Historical Materials: Prints & Illustrations after Lane

J. Wingate Thornton, an author based in Boston, published The Landing at Cape Anne, an instructional history for schoolchildren, in 1854. In January of 1858 he approached Lane to ask him to paint an illustration of Gloucester as it appeared in 1624. Later sources quote letters from Thornton to Lane about the illustration after which an engraving was to be made, and the role that John Babson had in securing this commission from Lane. It appears that Thornton took the painting back to Boston with him in July 1858, but was critical of it and there is no evidence that a second edition of the book was ever published, nor Lane's painting ever located.

Reference:

Sarah Dunlap, and Stephanie Buck, Fitz Henry Lane: Family and Friends (Gloucester, MA: Church & Mason Publishing; in association with the Cape Ann Historical Museum, 2007), 57–59.