sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bayard Taylor, Hiawatha and Minnehaha, Robert Gould, The Death of Minnehaha, The Song of Hiawatha

on fellow ous L g ulletinH e Volume 5 No. 1 A Newsletter of the Friends of the Longfellow House and the June 2001 New Study ExaminesThe Song of HiawathaB as Controversial Bestseller atthew Gartner’s recent work on noted in his journal: “Some of the MH.W. Longfellow’s most popular newspapers are fierce and furious about poem asserts that The Song of was Hiawatha,” and a few weeks later, he both a bestseller and a subject of contro- wrote, “There is the greatest pother versy as soon as it was published, and about Hiawatha. It is violently assailed, quickly became a cultural phenomenon. and warmly defended.” The historian Gartner, who is writing a book called The William Prescott, a friend of Longfel- Poet Longfellow: A Cultural Interpretation, will low’s, wrote the poet from New York of present his findings and analysis this July “the hubbub that Hiawatha has kicked up at the Society for the History of Author- in the literary community.” ship, Reading, and Publishing. At the heart of the controversy lay When Hiawatha was first published in Longfellow’s decision to use a poetic 1855 it sold rapidly. With an initial print- meter called “trochaic dimeter.” The ing of five thousand volumes, four thou- George H. Thomas illustration, , , 1859 nineteenth century was an age of great sand were already sold as of its November nationwide by 1858, making it not only sensitivity to the art of prosody, or poetic 10 publication date. By mid-December Longfellow’s best-selling poem ever, but, meter, and Longfellow surely knew Hiawa- eleven thousand volumes were in print. arguably, the best-selling American poem tha’s success would, to a large extent, depend Longfellow’s publisher, James T. Fields, of the century. on how this seldom-used meter was received announced in January that they were sell- Controversy over the poem began and whether it was deemed suitable for his ing three hundred copies a day.Forty-three almost immediately. Less than two weeks book-length treatment of an Indian legend. thousand copies of Hiawatha had sold after Hiawatha’s publication, Longfellow (continued on page 2) House Loans Bierstadt’s “Departure of Hiawatha” for Exhibitions lbert Bierstadt’s “Departure of Hia- Minister William Gladstone himself. which will bring together works of art de- Awatha,”which usually hangs in the din- From August 7 to October 14, 2001, the picting American heroes, heroines, and hero- ing room of the Longfellow House, can be painting will be on loan to the National ism, and the shaping of American myth. seen in two major museums this summer. Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, for their “American Heroism” was developed to A German-born American and Hudson exhibition entitled “American Heroism,” promote cultural exchanges between the River School painter, Bierstadt is United States and Japan. The idea famous for his large, panoramic for the exhibition originated during views of the American West. a conversation between the former Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi received this small, brightly colored Murayama and President Clinton. oil painting as a gift from the artist From November 2001 until Feb- at a dinner party held in his honor ruary 2002, “Departure of Hia- by the artist and his wife at the watha” will be part of “Primal Langham Hotel in London on the Visions: ‘Discov- 9th of July 1868. Longfellow was in ers’ America, 1859-1893” at the to receive an honorary Montclair Art Museum in New degree from Cambridge University. Jersey. Afterward, the exhibit will Among those attending the dinner travel to the Columbus Museum of were the poet Robert Browning, the Art in Columbus, Ohio, and the painter Edwin Landseer, members Crocker Art Museum in Sacra- of the British Parliament, and Prime Departure of Hiawatha by Albert Bierstadt, 1868 mento, . 1 - Hiawatha (continued from page 1) The case against Hiawatha claimed that Wooing” was read to audiences at the VWX the meter was a poetical straitjacket, too Boston Theater as an encore. Hiawatha “has Friends of the Longfellow House stiff to allow the to reflect modula- been recited (in part) before crowded audi- Board of Directors tions in the feeling and mood of its story. ences of our people,” noted Putnam’s later Barclay Henderson, President Putnam’s Magazine of December 1855 de- that year, and a gossip column in Harper’s Edith Hollmann Bowers, Vice President clared: “We do not believe that any man asked acidly, “Have we great things to boast Robert Mitchell, Clerk can read ten pages of The Song of Hiawatha, of in this good year of our Lord 1856, if we Charlotte , Treasurer in a natural, unforced manner, without lift- set aside the ad nauseam singings of Hia- Frances Ackerly ing his voice into a canter”—in other watha, and plenty of beef in the New York Peter Ambler words, the reader must clop through market?” The proliferation of Hiawatha- Hans-Peter Biemann Hiawatha like a horse with an unvaried gait. inspired performances, place names, and Gene A. Blumenreich The opposition argued that Hiawatha was paraphernalia of all sorts was just begin- Polly Bryson Dick Dober written in the best possible measure for ning. Already by 1857, for instance, a Mis- Nancy Fryberger such a poem and deferred to Longfellow’s sissippi steamboat was named “The Hia- Victor Gulotta own explanation: watha” and another “The .” Abigail Housen Ye who love a nation’s legends, Not all the Hiawatha spin-offs were Diana der Hovanessian Love the ballads of a people, favorable. The poet Bayard Taylor, a few Carol Johnson That, like voices from afar off, weeks after the poem’s release, felt the need Marilyn Richardson Call to us to pause and listen, to reassure Longfellow in a letter, “It will Lynne Spencer Speak in tones so plain and childlike be parodied, perhaps ridiculed, in many Susan Wood Scarcely can the ear distinguish quarters, but it will live after the Indian race Advisory Board Whether they are sung or spoken; — has vanished from our Continent, and there Ruth Butler Listen to this Indian Legend, will be no then.” By February 1856 LeRoy Cragwell To this Song of Hiawatha! Longfellow noted with equanimity in his Diana Korzenik The poet and translator Thomas W. Par- journal, “Hiawatha parodies come in from Richard Nylander sons agreed, finding that “[t]he measure is all quarters,—even from California.” Stephen D. Pratt monotonous,—admitted; but it is truly Hiawatha marked an important turning Marc Shell Indian. It is child-like, and suited to the point in Longfellow’s career—the begin- Charles Sullivan Lowell A. Warren, Jr. savage ear.” The North American Review, de- ning of a split in public opinion regarding Eileen Woodford claring that “[t]he essential characteristic his work. The New England literary estab- of Indian life, and so of Indian literature, lishment backed Longfellow’s message of Newsletter Committee is that it is childlike,” likewise approved of reassurance and refinement, as did many Marilyn Richardson, Editor Hiawatha’s controversial meter. Despite American readers across the social spec- Glenna Lang, Designer James M. Shea these stereotypes, Hiawatha was the first trum. But an increasing number of readers long American poem in which Native in a rapidly changing country on the eve of opq American legends and heroes were given civil war no longer found Longfellow the center stage. innovative American poet he had been in National Park Service Longfellow’s meter had been attacked the late 1830s.With Hiawatha the debate over Myra Harrison, Superintendent previously in , which adapted the Longfellow’s reputation began, and it con- James M. Shea, Site Manager Greek and Latin hexameter, but this time tinues to this day. Paul Blandford, Museum Educator his subject matter stirred up controversy as Liza Stearns, Education Specialist well. George William Curtis, Longfellow’s Janice Hodson, Museum Curator friend and supporter, defended the poem Anita Israel, Archives Specialist Peggy Clarke, Museum Technician against criticism that went beyond the met- Ed Bacigalupo, Chief of Maintenance rical and poetical. He summed up the Pat LaVey, Facility Manager charges: “It is adjudged pointless and unin- teresting. It is thought to be a hopeless attempt to invest Indian tradition with the Unless otherwise cited, all photos, art, and objects pictured in the Longfellow House Bulletin dignity and pathos of a true human ro- are from the Longfellow House collections. mance. It is voted an unfortunate subject, and the simplicity of the treatment is con- sidered to be too simple.” Printed by Newprint Offset, Waltham, Mass. Hiawatha, however, became an overnight cultural phenomenon, read and satirized extensively. In March 1856, according to Longfellow’s journal, the actress Grace 1234 Darling was “reading Hiawatha to crowded houses in ,” and “Hiawatha’s - 2 Interview with a Friend…Meet Marilyn Richardson Marilyn Richardson is a member of the itself. Both North and South could hold material and publishing articles on the nine- Board of the Friends of the Longfellow this idea of the Indian as the Other. Hia- teenth-century Afro-Indian artist Edmonia House and also editor of this newsletter. watha was published only three years after Lewis. She was the first black American to Because of her scholarship in nineteenth- Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Longfellow was writing at gain an international reputation as a sculp- century American culture and her forth- the height of the fury over the Fugitive tor. She lived in Rome at the period of the coming book on , we Slave Law of 1850 when blacks in the North ascendancy of an international group of thought it was time to turn the interiewer’s were at the mercy of bounty hunters and independent women artists, centered on the microphone towards her for this special could in no way be mythologized. Stowe actress Charlotte Cushman, who led lives of issue of the Bulletin and Longfellow offer two very different great determination and success. Lewis was Longfellow House:Why an issue of the views of elements of the American popu- unusual in that she was a black artist, but Bulletin devoted to The Song of Hiawatha? lation that could never be digested. All of she was fortunate in arriving in Rome at Marilyn Richardson: The rhythm of the characters in the poem and their history that era of women—Harriet Hosmer, Anne the poem and the names Hiawatha and are trapped in the rhythms of the meter Whitney, Emma Stebbins, among them Minnehaha are there in our consciousness —figures in literary aspic. The meter is, of —making their names and their livings as as we grow up. The poem has managed to course, drawn from an oral tradition which artists. She began her professional career in establish itself in a corner of the American is one of the reasons why it was such a huge Boston where she knew many of Longfel- psyche. Beyond that, it is internationally low’s friends—Emerson, Garrison, Sumner recognized in more than forty languages. —if not the man himself. They met in The publication of the new edition of Rome where she made the lovely bust of Longfellow’s collected works seemed an Longfellow that is now at Harvard. opportunity to explore aspects of the LH: Was she affected by the Hiawatha poem’s significance. craze? LH: Do you think people still read it MR: Lewis, along with so many other today or do they just know it in a vague way? artists, produced scenes from The Song of MR: Last spring I was in France and Hiawatha, which sold well in the all-but- turned on the BBC one evening and heard insatiable market for such pieces. She was a the concluding moments of a half-hour prolific artist whose studio was a well- recitation with music of passages from The known stop for visitors on the Grand Tour, Song of Hiawatha. I was certainly surprised, many of whom ordered busts of themselves but it seemed to be a bit of commonly held or of significant contemporary figures for Anglo-American culture that was simply their front parlors. In other pieces she drew part of that evening’s line-up. on history, the Bible, and Greek and Ro- LH: Some of your thoughts on the man mythology. Among her larger works, influence of the poem? theatrical success, both in costumed per- the “Death of Cleopatra” was a great suc- MR: Longfellow made his Indians both formances and staged readings. cess at the Philadelphia Centennial Expo- exotic and romantic, but not particularly LH: You taught at UMass/Boston and sition and is now one of at least half a threatening. They were also so completely at MIT for many years. Then you were dozen Lewises owned by the Smithsonian Other that there was no question of incor- curator at the African Meeting House and American Art Museum. porating them into the body politic, let the Museum of Afro American History on A carte de visite photograph of Lewis was alone into the larger social context of an Beacon Hill. What are you involved in now? in one of the Longfellow family albums evolving nation. Indians were quintessen- MR: I have a small consulting group from their travels in the late 1860s. It’s one tially non-urban—Longfellow encouraged called African-Americana. I work with of the joys of working in the House archives his readers to imagine them as our national museums, historical societies, libraries, and that over the generations the family’s lively noble savages. While some figures in the tale teacher-training organizations. Our empha- interests led to the gathering of materials are wild and dangerous, Hiawatha is domes- sis is on African American intellectual his- that come together in extraordinary ways. ticated by his passion for Minnehaha. As a tory including literature, the arts, and polit- LH: How did you join the Board of the couple, they are so widely known that they ical activism from the Colonial era through Friends of the Longfellow House? rank with George and Martha. Reconstruction. I develop exhibitions, give MR: I was first invited to join the Board In the way it was taken up by artists of slide presentations, and conduct work- by Diana Korzenik whose work I admired, all sorts, popularizers, children’s writers shops documenting and explicating the and of course the deal was sealed by Jim and such, The Song of Hiawatha was a precur- black presence in virtually every aspect of Shea’s spectacular tour which touched upon sor of the movie Westerns. The Indians American life from the Colonial period to so many of my interests. That tour even that Hopalong Cassidy or the Lone Ranger the late nineteenth-century. turned up a photo of a close friend of encountered were essentially the same as LH: You have an essay in the recent Lewis’s in Rome, Isabel Cholmondeley, those Longfellow wrote about but with the book Hope & Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the whose picture I had been seeking for many emphasis on savage rather than noble. 54th Massachusetts Regiment on one of your years. There she was in one of the albums! They were also a shared American fan- favorite subjects. Clearly, this was the board I really wanted to tasy in a country about to go to war with MR: For many years I’ve been gathering (continued on page 9) 3 - Longfellow’s Early Interest in Indians ong before Henry Longfellow ever be- looks over the “populous haunts of man.” marched out of City Hall; and another was Lgan writing The Song of Hiawatha in 1854, Not only was Longfellow interested in smoking a cigar! Withal, they looked very he had been interested in the character, cus- the plight of the Indians, but a decade later formidable. Hard customers...” toms, and plight of Native Americans. as a linguist and master of over twelve lan- In February 1849, Longfellow had ano- As a child growing up in , Long- guages, he was intrigued by and wrote ther opportunity to meet a Native Ameri- fellow had little acquaintance with Indians, about the Native American tongues as well. can without leaving his home. Kah-ge-ga- but he came into contact with a few mem- He wrote to his Danish friend Carl Christ- gah-bowh had come to Boston to lecture. bers of the Algonquin tribe who still sur- ian Rafn on April 23, 1837: Longfellow described him in his journal as vived in the state. Mainly, Longfellow first “I had the pleasure of receiving yesterday “an Ojibway preacher who came to see us. learned about the Indians from written the Report of the Society [of the Northern The Indian is a good-looking man. He left sources. When he was sixteen and a student Antiquaries], addressed to its British and me a book of his, an autobiography.” at Bowdoin College, he prepared a presen- American Members. In return I send you a “The Ojibway chief ” as Longfellow tation called “English Dialogue Between a paper on the Indian Languages of North called him in his journal on April 12, 1849 North American Savage and an English America, not yet published. It will appear in gave “A rambling talk, gracefully delivered, Emigrant” together with another student. the Review for July next. By send- with a fine various voice and a chief ’s cos- He chose the role of the Indian and read a ing it now, you will get it probably some tume, with bells jangling upon it, like the number of books on the subject. On bells and pomegranates of the Jewish November 9, 1823, he wrote in a letter to his priests.”Two days later the poet entered in mother of his excitement at reading an his journal that he had seen him again at account by a missionary who had lived the new Athenaeum: “Evening, Kah-ge-ga- among various Indian tribes: gah-bowh again on ‘The Religion, Poetry, “Since I wrote you last I have read but and Eloquence of the Indian,’ more ram- one volume. That is Heckewelder’s Account bling than ever, though not without good of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian passages. He described very graphically the Natives of and the Neighboring States. wild eagles teaching their young to fly from This is a very interesting volume, and ex- a nest overhanging a precipice on the Pic- hibits in a new and more agreeable light the tured Rocks of .” character of this reviled and persecuted Longfellow wrote to his friend Ferdi- race. It appears from this account of them nand Freiligrath, a German poet who trans- and their customs (and I see no reason why lated some of Henry’s works into German, he should not be relied upon as correct, on June 12, 1850 to tell him about Kah-ge- since he passed the greater part of a long ga-gah-bowh: “Let me have the pleasure of life amongst the Indians) that they are a Chief Rain-in-the-Face (see poem on page 10) introducing my friend Kah-ge-ga-gah- race possessing magnanimity, generosity, months in advance. Pray let me know in bowh, an American Indian Chief of the benevolence, and pure religion without what way I can be useful to you here.“ Ojibway nation, whose English name is hypocrisy. This may seem a paradox, but Later in 1837 in Washington, D.C., a George Copway. You will rejoice to take nevertheless I believe it true. They have peace conference between the Fox and him by the hand, and talk with him of the been most barbarously maltreated by the Sioux tribes took place. Among the dele- grand forests of his native land. I shall whites, both in word and deed. gates was Black Hawk, the famous Sauk make him promise to sing to you some of “Their ‘outrages’—what ear has not Chief. After the treaty was signed on Octo- the mournful musical songs of his nation. heard of them a thousand times?—whilst ber 21, 1837, the delegates took a tour of In return you shall show him the Cathedral the white people, who rendered their cruelty metropolitan areas, including Boston where and the skulls of the Eleven thousand Vir- more cruel, their barbarity more vindictive, Longfellow met them. In a letter to Mar- gins of Cologne, and all that remains of publish abroad their crimes and thank garet Potter, his first wife’s sister, on Octo- Melchior, Casper and Balthasar. Heaven that they are not like these heathen!” ber 29, 1837, he described his encounter: “Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh is on his way to Some of Longfellow’s earliest poems “There are Indians here; savage fellows the Peace Convention at Frankfurt. He concerned Indians. In fact, in his first —one Black-Hawk and his friends, with goes with calumet in his hand. You he al- known poem written when he was thirteen, naked shoulders and red blankets wrapped ready knows by sight, having seen your por- “The Battle of Lovell’s Pond,”Captain John about their bodies; the rest all grease and trait hanging on the wall of my study, And Lovell and the Indians battle for a day at Spanish brown and vermillion. One carries he also is a Poet, which will be another rec- Lovell’s Pond, a place Longfellow knew in a great war-club, and wears horns on his ommendation to you.” his youth. In 1825 he wrote several more head; another has his face painted like a Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the great eth- poems about Indians, including “Lover’s grid-iron, all in bars;—another is red, like nologist who had worked as an Indian Agent Rock” in which an Indian maiden set to be a lobster; and another black and white, in for the Upper Region and mar- married discovers her intended is “false- great daubs of paint, laid on not sparingly. ried an Ojibway woman, had an enormous hearted” and throws herself off Lover’s Queer fellow! One great champion of the influence on the future chronicler of Hia- Rock. The central character in “The Indian Fox nation had a short pipe in his mouth, watha. In 1839 Longfellow read the first of Hunter” (1825) has “bitter feelings” as he smoking with great self-complacency as he Schoolcraft’s thirty books on Indians. From - 4 his Algic Researches, Longfellow learned the Visions of The Song of Hiawatha legends of the on which he based ineteenth-century artists of every kind called the Chippewa, and she felt herself The Song of Hiawatha. He shared Schoolcraft’s Nfound The Song of Hiawatha an almost strongly imbued with the influences of both admiration for Indian handicrafts and cus- irresistible source of inspiration. Com- Indian and African-American history and toms. He even sent a number of his friends posers, dancers, and actors, all interpreted culture. Following studies at Oberlin Col- moccasins, baskets of birch bark worked aspects of the poem to the delight of lege in Ohio, Lewis arrived in Boston in early with wampum, and other objects. On March knowledgeable and enthusiastic audiences. 1863 with letters of introduction to William 15, 1843 Longfellow wrote to Freiligrath: Painters and sculptors found eager buyers Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists, “With this I send you a small package, for scenes or figures from the heroic idyll black and white. Working in Boston’s Studio containing Indian moccasins, and other for their walls and mantels. Over time Building at Tremont and Bromfield streets, Indian matters from Canada...all done by the Hiawatha himself and his beloved Mine- Lewis studied with sculptors Edward Brack- brown fingers of Indian girls, on the banks haha became the most popular subjects ett and, briefly, Anne Whitney. of the St. Lawrence, and within sound of the from the tale. They were depicted by some Lewis soon gained recognition for her roaring Niagara...the black moccasins..., the of the greatest artists of the age, by firms portrait busts and terra cotta medallions of bracelets,...the card case. They are mere tri- dealing in the mass pro- the champions of the fles, but they will remind you of me; and the duction of prints, and anti-slavery cause, western world; and perchance give rise to a by famous illustrators including Sen. Charles “savage poem” in your teeming brain. Speak- hired to embellish the Sumner, Maria Wes- ing of savage poems you may like to see one. flood of editions of the ton Chapman, and the Here it is; written by a Choctaw and trans- poem. martyred John Brown. lated by a gentleman of Mississippi.” Frie- Many of the artists, It was her memorial ligrath translated this poem into German such as Augustus Saint- bust of Robert Gould and titled it “Lied der Alten Tschaktas.” Gaudens, would have Shaw, however, that In 1847 Congress commissioned School- known the poem from sold enough copies craft’s monumental six-volume work on the childhood. His first life- and photographs to Indian tribes of the U.S., which was pub- size sculpture was an help finance a trip t Museum) lished between 1851 and 1857. In a letter to 1872 depiction of Hia- abroad. She settled in his close friend Senator on watha as a pensive youth Rome with frequent June 25, 1854 H.W. Longfellow eagerly in the wild. Two years trips to the United wrote: “Can you in any way get a copy of later, Thomas Eakins States to exhibit and Schoolcraft’s great work on the Indians pub- painted Hiawatha’s vic- sell her work. By the

lished by the Gov’t. Was it among the works tory over the corn-god, (Smithsonian American Ar mid-1870s, Lewis had distributed by Members of Congress? There securing the gift of “The Old Arrowmaker and His Daughter” become the first black are some three or four large vols. Pray bear maize for his people: by Edmonia Lewis American to achieve it in mind and help me if you can.” “All alone stood Hia-watha, /Panting with an international reputation as a major Longfellow finished his epic poem in 1855. His wild exertion, /Palpitating with the sculptor. The following year, encouraged by the suc- struggle: /And before him, breathless, life- Following the Civil War, Lewis produced cess of Hiawatha, Schoolcraft issued an ex- less, /Lay the youth with hair disheveled important work on themes of black eman- panded edition of one of his books and ded- /Plumage torn and garments tattered, cipation including “Forever Free,” a depic- icated it to Longfellow, with a new title: The /Dead he lay there in the sunset.” tion of newly liberated slaves, and a bust of Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mytho- Art historian Cynthia D. Nickerson Abraham Lincoln. Among her best-selling logical and Allegoric, of the North American Indians. describes how Currier & Ives, a firm that sel- works were a series of scenes from The Song dom illustrated literary subjects, published Of Hiawatha such as the “Old Arrowmaker prints of seven scenes from “the American and his Daughter,” “The Marriage of Hia- epic.” Beginning as early as 1858 they pro- watha and Minnehaha,” and busts of the duced “Hiawatha’s Wedding,” “The Death two lovers. Collectors considered that work of Minnehaha,” and “Hiawatha’s Depar- all the more desirable coming from the hand ture” among other vignettes. Over the gen- of a sculptor who was part Indian. erations, great illustrators from Frederick In the late 1860s, Longfellow visited Remington to N.C. Wyeth kept dramatic Rome. Lewis sketched the famous poet scenes from Longfellow’s pen before the eyes unaware from a discreet distance. Samuel of millions of readers. Longfellow, hearing of this subterfuge, vis- One artist claimed a particular connec- ited Lewis’s studio and was impressed by tion to both the work and, ultimately, the her work on a bust of his brother. When ersity) v author. Edmonia Lewis was born in upstate Henry then came to the studio, he pro- New York in the early 1840s, the daughter of nounced the piece a fine likeness and sat for d Uni var a part Ojibway mother and a Haitian-born- the completion of the marble portrait. It

(Har father. Some of her childhood was spent was soon acquired by Harvard College Bust of Longfellow by Edmonia Lewis among her mother’s relatives, commonly where it remains to this day. 5 - One Hundredth Anniversary: Alice Longfellow’s Account of the Visit to Hiawatha’s People pril 6, 2001 marked the one hundredth anniver- birch bark, in Ojibway, and was as follows: grouped around this were tepees and huts Asary of Alice Longfellow’s account of her party’s forming the Indian village. Behind this the visit to the Ojibway people, the subjects of her father’s LADIES:We loved your father. The memory of our ground sloped gradually upward, forming famous poem. The visit and the open-air performance people will never die as long as your father’s song lives, a natural amphitheatre. the Ojibways prepared for their guests took place along and that will live forever. the north shore of Lake Huron not far from Des- Will you and your husbands and Miss barats, Ontario, a tiny hamlet on the Canadian Longfellow come and see us and stay in our Pacific Railroad. The following is an excerpt from the royal wigwams on an island in Hiawatha’s introduction by Alice M. Longfellow to the 1901 playground, in the land of the Ojibways? We Riverside Press edition of Henry Wadsworth Longfel- want you to see us live over again the life of low’s The Song of Hiawatha. Her original Hiawatha in his own country. manuscript resides in the Longfellow House archives. KABAOOSA

In the winter of 1900 a band of Ojibway The invitation was cordially ac- Indians was formed to illustrate Indian life cepted, and in August the party of at the Sportsmen’s Show in Boston. Among guests, twelve in all, left the train at them was the old chief Bukwujjinini, and Desbarats on the north shore of Lake one of the inducements he had to take the Huron; there they were met by the Old Nokomis with little Hiawatha in the 1901 performance journey was the hope of visiting the home Indians in full costume, and in sailboat and As a prelude to the play a large pile of of the writer who had cared enough for the canoes they set forth for the little rocky brushwood was lighted…. Down the hill- legends of his people to turn them into island, which had been prepared for them. sides rushed the braves in war paint and poetry. But this could not be, for feathers…. After listening to the com- the old man, who was over mands of the Great Spirit, the warriors ninety, fell ill, and died on the threw down their weapons and war-gear very day the Indians were to set and, leaping into the lake, washed the war- forth, and they took their jour- paint from their faces. Then they seated ney without their father, and themselves and smoked the peace-pipe. with genuine sorrow in their The second scene showed old Nokomis hearts. before her wigwam, singing a lullaby to the For some time the Canadian little Hiawatha in his linden cradle. Then, gentleman who arranged the the scene changing, Nokomis led the boy expedition had been cherishing Hiawatha out upon the stage and taught the idea of training the Indians him how to shoot the bow and arrow, while to perform scenes from “Hia- the warriors stood around watching and watha” in the forest on the applauding when he hit the mark. shores of the “big sea water.” A fierce encounter from the 1901 performance of Hiawatha The fourth scene was the journey of Kabaoosa readily fell in with this scheme, There was a square stone lodge on the high- Hiawatha in his manhood after his battle and after the visit of the Indians to Mr. est part of the island, most picturesquely with Mudjekeewis, a picturesque figure Longfellow’s home in Cambridge the plan finished inside and out, with the flag of striding through the woods flecked with rapidly matured and a formal invitation was England floating above it. Surrounding this sunshine and shadow…. sent to Mr. Longfellow’s family to be pre- were several tepees of tanned hide and The wigwam of the ancient arrow- sent at the representation as guests of the stained canvas, and nearer the shore two lit- Indians. The invitation was written on tle groups of tents, where two Indian fami- lies lived, who cooked and served, sailed the boats, entertained their guests with songs, dancing, and story- telling, doing all with quiet dignity, ease of manner, and genuine kindliness that re- moved every difficulty. The play of “Hiawatha” was performed on a rocky, thickly wooded point about two miles away. Near the shore a platform was built Ojibway performance of Hiawatha. with stage and onlookers, 1901 around a tall pine-tree, and Minnehaha and Hiawatha in the 1901 Ojibway performance - 6 ow’s Account of the Visit to Hiawatha’s People maker was placed far from the rest in the father had written in poetry the leg- shade of the trees, to give an idea of dis- ends of his people, and with pride tance. The arrow-maker, himself, a very old produced a large silver medal given man, sat by the entrance, cutting arrow- to his ancestors by King George III heads; his daughter, a modest Indian as a pledge that their rights should maiden, stood beside him with downcast be respected. “And,” he said, “he eyes, while the stran- told us that as long as the ger paused to talk sun shone, the Indians with her father. should be happy, but I see This scene was the sun shining, and I do followed by the re- not think Indians always turn of Hiawatha to happy. But the medal he the land of the Da- told us always to wear kotahs. Again the when with persons of dis- old man sat in the tinction;” and with great Performance stage overlooking the Lake Huron doorway, and by dignity the old man slipped the never tire, and the following day came the him wasMinnehaha, medal with its broad blue ribbon farewells….With many regrets the party “plaiting mats of around his neck, looking proud turned their faces eastward, while the Indi- flags and rushes.” and happy…. ans accompanied their farewells with a She stood modestly A few days before the end of parting dance. on one side while the visit, the Indians were busy Hiawatha urged his building a small platform on the And they said, ‘Farewell forever!’ suit…. island, and decorating it with Said, ‘Farewell, O Hiawatha.’ Then came the green boughs, doing everything wedding dances, full A young Indian woman with much secrecy. After sunset, Editor’s note: The Indians had been assisted in of life and spirit, the figures moving al- when the fire was lighted on the rocks near this unique undertaking by a Montreal gentleman, ways round and round in a circle, with a by, the Indians assembled together, and Mr. L.O. Armstrong. He had been much among them, swaying motion, the feet scarcely lifted Kabaoosa as the spokesman announced that and was himself an ardent admirer of Longfellow’s from the ground…. Last came the gam- they wished to have the pleasure of taking poem. Alice Longfellow was so impressed with the bling dance, the favorite with the actors…. some of the party into the tribe as mem- performance that she asked Mr. Armstrong to arrange This game was interrupted by a sudden bers. First came the ladies, as their father that the play be given annually at the same place. The shout, and across the water was seen ap- had turned the Ojibway legends into verse. annual performances aroused such widespread inter- proaching a canoe, and seated in it the mis- They were led in turn before Kabaoosa, who est that one every summer was not enough. They mul- sionary, “the black robe chief, the prophet.” took one of their hands in his, and made a tiplied with each succeeding year. Fifty-one perfor- On the shore he was graciously received by spirited discourse in Ojibway. Then strik- mances were given during summer 1902, and Hiawatha, and led to the wigwam for re- ing them three times on the shoulder, he sixty-two during summer 1903. The three-hun- freshment and repose. Then he addressed called aloud the Indian name of adoption, dredth performance occurred in the last week of the attentive tribes in Ojibway: and all the bystanders repeated it together. August 1903. Several performances were given in Then the new member of the tribe was led Boston in Spring 1903 when Miss Longfellow again Told his message to the people, around the circle, and each Indian came for- witnessed the play and entertained the Indian actors Told the purport of his mission. ward, grasping the stranger by the hand, and at the poet’s house. calling aloud the new name. The Thereupon Hiawatha arose, names, which were valued names greeting the missionary, took in the tribe, were all chosen with farewell of his people, and…with care, and given as proofs of high hands uplifted he glided slowly out regard; the men of the party upon the lake, floating steadily were honored as well as the onward across the rippling water women. toward the setting sun…. A beau- Odenewasenoquay—The tiful ending to a most unique and first flash of lightning; Osah- interesting drama…. gahgushkodawaquay—The The next day being Sunday, all lady of the open plains; Dagua- the Indians gathered on the island, gonay—The man whom people where a church was improvised, and like to camp near…. a simple service was held…. After The ceremonies were fol- the service an old man arose, wel- lowed by much singing and mance coming the strangers, because their dancing, of which the Indians in the 1901 Ojibway performance 7 - Hiawatha Set to Music ithin months of its publication, performance fell through although poet writes William Ethaniel Thomas, Music WLongfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha Charles Baudelaire undertook a translation Director of the Cambridge Community inspired many composers to develop instru- of the text. Chorus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. mental and vocal versions of sections of The extent of international enthusiasm Quoting an eye-witness account, Thomas this monumental work. Other composers for Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha is reit- continues, “It had gotten about in some acknowledged the influence of the poem in erated in the work of composer Antonin unaccountable and mysterious manner that the color, tone, or instrumentation of pas- Dvorak (1841-1904) who first read the poem something of unusual interest was going to sages in certain compositions. A few exam- in a Czech translation. Soon after his arrival happen, and when the time came for the ples demonstrate the variety and success of in New York, he began work on a short- concert the [hall] was besieged by eager these musical tributes to the poet’s epic tale. lived Hiawatha opera project. His close crowds, a large proportion of whom were Although the name of the German-born rereading of the poem, however, did influ- shut out—but accommodation was found American composer Ro- ence portions of his re- for Sir Arthur Sullivan and other musicians bert August Stoepel (1821- nowned New World Sym- of eminence.” 87) is no longer familiar, phony (1893). Critic and Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha instantly Longfellow himself en- scholar Michael Stein- became a popular and critical sensation and thusiastically approved of berg describes how com- was for many years one of the most widely his hugely successful Hia- mentators over time have performed works of modern English watha: A Romantic Symphony heard that influence in music. His settings inspired increasingly (1859). Musicologist Mi- various parts of the sym- elaborate presentations, surely a trial for the chael V. Pisani describes phony—from changes in publicity and attention-shy composer. An Stoepel’s and Longfellow’s key and instrumentation early performance by the Royal Choral correspondence on the that suggest Hiawatha’s Society at London’s Royal Albert Hall was subject of settings of his wooing of Minnehaha announced in the program as “A Dramatic poetry and how the com- or, elsewhere, the dark- Version with Scenery and Costumes… poser gradually gained ness of Minnehaha’s fu- Pageantry, Music, Ballet,” all presented by a Longfellow’s trust and encouragement. neral. Others propose that pastoral tones cast of “1,000 Performers.” Together they decided that the work would evoke landscape and ambience rather than In the United States, Coleridge-Taylor first be performed in Boston. The critic for specific events. Steinberg affirms, though, was a major star in the African-American the New York Musical World wrote that, “Mr. that in the scherzo “[W]e are on sure musical firmament, with organizations Longfellow was immensely interested [in ground in the matter of the Hiawatha con- dedicated to the study and performance of Stoepel’s Hiawatha] and attended all the nection: this, Dvorak told an interviewer his substantial output of vocal and instru- rehearsals and readings.” from the New York Herald, mental music. In 1904 the Stoepel enlisted the Handel and Hay- was inspired by the de- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor den Society, a fifty-person orchestra, and scription of the dance of Choral Society of Wash- three vocal soloists. In addition, Matilda Pau-Puk-Keewis in Long- ington, D.C., sponsored Heron, a noted dramatic actress and the fellow’s poem.” the composer’s first visit composer’s wife, read narrative sections of Between the years 1898 to the United States the work. The premiere took place at the and 1900, Anglo-African where he conducted them three-thousand-seat Boston Theatre. Ac- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in performances of his cording to Pisani, “Longfellow himself was (1875-1912) composed an work. During this visit, apparently delighted with Stoepel’s music elaborate cantata in three President Theodore Roo- …he addressed the audience at the first parts: Hiawatha’s Wedding sevelt received the world- performance and expressed his pleasure at Feast, , renowned artist at the Stoepel’s achievement. Longfellow wrote in and Hiawatha’s Departure. White House. his journal, ‘[the Hiawatha] music is beau- The son of a West Afri- Hiawatha was not only tiful and striking; particularly the wilder can father and an English a denizen of the concert parts,—the War Song and the Dance of mother, Coleridge-Taylor studied violin as halls but appeared in popular music as well. Pau-puk-keewis.’” a child, and at fifteen was admitted to the Popular composer Neil Moret published Building on his Boston success, Stoepel Royal College of Music. his “Hiawatha” in 1901. That same year, took Hiawatha to the Academy of Music in The gala premiere performance of the John Philip Sousa and his band performed New York City. Critics received it kindly. twenty-three-year-old composer’s Hiawatha’s the piece with such success that he tele- One wrote that it was, with one exception Wedding Feast for Tenor Solo, Chorus and Orchestra graphed the composer with the exciting (an opera about Rip van Winkle), “the only at the Royal College of Music in Novem- news: “Congratulations, dear boy. ‘Hia- original work of importance that has been ber 1898 was featured on a program that watha’ is the biggest hit I’ve ever played.” brought out in New York for years….” In included selections by Rossini, Beethoven, With lyrics by James O’Dea added two 1861 it went on to London’s . and Schumann. The evening came to be years later, sheet music sales soared, and Pisani reports that it was declared “a com- considered “one of the most remarkable Moret’s “Hiawatha” was the toast of thou- position of high merit.”Plans for a Parisian events in modern English music history,” sands of parlor pianists and singers. - 8 Henry W. Longfellow’s letter to son The Song of Hiawatha on the Map Charley Longfellow, May 17, 1871: Your two letters from Omaha have safely The Song of Hiawatha has not only secured a permanent place in American liter- reached us, and yesterday came the parcel of ature, it has quite literally been incorporated into the nation’s geography through Indian things, which will be opened when the the naming of towns and landmarks on the map. girls come home from school, as they like to ’s Minnehaha Falls are well known. The name, or a variant thereof, be present at the opening of all packages…. was sometimes used by Indian tribes early in the nineteenth-century, but it did [On his way to to not become the official designation for the falls until the era of the rage for all board a ship for Japan, Charley things Hiawatha. The name Minnehaha was also bestowed on communities large Longfellow visited Indian tribes in and small—from towns in Washington State, Arizona, and Colorado, to a county Nebraska and sent home photos and in South Dakota. other objects.] The name Hiawatha is found in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, , Utah, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. His mother’s name, Winona, is even more widely represented, appearing Marilyn Richardson (continued from page 3) in Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Mis- work with. The House and the generations sissippi, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Ten- who lived in it well into the twentieth cen- nessee—a far-flung group of states, indeed—and tury, all contribute to the many dimensions often in several locales within a state. The heroic of what one finds there and the way the dif- grandmother, Nokomis, is remembered in places ferent collections speak to each other. In that named after her in Alabama, Florida, Illinois, and Vir- sense, the contents of the Longfellow House ginia, while the corn god, Mondamin, slain by go beyond mere house museum artifacts. Hiawatha, is honored nonetheless in Iowa, zip code LH: Some thoughts on working on the 51557.Ponemah, Longfellow’s “land of the Hereafter,” Longfellow House Bulletin? region of the “Islands of the Blessed,” whence MR:The people I’ve had the pleasure of Hiawatha sails in Bierstadt’s painting, is on the map Falls of Minnehaha, water- working with on the Bulletin have been col- in Illinois, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. And the color, by Lord Dufferin leagues of such talent and vision that the settlers of Knox County, Illinois, chose the melodious name Dahinda for a site idea that we are able to leave a collective in that state. According to Longfellow’s glossary at the end of The Song of Hiawatha record of some of our involvement in this the word—deceptively mellifluous—means Bullfrog. historic site is enormously satisfying. Rehabilitation Update and Save America’s Treasures Progress fter almost two years, the extensive into the House wallpaper collection. scheduled to be scraped and painted this Awork on the interior of the Longfel- After conservation of the chandeliers is summer.The rehabilitation work on the car- low National Historic Site is now finished. completed by Brigid Sullivan at the Collec- riage house will begin in July and is expected The fire protection and security systems are tion Conservation Branch of the NPS, the to continue through December. The carriage complete, the heating and cooling systems seven repaired and brightened fixtures from house, which served as a storage barn up have been installed, and the collections until now, will be transformed into class- storage facilities in the basement are ready. room and meeting space as well as extra Funded by the White House’s Save work area for the Park Service staff. America’s Treasures program, conservation The NPS is planning the final phase of work on the wallpaper and chandeliers is the rehabilitation, that of the gardens and currently underway. In April experts from grounds, which will be a multi-year project. the North East Document Conservation Beginning in late June the visitor center Center in Andover, Massachusetts, began at the rear of the House will reopen on cleaning and restoring the 1840s Gothic Thursdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. Revival wallpaper in the stair hallway. They to 4:30 p.m. It will offer books by and about will also work on the parlor and dining room Longfellow, and other related items for sale. wallpapers, some of which will be removed Tours of the grounds and the neighbor- and repaired off-site. In areas with a lot of hood will leave from the visitor center. traffic, plexiglass barriers will be installed. The Longfellow House with its collec- In the process of cleaning the wallpaper, the main floor will be returned to their pre- tions is scheduled to open again to the pub- the conservators discovered under the vious sites, along with another dozen or so lic in Spring 2002. Gothic Revival wallpaper a large fragment from the rest of the House. The time-black- You can stay up-to-date on the rehabili- of an earlier wallpaper from the Craigie era, ened dining room chandelier has been re- tation progress by visiting our Web site at: c. 1810. They carefully removed and saved it stored to its purplish etched-metal beauty. www.nps.gov/long for future documentation and cataloguing The entire House—inside and out—is or E-mailing us at: [email protected] 9 - Longfellow House in Print Recent Research at the House In its June 2001 issue Sky and Telescope maga- The Longfellow House archives contain over 600,00 manuscripts, letters, and signed documents and zine published an article by Stephen James are used extensively by researchers from around the world. Here are a few recent researchers of the sev- O’Meara entitled “Longfellow: Voice of eral hundred who use the archives annually. the Night” which describes the poet’s inter- est in observing the night sky at the nearby A researcher from St. Petersburg, Russia, Georgey Levinton, is preparing a lengthy Harvard College Observatory and its influ- paper in Russian on The Song of Hiawatha about which, he says, there is a great deal of ence on his poetry. interest in his country. Levinton has written previously on Longfellow’s works. l l The Society for the Preservation of New Amy Johnson, recipient of the Stanley Paterson Fellowship and a doctoral candidate England Antiquities’ Old Time New England in American Art and Architecture, University of Delaware, is writing on “Tenement Fall/Winter 2000 issue has two articles House Reform in Boston, 1850-1920.” Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr., the related to Henry W. Longfellow. “In The poet’s nephew, was both a director of the Boston Cooperative Building Company, a Japanese Style: Charley Longfellow’s Sitting philanthropic organization focused on improving the living conditions of the city’s Room” by Sarah Heald discusses Charley lower classes, and the architect for the company’s model tenement built in Boston’s Longfellow’s “Japan Room” in his father’s South End in the early 1890s. house. “Priscilla” by Lorna Condon and l Lindsay Schuckhart examines the spinner Kumiko Yamada, visiting Fulbright scholar at Harvard University, is researching Kano in The Courtship of Miles Standish. ShunsenTomonobu, the Shogun’s Last Painter.The Kano School, with the most promi- l nent group of painters in Japan, dates back to the fifteenth century.Yamada is looking The University of Massachusetts Press, for a connection between Ernest Longfellow, the poet’s son, and Tomonobu, since Amherst, just published a biography by Ernest traveled to Japan in 1903 and Tomonobu was known to have given lessons in Anne Marie Taylor of Longfellow’s close Japanese painting to Westerners. She is also interested in his brother Charley Longfel- friend Charles Sumner. ’s low’s travels to Japan thirty years earlier and is contemplating translating the book drawing of Charles Sumner graces the about this, a Friends of the Longfellow House publication, into Japanese. cover, and other images from the House art collection appear in the book. l Dover Publications has recently reprinted Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic by Fiske Kimball. This book on Georgian architecture showcases the Longfellow House on its cover. l This fall public television’s American Experience will air a program based on Simon Schama’s book Dead Certainties about the infamous murder of Dr. George Parkman in 1851 by Harvard professor Dr. JohnWebster, a friend of HenryW. Longfellow. Researchers for the program used journals and letters of the Longfellow family in the House archives.

The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face In that desolate land and lone Where the Big Horn andYellowstone

Roar down their mountain path, By their fires the Sioux chiefs, And the menace of their wrath. “Revenge!” cried Rain-in-the-Face: “Revenge upon all the race

Of the White Chief with yellow hair!” And the mountains dark and high From their crags re-echoed the cry

Of his anger and despair. —H.W. Longfellow, 1876 Harper’s Magazine Advertiser’s of Longfellow’s poem.

- 10 Longfellow Summer 2001 Festival Schedule Letter from George Washington to the Pennsylvania Gazette, All programs take place on the side lawn at Longfellow NHS and are free and open to the public. August 30, 1775: Seating is limited so blankets and lawn chairs are welcome. No parking available. Yesterday Sen-night arrived at camp in Cambridge, Swashan, the Chief, with four Saturdays June 23- Sept. 8 Garden painting and other activities for all ages, 1-4 p.m. other Indians of the St. Francois tribe, con- Sundays: ducted hither by Mr. Reuben Colburn, who June 24 Joiner Center Poets Reading, 4-5 p.m. has been honorably recompensed for his trou- July 1 Dorothy Prince’s theatrical presentation of African-American poet ble. The above Indians came hither to offer Phillis Wheatley, 2:30-3:30 p.m. their services in the cause of American lib- Columbia’s Musick: musical tributes to Washington, with other patriotic erty, have been kindly received, and are now songs and historical narratives, 4-5:30 p.m. entered the service. Swashan says he will July 8 Robert Creeley will read from his new book, So There, Poems, and will receive bring one half his tribe and has engaged 4 the Golden Rose Award, 4-5 p.m. or 5 other tribes if they should be wanted. July 15 The Cecilia Quartet will perform Mozart’s Quartet in C Major, K. 465 He says the Indians of Canada in general, “Dissonance,” Schubert’s “Quartetsatz,” and Gershwin’s “Summertime,” and also the French, are greatly in our favor, 4-5:30 p.m. and determined not to act against us. July 22 Leonardo Alishan will read his poetry and selections by Rumi and Hafez; Julia and Company will play Armenian and Persian music, 4-5:30 p.m. July 29 Eugene Kim, solo cello performance of J.S. Bach, 4-5:30 p.m. Aug. 5 William Jay Smith will read from his new book, The Cherokee Lottery, poems Song of Hiawatha about his family and the Trail of Tears, and his poems for children, 4-5 p.m. Pesn o Gaiavate Aug. 12 Longy School of Music Woodwind Quintet, 4-5:30 p.m. Pesn o Gaiavate Aug. 19 Galway Kinnell will read from his New Selected Poems and other works, 4-5 p.m. ‘ECHœ o ¢A�ABATE Aug. 26 An Afternoon of Brazilian Music and Poetry for the Opening of the Brazilian Independence Celebrations, 4-6 p.m.: Song of Hiawatha • Odette Ernest Dias, flutist, and Jaime Dias, guitarist • Nocturnal Landscape, a musical journey across the vast landscape Hiawatha: Alive and Well of Brazilian culture • Award-winning poets Diana Der Hovanessian, Lloyd Schwartz, in Translation and Stephen Tapscott will read translations of Brazilian poetry iawatha is alive, well, and on the Sept. 9 Women Poets and Editors: Grace Schulman, Poetry Editor of the Nation, Hmarch. He emigrated from his birth- and Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Poetry Editor of Paterson Review, 4-5 p.m. place atop Longfellow's desk in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, and today lives hap- pily in approximately forty-five languages.... During the last quarter-century Hiawatha has been sighted in Swahili, Kazakh, Uzbek, Korean, Chinese, Moldavian, Euskadi, and eUpcoming Event f many more languages. As they lobbed Garden Party and Booksignings: June 23. 1-4 p.m. artillery shells at each other, Azerbaidjanis Come dressed in your garden party best to celebrate the future restoration of the his- and Armenians could enjoy recent transla- toric Longfellow gardens and grounds! tions in their respective languages telling how Gitche Manito, the Master of Life, smoked We will also celebrate the publication of two books on the two women landscape a peace-pipe as a signal to the nations. architects who designed the gardens forAlice Longfellow whenshe remained in the Internationally, Hiawatha is more pop- house after her father’s death. One book is a new edition by the Library of American ular than ever: in the first half of the 1980s Landscape History of Martha Brooke Hutcheson’s 1923 book The Spirit of the Garden. as many new translations appeared as did This book includes photographs of the House’s gardens from that time. The other in the first decade following Hiawatha's book by Judith B. Tankard, landscape historian and founding editor of the Journal of advent in 1855. Even as he faded into a well- the New England Garden History Society, is called The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman: A History remembered but little-read figure [in Amer- of Women in Landscape Architecture, published by Saga Press. ica], in the world-at-large Hiawatha came to emblematize the Indian, pre-contact In addition to the booksignings, there will be music, poetry, Morris dancers, and his- Native American culture, and the inev- toric plant demonstrations. itability of post-contact submission to an Europeanized history. Sponsored by the National Park Service, the Friends of the Longfellow House, Radcliffe Seminars, and the —Prof. J. F. Lockard Massachusetts Horticularal Society. excerpt from "The Universal Hiawatha,” American Indian Quarterly, Winter 2000 11 - " potlight on an bject Join us as a Friend and help support an international collection of nS each issue of the newsletter,O we focus Fine & Decorative Arts, Rare Books, Letters, and Historic Photographs Ion a particular object of interest in the Longfellow House collection. representing three centuries of American History… This time our spotlight shines on a q $1000 Benefactor q $ 300 Donor group of moccasins from the Longfel- low family. Ranging in size from minia- q $ 750 Sponsor q $150 Contributor ture moccasins used for decorative pur- q $ 500 Patron q $ 70 Family poses to children’s moccasins to full- q $ 30 Individual sized adult footwear, the eight-pair col- lection came from several sources and Make checks payable to: various tribes. Some are elaborately dec- Friends of the Longfellow House orated with multi-colored beads and 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 cloth tape, and most have handsewn cot- For more information, call (617) 876-4491. ton linings. Both Longfellow and his wife, Fanny, Name purchased moccasins as did his son Address Charley, who sent the family moccasins City from Nebraska. Longfellow also liked to give the exotic items as gifts, for he sent State Zip a pair to his friend Telephone in Germany (see page 4). Henry W. Special area(s) of interest in the Longfellow House: Longfellow’s interest in Indian artifacts, and particularly in moccasins, must have q been known by his friends for he received I would like someone to call me about volunteer opportunities. as a birthday gift from Mrs. M.C. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent provided by law. Collins on February 18, 1882, a miniature off-white deerskin moccasin made by a Dakota Indian named White Dog.

Friends of the Longfellow House 105 Brattle Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138