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Catalog entry

inv. 579
Business Card Printing Plate
c. 1841
engraved copper
2 1/2 x 4 in. (6.4 x 10.2 cm)
F.H. Lane Marine Painter, No. 7 Summer St. Boston
On view at the Cape Ann Museum

Supplementary Images

Scan of recent impression of etched copper printing plate in possession of Cape Ann Historical Society
 

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Subject Types:   Marine Scene »   //   Ship Portrait »
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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).

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The term "ship," as used by nineteenth-century merchants and seamen, referred to a large three-masted sailing vessel which was square-rigged on all three masts. (1) In that same period, sailing warships of the largest classes were also called ships, or more formally, ships of the line, their size qualifying them to engage the enemy in a line of battle. (2) In the second half of the nineteenth century, as sailing vessels were replaced by engine-powered vessels, the term ship was applied to any large vessel, regardless of propulsion or use. (3)

Ships were often further defined by their specialized uses or modifications, clipper ships and packet ships being the most noted examples. Built for speed, clipper ships were employed in carrying high-value or perishable goods over long distances. (4) Lane painted formal portraits of clipper ships for their owners, as well as generic examples for his port paintings. (5)

Packet ships were designed for carrying capacity which required some sacrifice in speed while still being able to make scheduled passages within a reasonable time frame between regular destinations. In the packet trade with European ports, mail, passengers, and bulk cargos such as cotton, textiles, and farm produce made the eastward passages. Mail, passengers (usually in much larger numbers), and finished wares were the usual cargos for return trips. (6) Lane depicted these vessels in portraits for their owners, and in his port scenes of Boston and New York Harbors.

Ships in specific trades were often identified by their cargos: salt ships which brought salt to Gloucester for curing dried fish; tea clippers in the China Trade; coffee ships in the West Indies and South American trades, and  cotton ships bringing cotton to mills in New England or to European ports.  Some trades were identified by the special destination of a ship’s regular voyages; hence Gloucester vessels in the trade with Surinam were identified as Surinam ships (or barks, or brigs, depending on their rigs). In Lane’s Gloucester Harbor scenes, there are likely (though not identifiable) examples of Surinam ships, but only the ship "California" in his depiction of the Burnham marine railway in Gloucester (see Three Master on the Gloucester Railways, 1857 (inv. 29)) is so identified. (7)

– Erik Ronnberg

References:

1. R[ichard)] H[enry] Dana, Jr., The Seaman’s Friend, 13th ed. (Boston: Thomas Groom & Co., 1873), p. 121 and Plate IV with captions.

2. A Naval Encyclopaedia (Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersly & Co., 1884), 739, 741.

3.  M.H. Parry, et al., Aak to Zumbra: A Dictionary of the World’s Watercraft (Newport News, VA: The Mariners’ Museum, 2000), 536.

4. Howard I. Chapelle, The History of American Sailing Ships (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1935), 281–87.

5. Ibid.

6. Howard I. Chapelle, The National Watercraft Collection (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1960), 26–30.

7. Alfred Mansfield Brooks, Gloucester Recollected: A Familiar History (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1974), 67–69.

Golden State
1884
Photograph
From American Clipper Ships 1833–1858, by Octavius T. Howe and Frederick C. Matthews, vol. 1 (Salem, MA: Marine Research Society, 1926).

Photo caption reads: "'Golden State' 1363 tons, built at New York, in 1852. From a photograph showing her in dock at Quebec in 1884."

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photo (current)
"Friendship of Salem"
Built in 1998

A replica of an early nineteenth-century full-rigged ship.

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artwork
Homeward Bound
c.1865
Hand-colored lithograph
Published by N. Currier, New York
Library of Congress (2002695891)
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illustration
Ship
1885
Engraving from Merchant Vessels of the United States (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office)

Engraving of ship.

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artwork
Packet "Nonantum" Riding out a Gale
Samuel Walters
1842
Oil on canvas
24 x 35 in.
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.

Walters' painting depicts the "Nonantum" homeward bound for Boston from Liverpool in 1842. The paddle-steamer is one of the four Clyde-built Britannia-class vessels, of which one is visible crossing in the opposite direction.

Image: Peabody Essex Museum
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illustration
Ship
Engraving in R. H. Dana, The Seaman's Friend, 13th ed. (Thomas Groom & Co. Publisher, 1873)

A ship is square-rigged throughout; that is, she has tops, and carries square sails on all three of her masts.

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artwork
Silhouettes of vessel types
Charles G. Davis
Book illustrations from "Shipping and Craft in Silhouette" by Charles G. Davis, Salem, Mass. Marine Research Society, 1929. Selected images
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Lane & Scott's Lithography was a Boston-based firm formed by Fitz Henry Lane and John W. A. Scott. The partnership spanned 1844–48, after both artists had apprenticed for prominent Boston lithographer, William Pendleton. The firm was located at 16 Tremont Temple, Boston and created sheet music covers, book illustrations, advertisements, prints, and town views. Lane left the firm around 1847 or 1848 and Scott printed some works under his own name.

This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825–1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback. 

map
1837 plan of the City of Boston
Charles Stimpson
1837
9 x 14 in.
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive

Showing Lane's neighborhood while working in Boston. Lane had studios at the intersection of Washington and State Streets, Summer, Tremont and School Streets.

Also filed under: Boston City Views »   //  Maps »   //  Professional »   //  Residences »   //  Tremont Temple »

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map
A Map of Plymouth Village
Lane & Scott Lith.
Frontispiece of " Pilgrim memorials, and guide for visitors to Plymouth Village: : with a lithographic map, and seven copperplate engravings." / By Wm. S. Russell, recording secretary of the Pilgrim Society. ; [Eight lines from Oliver Wendell Holmes]
Boston: : Printed for the author, by C.C.P. Moody, Old Dickinson Office–52 Washington Street., 1851
Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester.
Call Number LML Plym Russ P851

American Antiquarian Society copy of book inscribed: Belonging to J.G. Orton. Bought in Pilgrim Hall Plymouth, Mass. Oct. 10th 1851

Map of Plymouth Village in 1846 signed: Lane & Scott's Lith., Boston

Image: American Antiquarian Society
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publication
The Voyage of the "Jamestown" on her Errand of Mercy
Robert Bennet Forbes
1847
Boston
Eastburn's Press

Link to Google Books.

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Fitz Henry Lane Biography: Professional

Essay to come.

map
1837 plan of the City of Boston
Charles Stimpson
1837
9 x 14 in.
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive

Showing Lane's neighborhood while working in Boston. Lane had studios at the intersection of Washington and State Streets, Summer, Tremont and School Streets.

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advertisement
1857 Gloucester Advertiser, 9.15.1857, "Business Directory"
1857
Newsprint
Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

See p. 1, columns 1 and 2.

"Artists. / Fitz H. Lane, residence on Duncan street. / Addison Center, residence on Washington street. / Alfred J. Wiggin, Annisquam."

Image: Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society
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publication
1859 Gloucester Telegraph 3.18.1859
3.18.1859
Newspaper

F.H. Lane & A. Wiggin only people listed under "artists" in the Gloucester Telegraph Business Directory. Ignatius Winter listed under Carpenters, at Burnham Bros.

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publication
1861 Gloucester Telegraph 8.3.1861
8.3.1861
Newsprint
Gloucester Telegraph

The welcome-home parade for Company G, 8th Regiment. Mechanic Fire Company No. 1. The company carried a new banner presented them by Fitz H. Lane and F.H. Winter. A most appropriate design was painted upon it by the artist giver. Two figures were represented, a soldier and a fireman, with clasped hands: on the left a group of tents and on the right a fire scene. The banner was handsomely trimmed with oak leaves and inscribed as follows: "Organized Jan. 7, 1854"–"Union is Strength."

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publication
1862 Cape Ann Advertiser 1.3.1862
1.3.1862
Newspaper clipping
Cape Ann Advertiser
Collection of Fred and Stephanie Buck

2nd reference to banner for Mechanic Engine Corp. New Year's ball:

"At the rear end of the hall, above the musician's stand, was a fine portrait of Washington, back of which were suspended hose pipes, crossed, with the silver trumpet underneath; beneath this was the banner, painted by F. H. Lane, the whole forming a design of great beauty."

Image: Collection of Fred and Stephanie Buck
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publication
1865 Boston Daily Evening Transcript 8.19.1865
8.19.1865
Newspaper
American Antiquarian Society

"The death of this gifted artist may almost be considered a national loss, at least so far as art is concerned. Mr. Lane was undoubtedly the finest marine artist in this country. We have never seen any paintings equal to his in perfect accuracy in all aspects of marine architecture and thought, and true natural position to the canvas and complete equipment of vessels."

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publication
History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport
John J. Babson
1860
Procter Brothers of Gloucester, Massachusetts

John James Babson wrote History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann in 1860. This is the source of much information about Lane, including the history of the family and the source of Lane's partial paralysis as being the seeds of the apple-peru. (Nicandra physalodes, a member of the nightshade family of plants).

As Dunlap and Buck note (1) , Babson knew Lane, and thanked him for furnishing “with characteristic kindness, sketches for the engravings in this work.” (2). That sentence implies that Lane made sketches for all of the illustrations, but that they were engraved by someone else. “SMITH” seemed to have actually engraved several of these, as his name appears on the prints. Lane’s name is not evident. 

The illustrations most likely to have been Lane’s are Mr. White’s house near Meetinghouse Green (page 230), Second Parish Meeting House, West Gloucester, taken down in 1846 (page 266), the house of William Card on Front Street (page 452), and First Parish Meeting House, 1738-1826 (page 498). There were also black-and-white reproductions of several Lane paintings.

(1) Sarah Dunlap and Stephanie Buck, Fitz Henry Lane: Family and Friends. (Gloucester, MAChurch & Mason Publishing; in association with the Cape Ann Historical Museum2007),120-121.

(2) John James Babson, History of the Town of Gloucester Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport. (Gloucester, MA: Procter Brothers, 1860), 258. 

(3) Dunlap and Buck, 504n. 

Also filed under: Babson, John J. »

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publication
Sixty Years' Memories of Art and Artists
Benjamin Champney
c.1899
Woburn, MA,

"After a time I left the shoe store, and through the influence of my friend Cooke, was admitted as an apprentice to Moore, successor to Pendleton, in the lithographic business. Here I was speedily worked in as a draughtsman for ordinary commercial work, the fine work, such as designs of figures and heads from life being done by Cooke. F.H. Lane, afterwards well-known as a marine painter, did most of the views, hotels, etc. He was very accurate in his drawing, understood perspective and naval architecture perfectly, as well as the handling of vessels, and was a good, all-round draughtsman." (1)

(1) John WilmerdingFitz Henry Lane (Gloucester, MACape Ann Historical Association2005)Reprint of Fitz Hugh Lane, by John Wilmerding. New York: Praeger, 1971.

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publication
The Voyage of the "Jamestown" on her Errand of Mercy
Robert Bennet Forbes
1847
Boston
Eastburn's Press

Link to Google Books.

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Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)

Exhibition History

No known exhibitions.

Published References

No known published references.

Related historical materials

Vessel Types
Fitz Henry Lane Biography
Lithography
Citation: "Business Card Printing Plate, c. 1841 (inv. 579)." Fitz Henry Lane Online. Cape Ann Museum. http://fitzhenrylaneonline.org/catalog/entry.php?id=579 (accessed October 8, 2024).
Record last updated February 11, 2016. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
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