Nancy Osgood Josiah Wolcott: Artist and Associationist

Known largely as an applied artist, Josiah Wolcott brought to his best-known work a profound senseof mission-to “assistmankind in theirforward progress.”

he well-known utopian portrait painter working in New England community of Brook in the middle third of the nineteenth cen- Farm was founded in tury, Wolcott is now known to have been 1841 in West Roxbury, personally engaged in Fourierism and Massachusetts.Commu- Associationism, the utopian movements nityT members, led by the transcendentalist that gave life to Brook Farm. For Wolcott, Unitarian minister George Ripley, dedi- Associationism clearly held the promise of cated themselves to creating an ideal com- a better life-spiritually, socially,economi- munity where intellectual life and physical cally-for himself, his family, and his soci- labor would blend harmoniously in an ety. It provided the impetus for his major agrarian setting. John Sullivan Dwight, artistic work, both the historically invalu- Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Charles Dana able topographical views of Brook Farm were members at an early date. and the final scenein his publicly acclaimed As the community grew and became panorama,A4irrorofSluvery. The artists’ per- better known, it attracted a number of sonal interest in these movements and the visitors, inlcuding the artists William art that he made in responseadd an impor- Wetmore Story (181%95), John Sartain tant dimension to Brook Farm scholarship (180%97), and Benjamin Champney and to an understanding of the Associa- (1817-1907). ’ Ifthese artists paintedviews tionist movement, most particularly in of Brook Farm, these works are not known New England. to have survived. Indeed, the only known extant paintings of the community were JOSIAH WOLCOTT: AN OVERVIEW made by the comparatively unknown art- Josiah Wolcott was born in Stow, Massa- ist Josiah Wolcott.* chusetts, in 1814. His father, also named Heretofore familiar only among a Josiah, was a wheelwright descendedfrom few art historians as an ornamental and Captain Jonathan Walcott of Salem Village,

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 5 Massachusetts?In 1820, when rural New Wolcotts’ known landscapepaintings England was in the midst of economic bear similarity to the work of both Doughty depression,4the family moved to Boston and Fisher: like them, he often enlivened and settled in the North End, where the scenes with red-jacketed figures and senior Wolcott continued his trade. depicted skies filled with warm, diffused This move into Boston had a pro- light. In 1837 three of Wolcotts’ paintings found effect on the young Wolcott. Not were accepted for inclusion in the Boston only did it help mold his philosophy, but Athenaeum exhibition. These works, also it helped direct his artistic career. Bos- described in the Athenaeum catalogue of ton in the early decadesof the 1800s had a that date simply as “landscape,” were listed flourishing art, music, and theater culture. for sale by the artist. ’ In 1827, one of the nations’ first public art Two paintings Wolcott created in galleries opened at the Boston Athenaeum, 1837 are candidates for the ones he then located on Pear1 Street just a few exhibited at the Athenaeum. One of blocks from the citys’ North End; between them, identified as a “New England 1833 and 1837 Bostonianscould there view Landscape” in the Inventory of Ameri- the works of Rembrandt, Rubens, Rem- can Paintings, was discovered by a former brandt Peale, Thomas Cole, John Single- owner in fact to be based on the engrav- ton Copley, Chester Harding, Robert ing after William Henry Bartlett, The Salmon, Washington Allston, Alvan Fisher, Lake of Lucernefrom the Righi, from Swit- and Thomas Doughty Fisher and Doughty zerland Illustrated, published in London in had studios in Boston in the 3830s. From 1836 (fig. l).* Like many contemporary 1832 to 1837 Doughty offered instruction artists, Wolcott turned to prints as a in drawing and painting.5Wolcott wrote of source for some of his art. His extremely his artistic training and study with Doughty faithful copy of this engraving suggests in an 1853 letter: not only what subjects appealed to him but also one method he might have used

At the age of sixteen I was apprenticedto the to sharpen his artistic skills. chair-paintingbusiness in Boston, under an The second candidate is a similar excellent master. Always having a strong taste subject in what appears to be a genuinely for drawing and painting, I was not long American setting (fig. 2). Here the influ- satisfied with being merely a chair-painter, but ence of Doughty is evident. The composi- sighed for something higher. I obtained some tion of lake, wooded banks, and mountains instruction from Mr. Thomas Doughty, then in revealsWolcott s’ awarenessof the conven-

Boston, a gentleman now well known all over tions ofthe picturesquelandscape tradition. the Union as one of our very first artists. My Although no one has fully studied his leisure time was devoted to practicing on his life and work, Wolcott is known to have instructions, instead of being wasted in the low created other landscape or topographical pursuits of my fellow-shopmates.6 paintings, includingMonumentRock, Sierras, which he exhibited at the 1874 Massachu-

page 6 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England Fig. 1. WUiam Henry Bartlett, The Lake of Lucerne from the Righi, in Switzer- land Illustrated (London, 1836); courtesyBoston Athenaeum.

Fig. 2. Josiah Wolcott, untitled landscape,1837; courtesyGallery Forty-fur Fine Art, New Hartford, Connecticut.

setts Charitable Mechanic Association Art have directed him to seek steady employ- Exposition. He is also known to have ment first in applied art. In 1835 he painted at least two portraits, those of received a diploma from the Massachusetts Emilia and Abel Houghton, now in a pri- Charitable Mechanic Association “certify- vate collection.9 ing,” he wrote in 1853, “to exemplary con- Despite Wolcott’s interest in “some- duct and superior ability as a workman.“10 thing higher,” economic circumstances, his In that year Wolcott listed himself in the 1838 marriage to Mary B. Phinney and the Boston city directory as a painter, suggest- subsequent need to support a family may ing that he may havejust finished his train-

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 7 ing under Doughty” Four years later, how- and illustrator. Sinclair Hamilton has ever, he called himself a chair painter, the traced with great care the work Wolcott did trade in which he had apprenticed, and for The Carpet-Bag,a weekly publication of continued to list himself as one until amusing social criticism first published in 1843.12Wolcott then turned to sign and Boston on March 29, 1851.15 Wolcott ornamental painting, which, he wrote, designed the masthead (fig. 3) and drew “gave me more scopefor tasteand skill than illustrations to complement the “tales, my previous occupation, besides furnish- essays,poetry, mirthful sketches,anecdotes, ing an opportunity to acquire more knowl- oddities, [and] humorous paragraphs”that edge of art, as my ambition was always to filled the paper.I6 In their inaugural issue, excel in whatever I undertook. I never editors S. W Wilder and B. l? Shillaber rested satisfieduntil I had gained some new introduced Wolcott to readers: lesson of an artistic character.“i3 Wolcott was an ornamental painter almost to the The name-“THE CARPET-BAG”-we end of his life. Entries in the Boston Street have adopted as expressing the miscellaneous Books for 1845 and 1846 identity him as a character of a good paper, into which are “journeyman painter,“14 which may indi- crowded a variety of things, necessary for cate that he was then employed in the shop comfort and happiness while on the highway of of another ornamental painter. By 1847 he life. . . We think the introduction of a picture was associatedwith Lorenzo Somerby in in each number-or at least occasionally-will an ornamental, sign, and standard shop at add to the interest of the Carpet-Bag. For this

5 Water Street in Boston. department we have engaged the services of Mr. Wolcott was also a skilled designer J. Wo~corr, the designer of the heading and

Fig. 3. Josiah Wokott, mastheadfor The Carpet-Bagfirstpublished March 29, 1851, showing Mrs. Partington at left; courtesyMassachusetts Historical Society.

Page 8 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England other illustrations of the present number. He WOLCOTT, BROOK FARM,

has a peculiar genius for designing, and we AND ASSOCIATIONISM

expect many rich things from his pencil.” Wolcott and his art take on special signifi- cance when they are seen from the vantage The illustrations Wolcott made for point of Associationism, a communitarian The Carpet-Bug in its first year show not philosophy that in New England drew on only his ability as a designer but also his Transcendentalism and some of the ideas skill with genre scenes (fig. 4). According of the French utopian socialist Charles to Hamilton, Wolcott was “clearly the crea- Fourier. Reacting in part to the disruption tor graphically of Mrs. Partington and wrought by the Industrial Revolution and hence indirectly of Aunt Polly in The rising immigration upon relatively homo- Adventuresof7ih Sawyer.” The last engrav- geneous, agriculturally oriented societies, ing ofAunt Polly in the American Publish- Associationists sought to answer competi- ing Company’s 1876 edition of Twain’s tive capitalism and social disintegration by book is almost identical to Wolcott’s image establishing cooperative communities of Mrs. Ruth Partington in the June 28, where people of all backgrounds would 1851, issue of The Carpet-Bag.” work together in harmony; by so doing, Yet Wolcott is best known for his two they would achieve human perfection and Brook Farm views, both frequently repro- realize a kingdom of heaven on earth where duced in books and articles about the uto- love and unity would reign. pian community.19 Historians familiar with Many people of middle-class and the life of the fugitive slave Henry “Box” artisan background were particularly drawn Brown are probably also aware of the pano- to Associationism because it seemed to rama, Mirror ofSlaoery,which Brown com- bring a familiar stability to their increas- missioned from Wolcott in 1849-50.20 ingly fragmented lives. As historian Carl J. Before 1991, however, no one had con- Guarneri observed, many hoped “to recap- nected Wolcott’s diverse body of work to ture the larger social nexus of family, any other aspect of the artist’s life and church, and village in a modern and more times. In that year, an exhibition catalog egalitarian setting.“22 It seems likely that published jointly by the Massachusetts Wolcott had these desires in mind when Historical Society and the Museum of Fine he turned to Brook Farm in 1843. Arts, Boston, identified Wolcott as a char- Founded by Ripley and his wife ter member of the Boston Religious Union Sophia two years earlier, the Brook Farm of Associationists and provided the critical Institute of Agriculture and Education connection between the artist’s work and was established just a few miles outside his ideas2i As the Brook Farm views and Boston on the 170-acre Ellis family farm. the slavery panorama suggest,Wolcott was In a November 1840 letter to Ralph a passionate and determined artist, deeply Waldo Emerson, Ripley explained the involved in some of the key social move- goals of the community: ments of his time.

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 9 Fig. 4. Josiah Wolcott,A Concord of Street Sounds, in The Carpet-Bag, July 2.5, 1851; courtesyMassachusetts Historical Society.

to insure a more natural union between As the number of members of intellectual and manual labor than now exists; Brook Farm grew, additions were made to to combine the thinker and the worker, as far as the original Ellis farmhouse. This build- possible, in the same individual; to guarantee ing, dubbed the Hive, became the heart the highest mental freedom, by providing all of the community Soon new structures with labor, adapted to their tastes and talents, were erected on the rolling landscape. The and securing to them the fruits of their first was the Eyrie, the home of George industry; to do away with the necessity of and Sophia Ripley and the site of musical menial services, by opening the benefits of evenings. The many-gabled Margaret education and the profits of labor to all; and Fuller cottage with the huge swing by its thus to prepare a society of liberal, intelligent, side quickly followed, as did the Pilgrim and cultivated persons, whose relations with house, home of a number of Brook Farm- each other would permit a more simple and ers, of the laundry, and later of the edito- wholesome life, than can be led amidst the rial offices of the Associationists’ pressure of our competitive institutions.= newspaper, The Harbinger.24 Wolcott’s first known painting of

Page 10 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England Brook Farm reflects this landscape (fig. 5). The year 1843 was a turning point Dated 1843, this painting is important for for Brook Farm as many of its members its topographical detail and for the roman- recognized the need for a broader eco- tic mood it reflects. If the account of Brook nomic base, a more formal means of Farm in the July 1844 issue of The Phalanx, organization, and a closer communal focus. the Fourierist newspaper, is accurate, By that time Albert Brisbane, a frequent Wolcott depicted the architectural elements visitor to the community and an Ameri- with care: he showed the Eyrie to be “fawn- can-born disciple and translator of Fourier, colored,” the cottage in a “sober burnt had begun to help meld the European uto- umber,” and the Pilgrim House as white, pian socialist movement with American just as the newspaper described them.25 Transcendentalism. Wolcott’s use of the rainbow is reminiscent In December 1843 Wolcott and the of that in Bartlett’s The Lake ofLucernejom sculptor Joseph Carew joined several theRighi (see fig. 1). Here it almost certainly members of Brook Farm in signing the call symbolizes the unity, harmony, and prom- for a Boston convention to “cheer our ise of the community hearts by a united contemplation of the

Fig. 5. Josiah Wolcott,Brook Farm, 1843; courtesyMrs. Robert B. Watson.

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 11 wonderful progress in our own and other thetic environment. It allowed Wolcott, countries of the great TRUTHS of Social Sci- who may have been ambivalent about being ence discovered by CHARLESFOURIER."~~ AS an artisan rather than an artist, the freedom a result of the convention, which took place to express himself according to his own at Bostons’ Tremont Temple on Decem- talents and desires. ber 26 and 27, the New England Fourier The May 28, 1845, edition of The Society was formed January 15, 1844; Phalanx announced that the Brook Farm Wolcott served on its executive committee Association for Industry and Education for two years.” had been reorganized as the Brook Farm On January 18, 1844, the members Phalanx. Its new constitution stated its of Brook Farm adopted a new constitution purpose as “the organization and pursuit and renamed the community the Brook of Industry in the following departments Farm Association for Industry and Educa- viz: Domestic Services, Agriculture, tion. As the communitarians expanded into Manufactures, Commerce, Education, the a Fourier-inspired model uphalanx,” they study and application of the Sciences, and divided the department of industry into the study and application of the Fine Arts; three primary series--agricultural, domes- in accordance with the system ofAssocia- tic industry and mechanic arts-and wel- tion and the laws of Universal Unity as comed craftsmen into their ranks. A large discovered by CHARLESFOURIER."~' Fine workshop was built to provide spacefor the arts was added to the communitys’ agenda new trades. In July 1844 plans were drawn just when Wolcott was most heavily and a foundation dug for a large unitary involved; he may have played a role in dwelling, or phalanstery, to provide living having the activity incorporated into the and meeting spacefor 150 people.28 new constitution, just as he may have According to the Brook Farm ledger, anticipated a role in the new department. which contains some of the financial On October 19,1845, Wolcott joined records of the community between the Brook Farm committee on religion to November 1844 and October 1846, make arrangements for worship under the Wolcott bought shares in Brook Farm and direction of William Henry Channing. received interest on them.2gThat Wolcott Two of its members were appointed to became a shareholder indicates his support “wait on Mr. Rogers, and arrange with him of the community and his probable inten- to have a large room at this end of the tion to move there with his wife and infant Phalanstery, in the second story, finished son George once the phalansterywas com- off immediately (by Christmas) as a con- pleted. Wolcotts’ exposedstatus as an orna- secrated place of worship for the time mental painter dependent on economic being, to be used for no other purpose.“3 ’ circumstance in a rapidly changing Boston Whether the plan was carried out is made him a perfect candidate for Brook unknown. Fire engulfed the phalansteryon Farm; the community held the promise of March 3, 1846, just as it neared comple- economic security in an open and sympa- tion, and dealt the community a severe

Page 12 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England financial blow from which it was unable be the supports of that structure when it to recover; the fire contributed to Brook was under construction or what remained Farms’ dissolution in the fall of 1847.32 of the building after the disastrous fire.34 After the phalanstery burned, Marianne Together,Wolcott s’ two paintings of Brook Dwight wrote, “A part of the stone foun- Farm show its evolution from a loosely dation standslike a row of gravestones,-a organized transcendentalistcommunity to tomb of the Phalanstery-thank God, not one that embraced many of the organiza- the tomb of our hopes!“33 tional and philosophical tenets of Associa- Wolcotts’ second painting of Brook tionism. In rendering these views Wolcott Farm (fig. 6) is undated, but from archi- applied his artistic talent both toward docu- tectural evidence it is clear that it was menting the community and conveying his painted a year or more after his first. Vis- personal commitment to its ideals. ible behind the complex of the Hive and The philosophy of Brook Farm was barn is the rooftop of the workshop built kept alive after the fire by two organiza- to accommodate Brook Farms’ expanding tions, the Boston Union OfAssociationists, industries. On the hillside below the Eyrie founded November 30, 1846 as an auxil- are the foundation stones of the iary of the American Union ofAssociation- phalanstery These stone pillars may either ists, and the Boston Religious Union of

Fig. 6.JosMh Wolcott,Brook Farm, about1844-46; courtesyMassachusetts Historical Society.

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 13 Associationists, founded January 3, 1847. ciationist organizations. On March 17, Like William Henry Channing, Francis 1847, the Boston Union ofAssociationists ’ Gould Shaw,Joseph Carew, John Sullivan executive committee voted “to appropri- Dwight, andJohn Codman, in whose fam- ate fifteen dollars from any funds in the ily the second Brook Farm painting Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to descended, Wolcott was a member of the repay Mr. Wolcott for said amt., advanced Boston Union of Associationists. The by him to purchase materials for the large breadth of his interests and his commit- Painting.“37The subject and purpose of this ment to Associationism can be gleaned %rge Painting” are unknown, although the from the fact that he served as the groups’ painting may have been for Brisbanes’ use treasurer and one of its directors as well as in one of his lectures in Boston around that on three of its subcommittees-the Group time, or it may have been for display at the of Study and Indoctrination, the Group of Boston festival celebrating Fouriers’ birth- Guaranties, and the Group of Practical day on April 7,1847;% sculpture, paintings, Affairs. At these and other meetings, Union and banners figured prominently in the members explored the tenets of Associa- decorationsfor such festivals.Wolcott pur- tionism aswell as the issuesof poverty, sla- chasedtwo tickets to the festival, which the very, protective unions, and the formation April 17, 1847, issue of The Harbinger of communal households.J5 described in detail. In September of the On January 3,1847, Wolcott became same year, the union discussed the ques- a charter member of the Boston Religious tion “of adopting some badge or sign to be Union of Association&, which met under constantly worn by Associationists, & a the Christian umbrella to discussthe ideals general desire for something of that kind of Associationism. At the first meeting, was manifested by persons present. Josiah Wolcott, John Dwight, and Mary Bullard Wolcott proposed a design for a badge that (who had often participated in musical would suit him. It is a circle, containing a evenings at Brook Farm and who later beehive in the centre with lines radiating married Dwight) were chargedwith arrang- from it.“39There is no evidence, however, ing music for the groups’ public and private that the badge was ever created. meetings. Wolcott hosted some of the reli- The account book for the Boston gious unions’ meetings at his home at 33 Religious Union ofAssociationists notes Kingston Street. James T Fishers’ meeting that on June 20, 1847, three dollars was minutes attest to his active participation: at “Paid J. Wolcott for 2 Boxes for ~011. at the March 21,1847, meeting, Wolcott spoke Door,” no doubt the boxes in which the “in some experience which he had under- union collected donations at its public gone from the regions of almost entire reli- meetings. In December 1847 the Bos- gious scepticism [sic] to the full reception ton Religious Union of Associationists of the doctrines of association.“36 paid “Somerby & Wolcott” ten dollars Wolcott put his artistic talents to for “painting Signs.” In the same month work on behalf of both of the Boston Asso- the Boston Union of Associationists

Page 14 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England paid the firm four dollars for “Signs for keeper Samuel A. Smith and Smith’s free- Bromfield Room.n40 born black employee, James Caesar Associationism was clearly a driving Anthony Smith, Brown was sealed in the force in Wolcott’s life. His involvement box and shipped by Adams Express to not only offers insight into his personal Philadelphia. There, after a twenty-seven- life but also demonstrates his sensitivity hour journey, he was liberated from his to and concern for the social, economic, confines in the Anti-Slavery office of and spiritual circumstances of those William Still and James Miller McKim around him. In his role as an Association- (fig. 7).45 ist he came in contact with numerous Brown’s means of escape, his suf- prominent individuals engaged in social fering during the journey in his “coffm,” reform. Nowhere was his concern for a and his “resurrection” from the box more just world better demonstrated than quickly made him a hero among aboli- in his publicly acclaimed and widely tionists. Still and McKim sent Brown on viewed Mirror of Slavery. to Boston, and, like such other fugitive slaves as Frederick Douglass and William WOLCOTT AND THE MIRROR Wells Brown, he began speaking on the 0~ SLAVERY antislavery lecture circuit. William Wells Henry “Box” Brown’s Mirror of S&verywas Brown introduced him at the annual Anti- one of the first abolitionist panoramas, a Slavery Convention of the New England huge canvas of, reputedly, fifty thousand States in Boston in May 1849. Later that square feet.41 On its surface were forty-six year he wrote his autobiography, pub- scenes divided into two sections. These lished by Brown and Steams&At the close scenes, “designed and painted by J_ of 1849, J. C. A. Smith followed Brown WALCOTT, from the best and most authen- north, and by January 1850 they were tic sourcesof information,” gave an “icono- touring together on the lecture circuit; clastic retelling of the slave’s story”” they appeared that month before the Anti- Henry “Box” Brown was born into Slavery Mass Convention ofAbolitionists slavery about 1815 on a plantation outside of the State of New York in Syracuse and Richmond, Virginia. As a boy, he was first entertained the group with songs.47 a house servant and then worked in a Rich- A number of fugitive slavescommis- mond tobaccofactory While in Richmond, sioned panoramas to complement and help Brown married and had three children.” sell their narratives, illustrate their lectures, In 1848, when his family was sold to a and rally support for the abolitionist Methodist minister, Brown sought to cause.48These large canvases were rolled escapefrom bondage. In 1849, acting upon onto wooden rods held upright and rotated a “heavenly vision,” Brown had con- to passeach scene before the audience as a structed a box “3 feet 1 inch long, 2 feet lecturer’s narrative unfolded. This mode wide, 2 feet 6 inches high.“44 On March 29 of entertainment and instruction was that year, with the help of Richmond shop- popular by midcentury: in December 1848

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 15 Caleb P Purrington and Benjamin a song to the tune of “Uncle Ned,” which is Russells’ panorama,A whaling VoyageRound descriptive also of the expedition, and is both the World,made its debut in New Bedford, touching and witty Brown is getting up a where it was painted and where Brown had PANORAMA OF SLAVERY which is to be spent most of April 1849 in the home of done by an artist in Boston from Browns abolitionist Joseph Ricketson.4g Sometime description,and is soon to be readyfor public between Browns’ arrival in Massachusetts exhibition. Brown is a man of most decided and the January 1850 Syracuse convention, character;and it is difficult to believethat one Brown commissioned his own panorama, year ago he was a chattel!M as the reporter covering the convention for the National Anti-Slavery Standardnoted: What brought Wolcott and Brown together is unknown51 That Wolcott was

Mr. BROWN hasa very fine lithographdescrip- sympathetic to Browns’ proposal is sug- tive of his egress from the box at Philadelphia, gested by his involvement with Associa- in which he came from Richmond, and also tionism and the acquaintance he made

Fig. 7. The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia, lithograph,registeredjunuary 10, 1850; courtesyLibrary of Congress.

Page 16 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England through Boston Associationist groups with PART I. such advocates of abolition or antislavery The African Slave Trade. as William Lloyd Garrison, Francis Gould The Nubian Family in Freedom.

Shaw, and James T. Fisher. An April 1850 The Seizure of Slaves. article in The Liberator described the first Religious Sacrifice. invitational showing of the panorama: Beautiful Lake and Mountain Scenery in Africa.

March to the Coast.

On Thursday and Friday evenings, last week, View of the Cape of Good Hope. a considerable number of ladies and gentlemen Slave Felucca. assembled at the Washingtonian Hall, in Interior of a Slave Ship.

Bromfield street, by special invitation, to Chase of a Slaver by an English Steam Frigate. witness a Panorama of Slavery and the Slave Spanish Slaver at Havana.

Trade, which has been for several months in Landing Slaves. process of completion by the artist, Mr. JOSIAH Interior of a Slave Mart.

WOLCOTT, who has been employed for that Gorgeous Scenery of the West India Islands. purpose by the celebrated HENRY Box BROWN. View of Charleston, South Carolina.

Considering the difficulties to be overcome, The Nubian Family at Auction. the time spent upon and the sum paid for it, it March of Chain Gang. is very creditable to the industry, zeal and talent Modes of Confinement and Punishment. of the artist; and we trust, as it is the design of Brand and Scourge.

Mr. Brown to exhibit it in various parts of the Interior View of Charleston Workhouse, with country, this novel mode of advancing the Tread mill in full operation. anti-slavery cause; by a faithful delineation to the eye of the traffic in human flesh, will be PART 11. very successful. Some portions of the Panorama Sunday among the Slave Population. are very well executed. The last scene particu- Monday Morning, with Sugar Plantation and larly, which is a view of a township, according Mill. to a plan of Charles Fourier, and given by Women at Work. the artist to indicate his idea of the fruition Cotton Plantation. of emancipation.52 View of the Lake of the Dismal Swamp.

Nubians, escaping by Night.

No part of the panorama is known Ellen Crafts, Escaping. to have survived, and no detailed published Whipping Post and Gallows at Richmond,Va. description of The Mirror of Slavery is known View of Richmond, Va. to exist. Yet its imagery was broadly Henry Box Brown, Escaping. described in contemporary newspapers, View of the Natural Bridge and Jefferson’s and it is possible to speculate about the Rock. source of some of it. Advertisments for the City of Washington, D.C. panorama and a brief article in The Liberu- Slave Prisons at Washington. tar listed the subject of each scene: Washington’s Tomb, at Mount Vernon.

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 17 Fairmont Water Works. On May 1, the Herald noted that the

Hemy Box Brown Released at Philadelphia. demand to seethis “great production of art”

Distant View of the City of Philadelphia. was so insistent “in some of the neighbor-

Henry Bibb, Escaping. ing towns” that Brown decided to tour it

Nubian Slaves Retaken. for most of May and then return with it to

Tarring and feathering in South Carolina. Boston May 28, for the week-long Massa-

The Slaveholders’ Dream. chusettsAnti-Slavery Society annual meet-

Burning Alive. ing. The newspaper described the work in

Promise of Freedom. some detail:

West India Emancipation.

Grand Industrial Palace. In this exhibition, scenes of the African Slave

Grand Tableau Finale-UNrvERML Trade, and a variety of circumstances connected

with it, are here described by the skill of the

artist in such a manner, as not easily to be

Brown seems first to have presented misunderstood. The scenes of Slavery at his panorama in Boston, at Washingtonian home-here in the United States-covering the

Hall on Bromfield Street. On April 29, most prominent facts relating to this “peculiar

1850, the Boston Daily Evening Eaveller institution” are here very pointedly expressed. noted that Brown “has made himselfa part This is no fancied sketch, but one which many of one of the finest panoramas now on stand ready to vouchfor its reaI$P exhibition. This is not a mere delineation of landscape,but a successionof scenesof Accompanied by J. C. A. Smith and human action, addressed to the whole Boston African American printer Benjamin mind, and especially to the highest facul- F. Roberts, Brown showed the panorama ties. . . . It is at once a superior picture and in Lynn, Springfield, and Worcester.56On a useful lesson.“” The next day, the Boston May 22, both the Springfield Daily Post and Herald noted that the panorama “is becom- the Daily Republican announced the ing the topic of conversation in all parts of panoramas’ four-day showing in Spring- the city and vicinity” and noted that Daniel field. A letter to The Liberator from Worces- Webster, then staying at the Revere House, ter dated May 25,1850, described the work, had received a complimentary ticket to on view for ten days in that city: view it and hear Browns’ lecture. “At this particular time some portions of the exer- The painting is well executed and gives genera1 cise may not be uninteresting to the hon- satisfaction. The description of the various orable Senator,” the HeraM speculated, no scenes was very handsomely done by Benjamin doubt an allusion to Websters’ infamous F. Roberts, a colored man from your city, and speech,delivered a little more than a month the whole passed off in good style. earlier in Congress,in support of the Com- Sunday evening, the gentlemen belonging promise of 1850 and its provisions for the to the Panorama gave an entertainment at the return of fugitive slaves. City Hall, which was highly creditable to

Page 18 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England themselves. Mr. Roberts’ lecture was on the Acquiring a panorama of his own, ‘Condition of the Colored Population in the Smith continued on the lecture circuit as United States.’ The house was thronged and we11.62Whether he or Brown returned to all went away satisfied. Henry Box Brown the United States is unclear, though the related many incidents about the peculiar historian R. J. M. Blackett has noted that institution, and sung several pieces of sacred Brown and his second wife, an English music. . What makes this enterprise more woman, “added a panorama of the Indian interesting is the fact that the whole is con- Mutiny to their lecture schedule” in the late ducted by colored men.s’ 1850~.~ Intriguing entries in The Liberator suggestthat the panorama may have been The attempt of two slaveholder sent back to the United Statesand used by agents to return Brown to Richmond on the former fugitive Anthony Burns, whose August 30, 1850, and the passage of the capture in and attempted extradition from Fugitive Slave Act in September brought Boston in 1854 had inflamed the city and an abrupt end to Brown’s tour.58Taking the garnered national attention.64 In 1858 panorama, he and J. C. A. Smith soon Bums toured New England with the Grand emigrated to England. There Brown Moving Mirror ofSlavery, which a letter to rewrote his narrative for an English pub- The Liberator from Lewiston, Maine, lisher,59and the two men continued to dis- described as an “exhibition giving truthful play the panorama under the partnership representationsof slavery by one of the best of Brown and Smith.60 On July 25, 1851, artists in America.” Designed to raise they dissolved the partnership, but Brown money for Burns’s continued study for the kept 7’he Mirror of Slavery and continued to ministry the panorama was owned by A. exhibit it in England for at least four more Herriman, Josiah E Longlep and Alonzo years.American newspapersnoted the suc- Garcelon, all of Lewiston, Maine.65 cessof Brown’s overseasefforts: The Mirror ofSlaverywas a remarkable work whose influence was far-reaching.

HENRY Box BROWN is still in England, employed The selection, title, and arrangement of its

in exhibiting his Panorama of American Slavery. individual scenes,the combination of Afri-

The London Empire notices him as follows. can and American images drawn from

. During the exhibition Mr. Brown gives a historic and contemporary sources, the vivid and genuine description of each passing rhythm of landscape, figure, and genre

scene and occasionally intersperses some ‘nigger’ painting, and the juxtaposition of scenesfor

songs. We may remark that, in our opinion, such ironic effect attest to the breadth of educa-

an exhibiton is infinitely preferable to a theatrical tion and sophistication of those involved

one; that it is a most effectual mode of instruct- in its conception and design. A number of

ing the generation to come on the appalling lithographs and engravings widely circu-

subject; and that is deserves, nay more, it lated in the first half of the nineteenth cen-

demands the support and encouragement of all tury may have been the basis for some of

Christians and every lover of freedom.6’ the scenes, including The Resurrection of

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 19 Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia (see fig. 7), This final scene, “Universal Eman- Jail in Washington, (fig. 8), and The Tomb of cipation” depicted in a Fourierist commu-

Washington, &fount I/ernon (fig. 9).66 It is nity, is surely the greatest confirmation of impossible both to identify the exact Wolcotts’ espousal of Associationism. It is sources of the imagery for the panorama likely that this image of harmony, brother- and to know which images and ideas were hood, and well-being was inspired by Jules contributed by Brown, Wolcott, or others Arnouts’ lithograph, Excursionsen Haymonie, interested in the work. However, 7he’ Lib- tie Ge’ne’rale d’Un Phalansteye ou Village erator directly attributed the last scene to Soci&aiyeOyganise d’ apy&’ la Thkoyiede Fouyiey Wolcott alone. (fig. 10). Wolcott would have seen this

Fig. 8. Jail in Washington,-Sale of a Free Citizen to Pay His Jail Fees, vignettefrom The Slave Market of America, broadside,1836; courte_yBoston Athenaeum.

Page 20 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England Fig. 9. The Tomb of Washington, Mount Vernon, engraving by James Archerafter William H. Bartlett, 1850. An identical impressionof this engravingwas reproduced in Nathaniel l? Wllis, American Scenery (1850); courtesyBoston Athenaeum.

image either during Brisbane’s lectures or ciationism, held that “humans were per- in the company ofJohn Sullivan Dwight.67 fectible and nature benign.“6g Others Like some other Associationists of his day of his circle, including Ripley, Brisbane, Wolcott undoubtedly believed that the Horace Greeley, and William Henry solution to the evils of slavery lay in the Channing, were also drawn to the move- gradual and peaceful reconstruction of ment, as was Andrew Jackson Davis, the society according to Fourierist principles.68 so-called “Poughkeepsie Seer.“ Ripley favorably reviewed Davis’s The Principles of WOLCOTT AND SPIRITUALISM Nature, Her Divine Revelations,and a Voiceto In the early 1850sWolcott became attracted Mankind (1847) in The Harbinger. Wolcott’s to spiritualism, a movement that, like Asso- letters to the spiritualist John W Edmonds

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 21 Fig. lO.]ules Amout, Excursions en Harmonie, Vue G&r&ale d’un Phalanstere, ou Village Societaire Organise d’apres la Theorie de Fourier, ubout 1844; courtesyHarvard University Libraries.

document his familiarity with Davis’s writ- according to his own testimony a sitting in ings, which called for a philosophy of Concord, New Hampshire, in March 1853 “Reason, Humanity, and Brotherhood.“70 affected him profoundly: Undoubtedly Wolcott found in spiritual- ism many of the same ideas that had Last March, one evening, at a party in this place, appealed to him in Associationism, and it a sitting was held, in which I joined, supposing may have given direction and hope to his it to be merely in sport. We had not sat five own life. minutes before my skepticismwas dumb- That Wolcott was familiar with founded. I aroseoverwhelmed with shame and spirtualist “sittings” is clear in his 1851 confusion, determined to test the matter fully. I drawing to illustrate an article entitled tried many experiments of my own invention, “Rapology” in the first issue of The Curpet- but alwayswith a satisfactoryresult. I soon Bug (fig. 11). Wolcott attended a number became convinced that someintelligent agent of sittings between 1851 and 1853, but with a will of its own, independent of all

Page 22 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England persons present, was the cause of the demon- During the painting of these pictures I felt an strations. I was more surprised at these results unusual glow of enthusiasm and most thrilling in this place, where the people have little more pleasure. My hand seemed to move with spirituality than New Hampshire granite.7’ unusual ease and freedom. Something keeps

saying within, “Paint! Paint!! Paint these

Growing more intrigued by spiritu- Pictures!!!” The spirits insist upon it that I must alism, Wolcott attended another sitting in give up my present employment and paint the

Boston in June 1853, where he claimed to pictures they present me, that the world may have been “presented with a view of a pic- have some visible representations of the glories ture of singular beauty and composition.” of the future life.72 He immediately set the vision down on canvas, and in other sittings, he claimed, In reply Edmonds could only encourage he was told how to improve the work in Wolcott, for to him the endeavor in such a way that he was able to createa paint- which the painter was engaged was noth- ing “so much more perfect than I thought ing short of a “stupendous work of regen- myselfcapable ofproducing.” He described erating mankind.“73 to Edmonds how the spirit “manifestation” One of the images Wolcott received guided his work: through a medium was “Invitation to the

Fig. 11.Josiah Wolcott, The “Sitting” at the House of Simon Jones, Esq., illustrationin The Carpet-Bag, March 29, 1851; courtesyMassachusetts Historical Society.

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 23 Spirit-Land,” which Edmonds used, at beckoning with their hands and pointing away Wolcotts’ suggestion,as the frontispiece for over the sea. The gondola appeared laden with his 1853 volume, Spiritualism(fig. 12). His passengers, and sailed away to strains of most letter explaining the origin of the painting bewitching music over the sea, and vanished. was reprinted in the book: Next a thin white cloud like a gauze vail

descended from the upper right-hand corner to

Last June [ 18531. . . at a sitting the medium, after the position in the sketch, and assumed the

passing into a state of partial trance, said she form represented, beckoning and pointing away

seemed to be in a large gallery surrounded by over the sea. I can never forget the impression

pictures and portfolios of drawings. She‘ that picture made upon me. The light was a

felt impelled to come to me, ’ she said, and clear beautiful sunset. The figure was clear

immediately a very strong mesmeric influence and transparent, with the distant clouds and

came over me with irresistible power. Her mountains being distinctly visible through the

forehead was pressed upon mine with such a folds of drapery. I should call the picture THE‘

force she could not get it away for a few minutes, INVITATION TO THE SPIRIT-LAND.74‘

during which time the subject of the tinted

sketch was daguerreotyped upon my mind with However preoccupied he was with

remarkable vividness. The two statues appeared higher concerns, the need to support

. Fig. 12.JosiahWolcott, Invitation to the Spirit-Land, frontispiecein]ohn W Edmondsand George?: Dextet;M.D., Spiritualism (1853); courtesyBoston Athenaeum.

Page 24 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England himself and his family was clearly never advertisement at various spiritualist sit- far from Wolcott’s mind. In one letter to tings in 1853. First he received the image Edmonds he spoke of the growing inter- of a “small plaster medal, bearing a figure est in spiritualism as a potential market. in armor, with a shield inscribed with the

“The time has come, I think, when pic- word ONWARD." Later the imagery of a torial illustrations will be demanded for knight and castle came to him, and he was the numerous publications on this sub- told that the knight was his guardian spirit. ject, and some one of artistic skill, and This figure, Wolcott told Edmonds, as- knowledge of spiritual things will be sured him that he need “apprehend no fear required to furnish them,” he wrote. “I from boldly advancing and defending have already some knowledge of draw- these new views of spiritual existence.” ing on wood for engraving, which might The figure, Wolcott stated, pointed to “this be turned to some account.“75 sentence written through my own hand: During this exchange of letters with You are on the right road. Onward and Edmonds, Wolcott was living in Concord, Upward, progress.“‘80 New Hampshire. As he disclosed to A handful of additional works of fine Edmonds, he had been summoned to Con- art Wolcott painted have been identified in cord in November 1851 “to do the orna- public and private collections in New mental work on coaches and omnibuses England. Their subjects-the Tuttle which requires to be of a high character, House, a popular seasidehotel located mid- and must compete with similar work pro- way on the stagecoachline between Bos- duced in New York.” For his work he ton and Neponset (1844); a topographical received “fifv per cent higher pay than any view of the Merrimack River with Con- other in the place.” Wolcott admitted that cord in the background (1847);” a log raft his “object in coming here into this com- on a river (1849); visitors enjoying the paratively benighted region was mainly to Flume in the White Mountains (1862)- get more knowledge of natural scenery and indicate Wolcott’s love of the topographi- get further practice on some peculiar parts cal view, of romantic landscape painting. of ornamental art.“76 While working for His delight in nature is particularly evident J. S. Abbott and Company, makers of the in his depiction of the Flume. One of his famed Concord Coach,” he painted views reasons for going to Concord, he told of the “State House, Depot, and Main Edmonds, was “to get more knowledge of street, and a likeness of Gen. Franklin natural scenery.” He stated in a later letter, Pierce” on the panels of the first omnibus “I have not been idle, but have stored my in Concord.‘* mind with much valuable material for After the Civil War Wolcott added future use. Every cloud, hill, tree, bush, the painting of theatrical scenery to his running stream, or other natural object, offerings, as his advertisement in the 1866 seems to have a charm which I did not see Boston city directory documents before. An increased store of sketchescan (fig. 13).79He received the imagery for this testify to that.“**

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 25 Fig. 13. AdvertisementforJosiah Wolcott, Boston Directory (1866); courtesyBoston Athenaeum.

Wolcotts’ last known painting is one fectly free to use, as you see fit, any letters he completed in 1878 of a section of the or my name, if it will be the means of assist- Green Mountains. On the stretcher is writ- ing mankind in their forward progress.“84 ten, “Mt. Mansfield from Sunset Hill, To this end Wolcott dedicated his life, Stowe, Vt., painted by J. Wolcott, 1878” whether the goal was expressed by Associa- (fig. 14). This painting clearly shows the tionists, abolitionists, or spiritualists. fertile fields of the Little River valley and Wolcotts’ response artistically and the well-known peaks of Camels’ Hump philosophically to Bostons’ changing social and Mt. Mansfield. Here as in other work, and economic condition opens a new win- Wolcott seems to have filled his painting dow on the citys’ history and the extent and with a transcendental vision, the depiction character of utopianisms’ influence. His of a harmonious relationship between man vision of a better world and his ability to and nature.83 give that vision pictorial representation are On June 18, 1885, Josiah Wolcott lasting legacies. * died of “old age” at his office at 13 Ti-emont Row. His passing at the age of seventy-one Formerly an elementary schoolteacherin was noted on the front page of the Boston the Boston area, Nancy Osgood now Daily Globe two days later. Wolcott is bur- lives in Norwich, Mrmont, where she ied with his wife, their two sons, and a tutors children with reading disabilities. number of their grandchildren in a plot She became interestedin Josiah Wolcott that belonged to their son George Walcott when she was a volunteer with the in Belmont, Massachusetts. Harvard Field School in Historical In the last of the published letters to Archaeology at Brook Farm. Edmonds Wolcott wrote, You‘ may feel per-

Page 26 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England Fig. 14.Josiah Wokott, Mt. Mansfield from Sunset Hill, Stowe, Vt., 1878; courtesyFruitlands Museum, Harvard, Massachusetts.

NOTES These two views are in the collections of

Mrs. Robert Watson (fig. 5) and the In addition to those mentioned below, many Massachusetts Historical Society (fig. 6). people have generously guided my research Arthur Stuart Walcott, The Walcort Book and offered suggestions. Most particularly (Salem, Mass.: Sidney Perley, 1925), 120. I want to thank Robert Preucel, Peter Oscar Handlin, Bostons’ Immigrants(New Drummey, Michael Wentworth, and Xevor York: Atheneum, 1968), 12. Fairbrother for their unfailing support and Jonathan E Harding,“The Painting encouragement. I am grateful to Clive Russ Gallery,” in A CIimatefor Art: The History of for photographing figs. 1, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, rhe Boston Athenaeum Gallery, 1827-1873 and 14. (Boston: Thomas Todd Company, 1980),

10, and Robert F. Perkins, Jr., and William 1. Lindsay Swift, Brook Farm (1900; reprint, J. Gavin III, The BostonAthenaeum Art Secaucus, N.J.: The Citadel Press, 1973), Exhibition Index, 1827-1874 (Cambridge, 204-5. Other artists known to have visited Mass.: MIT Press for the Library of the Brook Farm include Christopher Pearse Boston Athenaeum, 1980), 11-124. Fisher Cranch (1813-92) and Alfred T. Ordway maintained a studio in Boston from 1831 (1819-97). to 1852.

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 27 John W. Edmonds and George T. Dexter, 9. In addition to the three Boston Ath-

M.D., Spiritualism (New York: Partridge enaeum landscapes, George C. Grace and

and Brittan, 1853) 1:487. Transcriptions David H. Wallace, The New-York Historical

of the correspondence between Edmonds Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America,

and Wolcott in August 1853 appear in 1564-1860 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale

the appendix, prepared for the volume University Press, 1957), 698, mentions

by Nathaniel I? Tallmadge. I am indebted the two Houghton portraits by Wolcott.

to an anonymous reviewer for Old-Time The 1992 Artist Index of the Inventory of

New England for alerting me to this American Paintings lists eight landscape

exceedingly important exchange of letters. or topographical paintings by him,

The correspondence had been brought to including the two Brook Farm views and

the readers’ attention by Rate Southall, the painting after Bartlett, and James L.

who discovered it while working on a film Yarnall and William H. Gerdts, Index to

about nineteenth-century spiritualism American Art Exhibition Catalogues (Boston,

for Varied Directions International, Mass.: G. K. Hall and Co., 1986), 5:3991,

Camden, Maine. cite the exhibition of his “Monument

Perkins and Gavin, Boston Athenaeum Art Rock, Sierras.”

Exhibition Index, 154. No further informa- 10. Edmonds and Dexter, Spiritualism, 1:487.

tion about these paintings survives. 11. Frank H. Goodyear, Jr., Thomas Doughty,

Wolcott spelled his surname with an =o” 1793-1856 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania

or an “a.” Most of his paintings bear the Academy of Fine Arts, 1973), 17.

signature, “J. Wolcott.” 12. Borton Directory for the Year CommencingJuly

William Beattie, M.D., Switzerland 1, 1835 (Boston: Charles Stimpson, Jr.,

Illustrated by a Series of Views TakenExpressly 1835), 364; see also Boston Directory 1839,

for this Work by W H. Bartlett, Esq. 421; 1840,439; 1841, 476; 1842,506.

(London: George Virtue, 1836), 2:oppo- 13. Edmonds and Dexter, Spiritualism, 1:487.

site 117. Bartlett had been in North 14. Boston Street Books 1845, 1846, Ward 9,

America in 1836 and 1837 making pages 15 and 16, respectively; handwritten

drawings for his better-known volume volumes in Office of City Clerk, Archives

American Scenery, edited by Nathaniel I? and Management Division, City of

Willis and published in London in 1840. Boston, Hyde Park, Mass. That Wolcott

The Inventory of American Paintings, was regarded chiefly as an ornamental

National Museum of American Art, painter until his death is apparent in his

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, front-page obituary in the Boston Daily

D.C., has a photograph of the Wolcott Globe, June 20, 1885, which identifies him

painting based on this engraving. Gary as such.

Kraidman is the former owner who 15. Sinclair Hamilton, Early American Book

discovered this image to have been the Illustrators and Wood Engravers, 1670-l 870

source of Wolcotts’ view, but the works’ (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

current owner is unknown. Press, 1968), 2 (supplement):l52-53.

Page 28 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England 16. Boston Directoryfor the Year CommencingJuly 1991); and Carl J. Guarneri, 7%e Utopian

1, 1851 (Boston, Mass.: Sampson Alternative (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univer-

Davenport and Co., 1851), 35. sity Press, 1991), 222. An 1894 copy by F.

17. The Carpet-Bag, Mar. 29, 1851, 5, Massa- C. Sanbom of the second Brook Farm

chusetts Historical Society. painting appears as the frontispiece in

18. Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators, John T. Codman, Brook Farm: Historic and

2:152-53; see also the 1958 edition of this Personal Memoirs (Boston: Arena Publish-

title, 92-93. The engraving of Partington ing Company, 1894) and again, copy-

appeared on the first page of The Carpet- righted by M. G. Cutter, in Mary

Bag 1, 13 (June 28, 1851). Who made the Crawford, Romantic Days in Old Boston

engraving on page 274 of the 1876 edition (Boston: Little, Brown and Company,

of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is not 1910), 39. “Josiah Wolcott, 1845” was

known, although Hamilton has speculated carefully written in the lower left-hand

that the creator may have been Frederick corner of Sanborns’ copy.

M. Coffin. A number of other and quite 20. R. J. M. Blackett, Building an Antislavery

different illustrations of Aunt Polly appear Wall (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State

in the same edition, some of University Press, 1983), and C. Peter

them bearing the name or initials of True Ripley et al., eds., The Black Abolitionist

W Williams. Papers, vol. 1, The British Isles, 1830-1865

19. The Wolcott view of Brook Farm now in (Chapel Hill: University of North

the collections of Mrs. Robert B. Watson Carolina Press, 1985), 174-75 n.11,

has been reproduced in Edith R. Curtis, mention Browns’ panorama but do not

“A Season in Utopia,” American Heritage, mention or connect the work to Wolcott. I

April 1959, 58-59, on the jacket of Edith am indebted to Cynthia Griffin Wolff of

R. Curtis, A Season in Utopia: The Story of MIT for tying the panorama to Wolcott,

Brook Farm (New York: Thomas Nelson, an assertion she later corroborated in

1961), and in Margaret C. S. Christman, “Passing beyond the Middle Passage:

1846: Portrait of the Nation (Washington, Henry Box‘ ’ Browns’ Translations of

D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for Slavery,” The MassachusettsReview 37, 1

the National Portrait Gallery, 1996), 156. (Spring 1996): 42-44, n. 13, n. 17.

The other view, in the collections of the 21 Witness to Americas’ Past, 164. Brenda M.

Massachusetts Historical Society, has been Lawson wrote the entry on Wolcott in

reproduced in Witness lo Americas’ Past: Two this publication.

Centuries of Collecring by the Massachusetts 22. Guarneri, Utopian Alternative, 65.

Historical Society (Boston: Massachusetts 23. George Ripley to Ralph Waldo Emerson,

Historical Society/Museum of Fine Arts, Nov. 9, 1840, quoted in Octavius Brooks

Boston, 1991), 32, 163; Sterling F. Frothingham, George Ripley (Boston:

Delano, Brook Farm: A Retrospectiveand Houghton Mifflin, 1882), 307-8.

Celebration (Villanova, Pa.: Falvey 24. Swift, Brook Farm, 26-33.

Memorial Library, Villanova University, 25. 7’he Phalanx 15, July 27, 1844, 220.

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 29 26. This “Call to the Friends of Social Reform Home. It is now owned by the Metropoli- in New England” appeared in the tan District Commission. None of the Fourierist newspaper Brisbane had buildings from the short-lived utopian

founded, The Phalanx 3, Dec. 5, 1843, 44. period survives; the Hive, the commu- The December convention elected Brook nity’s focal point, burned on Aug. 8, 1854.

Farmers George Ripley and Charles Dana See BostonEvening Herald, Aug. 9, 1854, 4. officers; William Lloyd Garrison and 33. Reed, ed., Lettersfrom Brook Farm, 148. Frederick Douglass attended the meeting. 34. The MassachusettsHistorical Society

See The Phalanx 4, Jan. 5, 1844.46. assignsthe date 1844 to this painting

37 I,. The Phalanx 20, Dec. 9, 1844, 308, and 21, becauseit is the earliest possible time it Feb. 8, 1844 [sic]. 309. George Ripley was could have been painted. See ?&‘iYitnersto named president of the New England America’sPast, 164. This oil-on-panel

Fourier Society. Guarneri, Utopian painting is unsigned. It is attributed to

Alternative, 232. Wolcott becauseof its provenance and

28. Guameri, Utopian Alternative, 57-58. becauseof information written on the

29. See entries naming Wolcott (Walcott) in back of the panel that identifies him as the the Brook Farm ledger in November 1844 artist. On the back too is a rough pencil (page 5), April 1845 (page 72), July 1845 sketch of the Hive and the names of the (page 117), and October 1845 (page 171). various buildings in the painting. In the The ledger is in the collection of the center is written “Phalanstery” Under- MassachusettsHistorical Society, Boston. neath “Phalanstery” is written “being

30. The Phalanx 23, May 28, 1845,343. built,” with a line drawn through. The

31. Amy L. Reed, ed., Leuersfrom Brook Farm, date “1845” was, as note 19 points out,

1844-1847, by Marianne Dwight marked on the copy of this painting (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: VassarCollege, reproduced in John Codman’s 1894 book. 1928), 123-25. Who Mr. Rogers was is not Codman was a former owner of the precisely known, but he was probably a painting. Many thanks to Anne Bentley carpenter from Roxbury who helped build for helping to verify this information. the phalanstery. 35. Records of the Boston Union of 32. The City of Roxbury purchased Brook Associationists, 1846-47, Houghton Farm and used it as the site of an Library, Harvard University. See especially almshouse from 1849 to 1855. The the records of the subcommittees listed. Unitarian Rev. James Freeman Clarke For a history of the Boston Union see then bought the property and lent it to the Sterling F. Delano, “The Boston Union of Commonwealth of Massachusetts Associationists (1846-1851): ‘Association in 1861; it became known as Camp Is to Me the Great Hope of the World,” in

Andrew and served as the encampment Studies in the American Renaissance1996, ed. for the Second MassachusettsRegiment of Joel Myerson (Charlottesville, Va.: Infantry. From 1871 to 1971 the site University Press of Virginia), 5-40. housed the Martin Luther Orphans’ 36. Record of the proceedings of the Reli-

Page 30 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England gious Union of Associationists, Boston, National Anti-Slavery Standard 37, Feb. 7,

Sunday, Jan. 3 and Mar. 21, 1847, 1850, 145, which in a report of the

Massachusetts Historical Society. convention in Syracuse stated, “Mr.

37. Records of the executive committee of the BROWN said he was shipped from

Boston Union of Associationists, Mar. 17, Richmond by a white man. Smith for

1847, 2, Houghton Library. assisting was taken up and put in prison-

38. Records of the Boston Union of had six lawyers and got clear-cost

Associationists, Mar. 10, 1847, 8; The him $900-was born a freeman-had

Harbinger 4, Feb. 27, 1847, 192. Docu- free papers.”

ments indicating that Wolcott bought 46. National Anti-Slavery Standard 2, June 7,

tickets for the Fourier birthday celebra- 1849, 5; Brown, Narrative ofHenry Box

tion are among the unions’ papers at Brown.

Houghton Library 47. J. C. A. Smith to Gerrit Smith, Aug. 6,

39. Records of the Boston Union of 1851, quoted in Ripley et al., Black

Associationists, Sept. 8, 1847, 39. Abolitionist Papers, 1:295; on the Syracuse

40. Account Book, Boston Religious Union of convention see National Anti-Slavery

Associationists, James T. Fisher, treasurer; Standard, Jan. 31, 1850, and Feb. 7, 1850.

Treasurers’ Account, Boston Union of Upon his return to Boston, Brown wrote

Associationists, Dec. 29, 1847, Houghton the abolitionist and philanthropist Gerrit

Library. Smith asking him “please to lend me the

41. Ripley et al., Black Abolitionist Papers, some [sic] of one hundred & fifty dollars,

1:174-75 n.11. until I can get out my panorama and I will

42. The quote about Walcott is from The faithfully return the same amount to you

Liberator 20, 17, Apr. 26, 1850, 67. On again soon and you will do me a great

the panorama as an “iconoclastic retell- favior [sic]“; Brown to Gerrit Smith, Feb.

ing,” see Wolff, “Passing beyond the 1, 1850, Gerrit Smith Papers, Syracuse

Middle Passage,” 3 1. Many thanks to University. Brown asked Smith to direct

Cynthia Wolff for guiding me to the his reply to 21 Cornhill in Boston, the

Liberator issues that discussed Wolcott location of the offices of The Liberator.

and the panorama. Whether Gerrit Smith lent the money is

43. Ripley et al., Black Abolitionist Papers, unknown. Both Brown and J. C. A. Smith

1:174-75 n.11. continued to keep in touch with Smith.

44. Henry “Box” Brown, Narrative of Henry See Ripley et al., Black Abolifionirf Papers,

Box Brown (Boston: Brown and Stearns, 1:298 n.2.

1849), 59, 92. 48. Robert L. Hall, “Massachusetts Aboli-

45. Ripley et al., Black Abolitionist Papers, 1:174 tionists Document the Slave Experience,”

n. 11, 298 n.2. Samuel Smith was in Courage and Conscience:Black and

imprisoned for seven years for helping white Abolitionists in Boston, ed. Donald

Brown, while lawyers for J. C. A. Smith M. Jacobs (Bloomington: Indiana

were able to secure his release. See the University Press for the Boston

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 31 Athenaeum, 1993), 83. 53. The Liberator 20, 19, May 10, 1850, 75.

49. Thanks to Judy Downey at the Whaling 54. Daily Evening Traveller, Apr. 29, 1850.

Museum of Old Dartmouth Historical 55. Boston Herald, Apr. 30 and May 1, 1850.

Society, New Bedford, for researching the 56. J. C. A. Smith, who later inserted “Boxer”

date of the panoramas’ debut in that city. into his name to signifjr the role he played

50. National Anti-Slavery Standard, Feb. 7, in “boxing” Brown, undoubtedly helped

1850, 145. It is quite possible that the to operate the panorama. See J. C. A.

lithograph Brown had with him is the one Smith to Gerrit Smith in Ripley et al.,

reproduced here as fig. 7. Bernard F. Black Abolitionist Papers, 1:293-97.

Reilly, Jr., American Political Prints, 1766- According to ibid., 298 n.2, Roberts wrote

1876 (Boston: G. K. Hall and Co., 1991), a “formal narration for the scenes” in the

333, notes that the Library of Congresss’ panorama and at times appeared with

“impression of The Resurrectionwas Brown and Smith. On Robertss’ participa-

deposited for copyright on January 10, tion, see also Hall, “Massachusetts

1850.” Wolcott may have used this Abolitionists,” 85. The author knows of

lithograph as the basis for the scene, no surviving copy of Robertss’ narration.

“Henry Box Brown Released at Phila- His efforts to enroll his daughter Sarah in

delphia,” in the panorama. Bostons’ segregated schools in the late

51. Ripley et al., Black Abolitionist Papers, 1840s and 1850s attracted much publicity

1:174-75 n.11, notes that Browns’ as well as the legal services of Charles

panorama, “apparently . . fifty thousand Sumner, and his suit against the Boston

square feet in size,” was “painted by city schools instigated their ultimate

Boston artists.” The latter claim was integration in 1855. See Charles Sumner,

reiterated with a citation to Ripley in Jack Argument. . . against the Constitutionality of

Salzman, David Lionel Smith, and Cornel Separate Colored Schools, in the Case of Sarah

West, eds., Encyclopedia of African-American C. Roberts vs. the City of Boston, Befre the

Culture and History (New York: Macmillan Supreme Court of Mass., Dec. 4, 1849

Library Reference USA, Simon and (Boston, 1849); Report of the Colored People

Schuster Macmillan, 1996), 1:446. That of the City of Boston on the Subject of

the panorama was painted by “several of Exclusive Schools. Submitted by Benjamin E

the most skillful artists in Boston” is Roberts, to the Boston Equal School Rights

confirmed in the Boston Daily Evening Committee (Boston, 1850); Hall, “Massa-

Traveller, Apr. 29, 1850. However, the chusetts Abolitionists,” 85, and Dorothy

National Anti-Slavery Standard, Feb. 7, Porter Wesley, “Integration versus

1850, clearly states that one artist was Separatism: William Cooper Nells’ Role

involved, as does an article in the Boston in the Struggle for Equality,” in Jacobs,

Herald, May 1, 1850; two issues of The Courage and Conscience,211.

Liberator, Apr. 19 & 26, 1850, cite Wolcott 57. 7he’ Liberator 20, 22, May 31, 1850, 87. A

as the sole artist of the panorama. notice that Browns’ panorama was coming

52. The Liberator 20, 16, Apr. 19, 1850, 62. to Worcester appeared in 7he’ Massachusetts

Page 32 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England Spy, May 8, 1850, and a longer review was 68. Guameri, Utopian Alternative, 254.

printed in the May 15, 1850, issue. 69. Ibid., 350.

58. National Anti-Slavery Standard 17, Sept. 19, 70. Ibid., 349; Edmonds and Dexter, Spiritual-

1850, 66. ism, 485. The letters between Wolcott and

59. Henry “Box” Brown, Narrative of the Lij of Edmonds make clear that Wolcott was

Henry “Box” Brown: Written by Himself familiar with the Shekinah, ah 1853

(Manchester, Eng., 1851). volume that explored the nature and

60. On the partnership, see Ripley et al., Black mission of spiritualism. See S. B. Brittan,

Abolitionist Papers, 1:293-97, 298 n.2, 299 ed., The Shekinah (New York: Partridge

n.6. and Brittan, 1853), 3:18.

61. National Anti-Slavery Standard 41, Mar. 3, 71. Edmonds and Dexter, Spiritual&n, 483.

1855. 72. Ibid., 483-84.

62. Ripley et al., Black Abofitionirt Papers, 73. Ibid., 486.

1:293. 74. Ibid., 488. This image was reproduced on

63. Blackett, Building an Antislavery Wall, 210. the title page of Bret E. Carroll, Spiritual-

64. Hall, “Massachusetts Abolitionists,” ism in Antebellum America (Bloomington:

90-91. Indiana University Press, 1997).

65. The Liberator 28, 36, Sept. 3, 1858, 143 and 75 Ibid., 492.

28,38, Sept. 17, 1858, 151. For notices 76 Edmonds and Dexter, Spiritualism, 487.

of the “Mirror of Slavery” in Portland, 77 Carroll, Spiritualism, 487. Wolcott lived in

Maine, see Maine TemperanceJournal, Sept. Concord from 1851 to 1853 and again in

2, 1858, and Maine Daily Advertiser, Sept. 7, 1855-56. Concord Directory (Concord,

1858. Ripley et al., Black Abolitionist Papers, N.H.: Charles L. Wheler, 1853), 88;

vol. 4, The United States, 1847-1858 David Watson, The Concord Directory

(Chapel Hill: University of North (Concord, N.H.: Merriam and Merrill,

Carolina Press, 1991), 396 n.3. 1856), 80.

66. Many thanks to Catharina Slautterback 78. The carriage was owned by George Dane

at the Boston Athenaeum for helping of the Pavilion Hotel. See Nathaniel

determine possible sources of the scenes Bouton, History of Concord,from Its First

in the panorama. Grant in 1725, to the Organization of the City

67. Delano, Brook Farm. An entry in the Government in 1853, with a History of the

Boston Public Library card catalog for this Ancient Penacooks(Concord, N.H.:

same lithograph states, “On the back [of Benning W. Sanborn, 1856), 494.

the lithograph] is the following note in 79. Wolcott used his 1866 advertisement in

pencil: ‘Phalanstery. Presented to John S. Boston directories until 1874, changing

Dwight by Albert Brisbane in 1844. One only the spelling of his name (from

of two copies brought by Mr. Brisbane.” ‘Walcott” to “Wolcott”) and the address of

Wolcott, Brisbane, and Dwight were all his studio. From 1877 to 1882, he listed

members of the Boston Religious Union himself in the business section of the

of Associationists. director as a “scenic painter.”

Old-Time New England Spring/Summer 1998 Page 33 80. Ibid., 484, 489. In a letter dated Aug. 10,

1853, Wolcott told Edmonds that he was

familiar with A. J. Davis’s latest book,

probably The Present Age and Inner Li&

(1853). On page 130 of this work, Davis

presented a “Table of Media,” a scale

showing “the relative positions of the

many and various offices of the spiritual

army.” The twenty-four media are divided

into four strata-Outward, Inward,

Onward, and Upward. Wolcott probably

considered himself a Pictorial Medium,

able to depict spiritual truths, in the

Onward stratum, No. 16.

81. This painting, in the collections of the

New Hampshire Historical Society, is

said to have been painted for Lewis

Downing, Jr. (1820-1901), of the

stagecoach firm Abbot and Downing. See

The Decorative Arts of New Hampshire: A

SesquicentennialExhibition (Concord: New

Hampshire Historical Society, June 28,

1973), entry 99.

82. Edmonds and Dexter, Spiritualism, 487,

491.

83. This painting has been reproduced in

“Fruitlands: Preserving New England,”

Colonial Homes, October 1996, 73.

84. Edmonds and Dexter, Spiritualism,

492-93.

Page 34 Spring/Summer 1998 Old-Time New England