Between Two Worlds

Cyrus Bruce, free man, formerly enslaved, was known for his dapper appearance when he worked at Langdon House in Portsmouth, NH in 1783, yet when artist Richard Haynes embarked on painting his portrait in 2018, no image of Bruce existed.

Haynes created this interpretive portrait of Bruce in an artist's residency and exhibition, A Life in Color: Two Cultural Makers, Centuries Apart at Historic New England’s Langdon House.

“I have the opportunity to capture the image, the portrait of an unknown man and through this, together, we are going to be cultural keepers and makers. We are going to share the black heritage, the forgotten history, through art.” –Richard Haynes Jr.

Virtual Reality

This stereograph shows a shoe factory worker in Lynn, Massachusetts, operating a lasting, or shoe—shaping machine. In 1919, 75% of the 16,000 wage earners in Haverhill worked in the shoe industry.

The text on the reverse side of the stereograph reads:
"This is a shoemaker creating shoes on a lasting machine in a shoe factory in Lynn, Massachusetts. The "upper" of the shoe is placed over the wooden last. The machine is clamped on this "upper" and draws the fore part of the shoe into shape. Thus, in a few seconds, is performed the most difficult task of the shoemaker.”

Stereographs were almost-identical pairs of photographs that viewed through a stereoscope, created the illusion of a three-dimensional image. Stereographs were popular in the late nineteenth century as vehicles for entertainment and education—like television or virtual reality today.

Bold Fascination

A groundbreaking textile and rug designer of the twentieth century, Marion Dorn (Kauffer) (1896-1964) also worked in graphic design and illustration, and designed wallpapers, like this mid-century trompe l’oeil paper Dorn designed for manufacturer Katzenbach and Warren.

A California native, Dorn spent nearly two decades (1923-1940) working in England with her partner Edward McKnight Kauffer before returning to New York with the onset of World War II.

Celebrated for her use of bold geometrics and nature-inspired motifs, Dorn also explored thematic use of tradition and art history. Here, Dorn incorporates the work of famous artists including a head of young woman by Albrecht Durer, a group of young men by Ghirlandaio, a perspective by Jacopo Bellini, the Leda with Swan by Filipo Lippi, and the Horse and Rider by Leonardo da Vinci.

This wallpaper sample is a Gift of the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, Connecticut.

Circle of Friends

In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century New England, while men were building communities through fraternal organizations or at the tavern, women's communities centered on the church, on charitable works, and on sewing and reading circles. Joining neighbors for a day of quilting was a highlight of the season for many New England women.

So-called "friendship" quilts came into vogue in the 1840s. This was a time of extensive migration in America, with families moving west, or leaving their farms for opportunities in mill towns and cities. These quilts were often given as remembrances to departing neighbors. Friendship quilts contain squares with stitched or inked signatures. The point was to offer a token of affection to the recipient. This red and white quilt was made between 1851 and 1853 by members of the Howard Sunday School of the Bulfinch Street Church of Boston, apparently for Sunday School teacher Francis Cogswell Manning. The quilt may have been a gift marking Manning's anniversary as a teacher at the Sunday School. A note by Francis Manning that survives reads: "You have taken me entirely by surprise, fellow teachers [and friends], by this unexpected mark of your favor, and I feel entirely unable to give expression, in any fitting words, to the feelings your kindness has awakened in my heart."

Luminary

Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904) was a bright light of the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth century Boston arts set. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, growing up in Baltimore, Sarah de Prix Wyman married woolen goods merchant Henry Whitman. At the age of twenty-six, she embarked on a career as a professional artist. As a member of the National Academy of Design (1877) and the Society of American Artists (1880), Sarah Wyman Whitman established a reputation as a serious artist and was considered one of the best painters in Boston.

A founder of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Whitman turned her artistic attention to designing book covers, including those of close friend author Sarah Orne Jewett, and to stained glass. While she is best known for her book cover designs, with which she enjoyed great commercial success, she was also a successful stained-glass artist. Her windows can be seen at Trinity Church in Boston, Harvard’s Memorial Hall, and the Boston Athenaeum, among others.

Whitman's glass designs were less pictorial and more architectural than previous stained-glass windows and made use of clear glass to connect with the world outside. Whitman made this fire screen as a gift for the wedding of Richard Norton, son of her friend and fellow founder of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Charles Eliot Norton.

Musical Direction

Program advertising The Boston Musical Art Orchestra with African American musician, James Hinton, conducting circa 1930.

Described as "The first orchestra of its kind to present eight Guest Concerts at the Hotel Vendome will present a series of Concerts at all churches available during next season, with outstanding soloist."

At Historic New England, we would like to learn more about James Hinton and the Boston Musical Arts Orchestra. If you have knowledge on this topic you would like to share, please contact us at [email protected]

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Black music scene in Boston blossomed, with Frederick Douglass Square, a center of commerce and of the Black community, offering social clubs, dance halls, fraternal organizations, and theaters for piano, band, and orchestral performances.

With the popularity of ragtime and the blues came the New Orleans-born jazz sound, ushering in the modern era.

The Hotel Vendome was a luxury establishment near Copley Square in Boston, built in 1881 and unfortunately destroyed in a 1972 fire.