Historical Materials

Manchester-by-the-Sea is located on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts. Incorporated in 1645, Manchester has many beaches and coves, including Manchester Harbor, and several small islands off the coast. Dubbed the Gold Coast in the nineteenth century, it became a summer destination for "rusticators", wealthy families escaping the heat of their residences in Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Among these was the famous shipbuilder and merchant Robert Bennet Forbes, who built a summer house, Masconomo, in the area known as Newport Beach in 1847. Lane painted portraits of vessels built and owned by Forbes, the "Massachusetts" and the steam bark "Antelope".