ed.]

portraits are so much more individual, each man s idiosyncrasies are so brought out, that the last generation lives for us with a vitality unapproached by the earlier artist.1

As a colorist Stuart stands very high, if judged by the best of his work. This was very unequal ; and he painted some pictures which were hard and even absolutely bad in color. His best were superb, the flesh brilliant and transparent in the lights, mellow and still fleshlike in the shadows. The balance of light and shade is excellent, avoiding the danger-

1 [There is an enumeration of these portraits in George C. Mason's Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart, 1879. The present History contains en¬ gravings of the following : Nathan Appleton, Washington Allston, John Adams, Nathaniel Bowditch, Joseph S. Buckminster, Sir Isaac Cof¬ fin, Bishop Cheverus, Samuel Eliot, James Free¬ man, John Sylvester John Gardiner, Commodore Hull, General Knox, Dr. Kirkland, John Low¬ ell, Harrison Gray Otis, Paul Revere, President Quincy, Josiah Quincy (d. 1775), Joseph Story, Washington (two), and Daniel Webster. See also Tuckerman's Book of the Artists, p. 107; a

Paper on the "Youth of Stuart" in Scribner's Monthly, March, 1877; and John Neal's remi¬ niscences in Atlantic Monthly, December, 1868. - Ed.]

- [This same likeness was engraved in an early number of the Knickerbocker Magazine, and is photographed in the Catalogue of the Art Mu¬ seum Exhibition of Portraits painted by Stuart, held in 1880. The original picture was painted by John Neagle in 1825, and is the property of the Boston Athenaeum. A pen and ink sketch of himself by Stuart is owned by Miss I. J. Fal¬ coner, of Brooklyn, N.Y. - Ed.]

ous extremes which he himself pointed out in the words : " Where there is too much light there will be no flesh in the shadows ; where too little, not enough flesh in the lights." As compositions, his works are of little value. Caring for nothing but the face and head, and for them as the handwriting of the mind, he slighted all the rest, - " copying the works of God, and leaving clothes to the tailors and mantua-makers." One of his maxims runs thus: " Keep your tints as separate as you can; no blending; it is destruc¬ tive to clear and beautiful effect: it takes off transparency and brightness of color, and renders flesh of the consistency of buckskin." He did not always observe his own rule ; but when he did, his heads are marvellous ex¬ amples of handling. The flesh glows. At a proper distance the tints melt into each other with a pure richness which has never been surpassed in flesh-painting. Looked at more closely, they are models for an artist in knowledge and certainty of aim and the production of effects by the fewest touches and simplest means.

Stuart said that the most signal mistake of his life was the declining an offer made him in 1792 to go to Nova Scotia to paint the portrait of the Duke of Kent, who offered to send a ship of war for him ; but he had come to America with the fixed purpose of painting Washington, at any sacrifice, and the offer was refused. From a pecuniary point of view this may have been a mistake ; for Stuart's fame it was a wise decision ; for America and for the world it was a fortunate one. He had shown in Europe a fondness for convivial society which interfered with his art. He would probably have yielded again to its temptations, returned to England, resumed his old life, and left behind him at his death the portraits of many lords and ladies; and the world would have lacked those works of his brush in which succeeding generations behold the Father of his Country. Stuart's portraits of Wash¬ ington are numerous, - most of them reproductions of the head belonging to the Boston Athenaeum. This and the companion head of Mrs. Washing¬ ton were painted to hang at Mount Vernon. The artist preferred it to any he had made, and retained it until his death, having obtained the General's consent to accept repetitions of the pictures in place of the originals.

Although this has thus come to be the typical likeness of Washington, it is a question whether it is the best one Stuart ever made. His own pre¬ ference may have sprung from a sense of difficulties overcome ; for when Washington sat for it, he had just had inserted a set of false teeth, which as he soon after wrote to his dentist gave the lips, both above and below, a pouting and swelling appearance. This defect is much less shown in the portrait painted for Colonel Gibbs. Less mellow in color than the Athe¬ naeum head, this has more fire and character. Both pictures show how Stu¬ art dived beneath the surface and saw the mind in the visage. Judgment and self-control, resolution and an iron will, a strong temper held firmly in check, benevolence, sagacity, - all that we so rightly worship in Washing¬ ton can be recognized by an attentive seeker in these portraits. Fortunate indeed was it that such a painter lived in the time of such a man ; and that he clung to the determination which had brought him back to his native land, and left to it such images of its greatest and purest patriot ! 1

In 1826, two years before Stuart's death, the first attempt was made at an Art Gallery in our city, when the Boston Athenaeum threw open to artists a room containing a collection of casts from the antique, the gift of Augustus Thorndike, and one or two portraits of benefactors of the Athenaeum. The next year the first regular exhibition of painting and sculpture was opened to the public. From that time an exhibition was held every year; and, although the number of works collected was small at first, the movement was an important one, keeping alive and fostering a love of art. As works of art became more common in private houses, their owners lent them to these exhibitions where they could be seen and studied; while from the sale of tickets and by private donations a considerable collection was formed as years rolled on, and this was for a long time the only gallery of the kind in Boston. In 1831 the two Washington heads by Stuart were added, through the liberality of the Washington Monument Association and some private persons. Crawford's Orpheus was purchased, mainly by subscription, in 1844. The Athenaeum had neither sufficient funds nor enough space appli¬ cable to the purposes of art; and when the Art Museum was opened in 1876, the principal works were transferred to the new building as a loan, and will probably remain there, as they are seen to much more advantage, while the Athenaeum needs all its space for library use.2

It is not the purpose of this chapter to give the lives of the artists of Bos¬ ton, nor even a list of them ; only to speak of those whose works and lives have influenced the progress of art among us.3 As far as we have gone, por¬ trait painting was the only branch of art cultivated with any zeal or success. We come now to one who was an artist in the highest and fullest sense of the word, whose whole life was art, - Washington Allston. Coleridge called him " the first genius produced by the Western world," - and his influence on all who came near him, and that which his works still exert, is such as only genius is capable of. Copley and Stuart are remembered as good painters, and noth¬ ing more. A halo of poetic memories surrounds Allston's life and lingers about his pictures. " The power of infusing one's own life into that which is feigned appears to be the sole prerogative of genius," - these are his own words : they are the key to the distinctive character and charm of his works. Joined to a richness of color worthy of Titian or Paul Veronese are a pure and the note to it, in Mr. H. C. Lodge's chapter the United States, and H. T Tuckerman's Book in Vol. III. The larger picture, called " Wash- of the Artists. Mrs. Jameson not inaptly deington at Dorchester Heights," is given in Dr. scribes Dunlap's book as "gossiping, tedious, Hale's chapter in the same volume. - Ed.] and conceited;" yet time is increasing its value.

2 [See Quincy's History of the Boston Athe- There is a paper by Horatio Greenough on "The nczum, passim. In 1823 the Athenaeum bestowed Beginning of American Art," written in 1843, and a life-membership on Gilbert Stuart, "as a testi- printed in The Crayon, ii. 178. Mr. S. S. Conant mony of respect for his eminent talents." - Ed.] supplied the paper, "Progress of the Fine

3 [The chief general works covering in some Arts," in the First Century of the Republic, New sort Boston's share in the development of Amer- York, 1876. - Ed.]

sweetness, a repose, a breath of poetry, the outcome of his spirit and life, an absence of all strife for effect or appeal to any but the best part of a love for the beautiful, a simplicity and unconscious grace, recalling what those who knew him have said and written of his person and character. The

1 [This cut follows a sketch by Stuart, owned by Miss Ellen T. Parkman, whose permission has been kindly given to have it copied. Tuckerman records a likeness in youth, painted by Allston himself ; a bust by Clevenger from life ; one by Brackett, after death ; a head by Paul Duggan, for the American Art Union Medal ; a statuette by Thomas Ball ; and Leslie's portrait in the New York Academy of Design. [Book of the Artists , 148.) Harding painted two portraits : one is in the Providence Athenaeum, the other in the possession of Mrs. James, Cambridge, Mass. The profile in the Outlines , after a cameo by King, is admirable. Allston's Lectures on Art were published in 1850, edited by his nephew, Richard H. Dana, Jr. ; another nephew, Edmund T. Dana, furnished the account in the Encyclopadia Americana ; and it is understood that his papers passed into the possession of his brotherin-law, the late Richard H. Dana. Besides Tuck- poetry of his nature was only faintly shown in his published verses, mostly the immature work of youth. Occasionally, in after years, placing his latest work on the easel of his studio, he recited to a visitor in a sweet undertone lines which had taken shape in his mind as he painted ; and these, gathering depth and color from the place and the moment, seemed better than when judged in the full glare of literary criticism. But he never wrote such poetry as he painted.

Born in South Carolina, in 1779, Allston was educated at Newport and Harvard College (1800), and sailed for England in 1801. After two years spent in diligent drawing, and in the best literary and artistic society, he visited France; and at the Louvre, then rich with the spoils of Napoleon's campaigns, he rejoiced in what he called the " gorgeous concert of colors, . . . the poetry of color, procreative in its nature, giving birth to a thousand things which the eye cannot see." Thence through Switzerland he came to Italy ; and in 1 805 reached Rome, where he spent four happy years, - living on terms of friendship with Coleridge, Turner, Fenimore Cooper, and Irv¬ ing. To Coleridge, Allston declared he owed more intellectually than to any¬ body else. While in Rome he studied anatomy and modelled in clay, - a process which he declared many years after taught him to draw the human knee; a thing he could never do before, and never afterward found diffi¬ cult. The color of the old masters, especially the Venetians, was the object of deep study with him, - and with profit ; for twenty years later the Ro¬ man artists, though they had forgotten his name, asked after him whom they called the American Titian. The years 1809-10 he spent in Boston. He married Miss Ann Channing, to whom he had been long engaged, and opened a studio in Court Street, between Brattle Street and Cornhill, on the same spot where Smybert had painted eighty years before. He executed several portraits at high prices, and returned to England with his wife in the next year. Leslie, the artist, and Morse, famous as the inventor of the electric telegraph, but then a painter, became his pupils and life-long friends. While Wordsworth, Sir George Beaumont, Collins, Haydon, and other men of distinction eagerly sought his society, he labored so unremittingly at his art that his health gave way, and he fell alarmingly ill. His friends nursed him tenderly, until returning health enabled him to finish and send to the British Institution his picture of "The Dead man Revived by the Touch of Elisha's Bones." It was rewarded with the first prize, of two hundred guineas, and pronounced by West to be worthy of the fifteenth (sixteenth?) century. It was afterward purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

erman and Dunlap, there are other expositors of 1879; Irving's recollections in Duyckinck's Cyhis life and works, - like William Ware's Works clopcedia of Americait Literature ; also in Irving's and Genius of Allston ; Charles Sumner's paper Spanish Papers, ii. 143; glimpses in J. R. Lowell's in the Boston Book , 1850; Sara Clarke's "Our "Cambridge thirty years ago" in his Fireside First Great Painter" in Atlantic Monthly , Feb- Travels , and in Leslie's Autobiography ; and a ruary, 1865; Mrs. Jameson's account in her Me- portraiture in the Art Novel, Ernst Carroll, moirs ; Margaret Fuller in her Literature and Dr. O. W. Holmes contributed a paper on the Art, ii; C. Lester's Artists of America ; M. F. Allston exhibition of 1840 to the North Ameri- Sweetser's convenient little compend, Allston, can Review, vol. 1. - Ed.J

Soon after this he was driven nearly frantic with grief at the loss of his wife; but recovering the tone of his mind under the kind care of Morse and Leslie, he visited Paris in 1817; and later in the year painted his "Uriel in the Sun," which took the prize in the British Institution, and was bought by the Marquis of Stafford. "Jacob's Dream," purchased by Lord Egremont, dates from this year, as well as the first sketch of " Bel¬ shazzar's Feast."

He returned to America in 1818, in spite of the strong advice of Irving, who declared that had he remained in England for a few years longer, sur¬ rounded by everything to encourage and stimulate him, he would have been at the head of his art. Allston himself wrote: " Something like encourage¬ ment seems to appear in our horizon. If we have any talents we owe some¬ thing to our own country when she is disposed to foster them." Landing in Boston, in October, he at once opened a studio in a barn on the Prince Estate, near the corner of Pearl and High streets, where he remained several years. He was chosen an associate of the Royal Academy, London, soon after his return. He had brought home with him his picture of Elijah ; and it was purchased from his studio by the Honorable Mr. Labouchere, M. P., afterward Lord Taunton, and carried to England ; whence it was brou ght back in 1870 by Mrs. Samuel Hooper, and presented to our Museum of Fine Arts. In 1827 he sent to the Athenaeum Exhibition several pictures which attracted much notice. In 1830 he was married for the second time, to a sister of Richard Henry Dana, - the union proving a most happy one; and the next year he built himself a studio in Cambridgeport,1 which was to be his home for the rest of his life. He had brought from England the large canvas of his " Belshazzar," thinking that six months' more work would finish it. Several liberal Bostonians purchased it for $10,000, advancing part of the price. The picture was set up in his studio ; and Stuart, now an old man, was called upon for advice and criticism, which he gave unspar¬ ingly and honestly. Allston recognized the justice of the strictures, and undertook a radical change in the perspective, which involved immense labor, and was unfinished at his death. For twenty-five years the great work stood in his studio, carefully hidden from all visitors, but ever present to the mind's eye of the artist. Though he from time to time painted pictures of a size and of subjects better suited to his taste and the quality of his genius, the " Belshazzar " was never out of his thoughts ; or if he forgot it for a while, the indiscreet surmises of the public, and the more legitimate inquiries of the owners of the picture left his mind no rest. His modesty took alarm at the glowing anticipations which occasionally appeared in the newspapers. He knew that his friends had formed high expecta¬ tions from his genius, and feared to fall below them. The subject grew hateful to him. The mechanical labor was too great for his feeble frame ; yet, shrinking nervously from showing the picture to any one in its incom-

1 [Iiis house stood on the corner of Magazine and Auburn streets, and his studio was nearly opposite. Drake's Landmarks of Middlesex, p. 193. - Ed.]

plete state, he called in no assistance in laying on ground tints and other work which might have been done by a house-painter. Again- and again the work was put aside in discouragement, and resumed as a duty; and this went on for twenty years and more, - the mental distress and physical labor gradually wearing him out, - until, after a hard day's work on the unending task, he complained of a slight oppression in the evening, and sinking down in his chair fell asleep, on July 9, 1843.

As the artist left it, - unfinished in many parts, with traces of the former design half obliterated by the new, - the picture was exhibited in the Athetitania's court, by allston.