• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

on fellow ous ulletin Volume No. A Newsletter of the Friends of the Longfellow House and the National Park Service June Longfellow House’s Connections to Thailand Past & Present series of serendipitous events has ciation in the United States, led by Aled to further exploration of yet Prince Mahidol. Also, a young Thai another aspect of the Longfellow student named Sangwan Talapat had House and archives: its Southeast Asian stayed there upon her arrival in Boston. holdings and connections. As a result, Two years later she married Prince the House has become involved with Mahidol and would become the Prin the King of Thailand Birthplace Trail cess Mother of Thailand’s present king. and will host a celebration in August of Residents of the building welcomed Thai heritage and culture. the historic marker. At the installation Last summer Longfellow House mu ceremony, KTBF’s Cholthanee Koero seum manager Jim Shea learned that the jna showed photographs of the Prin King of Thailand Birthplace Founda cess Mother in front of the building. tion (KTBF) wished to put a plaque on The photos inspired Shea to peruse the his apartment building as part of a trail House’s Asian photograph collection, commemorating the Thai royal family’s particularly one image (pictured here) history in eastern Massachusetts. From labeled “Asian people in front of to the building had housed Longfellow House.” the Siamese Office of Educational When Koerojna came to the House Affairs and the first Thai student asso (continued on page ) House Unveils Unique Collection of Historic Southeast Asian Photographs o accompany a special celebratory pro photographs. These unusual images docu but also about the pictures he acquired. Tgram in August called “Thailand ment people, pastimes, architecture, and the In his journal Charley referred twice to Legacy: The King and Cambridge,” many landscape of Southeast Asia. He recorded purchasing photographs. On February , rare photos of Southeast Asia from the his activities and impressions in a journal, , in Saigon, he noted: “Tried to buy House archives will be on display for the preserved in the House archives, thus some Annamese [as Vietnamese was then first time in the Longfellow House library. adding illuminating information not only called] curios in the afternoon but they Charles (Charley) Appleton Longfellow – about what he saw and the people he met, seem to have none except boxes and furni an adventurer and the poet’s eldest ture inlaid with mother of pearl, child – brought these images back very rough work, and a kind of from his travels in the s. red gold jewelry, like copper. Having spent more than two Bought some photos.” Then years in Japan and China, on Feb again while in Bangkok on Feb ruary , , Charley sailed from ruary , , he wrote: “Went Hong Kong to Siam (Thailand) to photographer’s in the after and what are now Vietnam and noon, invested. He is a native Cambodia. Accompanied by other Catholic, speaks English well, Westerners and, at times, local and is Capt. in the body guard.” guides, he explored the cities, tem The photographer Charley ples, gardens, rivers, coastal areas, described in Bangkok was most and interior wilderness. likely Khun Sunthornsathitsalak, In these countries Charley pur also known as Francis Chit. In the chased objets d’art as well as first half of the nineteenth cen approximately seventy historic Palace of the King of Siam, Bangkok, , probably by Francis Chit (continued on page ) Anna and the King of Siam, and the Longfellows est remembered for her memoirs, pub Chulalongkorn, the chief recipient of lished in the early s, about her years Leonowens’s academic attentions, made B as governess in the Siamese royal court, reforms for which his former tutor claimed Anna Leonowens was friends with Henry some credit, such as discontinuing the prac Friends of the Longfellow House Longfellow’s family and may have met the tice of prostration in front of royal person Board of Directors poet himself since she knew a number of nages. Chulalongkorn began ending slavery Heather S. Moulton, President his friends. In Margaret Landon fiction in and abolished it completely in . Elizabeth F. Potter, Clerk alized Leonowens’s In Leon Robert C. Mitchell, Treasurer Annette Benedetto account in her pop owens relocated to Hope Cushing ular book, Anna and NewYork City. She Diana Der Hovanessian the King of Siam. Lan wrote up her expe Edward Guleserian don’s tale was im riences in Siam for Barclay Henderson mortalized in film, the Atlantic Monthly, Sarah B. Jolliffe television, and the a well respected Linda Almgren Kime Broadway hit musi Boston based mag Laura Nash cal The King and I. azine where Henry Lynne Spencer The widow of a Longfellow’s work Advisory Board British army officer often appeared. In stationed in South a letter on May , Ruth Butler Siamese girls in front of painted scene, LeRoy Cragwell east Asia, Anna Le , to Miss Sarah Diana Korzenik onowens started a school in Singapore, but Watson Dana (the sister in law of Edith Richard Nylander it had financial difficulties. In she Longfellow Dana, Henry Longfellow’s Stephen D. Pratt accepted an offer to teach European man daughter), she confided, “I am much Marilyn Richardson ners and English to the thirty nine wives obliged to you for the kind interest you Marc Shell and concubines and eighty two children of express in my coming work. The articles Charles Sullivan King Mongkut of Siam. Leonowens sent published in the Atlantic are mere extracts Lowell A. Warren Jr. her daughter to school in England, took her from different parts selected expressly to Administrator son with her to Bangkok, and set to work. attract the notice of ... editors; and the J.L. Bell For almost six years Leonowens taught more intelligent class of scholars so as to at the court and became a language secre bring before hand a public curiosity and Newsletter Committee tary to the king. Her position carried great interest in the subject of the book.” Sarah Glenna Lang, Editor, Writer & Designer respect and even a Dana lived in her James M. Shea degree of political friend Leonowens’s influence. She crit house on Staten icized the treat Island for a while. ment of women in Leonowens’s the Siamese court two volumes, The National Park Service English Governess at Myra Harrison, Superintendent and opposed slav James M. Shea, Museum Manager ery, which was still the Siamese Court Lauren Downing, Administrative Officer practiced in Siam. () and The Ro Nancy Jones, Education andVisitor Services An abolitionist mance of the Harem Anita Israel, Archives Specialist and a feminist, Le (), were the David Daly, Collections Manager onowens had the first Western tales Lauren Malcolm, MuseumTechnician royal family trans from inside the Flo Smith, Management Assistant late Harriet Beech Houseboats on Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Siamese palace, and Liza Stearns, Education Specialist er Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin from English they received great acclaim. Leonowens Scott Fletcher, Facility Manager into Siamese. The book so moved one of joined the Boston and New York literary the ladies of the harem that she liberated circles and lecture circuit. On March , , Printed by Newprint Offset, Waltham, Mass. all of her slaves. the Boston Globe ran a glowing review of In Leonowens returned to England “Mrs. Leonowens’s Lecture” with its touch to regain her health. She had hoped to re ing stories of Siam: “In these days when sume her position at the court, but Mong there are so many ladies on the platform, kut fell ill and died. The king mentioned and so few who have much to say there, such All images are from the Longfellow National Historic Leonowens and her son in his will, though a lecturer as Mrs. Leonowens is a most Site collections, unless noted otherwise. they never received an inheritance.The suc acceptable acquistion....” James T. Fields, cessor, fifteen year old King Chulalong Longfellow’s close friend and publisher, had korn, wrote Leonowens a letter of thanks introduced her. It would not be surprising for her work but did not invite her back. if Henry Longfellow or his family attended. Interview wit a Friend … eet Cholthanee Koerojna, President of KTBF Having moved from Thailand to the CK: At the time the king was six cycles where the Princess Mother told her story to her United States in , Cholthanee Koero of the year of birth or years old. The daughter in . In my research I have followed jna now heads the King of Thailand Birth people of Thailand feel that is the lucky the footsteps from the first day that Prince place Foundation (KTBF) where she works year. So we felt we should do something for Mahidolcamehereuntilthelastdaythatheand with her husband, Mana Sanguansook, to the king since we live here. That’s why we the Princess Mother left the country. It’s been bring Thai history and culture to Massa started the foundation. very exciting. Every place that we went to chusetts. The foundation hopes one day to After we established the foundation, our research people were so pleased because they establish a museum, library, and cultural first goal was to build a library of Thai his didn’t know about the King of Thailand. center for Thai people and all others to tory in Cambridge, but we didn’t have One really exciting thing happened with learn about the life of King Bhumibol enough money. We couldn’t get funding to the last house we put on the trail. In the Adulyadej, the present king of Thailand. buy or rent a place for a museum. Mana book, the Princess Mother says after she Longfellow House: Where in Thailand suggested I write a book with all the re left Hartford, she came back to Massachu are you from, and why did you first come search I have done, but I didn’t have time to setts to live in Belmont, but we didn’t know to Massachusetts? where.

Load more

  8

Copy Link