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Home , National epic, Tales of a Wayside Inn

on fellow ous L g ulletinH e Volume 12 No. 1 A Newsletter of the Friends of the Longfellow House and the National Park Service June 2008 A Paul Revere House Centennial andB the Longfellow Contribution n April 18 the Paul Revere Memorial the process of crafting OAssociation celebrated the one-hun- these iconic characters, dredth anniversary of the restoration of Longfellow heightened Paul Revere’s house and its opening as a the awareness and appre- museum. As part of the event, schoolchild- ciation of antiquarian ren recited the stirring words of Paul Revere’s relics in his native region

Ride, Henry Longfellow’s poem that ele- and the as a evere Memorial Association vated Paul Revere to mythic status. Longfel- whole, and he popular- low, poet-chronicler of American , ized historic places asso- would have been proud to know that his ciated with these figures. 1860 classic was in large part responsible for On North Square in the preservation of the and arti- Boston’s North End, the of this Revolutionary War patriot. wooden building now The Paul Revere House as it was restored in 1908 and remains today

Through his narrative poems, Longfel- known as the Paul Revere Photo courtesy of the Paul R low created national , among them House has survived numerous transforma- adapted to the less-sloping Georgian , the story of the Boston silversmith who tions. Between 1676 and 1681, a wealthy mer- and a third story was added. “spread the alarm through every Middle- chant built it as a two-story colonial resi- In 1770 at the age of thirty-five, Paul sex village and farm” that the British army dence with a second-floor overhang. In the Revere purchased the almost century-old was about to attack the colonial rebels. In mid-eighteenth century the roofline was (continued on page 2) Longfellow Members in the Historic Preservation Movement n the United States, the of pre- because it had once served as General Iserving the nation’s history through Washington’s headquarters. “We have its buildings and places began gradu- decided to let father purchase this ally after the American and grand old mansion if he will,” Fanny became an organized campaign shortly wrote to her brother in 1843. “Mr. before the Civil War. Several genera- Greene of Rome, a great friend of tions of Longfellow family members Henry’s ... has excited an historical were interested and actively involved appreciation, or rather reminded us in historic preservation. how noble an inheritance this is – Many Americans cherished and where Washington dwelt in every attempted to protect places identified room.” A contemporary newspaper with George Washington and the Rev- article reported the purchase and that olutionary War. One of the first suc- the new owners planned to create a cessful acts of preservation took place Washington room: “It is said that he in Philadelphia in 1813. Efforts by Alice Longfellow, seated third from the right, with other members intends to enrich one room, at least, local historical societies helped pre- of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1912 with furniture that has been in the vent the demolition of Independence Hall , Henry sought out sites connected possession of Washington.” (then known as the Old State House) with history and – such as the In 1850 Longfellow visited Washington’s where the founding fathers had drafted and houses of Voltaire, Goethe, and Durer – as homestead in Virginia and remarked on its signed the Declaration of Independence. well as ancient ruins and castles. disrepair. “Went with C. and M. to Mt. Ver- Henry Longfellow himself valued the Back home he served as an early preser- non,” he wrote in his journal. “Steamed to historic significance of places. Traveling in vationist. Both he and his new bride Fanny Alexandria, and then a coach to Mt. Vernon. Europe where historic preservation was in felt a special attachment to Craigie House (continued on page 2) 1 - Revere House Centennial & Longfellow (continued from page 1) house. He lived there off and on until 1800 that a culture could not survive without pre- with his mother, his wife Sarah (and after her serving reminders of its origin and charac- death, his wife Rachel), and many children. ter. With almost all new materials and VWX In the nineteenth century, the building Appleton’s counsel, Chandler restored the Friends of the Longfellow House was converted to a tenement with its ground exterior of the Revere house to its seven- Board of Directors floor serving as – at various – a cigar teenth-century appearance and the second Heather S. Moulton, President factory, a grocery store, and a bank. These floor interior to Revere’s occupancy. Besides Barclay Henderson, Clerk commercial uses caused extreme changes to Revere’s few possessions and other period Robert C. Mitchell, Treasurer the structure, many of which were never objects that the association installed, the Hope Cushing documented. The building fell into disre- patriot would not have recognized his house. Diana Der-Hovanessian pair as the surrounding neighborhood “[The house] now stands,” reported the Maura Graham Edward Guleserian became home to poor immigrants. In 1900 Boston Sunday Herald on April 19, 1908, “in the Elisabeth W. Hopkins all but four of the neighborhood’s wooden very inundation and overflow of a popula- Sarah B. Jolliffe dwellings from this era had been razed. tion foreign born and coming to us utterly Linda Almgren Kime In 1902 Paul Revere's great-grandson apart from all the , history, reli- Laura Nash bought the building to prevent its demoli- gion and tone of the North End of Boston Elizabeth F. Potter tion. Three years later several prominent in 1775.” Hoping to help Americanize the Lynne Spencer Bostonians – including Fanny Longfellow’s newcomers by introducing them to the icon nephew William Sumner Appleton Jr. – his uncle Henry Longfellow had created, Advisory Board organized the Paul Revere Memorial Asso- Appleton wanted the house to be “a con- Ruth Butler LeRoy Cragwell ciation. By 1907 the group had raised enough stant incentive to patriotic citizenship and Diana Korzenik money to buy and restore the old house. the study of our national .” He Richard Nylander In 1908 the association hired Joseph remade the house into a museum “which Stephen D. Pratt Everett Chandler, an architect particularly would draw visitors from all parts.” It was Marilyn Richardson interested in the seventeenth-century colo- one of the earliest historic house museums Marc Shell nial period who had restored Boston’s Old in the country and Appleton’s first com- Charles Sullivan State House the previous year. He believed pleted historic preservation project. Lowell A. Warren Jr. Administrator Longfellows in Historic Preservation (continued from page 1) J.L. Bell What a road, good heavens! And in what a the Society for the Preservation of New Newsletter Committee dilapidated, squalid condition we found England Antiquities (SPNEA), and she Glenna Lang, Editor, Writer & Designer there! fresh and beauti- became its president. (For more on James M. Shea ful but the spring, and the situation of the William Sumner Appleton Jr., see page 4.) house overlooking a bend of the Potomac.” Another of Alice’s cousins took part in opq In 1853 people concerned about the the historic preservation movement. In 1916 National Park Service decay of Washington’s long- planta- Alexander (Waddy) Wadsworth Longfellow Myra Harrison, Superintendent tion home organized the first American Jr., an architect who designed buildings in James M. Shea, Museum Manager historic preservation group, the Mount the Colonial Revival style, prepared sections Lauren Downing, Administrative Officer Vernon Ladies Association, and a move- and plans for the restoration of Boston’s first Nancy Jones, and Visitor Services ment was born. Comprised of women from Harrison Gray Otis House, which became Paul Blandford, Museum Educator many states, the association raised money and remains the headquarters for SPNEA Anita Israel, Archives Specialist and bought the deteriorating property. (now called Historic New England). Waddy David Daly, Collections Manager In 1880 Alice Longfellow joined the worked closely with Sumner on this restora- Lauren Malcolm, Museum Technician association and served as the vice-regent for tion and several others. Flo Smith, Management Assistant Massachusetts until she died in 1928. Using In her last years Alice also participated Liza Stearns, Education Specialist her own funds, she hired an architect to in the rehabilitation of the Wayside Inn, Scott Fletcher, Facility Manager restore the Mount Vernon library. She another landmark her father’s had acquired books for it and furnished it with made famous. She helped her friends Printed by Newprint Offset, Waltham, Mass. original or period pieces. Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer, Alice maintained her father’s Brattle and his wife, Clara, who had purchased the 1234 Street house after his death in 1882 and saw neglected building in 1923 in an effort to All images are from the Longfellow National Historic to it that the necessary modernizations to preserve this place of literary fame. Site collections, unless noted otherwise. the kitchen and bathrooms did not harm Alice’s nephew Richard H. Dana IV con- its historic integrity. In 1910 she helped her tinued the family interest in historic preser- cousin William Sumner Appleton Jr. vation. An architect in the Colonial Revival (known as Sumner) found the nation’s first style, he restored a number of eighteenth- regional historic preservation organization, century homes in Litchfield, Connecticut. - 2 Interview with a Friend…Meet Melanie Hall, Historic Preservation Professor A professor of art history, Melanie Hall was a British interest and an American father, his daughters, and [Henry’s sister] currently directs and teaches in Boston interest. That really piqued my curiosity. Anne Longfellow Pierce. The things that University’s Museum Studies program. Her Shakespeare’s birthplace had been made Longfellow and his sister wanted the chil- previous work included surveying historic famous byWashington Irving, who at that dren to see were those with religious and houses and towns for the Historic Monu- stage was working in the U. K. The second literary connotations – like Shakespeare’s ments and Buildings Commission in her greatest number of visitors (after the church and monument as well as his native England. She spoke with us in the British) to the birthplace were Americans. school. The children had brought with Longfellow carriage house. So then I began to wonder: Why were them books of poetry, and I could imag- Longfellow House: How did you be- Americans interested in the buildings that ine them going around and reading their come interested in historic preservation? they’re interested in? poems at the actual sites. Melanie Hall: I can’t remember a time Phineas T. Barnum, the American circus They also went to visit Wordsworth’s when I haven’t been interested in historic owner, had wanted to acquire Shakespeare’s house near Lake Windemere, and Alice was homes. I grew up in Yorkshire and made birthplace and take it to America, and, as not quite so enamored of Dove Cottage as regular trips to the Lake District. Bradford, she was of the performing acts that were tak- the city I grew up in, had a lot of beautiful ing place elsewhere around Lake Windemere. architecture in Ruskinian gothic. It was an She wrote in her diary with great enthusiasm industrial town, and a lot of other people about seeing an African dance and “eat raw in other parts of the country back then liver.” I began to think that possibly one of didn’t necessarily appreciate it as much as I the that the Lake District began to did. We had many immigrants in a short attract the interest of preservationists was space of time, so we became quite aware of because these more sensationalist entertain- other . I was always interested in ments were coming into the mix. This was a how literature, architecture, and painting parallel with the Shakespeare birthplace had helped shape cultures. because they didn’t want it touring around LH: Where did you study preservation? America with the circus. I began to think MH: I came to art history through a there were two sides to this story – that very circuitous route. I always had an inter- preservationists had one agenda and some- est in late nineteenth-century British litera- thing else that they were reacting against. ture as well as late nineteenth-century Ame- LH: How can we make house museums rican literature. I went to the University of relevant today? Leeds and studied , , MH: We have to think about how peo- history, and English and American litera- the newspapers of the day said, “trundle it ple learn things. Children learn so much ture before I found art history. At Leeds I around the country along with performing through the internet. Museums in general entered a program that no longer exists. It acts and wild beasts.” It was likely that are going to have to make far more use of took four students a year, and you spent helped act as a catalyst for the preservation the Web. Children now use avatars so they half the week at the University and half the movement. I thought there’s a story here, can fly around buildings or sites with the week in a historic house with an extraordi- although it might take me a while to god or goddess of their choosing. A num- nary collection. For me, art history, archi- unravel it. Because I’d come to America, I ber of house museums, including Sir John tectural history, buildings, and artifacts was in a phenomenal position to look at Soane’s Museum in London, have experi- have always felt like an integrated whole. archives in both countries. Little did I know mented with Web-based tours of the house. LH: How did you come to know the that this material is in a lot of small ar- You can go around the house and click on Longfellow House and its archives? chives, not one big national depository. objects to learn more about them. MH: I first came here as a research fel- LH: What did you discover? LH: It seems that many historic houses low in 2001, when I was looking at literary MH: After talking to Anita Israel [the today still function independently. homes in England. I wanted to find out Longfellow House archivist], I thought I MH: I’d like to see informational links about Longfellow’s interest in preserva- can start here and see how Longfellow’s between house museums through the Web, tion and his family’s tours of Britain. I had house was preserved. I knew that Longfel- so I am starting a project with our students become interested in why and how we visit low had gone to Britain and to Shake- at Boston University that aims to do exactly what we visit. I started by looking at the speare’s birthplace. I looked at Alice’s this. There are houses with correspondences origins of the National [in Eng- papers. She had the most fabulous diary of between them – such as the Longfellow land], and then I went back further – to a trip to Europe. It gave me an idea of what House, Dove Cottage, and Shakespeare’s Shakespeare’s birthplace. That was the places Americans planned to visit. She was birthplace – which are linked through first building that I could find that had traveling with her father, who was actually Longfellow’s tour. A student could research been purposefully preserved because of its interested in preservation in a very real way and write something for the Website of more association with a historic figure and and was a literary figure, and the sights than one house museum and create hyper- because it was a historic building. What they were going to were the true sights. I text links to one another. It would be a win- struck me as I was looking at these vari- was able to see this movement through the win situation for students and for historic ous buildings was that in every case there sets of eyes of a family in the 1860s – a houses. Like a Facebook of house museums. 3 - William Sumner Appleton, Founder of SPNEA n 1910 at age thirty-five, William Sumner Sea on Boston’s north shore, they installed again – Boston’s Old State House, this time IAppleton Jr., Henry Longfellow’s nephew architectural remnants, including an elabo- from sold and transported brick by by , conceived and up the Soci- rate central staircase, salvaged from the brick to Chicago for the World’s Fair. ety for the Preservation of New England eighteenth-century historic Hancock home. Inspired by the work of his aunt Alice Antiquities (SPNEA), the first regional his- In keeping with his Boston Brahmin and the others in the Mount Vernon Ladies toric preservation organization in the United upbringing, Sumner attended St. Paul’s Association, he joined the Association for States. For the rest of his life, he devoted School and Harvard College. At Harvard the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, but himself wholeheartedly to SPNEA (now he studied with Charles Eliot Norton, an criticized it for being more interested “in named Historic New England) and profes- art historian and close friend of British tablets and memorials” than the architecture sionalizing the preservation movement. critic John Ruskin. Norton appreciated of historic buildings. Also, the association Sumner, as he was called to distinguish archaeology, supported the Arts and Crafts worked through chapters, which Sumner him from his father with the same name, was felt dissipated the organization’s energies. born in 1874 at 39 Beacon Street on Boston’s He believed that historic buildings should Beacon Hill in a fashionable townhouse be “placed in the hands of permanent cor- built by his grandfather Nathan Appleton, porations” to guarantee their endurance. one of the founders of the textile-manufac- Frustrated by only a partial success at turing city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Na- saving the Harrington House in Lexington than Appleton had a great interest in geneal- (the owner agreed not to tear it down but ogy and heraldry, and belonged to the remodeled it extensively), Sumner decided Massachusetts Historical Society, the New to start an organization called the Society England Historic Genealogical Society, and for the Preservation of New England the American Antiquarian Society. Antiquities that would protect historic William Sumner Appleton Sr. lived off houses in all six New England states. He a trust from his father’s enormous wealth immediately requested measured drawings and shared a fascination for the antiquarian. of the original Harrington House before A founder in 1881 of the Bostonian Society its alterations, recruited wealthy and influ- (to save the Old State House), a member of ential members, and convinced the Massa- the American Historical Association, and chusetts legislature to pass a enabling an officer of the Massachusetts Historical SPNEA to own property tax free. Society, he and Nathan Appleton may have Before long Sumner began publishing a helped instill a for history and preser- regular SPNEA Bulletin with his thoughts vation in the young Sumner. William Sumner Appleton Jr. with his cousin on preservation as well as photos of saved During his youth Sumner spent long Priscilla Thorp on Greenings Island, Maine, 1914 and destroyed historic buildings in the periods of time living with his uncle and mo vement, and encouraged preservation of region. In its pages he railed against the inef- aunt Greely S. and Harriot Appleton Cur- the past. In a published essay, he bemoaned fectiveness of “one-house organizations.” tis and their ten children nearby at 28 the “lack of old homes in America.” By April 1911 SPNEA garnered three Mount Vernon Street. The Curtises la- Close to his Longfellow-descended hundred members in twenty states with mented the demolition in 1863 of the John cousins as well, Sumner spent part of his local offices in all six New England states Hancock house on Beacon Hill. In their summers on Greenings Island, Maine, with and held $3000 in its coffers. A year later it summer residence at Manchester-by-the- the Thorps, and others with the Danas in had acquired its first two colonial buildings Manchester. As an accomplished photog- – The Swett-Ilsley House (1670) in New- rapher, he often captured family events and bury and the Cooper-Frost-Austin House William Sumner Appleton Jr. the theatrical recreations the family enjoyed (1681) in Cambridge – and was working on to his cousin Anne Thorp, August 5, 1931: so much. After college he lived comfortably buying a third. When Sumner died in 1947, “I have been putting in a number of trips, here, but not extravagantly on money from his the society owned fifty-one properties. there, and everywhere, mostly by automobile grandfather’s trust. W. S. Appleton Jr. almost single-handedly in order to see some special objective. One of When it seemed that the Paul Revere changed historic preservation’s focus from the most entertaining trips was to Brooklyn, House might go the way of the John Han- valuing buildings only for their historical Conn., in order to have lunch with Mrs. cock house, Sumner joined with the gover- associations to an emphasis on architectural Theodore Roosevelt Sr., and see what I could nor, lieutenant governor, and other impor- , scientific method, and historical tell her about the probable architectural history tant leaders to defend it. “When a similar scholarship. He carefully inventoried historic of her own house. She was perfectly delightful question faced our fathers with reference to properties and used his photographic skills and living a most simple life, practically camp- the John Hancock house,” he wrote in 1905, to document them for SPNEA, thus estab- ing out in her own ancestral home the Presi- “they stood aside and let the famous house lishing a large archive. He developed the cri- dent never even set eyes on and the very exis- be pulled down.”As the secretary and pri- teria for determining whether to preserve a tence of which he probably knew nothing...” mary force of the Paul Revere Memorial building, and the guidelines and standards Association, he worked tirelessly. At the same for authentic restoration that are still used time he engaged in the fight to protect – once by professional preservationists today. - 4 Longfellow’s Poems Helped to Preserve Historic Places enry Wadsworth Longfellow spent a “village site” they later created in Dear- the tenth century. Of course I make tradi- Hlifetime writing verse, based on his- born, Michigan. They obtained the non- tion myself; and think I have succeeded in torical themes, that helped popularize and profit status that the inn operates under giving the whole a Northern air. You shall shape the nation’s image of its own past. today and were the judge soon, as it will The extraordinary success of such poetical last private owners probably be in the works as the Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), of the Wayside Inn. next Knickerbocker; “The Skeleton in Armor” (1841), and Henry’s daugh- and it is altogether “The Jewish Cemetery at Newport” (1854) ters Anne Longfel- too long to copy in a also made the settings of the poems famous low Thorp and Alice letter....” and inadvertently led to the preservation of Longfellow took on On July 9, 1852, particular sites. the role of advisors Longfellow visited In thinking about writing his collec- to Henry Ford on the Jewish Cemetery tion of poetic tales, Longfellow noted in his certain aspects of at Newport. “Went journal on October 11, 1862: “Write a little the inn’s restoration, Wayside Inn, Sudbury, Massachusetts, c. 1870 this morning,” he upon the Wayside Inn, – a beginning only.” and they provided him with important recorded that day in his journal, “into the The Wayside Inn – originally known as memorabilia. On January 18, 1926, Henry Jewish burying-ground, with a polite old Howe’s Tavern – in Sudbury, Massachu- Ford wrote to Annie Thorp: “I wish to gentleman who keeps the key. There are few setts, functioned as an inn from 1716 to 1861. thank you very sincerely for the frame con- graves; nearly all are low tombstones of mar- In 1862 Longfellow visited the well-known taining, in your father’s own handwriting, ble, with Hebrew inscriptions, and a few site for the first and only time and pub- the list of the story-tellers of the Wayside words added in English or Portuguese. At lished the Tales of a Wayside Inn the following Inn, with their real names shown opposite. the foot of each, the letters S. A. D. G. . It is year. The book met with You may be sure that this shall a shady nook, at the corner of two dusty, fre- resounding success. In always be treasured at the inn, quented streets, with an iron fence and a 1897 hoping to capital- for the sake of our gen- granite gateway, erected at the expense of ize on the famous work, erations.” Mr. Touro, of New Orleans. Over one of the Edward Rivers Lemon, a In 1955 fire destroyed much graves grows a weeping willow, – a grand- member of the Howe of the inn. It was recon- child of the willow over Napoleon’s grave in family, purchased the structed to an eighteenth-cen- St. Helena.”Two years later he remembered building associated with tury colonial appearance by his experience and wrote a sympathetic it. He restored and pre- the Ford Foundation. poem about the people and the place. served the structure’s In 1838 Henry Longfellow Newport was the home to the earliest colonial features and traveled to Newport, Rhode and most influential Jewish community in called it Longfellow’s Island, and Fall River, Massa- American history, and its Touro Synagogue Wayside Inn. Envision- chusetts, where he viewed a is the oldest existing synagogue in North ing the inn as a mecca skeleton with a crude armor America. Peter Harrison, the presumed for literary pilgrims, Old Stone Mill, Newport, R. I. that had been found on the architect of the Vassall-Craigie- Longfellow- Lemon operated it with shore years earlier. Inspired by House, designed the synagogue. In 1854 a his wife, Cora, until his death in 1919. Newport’s Old Stone Mill and the Fall financial gift from the Touro family enabled In 1923 Cora Lemon sold the inn to River skeleton, Longfellow plotted a poem the restoration of the synagogue and ceme- Henry and Clara Ford, who dramatically in his journal on May 24, 1839: “… my plan tery. Today the site made famous by Long- altered the site. They moved the one-room of a heroic poem on the Discovery of fellow’s poem still draws numerous visitors. Redstone School to the grounds, built the America by the Northmen, in which the grist mill and the Martha-Mary Chapel, Round Tower at Newport and the Skeleton and acquired some three thousand acres of in Armor have a part to .” Henry W. Longfellow’s journal, surrounding land. From 1928 to 1947, they On December 13, 1840, he wrote to his October 31, 1862: developed and operated a trade school for father: “I have been hard at work – for the “October ends with a delicious Indian-sum- boys and may have intended to build the most part wrapped up in my own dreams. mer day. Drive with Fields to the old Red Have written a translation of a German Horse Tavern in Sudbury, -alas, no longer ballad, and prepared for the press another an inn! A lovely valley; the winding road original ballad, which has been lying by me shaded by grand old oaks before the house. A some time. It is called ‘The Skeleton in rambling, tumble-down old building, two- Armor,’ and is connected with the Old hundred years old; till now in the family of Round Tower at Newport. This skeleton in the Howes, who have kept an inn for one y Leigh Hallett armor really exists. It was dug up near Fall hundred and seventy-five years. In the old River, where I saw it some two years ago time, it was a house of call for all travelers Photo b (when returning from Newport). I suppose from Boston westward.” it to be the remains of one of the North- Jewish Cemetery at Newport, Rhode Island, 2007 ern sea-rovers, who came to this country in 5 - The Courtship of Miles Standish Longfellow House in the Media ublished in 1858, The Courtship of Miles the Alden family occupied the Duxbury On March 28, 2008 the Cambridge Tab and PStandish, Longfellow’s romantic poem house . In 1907 it was purchased by a group ten other community newspapers in the about John Alden and Priscilla Mullins set of Alden family descendants called the greater Boston area carried an article enti- in seventeenth-century New England, made Alden Kindred to assure its preservation. In tled “Cambridge Tour Celebrates Poetry of the John Alden house in 2007 the house applied for and Longfellow” by Chris Bergeron. The story Duxbury, Massachusetts, expects to receive national register about NPS staff member Paul Blandford famous and also led to its designation as a historic landmark. and his career at the House also mentioned preservation. The couple Alden family descendant Tom the tours he lead with Jan Buerger and Deb became national icons of McCarthy said recently in an Stein, which focused on the Longfellows’ Pilgrim history, and the interview with the Duxbury Clip- art collection. house they lived in became per: “This property owes its l a historical shrine to the prominence to the national cul- As part of the “Big Read,”the National En- early settlers who had tural impact of The Courtship of dowment for the Arts in partnership with arrived on the Mayflower. Miles Standish. ... At the time, the Poetry Foundation published in Febru- In the late nineteenth Longfellow was the most popu- ary a Readers Guide and a Teacher’s Guide, and early twentieth cen- lar poet in the English-speaking The Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Long- turies, Longfellow’s poem world. He was Queen Victoria’s fellow is the first poet in America to be rec- was part of every child’s favorite poet, and when he put out a new ognized for this nationwide program. schooling. For adults it generated interest collection of poems, it would sell thousands in other places people associated with the of copies a day. When The Courtship of Miles Pilgrims and created curiosity about early Standish was released, it was immediately one American artifacts such as spinning wheels. of Longfellow’s most popular works, and Ultimately, it helped inspire the colonial people began searching for a connection to revival movement. the lives of Alden and Mullins. The public’s

Henry’s interest in the couple may have embrace of The Courtship and its incorpora- the Alden House Historic Site stemmed from his own relation to the tion into American made the sur- Aldens. He was the great, great, great, great, viving Alden House the most important great grandson of John and Priscilla Alden. physical site associated with John and His granddaughter Priscilla Alden Thorp Priscilla and a focus of ongoing national Photo courtesy of was named after her ancestor. interest, especially since descendants con- John Alden House, Duxbury, Massachusetts, c. 1960 For three hundred years generations of tinued to live in and own the house.” Fellowships Awarded Recent Visitors & Events at the House he Friends of the Longfellow House People from all walks of life have always come to the Longfellow House for cultural activities. Today Tawarded Sirpa Salenius the Paterson the House continues to host numerous people and events. The following items represent only a small Fellowship to work on her project about portion of what has taken place here recently. nineteenth-century American impressions and images of . Currently a lecturer Boston-based filmmaker Michael Van Devere premiered his film Ithaca in the carriage at the University of New Haven in Flo- house to honor Longfellow’s 201st birthday. Shot entirely in the House, the film was rence, Italy, and an editor for an Italian inspired by Longfellow’s “Wreck of the Hesperus” and “The Building of the Ship.” publisher’s series on the American presence r in nineteenth-century Italy, she will exam- Israeli filmmaker and concert pianist Ophra Yerushalmi came to the House in March ine Henry Longfellow’s books in Finnish to film part of her documentary on the nineteenth-century Hungarian composer or about Finland and Russia and also the Franz Liszt. She recorded former poet-laureate Robert Pinsky reading a few Longfel- Charles Longfellow papers in the House low poems in the study, including the “Musician’s Tale”from Tales of the Wayside Inn. archives. Finland’s national epic The r influenced . In April Sean Hennessey from Boston National Historical Park, Bill McGuire from Kirstie Blair, a Victorian poetry scholar the State Dept.’s Office of Broadcast Services, and Janos Molnar and Laszlo Racz of and lecturer in at the the Hungarian Television Company toured the House, viewed the Franz Liszt por- University of Glasgow, received the Kor- trait, Hungarian-language books, and a composition Liszt gave to Longfellow. zenik Fellowship for her project “In Safe r Hands?: Rereading Longfellow’s .” For the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, Marti Taub organized a six- After consulting the Longfellow House week series entitled “Tories, and Washington.” All but one of the classes library collection, Fanny Longfellow’s jour- took place at the House. Speakers included Bernard Bailyn, John Bell, Catherine nals, and Longfellow’s papers in Houghton S. Manegold, Ted Hansen, and the staff of the Longfellow House. Library, she plans to write about the im- portance of this epic poem to American lit- erature and culture. - 6 Dante Society Donates Library to Longfellow NHS From Homer to Henry he Dante Society of America recently In 1881 Longfellow, Lowell, and Charles n July the House will present a small Tmade the decision to donate to the Eliot Norton helped found the Dante Soci- Iexhibit exploring how ancient culture Longfellow National Historic Site its collec- ety of America, and they became the soci- informed and influenced the lives and work tion of books connected with its founders, ety's first three presidents. Dedicated to of the Longfellows. Called “From Homer its members, and its activities over the years. promoting the study of the works of Dante to Henry,” an array of family objects, pho- The approximately 125 volumes will comple- Alighieri, it has remained in con- tos, and drawings related to antiquity will ment Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s his- tinuously and is the second oldest officially be on display in the library. toric library of 222 Dante-related works. constituted organization in the world. The Longfellows cultivated a lifelong Longfellow’s library includes various editions For the third year in a row, the Dante interest in ancient civilizations and visited and translations of ’s writ- Society of America held its annual meeting important ancient sites in Europe, Africa, ings as well as biographies of and critical at the Longfellow House. “We consider the and Asia. Henry’s poetry often referred to works about the thirteenth-century bard. place where our organization was formed classical figures. His wife Fanny sketched Longfellow was one of the earliest Ame- so many years ago to be our home indeed,” Roman ruins in her journals. Their daugh- rican experts on the Italian pre-Renaissance Todd Boli, the secretary-treasurer of the ter Alice decorated the House with repli- poet’s works. With his friends and fellow society wrote to Jim Shea, Museum Man- cas of classical artwork, and their son writers – among them James Russell Low- ager of the site. Ernest painted such ancient icons as the ell, James T. Fields, and Oliver Wendell “To indicate how mindful we are of the Pyramids at Giza. Holmes – he painstakingly translated link between our society and the place of Dante’s The Divine from Italian into its origin, I would point to this year’s English before Italian literature had gained (2007) program, which featured presenta- the respect of the English-speaking world. tions of four distinguished scholars on the The group of scholars who met at importance of Longfellow’s life and works Longfellow’s home every Wednesday eve- to today’s Dante studies,” Boli said. ning for this purpose called themselves The Society members who attended the Dante Club. They worked on their project annual conference on May 16th viewed the for several years in the mid-1860s, often library that they deposited at the House. winding up the session with a fine meal that They were pleased that their legacy had lasted late into the night. passed “to so safe and fitting a home.” Ancient Roman earthenware oil lamp in the exhibit Teacher Workshop Highlights Paul Revere Recent Research at the House he Paul Revere House, the Boston The Longfellow House archives contain over 700,000 manuscripts, letters, and signed documents and TNational Historical Park, and the are used extensively by researchers from around the world. Here are a few recent researchers from Longfellow NHS offered a two-day work- among the several hundred who use the archives annually. shop in March and April for elementary- school teachers on “The Revolutionary War Harvard professor of comparative literature Theo D’Haen is examining how the nine- in Poetry, Prose, and Primary Sources.” teenth-century Flemish poet-priest Guido Gezelle may have used Longfellow's poetry Beginning at the Paul Revere House to help forge a Flemish national and how Longfellow used Flemish material with Robert Lawson’s classic children’s for his own poetic and scholarly purposes. He looked at Flemish books in Longfel- book Mr. Revere and I – an account of the low’s library, including Gezelle’s translation of The Song of Hiawatha, which contained a patriot as told by his horse – the partici- letter from Longfellow authorizing the translation and commenting on it. pants looked at portraits, genealogical l records, and primary sources to determine For his work on nineteenth-century Russian-American cultural studies, Professor the accuracy of Lawson’s portrayals. A Richard Scheuerman from Seattle Pacific University was interested in any materials walking tour revealed sites in the book. related to Charley Longfellow’s and Nathan Appleton Jr.’s trip to Russia in 1866-67, The teachers learned that Revere’s ride to or to Longfellow’s volume on Russian poetry in his Poems of Places. Lexington was the shortest he ever made as l a messenger. He also traveled on horseback Musicologist Harald Herresthal came from Norway to research documents per- to New York, Philadelphia, and Portsmouth, taining to Ole Bull’s second wife, Sara Thorp Bull, sister of Annie Longfellow’s hus- New Hampshire. Through primary sources band, Joseph Chapman Thorp Jr. Herresthal is completing the last two volumes of they researched why a silversmith, who did his four-volume biography of the Norwegian violinist and composer. not own a horse, was chosen as a courier. l At the Longfellow House they heard Professor Nick Havely, an authority on Dante’s reception in English-speaking coun- “Paul Revere’s Ride” (with recently discov- tries, is organizing a major conference on Dante in his native York, England, this com- ered excised lines) and discussed the poem’s ing July. He looked at books by and about Dante in Longfellow’s library and researched accuracy with historian Charles Bahne and papers connected with Longfellow’s translation of Dante and The Dante Club. explored what inspired Longfellow to write it. 7 - potlight on an bject nS each issue of the newsletter,O we Longfellow National Historic Site, National Park Service Ifocus on a particular object of inter- Longfellow National Historic Site joined the national park system in 1972. Its est in the Longfellow House collection. many layers of history, distinguished architecture, gardens and grounds, and exten- This time our spotlight shines on the sive museum collections represent the birth and flowering of our nation and con- rare surviving English (top tile below) tinue to inspire school children and scholars alike. The Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow and Dutch (bottom tile below) tiles House most notably served as headquarters for General George Washington in the around the Blue room fireplace. early months of the Revolutionary War. It was later the home of Henry Wadsworth The forty-eight tiles in this room all Longfellow, one of America’s foremost poets, and his family from 1837 to 1950. date from the eighteenth-century and have remained in place in the Blue Room since then. George and Martha Wash- For about the Longfellow House and a virtual tour, visit: ington occupied this room in 1775-1776, www.nps.gov/long and Longfellow used it first as his bed- room and later as the children’s nursery. Two other second-floor bedrooms s contain eighty-six more original tiles. Friends of the Longfellow House John Sadler and Guy Green of Liverpool printed the monochromatic English tiles Since 1996, the Friends of the Longfellow House, a not-for-profit voluntary group, between 1756 and 1761. Some of the tiles has worked with the National Park Service to support Longfellow National Historic are signed “J. Sadler, Liverpool.” Ten Site by promoting scholarly access to collections, publications about site history, polychromatic Dutch tiles throughout educational visitor programs, and advocacy for the highest preservation. the rooms probably replaced tiles dam- aged during the Revolutionary War. To find out more about the Friends of the Longfellow House, visit: In Longfellow’s 1845 poem “To A www.longfellowfriends.org Child,” he wrote about the tiles: Thou gazest at the painted tiles, Whose figures grace, With many grotesque form and face The ancient chimney of thy nursery. Friends of the Longfellow House 105 Brattle Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138