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inv. 465
Lawrence Quick Step
Encampment at Barnstable, Sept. 1839; Lawrence Quick Step: Encampment at Barnstable
1839 Lithograph on paper 10 5/8 x 8 1/2 in. (27 x 21.6 cm) Drawn by F.H. Lane
Printed at T. Moore's, Boston Published by Keith & Moore, 67 & 69 Court St. Respectfully dedicated to S. Abbott Lawrence Collections:
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Historical Materials
Below is historical information related to the Lane work above. To see complete information on a subject on the Historical Materials page, click on the subject name (in bold and underlined).
Essay to come.
S. Abbott Lawerence's 1839 copy of the constitution of the Guards can be found here.
The town of Barnstable, Massachusetts is located on Cape Cod and has a natural harbor. Lane depicted this harbor on the cover of sheet music made for the New England Guards in 1839.
Schooners in Lane’s time were, with few exceptions, two-masted vessels carrying a fore-and-aft rig having one or two jibs, a fore staysail, gaff-rigged fore- and main sails, and often fore- and main topsails. One variant was the topsail schooner, which set a square topsail on the fore topmast. The hulls of both types were basically similar, their rigs having been chosen for sailing close to the wind. This was an advantage in the coastal trade, where entering confined ports required sailing into the wind and frequent tacking. The square topsail proved useful on longer coastwise voyages, the topsail providing a steadier motion in offshore swells, reducing wear and tear on canvas from the slatting of the fore-and-aft sails. (1)
Schooners of the types portrayed by Lane varied in size from 70 to 100 feet on deck. Their weight was never determined, and the term “tonnage” was a figure derived from a formula which assigned an approximation of hull volume for purposes of imposing duties (port taxes) on cargoes and other official levies. (2)
Crews of smaller schooners numbered three or four men. Larger schooners might carry four to six if a lengthy voyage was planned. The relative simplicity of the rig made sail handling much easier than on a square-rigged vessel. Schooner captains often owned shares in their vessels, but most schooners were majority-owned by land-based firms or by individuals who had the time and business connections to manage the tasks of acquiring and distributing the goods to be carried. (3)
Many schooners were informally “classified” by the nature of their work or the cargoes they carried, the terminology coined by their owners, agents, and crews—even sometimes by casual bystanders. In Lane’s lifetime, the following terms were commonly used for the schooner types he portrayed:
Coasting schooners: This is the most general term, applied to any merchant schooner carrying cargo from one coastal port to another along the United States coast (see Bar Island and Mt. Desert Mountains from Somes Settlement, 1850 (inv. 401), right foreground). (4)
Packet schooners: Like packet sloops, these vessels carried passengers and various higher-value goods to and from specific ports on regular schedules. They were generally better-maintained and finished than schooners carrying bulk cargoes (see The Old Fort and Ten Pound Island, Gloucester, 1850s (inv. 30), center; and Gloucester Inner Harbor, 1850 (inv. 240), stern view). (5)
Lumber schooners: Built for the most common specialized trade of Lane’s time, they were fitted with bow ports for loading lumber in their holds (see View of Southwest Harbor, Maine: Entrance to Somes Sound, 1852 (inv. 260)) and carried large deck loads as well (Stage Rocks and the Western Shore of Gloucester Outer Harbor, 1857 (inv. 8), right). Lumber schooners intended for long coastal trips were often rigged with square topsails on their fore masts (see Becalmed Off Halfway Rock, 1860 (inv. 344), left; Maverick House, 1835 (not published); and Lumber Schooner in a Gale, 1863 (inv. 552)). (6)
Schooners in other specialized trades. Some coasting schooners built for carrying varied cargoes would be used for, or converted to, special trades. This was true in the stone trade where stone schooners (like stone sloops) would be adapted for carrying stone from quarries to a coastal destination. A Lane depiction of a stone schooner is yet to be found. Marsh hay was a priority cargo for gundalows operating around salt marshes, and it is likely that some coasting schooners made a specialty of transporting this necessity for horses to urban ports which relied heavily on horses for transportation needs. Lane depicted at least two examples of hay schooners (see Gloucester Harbor, 1850s (inv. 391), left; and Coasting Schooner off Boon Island, c.1850 (inv. 564)), their decks neatly piled high with bales of hay, well secured with rope and tarpaulins.
– Erik Ronnberg
References:
1. Howard I. Chapelle, The History of American Sailing Ships (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1935), 258. While three-masted schooners were in use in Lane’s time, none have appeared in his surviving work; and Charles S. Morgan, “New England Coasting Schooners”, The American Neptune 23, no. 1 (DATE): 5–9, from an article which deals mostly with later and larger schooner types.
2. John Lyman, “Register Tonnage and its Measurement”, The American Neptune V, nos. 3–4 (DATE). American tonnage laws in force in Lane’s lifetime are discussed in no. 3, pp. 226–27 and no. 4, p. 322.
3. Ship Registers of the District of Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1789–1875 (Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1944). Vessels whose shipping or fishing voyages included visits to foreign ports were required to register with the Federal Customs agent at their home port. While the vessel’s trade or work was unrecorded, their owners and master were listed, in addition to registry dimensions and place where built. Records kept by the National Archives can be consulted for information on specific voyages and ports visited.
4. Howard I. Chapelle, The National Watercraft Collection (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1960), 40, 42–43.
5. Ibid., 42–43, 73.
6. Ibid., 74–76.
A topsail schooner has no tops at her foremast, and is fore-and-aft rigged at her mainmast. She differs from an hermaphrodite brig in that she is not properly square-rigged at her foremast, having no top, and carrying a fore-and-aft foresail instead of a square foresail and a spencer.
Wood rails, metal rollers, chain; wood cradle. Scale: ½" = 1' (1:24)
Original diorama components made, 1892; replacements made, 1993.
Cape Ann Museum, from Gloucester Chamber of Commerce, 1925 (2014.071)
A schooner is shown hauled out on a cradle which travels over racks of rollers on a wood and metal track.
Also filed under: Burnham Brothers Marine Railway » // Marine Railways »
Glass plate negative
Collection of Erik Ronnberg
Also filed under: Lobstering »
Details about Maine's lumber trade in 1855, see pp. 250–52
Also filed under: Castine » // Lumber Industry »
The ensign of the United States refers to the flag of the United States when used as a maritime flag to indentify nationality. As required on entering port, a vessel would fly her own ensign at the stern, but a conventional token of respect to the host country would be to fly the flag of the host country (the United States in Boston Harbor, for example) at the foremast. See The "Britannia" Entering Boston Harbor, 1848 (inv. 49) for an example of a ship doing this. The American ensign often had the stars in the canton arranged in a circle with one large star in the center; an alternative on merchant ensigns was star-shaped constellation. In times of distress a ship would fly the ensign upside down, as can be seen in Wreck of the Roma, 1846 (inv. 250).
The use of flags on vessels is different from the use of flags on land. The importance and history of the flagpole in Fresh Water Cove in Gloucester is still being studied.
The modern meaning of the flag was forged in December 1860, when Major Robert Anderson moved the U.S. garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Adam Goodheart argues this was the opening move of the American Civil War, and the flag was used throughout northern states to symbolize American nationalism and rejection of secessionism.
Before that day, the flag had served mostly as a military ensign or a convenient marking of American territory, flown from forts, embassies, and ships, and displayed on special occasions like American Independence day. But in the weeks after Major Anderson's surprising stand, it became something different. Suddenly the Stars and Stripes flew—as it does today, and especially as it did after the September 11 attacks in 2001—from houses, from storefronts, from churches; above the village greens and college quads. For the first time American flags were mass-produced rather than individually stitched and even so, manufacturers could not keep up with demand. As the long winter of 1861 turned into spring, that old flag meant something new. The abstraction of the Union cause was transfigured into a physical thing: strips of cloth that millions of people would fight for, and many thousands die for.
– Adam Goodheart, Prologue of 1861: The Civil War Awakening (2011).
Stereograph card
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive
A view of a Cove on the western side of Gloucester Harbor, with the landing at Brookbank. Houses are seen in the woods back. A boat with two men is in the foreground.
Also filed under: Brookbank » // Fresh Water Cove » // Historic Photographs »
Courtesy American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. (CL.F9116.011.1854 CL.F9116.011.1854)
Also filed under: Oak Hall »
Courtesy American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. (CL.F9116.011.1854)
Also filed under: Oak Hall »
English-born Thomas Moore was the successor to William S. Pendleton's lithography shop in 1836. Prior to this changing of hands, Moore worked in Pendleton's shop for years as a clerk and bookkeeper. During his four years (1836-40) at Pendleton's 204 Washington Street address, he had under his employ many famous artists, including F.H. Lane, Robert Cooke, and Benjamin Champney. Moore's Lithography printed the usual variety of work, including portraits, town views, public institutions, maps, plans, certificates, cards, etc. In 1840, Moore sold his Boston shop to B. W. Thayer, ending his lithographic career in Boston.
This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825-1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback.
T. Moore's Lithography, Boston
12 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.
20 x 16 3/4 in (Framed)
Cape Ann Museum, Museum Purchase (2014.089.2)
Also filed under: Cod / Cod Fishing » // Johnston, David Claypoole » // Sheet Music by other artists »
One of the first uses of lithography, after its invention in France in the late eighteenth century and its development in America, was for sheet music covers. The music itself was printed from engraved copper plates, which was necessary for the clarity and evenness demanded by the public for the music. However, lithography provided a quick and inexpensive way to provide enticing pictorial title pages, or covers, for sheet music. Pendleton's shop produced the first lithographic sheet music cover printed in the United States in 1826. Much of Lane's work at Pendleton's involved sheet music covers, and examples here by other artists show some of the conventions around the designs.
This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825–1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback.
Parker & Ditson
Courtesy American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.
Dedicated to the Tiger Boat Club.
Also filed under: Bufford, J. H. Lith. – Boston » // Parker & Ditson, Pub. – Boston » // Thayer's, Lith. – Boston » // Tiger Boat Club » // Yacht & Small Pleasure Craft »
Comp. Marshall S. Pike, Esq.
Also filed under: Bufford, J. H. Lith. – Boston »
Paper, ink
13 x 10 in (33.02 x 25.4 cm)
Peabody Essex Museum (M26784)
"composed and inscribed to Colonel Baquiere, Owner of the "America" Schooner, 1851-1856"
Also filed under: "America" (Schooner Yacht) »
T. Moore's Lithography, Boston
12 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.
20 x 16 3/4 in (Framed)
Cape Ann Museum, Museum Purchase (2014.089.2)
Also filed under: Cod / Cod Fishing » // Johnston, David Claypoole » // Moore's, T. - Lith. - Boston »
Lithographic sheet music
11 x 7 1/4 in.
Boston Athenaeum
Also filed under: Pendleton's, Lith. – Boston » // Salmon, Robert »
Ink, paper
13 x 10 in (33.02 x 25.4 cm)
Peabody Essex Museum
Also filed under: "America" (Schooner Yacht) »
Ink on paper
13 x 10 inches
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (M26750)
Also filed under: "America" (Schooner Yacht) »
Commentary
The cover of this sheet music features a drawing by Fitz Henry Lane showing an encampment of the New England Guards in Barnstable, Massachusetts, in September 1839. The music is dedicated to the Guards, a military organization formed in the War of 1812, and to A. Abbott Lawrence, a businessman and philanthropist. The Guards were in Barnstable to assist in the celebration of the town’s bicentennial. Lane signed the vignette “Drawn by F. H. Lane” making it likely that he traveled to Barnstable and made a sketch while there.
The same lithographic stone used to make this print, but with different text, was used for the membership certificate for the New England Guards, Encampment at Barnstable, Sept. 1839, c.1840 (inv. 477). This was probably the final lithograph that Lane did for Thomas Moore who in May 1840 sold his business to Benjamin W. Thayer, John H. Bufford and John E. Moody.
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