A Grasshopper, A Market & Speeches: Faneuil Hall

by Heather Rockwood, Communications Manager

Faneuil Hall was built in 1742 by Peter Faneuil, (1700–1743), a man who inherited the estate of his uncle, but then grew to be one of the wealthiest men in Boston, using his business acumen as well as benefits from the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Faneuil gifted the building to Boston for use as a town meeting hall and marketplace. In the years before the American Revolution, the building was the scene of many incendiary speeches by liberty-seeking Bostonians, including Samuel Adams and James Otis Jr. The building continued to be used for town meetings until 1822, after which it was a thriving marketplace through the 1800s and early 1900s, while continuing to be a place for speech-making for Abolitionists. By the 1960s the building fell into disrepair but became a National Historic Landmark and went through renovations in the 1970s and 1990s. One of the more interesting aspects of Faneuil Hall is its copper weathervane in the shape of a grasshopper, created by Shem Drowne in 1742. In the map below from 1776, “D” marks the location of Faneuil Hall.

Two color images side by side. To the left a portrait painting of an older white man who is standing in a brown velvet jacket and vest while he gestures lightly behind him towards ships in the distance. On the right is a color map of Boston from 1776. Buildings are in pink and some are labeled with letters.
From left to right: John Smibert, Peter Faneuil, oil on canvas, 1739; Andrew Dury, A Plan of Boston, and its Environs shewing the true Situation of His Majesty’s Army, 1776.

The MHS has a large collection of photographs and a few engravings of Faneuil Hall throughout its 282-year history. The first image, an engraving, is from 1789. Its most notable features are the building’s central cupola, the three windows across the west side, and two floors, all of which changed in 1806 when Charles Bullfinch added floors, widened the building, and moved the cupola to the back, east side.

A color photograph of a black ink engraving of a building with two floors and a cupola in the center. There are other buildings in the background and several figures in the foreground viewing the building or walking by on foot or horse.
S. Hill after W. Pierpont, “View of Faneuil-Hall, in Boston, Massachusetts,” engraving, 1789.

I grouped the following photographs into similar views of the building, showing how some are eerily similar but from different time periods. The first group shows views of the front of the building, or east side.

Two black and white photographs with a similar view. Both focus on a large four story building with a cupola in the background with a large square surrounded by other buildings in the foreground. Many figures, horses and carts are going through the square.
Left: “Adams Sq., Looking Down to Faneuil Hall,” unidentified photographer, 1900. Right: View of Adams Square and Dock Square, looking north-east towards Faneuil Hall, Boston, possibly by Arthur A. Shurcliff, 19th century.

The second group shows Faneuil Square, or Adams Square, now Dock Square, in front of Faneuil Hall.

Three black and white photographs side by side. The one on the left and middle have very similar views with Faneuil Hall as a small sliver to the left and the focus on the buildings beside it. The one on the right is a larger view of the square in front of Faneuil Hall with the entire west side of the building in view.
From left to right: “Faneuil Hall Sq. south side,” unidentified photographer, 1850s–1860s; “Faneuil Sq. south side,” unidentified photographer, 1934; and “Adams Sq., looking east to Faneuil Hall,” unidentified photographer, 1934.

The last group of photographs captures the backside of Faneuil Hall, as well as the other end of Quincy Market on the south side, or South Market. You may notice that the first image on the left is flipped—try reading the signs—it is also the oldest photograph.

Four black and white photographs side by side. On the left is a very old photograph with blacked out edges, but focuses on the east side of Faneuil Hall. The other three are from farther away, but the middle left is closer than the other two. The middle right and right photographs are almost the same image which includes the length of Quincy Market and a bit of South Market in the view.
From left to right: Gilman Joslin, Faneuil Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, daguerreotype, ca. 1840; “Faneuil Hall Market,” unidentified photographer, before 1868; “Faneuil Hall Market,” unidentified photographer, 1853–1900; and “Faneuil Hall Market,” unidentified photographer, 1933–1935.

This last photograph was taken from the north side of Faneuil Hall, but looks eastward, with a focus on Quincy Market behind it.

Black and white photograph of several buildings with Quincy Market the central focus and a large empty square in the foreground.
“Faneuil Hall Sq.,” unidentified photographer, 1934.

Something I am excited to see in the MHS collection is the Ben and Jane Thompson Faneuil Hall Marketplace Records that relate to the restoration and revitalization of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace area, including Quincy Market and the North and South Market buildings. The collection includes all the records for the planning, construction, and opening stages of the project, as well as correspondence from preconstruction and post-openings. Publicity and visual materials also comprise the collection, all yet to be digitized, but you can request to view it. Learn more about how to visit the MHS and see documents and collections like this.

Posted in From Our Collections

Aerostatic, Air Balloon, Freedom: The Adams Family’s Interest in Balloon-powered Flight

by Heather Rockwood, Communications Manager

John Adams (JA) and John Quincy Adams (JQA) were fascinated by the hottest flight invention of the 1780s: hot air balloons. Their fascination rivals present-day Parisian’s enjoyment of the Olympic and Paralympic cauldron. Paris citizens are currently collecting signatures to keep the Olympic and Paralympic cauldron as a permanent display representing the French national motto, “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.” Since this Olympic flame uses no fossil fuels, only water and light, it could possibly be on display long term.

Color photograph aimed upwards from the ground on a dark night. What is visible is a large inflated balloon tethered by many strings to a basket holding light and giving off steam which lights the balloon from below with a lovely glow. A row of old-style streetlamps are in a line from the top left to the bottom right lit up to match the balloon.
The Olympic Flame rises on a balloon after being lit in Paris, France during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, 26 July 2024. Credit: Francisco Seco

JA and JQA were in Paris in 1783 when Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier developed their “aerostatique” hot air balloons. These flight experiments caught the fancy of Parisians and the Adamses. On 27 August 1783, JQA wrote in his diary:

“after dinner I went to see the experiment, of the flying globe. A Mr: Montgolfier of late has discovered that, if one fills a ball with inflammable air, much lighter than common air, the ball of itself will go up to an immense height of itself. This was the first publick experiment of it. at Paris. a Subscription was opened some time agone and filled at once for making a globe; it was of taffeta glued together with gum, and lined with parchment: filled with inflammable air: it was of a spherical form; and was 14 foot size in Diameter. it was placed in the Champ de Mars. at 5. o’clock 2. great guns fired from the Ecole Militaire, were the signal given for its going, it rose at once, for some time perpendicular, and then slanted. the weather, was unluckily very Cloudy, so that in less than 2. minutes it was out of sight: it went up very regularly and with a great swiftness. as soon as it was out of sight. 2. more cannon were fired from the Ecole Militaire to announce it. this discovery is a very important one, and if it succeeds it may become very useful to mankind.”

Although this wasn’t the first experiment of flight with the balloon, which occurred 4 June 1783, this was the first public exhibition of it. JA wrote to Abigail Adams on 7 September 1783, “The Moment I hear of it [AA’s arrival in Europe], I will fly with Post Horses to receive you at least, and if the Ballon, Should be carried to such Perfection in the mean time as to give Mankind the safe navigation of the Air, I will fly in one of them at the Rate of thirty Knots an hour.”

A black ink printed engraving of a large round balloon netted and tethered by many ropes to a small boat style basket with many carved decorations and two figures holding flags in the ship. At the bottom are words in French.
“Aerostatic Experiments” in Paris 1783, French colored engraving of a balloon flight in 1783

This fascination continued and spread! On 10 November 1784, JQA wrote to his friend Peter Jay Munro:

“Messieurs Roberts made their third experiment, the 19th of September, and with more success than any aerostatic travellers have had before. They went up from the Thuileries, amidst a concourse of I suppose 10,000 persons. At noon, and at forty minutes past six in the Evening they descended at Beuory in Artois fifty leagues from Paris. This is expeditious travelling, and I heartily wish they would bring balloons to such a perfection, as that I might go to N. York, Philadelphia, or Boston in five days time. M.M. Roberts have publish’d a whole Volume of Observations upon their Voyage, or Journey or whatever it may be called, but I judge from the abstracts I have seen of it that they have taken a few traveller’s Licenses, and have given some little play to their Imaginations. . . . They have established somewhere in Paris, a machine which they call une tour aërostatique where for a small price, any curious person may mount as high as he pleases, and so ‘look down upon the pendent world.’ ”

On 21 January 1785, JQA dined at Thomas Jefferson’s house in Paris and he wrote in his diary the story of the flight Dr. John Jeffries had taken earlier that month: “Mr. Blanchard cross’d from Dover to Calais in an air balloon, the 7th. of the month. accompanied by Dr: Jefferies. they were obliged to throw over their cloathes to lighten their balloon. Mr: Blanchard met with a very flattering reception at Calais, and at Paris…. All that has as yet been done relative to this discovery, is the work of the French. Montgolfier. Pilâtre de Rozier, & Blanchard, will go down, hand in hand to Posterity.”

The French enthusiasm for ballooning waned after a major accident in June 1785 when aeronauts Pilâtre de Rozier and Dr. Pierre Ange Romain crashed their balloon on the French shore while attempting to cross the English Channel. Their aéro-Montgolfier, a gas double balloon, exploded over a thousand feet in the air and the two fell to their gruesome deaths. On the 23 June 1785, Abigail Adams 2nd wrote to her cousin Lucy Cranch, “You talk of comeing to see us in a Balloon. Why my Dear as Americans sometimes are capable of as imprudent and unadvised things as any other People perhaps, I think it but Prudent to advise you against it. There has lately a most terible accident taken place by a Balloons taking fire in the Air in which were two Men. Both of them were killed by their fall, and there limbs exceedingly Broken. Indeed the account is dreadfull. I confess I have no partiallity for them in any way.”

Like the Eiffel Tower, created to be a temporary exhibition piece for the 1889 World Expo in Paris, I do hope the Olympic and Paralympic cauldron becomes a permanent display.

Posted in From Our Collections Tagged ,

Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves: Sarah Freeman Clarke

by Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist

I wrote for the Beehive a few weeks ago about a collection I’d just finished processing, the Perry-Clarke additions, which documents the lives of several generations of the Clarke family of Boston. The family member probably best known to most people is Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke. But I’d like to use my bully pulpit here to tell you about some of his equally impressive relatives. This post will be the first in a series.

I’ll start with my favorite, James’s older sister Sarah Freeman Clarke. Sarah’s life spanned almost the entire 19th century, from 1808 to 1896. She was primarily a landscape painter, a student of artist Washington Allston, and her artwork was exhibited throughout Boston during her lifetime and even at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. But she also taught classes at the Temple School, wrote articles for publication, and even founded a library in Marietta, Georgia. She traveled widely, and her network of friends included Ralph Waldo Emerson; Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody; and Margaret Fuller. In fact, Sarah illustrated Fuller’s book Summer on the Lakes in 1843 and participated in Fuller’s famous “Conversations.”

Though a professional success by anyone’s definition, Sarah was also devoted to her family. As a young woman, she helped her mother run a boarding house. In later life, she moved to Georgia to live with her brothers as they all aged and needed mutual support. She doted on her nieces and nephews, corresponding with them frequently. She and her brother James were especially close, and she was a great—and I think underestimated—influence on his career. Her letters are full of encouragement, advice, and constructive criticism.

Color photograph of two pages of a letter written at Marietta, Georgia, dated February 13, 1894, and addressed to “Dear Mrs. Cheney.”
Letter from Sarah Freeman Clarke to Ednah Dow Cheney, 13 Feb. 1894

The first ten boxes of the Perry-Clarke additions consist of family correspondence, and next to James and his wife Anna, Sarah is the third most frequent correspondent. The collection also includes one box of Sarah’s personal papers. Another collection at the MHS contains a diary she kept on a Nile voyage in 1873-1874. For information about that volume, see this excellent post written by a colleague of mine back in 2019.

When archivists are processing manuscripts, there just isn’t enough time to read everything; we usually have to skim. Sarah’s were the letters I most wanted to read. She wrote well, not in that formal, flowery style some of her contemporaries used. Her letters are more colloquial. She expressed her opinions frankly, but in a humorous, self-deprecating way. For example, when James misattributed an article in The Dial to Sarah (actually written by Fuller), Sarah teased him, “You say well that I must have made vast progress to do that. Truly I must have out-travelled myself & become another person first.”

Sarah’s letters from Georgia in the closing decade of the 19th century are fascinating for another reason: women suffragists were trying to make inroads in the state. Sarah was particularly impressed by the Howard sisters of Columbus, including Claudia Howard Maxwell, Miriam Howard DuBose, and Helen Augusta Howard. The Howards were fighting for women’s rights in a very hostile climate, against, in Sarah’s words, “bigoted and old fashioned” men, attacks “from the pulpit & press,” and even the “violent” opposition of their own brothers.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association held their 27th annual convention in Atlanta in 1895. The 87-year-old Sarah had hoped to attend but was unable. Regarding women’s suffrage in Georgia, she wrote:

The few people whom I know to be in favor of equal Suffrage are strenuous in their belief and urgent in their practice amid much opposition from those who think the Bible forbids any such unnatural doings by women. There is much ancient superstition here, of the same sort as that which claimed that Slavery was a biblical institution, and that the negroes were more benefitted than injured, by being torn from their homes & brought here to be slaves, because – it gave them a chance to become Christians! Such is this queer world!

Posted in From Our Collections