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Fitz Henry Lane
HISTORICAL ARCHIVE • CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ • EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE
An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
Catalog entry
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inv. 442
Auxiliary Steam Packet Ship Massachusetts
Lithograph on paper 10 1/2 x 14 3/16 in. (26.7 x 36 cm) Boston: Lane & Scott's Lith., Tremont Temple
F.H. Lane del. Collections:
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Related Work in the Catalog
Exhibition History
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, New England Prints Before 1850, April 7–May 16, 1976. [Impression: American Antiquarian Society (inv. 372)].
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Drawn From Nature & on Stone: The Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane, October 7, 2017–March 4, 2018. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 504)].
Published References
Craig, James. Fitz H. Lane: An Artist's Voyage through Nineteenth-Century America. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006., p. 63, ill. fig. 31.
Barnhill, Trafton. Drawn from Nature & on Stone: the Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Museum, 2017., fig. 55, text, p. 33, Auxiliary Steam Packet Ship Massachusetts. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 504)]. ⇒ includes 
text
text
Barnhill, Georgia B. "Fitz Henry Lane and Coastal New England." Imprint: Journal of the American Historical Print Collectors Society Volume 46, Number 2 (Autumn 2021)., fig. 9. ⇒ includes text
textImpression information
American Antiquarian Society (inv. 372)
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Photo: Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society (inv.372)
Printed under image from left to right: F.H. Lane del., Lane & Scott's Lith., Tremont Temple, Boston. / AUXILIARY STEAM PACKET SHIP MASSACHUSETTS.
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. (150236)
Provenance
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.
Boston Athenaeum (inv. 504)
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Photo: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 504)
Printed under image left to right: F.H. Lane del., Lane & Scott's Lith., Tremont Temple, Boston.
Boston Athenaeum (1999.35)
Provenance
Boston Athenaeum
Commentary
This lithograph was drawn by Lane and printed by Lane & Scott. It is likely that the print was produced for, and published by R.B.Forbes.
The packet ship “Massachusetts” was the third engine-powered vessel to be built for Robert Bennet Forbes, and the largest American auxiliary steamship for mercantile use at the time. Built at the East Boston shipyard of Samuel Hall, she had the lines of a conventional packet ship, the hull being full-ended to accommodate a large cargo, but carefully modeled to achieve moderate speed. The first voyages of the “Massachusetts" were between New York and Liverpool, therein exposing the weakness of her power plant.
This undated lithograph was probably made in the same year “Massachusetts” was put into service. It shows the vessel close-hauled with her royals (uppermost square sails) ready to be set, as is her main course, which is still hanging in the buntlines. Lane also made another print of the "Massachusetts" Steam packet ship Mass., in a Squall, Nov. 10, 1845 (inv. 443). Forbes’s optimism for this vessel’s future could not have lasted long and whatever promotional value the images had for this venture would soon dissipate, hence their scarcity.
– Erik Ronnberg
References:
Robert Bennet Forbes, “Personal Reminiscences” (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co., 1892), pp. 208-217.
Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt, “American Steamships on the Atlantic” (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1981), pp. 89 -97.