COLLECTION OF MOUNTED ENGRAVINGS PRIMARILY FROM THE ESTATE OF FRANKLIN BENJAMIN SANBORN, 1851- 1862

Vault A35, Sanborn, Unit 3

 

EXTENT: 18 items in one container.

ORGANIZATION: Organized in two series. Series I. Items relating to Acton and Concord commemoratives, 1851-1852; Series II. Items relating to abolitionist/antislavery themes, including John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, 1851-1862.

BIOGRAPHIES OF COLLECTORS:  Franklin Benjamin Sanborn was born in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, in 1831.  As a student at Harvard College, he began a friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson, having read Emerson's works extensively.  As a result of this relationship, Emerson engaged Sanborn to begin a small private school in Concord, Mass., which was attended by the Emerson children, as well as those of Hawthorne, Henry James, Horace Mann, and John Brown.  Touring the west during the summer of 1856 to report on the progress of Free-Soil agitation, Sanborn became acquainted with John Brown.  He subsequently brought Brown to Concord in 1857 and raised money for him.  He knew of Brown's planned attack on Harpers Ferry, and as a result was asked to testify before a Senate committee during the Brown trial.  When he refused, he was arrested and an attempt was made to seize him.  Sanborn's captors were presented with a writ of habeas corpus prepared by Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar and chased out of Concord.  The court ordered Sanborn discharged the following day.  

Adams Tolman (1862-1920) of Concord, son of Concord historian and genealogist George Tolman, was a local historian, collector of Native American artifacts, and secretary of the Concord Antiquarian Society. 

Allen French (1870-1946) was an author, historian, and resident of Concord, Mass.; a lecturer on historical and other topics; vice-president and president of the Concord Antiquarian Society, and a member and long-time chairman of the Library Committee of the Concord Free Public Library.

SCOPE AND CONTENT:  Seventeen mounted engravings and one unmounted clipping.  Most items were clipped from Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion (Boston, Mass.), 1851-1853, with the remainder from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1860-1862, and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1859.

Series I contains eight original mounted engravings and one unmounted clipping (narrative text), mostly from Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, including seven engravings with accompanying narrative text relating to the April 19, 1851 dedication of the monument in Acton Center honoring Acton minutemen who were killed at Concord’s North Bridge in 1775, and two engravings with accompanying narrative text dated June 5, 1852 relating to Concord’s Revolutionary War Monument (dedicated 1837).  

Series II consists of nine mounted engravings with accompanying narrative text from Gleason’s, Harper’s, and Frank Leslie's on antislavery themes, including five engravings relating to Boston abolitionist opposition to the return of slave Thomas Sims to Georgia under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and four engravings relating to John Brown’s 1859 insurrection and attack on Harpers Ferry.

SOURCES OF ACQUISITION:  Gifts from the estate of Benjamin Sanborn (fourteen items), 1917; from the collection of Adams Tolman (three items); and (presumed) from Allen French (one item).

PROVENANCE:  Some of the items (from the Sanborn estate and Tolman collection) are stamped on the reverse “Frederick Nordstrom Rare Prints, Arlington, Mass.,” and dated 1914 or 1915 (in pencil).  One item (the presumed Allen French gift) was purchased by French from Old Prints, Boston, Mass., in 1933, and is accompanied by a letter of sale to him (taped to the reverse).

PROCESSING NOTE: Information on periodical sources and dates of publication has been taken from manuscript annotations on items listed.

PROCESSED BY: Gretchen O’Connor; finding aid prepared April 2006.

Container List

Series I.  Items relating to Acton and Concord commemoratives, 1851-1852:

Series I, Item 1:
Mounted engraving captioned  “Ceremonies at the Dedication of the Minute Men’s Monument in Acton, Mass.,” with narrative text on reverse; from Gleason’s, 1851.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. 

Series I, Item 2:
Mounted engraving captioned “Monument at Acton,” with narrative text on reverse; from Gleason’s, 1851.  Engraving is identical to Series I, Item 1, with different caption and different text.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1914.”  From the collection of Adams Tolman.  

Series I, Item 3:
Mounted engraving, captioned “Funeral Procession During the Late Celebration at Acton, Mass.,” no narrative text; from Gleason’s, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1851.  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.

Series I, Item 4:
Unmounted clipping (narrative text), no caption.  Account of funeral procession depicted in Series I, Item 3, with small illustrations (“Portraits of Dr. Amariah Preston and Benjamin Smith,” “Davis’s Shoe Buckles,” “Hayward’s Powder-Horn”).  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.

Series I, Item 5:
Mounted engraving captioned “The Late Celebration at Acton, Mass.,” with narrative text on reverse; from Gleason’s, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1851.  Engraving is identical to Series I, Item 3, with different caption; narrative is different from Series I, Item 4, but includes same illustrations (“Portraits of Dr. Amariah Preston and Benjamin Smith,” “Davis’s Shoe Buckles,” “Hayward’s Powder-Horn”).  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1914.”  From the collection of Adams Tolman.

Series I, Item 6:
Mounted engraving captioned “Yale’s Pavilion Tent, Fitted Up for the Celebration Dinner [Acton monument dedication]; and the Concord Artillery Firing Minute Guns,” with narrative text on reverse; from Gleason’s, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1851.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. 

Series I, Item 7:
Mounted engraving captioned “Yale’s Pavilion—Dinner  at the Celebration,” with narrative text below the engraving; from Gleason’s, 1851.  Engraving is identical to Series I, Item 5, with different caption and different narrative.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1914.”  From the collection of Adams Tolman.  

Series I, Item 8:
Mounted engraving captioned “View of the Monument, at Concord, Mass.,” with narrative text on reverse; from Gleason’s, 1852 (narrative dated June 5, 1852).  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.

Series I, Item 9:
Mounted engraving captioned “View of the Monument at Concord, Mass.,” no narrative text; from Gleason’s, [1852].  Engraving is identical to Series I, Item 8.  Typed letter of sale, Old Prints, Boston, Mass., to Allen French, Mar. 17, 1933, taped to reverse.  Presumed a gift from Allen French.  

Series II.  Items relating to abolitionist/antislavery themes, including John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, 1851-1862 :

Series II, Item 1:
Mounted engraving captioned “Anti-Slavery Meeting on the Common,” narrative text below the engraving; from Gleason’s, Vol. 1, 1851.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.

Series II, Item 2:
Mounted engraving captioned “Expulsion of Negroes and Abolitionists from Tremont Temple, Boston, Massachusetts, on December 3, 1860,” no narrative text; from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1860.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. 

Series II, Item 3:
Mounted engraving captioned  “Boston Police and Night Watch Conveying the Fugitive Slave, Sims, to the Vessel,” no narrative text; from Gleason’s, 1851.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.

Series II, Item 4:
Mounted engravings captioned “Wendell Phillips” and “Thomas Sims, the Slave,” narrative text below the engravings; from Gleason’s, Vol. 1, 1851.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.

Series II, Item 5:
Mounted engraving captioned “Departure of the Brig Acorn from Boston Harbor with Sims on Board,” with narrative text on reverse; presumed from Gleason’s, 1851.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.

Series II, Item 6:
Mounted engraving captioned “General View of Harper’s Ferry and the Maryland Heights.—Photographed by Brady,” no narrative text; from Harper’s, 1862.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.

Series II, Item 7:
Mounted engraving captioned “Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, from Jefferson Rock,” no narrative text; from Gleason’s, 1853.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.   

Series II, Item 8:
Mounted engraving captioned “The Harper’s Ferry Insurrection.  Old John Brown’s Residence, Kennedy Farm, Maryland.—From a sketch by Our Own Correspondent,” no narrative text; from Frank Leslie's, 1859.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. 

Series II, Item 9:
Mounted engraving captioned “Funeral of the Conspirator Cook in Williamsburg, Tuesday, Dec. 20.—From a Sketch by Our Own Artist,” no narrative text; from Frank Leslie's, 1859.  Nordstrom stamp on reverse, and penciled date “1915.”  From the estate of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. 

c2006 Concord Free Public Library, Concord, Mass.
Not to be reproduced in any form without permission of the Curator of Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library.

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Mounted 26th April 2006. rcwh.