Whitehill, Walter u. 12/9/2015 Dictionary of Art Historians - Walter Muir Whitehill DICTIONARY OF ART HISTORIANS A Biographical Dictionary of Historic Scholars, Museum Professionals and Academic Historians of Art HOME HOW TO CITE DAH COMPLETE LIST EXPLANATION RECENT ENTRIES BIBLIOGRAPHY DEUTSCH FRANCAIS NEDERLANDS ITALIANO ALWA History Webmasters Whitehill, Walter Muir ASSOCIATION AWHA Date born: 1905 Place born: Cambridge, MA Date died: 1978 SEARCH AN HISTORIAN Place died: Boston, MA American Medievalist of Spanish architecture and Americanist; Librarian and Director of the Boston Athenaeum. Whitehill's parents Search Muir Whitehill, an Episcopal minister, and Florence Marion Williams (Whitehill). He entered Harvard University, receiving his A.B. in continuing for his A.M., awarded in 1929. Whitehill married Jane Revere Coolidge, a descendant of Thomas Jefferson, in 1930, leavi the same year to continue his studies. He wrote his dissertation under the eminent American Romanesque scholar A. Kingsley Port University of London, receiving his Ph.D. in 1934. He remained in Europe until 1936, immersed in Spanish architectural history rese He returned to the United States in 1936 to become assistant director of the Peabody Museum of Salem, Salem, MA. In 1941 White a revised version of his dissertation, Spanish Romanesque Architecture of the Eleventh Century, founding the American Neptune: A Journal of Maritime History. By this time Whitehill switched interests to American art. During World War II, Whitehill served in the Na assigned to active duty from 1942-1946 and discharged with the rank of commander. After the war, he joined the Boston Athenaeum library, as director and librarian in 1946, which he held until his retirement in 1973. Whitehill was appointed a member of faculty of H: University associated with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1951 and a lecturer in history for the 1956-1957 y became a champion of architectural preservation in Boston. In 1961 he succeeded in saving the Old Corner Bookstore. Whitehill ma country house in Starksboro, VT, where he and his wife entertained in a gentlemanly manner. He became a Trustee of Museum of F Boston. In 1965 he published a survey, The Arts in Early American History. A two-volume centenary history of the Museum of Fine appeared in 1970. Whitehill retired from the Athenaeum in 1973, publishing his Boston Prints and Printmakers the same year. In reti issued an architectural work, Palladio in America. One of his final acts was helping to preserve the Quincy Market area in Boston in suffered a stroke and died at age 72. He is buried on the grounds of Monticello, Jefferson's home, in accordance to Jefferson's will r Jefferson's descendents. His papers are held at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Though Whitehill's publishing career focused on Bostoniana, his work on Spanish medieval art represents the earliest American inte subject. He, Porter, Georgiana Goddard King (q.v.), Walter W. S. Cook (q.v.), Kenneth John Conant (q.v.) [the Cluny scholar's disse cathedral of Santiago de Compostela) and Chandler Rafton Post (q.v.) formed something of a "New England School" in Spanish art Home Country: United States Sources: "Preface." Spanish Romanesque Architecture of the Eleventh Century reprint ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1968; Wendell D. "Walter Muir Whitehill." Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series 90, (1978): 131-139; Cahn, V "Romanesque Art, Then and Now: A Personal Reminiscence." in Hourihane, Colum, ed. Romanesque Art and Thought in the Twelftl Essays in Honor of Walter Cahn. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 2008, p. 33; [obituary:] Thomas, Robert M. Jr. "Walter Mu Dies at 72, A Leading Boston Preservationist." New York Times March 6, 1978, p. D7. Bibliography: [dissertation:] Spanish Romanesque Architecture of the Eleventh Century, University of London, 1936, published, Lon University Press, 1941; Boston Public Library: A Centenary History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956; The Arts in E History. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1965; The Many Faces of Monticello: Address at Monticello, 13 April, Charlottesville, VA: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1965; Dumbarton Oaks: the History of a Georgetown House and Gard Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967; Cabinet of Curiosities: Five Episodes in the Evolution of Americ Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1967; Museum of Fine Arts Boston: A Centennial History. 2 vols. Cambridge MA: H University Press, 1970; Boston Statues. Barre, MA: Barre, 1970; and Hutchings, Sinclair H., eds. Boston Prints and Printmakers. C VA: University Press of Virginia, 1973; and Nichols, Frederick. Palladio in America. Milan: Electa, 1976. Museum of Fine Arts, Bos Centennial History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1970; Palladio in America. Milan: Electa, 1976. Our Organization: Mission & history Contact us Terms & Conditions of Use Dictionary of Art Historians All Rights Reserved https://dictionaryofarthistorians.org/whitehillw.htm 1/2 Bulletin of Bibliography Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 6-8140 Vol. 22, No. 6, May-August, 1958 Bulletin of Bibliography Boswell, a leader in the Guild of wine mer- chants, an amused boulevardier in wax, an Edited by ANNE SUTHERLAND amiable walrus, or an ambassador between Vol. 22 assignments. Squarely built and soundly May August, 1958 No. 6 dressed, he occasionally affects a homburg $6.00 a year (Three Issues) Single Numbers, $2.00 for town or a red hat while mowing the grass, Back Files-Bound volumes, I & 2 Out of Print remains inseparable from an outsize pipe, Vols. 3-20, each and talks in brilliant control of a large and 5.00 Single numbers over three years old sensitive blond mustache in the amorphous 1.00 shape of a spanner. He is engaging and easy The BULLETIN OF BIBLIOGRAPHY was established in in conversation, meticulous and witty in 1897 as a medium for the publication of articles, bib- speech, original in accent in that he savors liographies, reading lists, and other material helpful to each one of his words even to the dropping libraries. "Births, Deaths, and Magazine Notes": a record of new and changed titles, and deaths in the of 'g's in participles, and has a way of look- periodical world is a regular feature. A portrait and ing at you over glasses which he is likely not biographical sketch of some librarian or bibliographer wearing. He sits completely relaxed, he moves is given in each issue. with the fluent motion of a cat, and carries Correspondence concerning the BULLETIN is solicited with him everywhere except to church a small and lists, or articles, suitable for publication are de- sired. decrepit vellum valise, the contents of which Address are quite as astonishing as its owner. He may THE F. W. FAXON COMPANY, INC. be encountered almost anywhere along the 83-91 Francis Street, Boston 15. Beacon Street, Faneuil Hall, Fenway, Har- vard axis-usually on his way to or from OUR FRONTISPIECE a meeting of some sort, yet never giving one the impression of being in a hurry. It is WALTER MUIR WHITEHILL discouraging to certain of his friends that he is always punctual. By DAVID McCORD He lives with his wife (Jane Revere Coolidge, a Vassar graduate) in the lovely Any account of Walter Muir Whitehill, Old Berry House in North Andover, where A.B. cum laude, Harvard 1926, Ph.D. Uni- the labyrinthine hedges on the grounds are versity of London, 1934, should begin, I subject to his private topiarian skill. From think, with a mild description of his physical late spring to fall the Whitehills dine in a appearance which some people have taken to barn filled with tapestries and thousands of be an optical illusion. For a man who is direc- books all neatly arranged on their shelves tor and librarian of the Boston Athenaeum- and in their alcoves, flawlessly catalogued in fellow, president, secretary, treasurer, clerk, the librarian's head. For the past three years editor, trustee, or member of so impressive an Mr. Whitehill has aestivated on some land assortment of learned societies, museums, in northwestern Vermont, to which he repairs quarterlies, scholarly projects, and clubs- for weekends or between urgent errands to he is easier to approach than to classify. such far-off places as Princeton, Philadelphia, He could pass in a crowd as the president Williamsburg, Charlottesville, and Pugwash. of a college, the owner of a sugar plantation, The Whitehills have two married daughters. a member of Parliament, a man who could The energy of the man quite equals the speak up to Dr. Johnson and down to Mr. range of his interests. As a freshman in college 122 Bulletin of Bibliography Vol. 22, No. 6 he was already endowed with the life of the the editorship of L. H. Butterfield, has served spirit; but not until his junior year did he in an advisory capacity to many councils enter into the life of learning under the and committees, and as president of the Old sympathetic guidance of the late Kingsley South Association, the Club of Odd Volumes, Porter. In his Senior Album he put down, of the Board of Trustees of the John Green- "Ministry" as his future occupation. His leaf Whittier Homestead, and of the Proprie- sojourn at the University of London was tors of the North Andover Hay Scales. In largely accomplished in Spain where, amid the spring of 1958 he gave the Lowell Lec- churches and monasteries, he resolved his re- tures: "Supra Montem Posita: The Top- searches in mediaeval Spanish history and ographical Evolution of Boston over Three art, through most of the years 1928-1936. Centuries." His interest and concern with Out of this came his first book - Spanish printing and typography is that of a pro- Romanesque Architecture of the Eleventh fessional. He has probably directed, guided, Century, published at Oxford in 1941. Re- vetted, or edited the publication of more turning to Massachusetts in 1936-he had pamphlets, brochures, miscellaneous papers, come back for his Harvard A.M. in 1929- and broadsides than any Bostonian in our Mr. Whitehill was for six years assistant di- time. His critical judgment and fastidious rector of the Peabody Museum of Salem. taste enter into everything that he does from He has been director and librarian of the collecting books and cleaning house to dis- Boston Athenaeum since 1946. Antiquarian covering lost manuscripts which should be instinct, which is no small part of his equip- published or crumbling monuments which ment, brightens his tenure in the American ought to be preserved. Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts His- His bibliography, for what I know of it torical Society, and as a Fellow of the Society for the years 1925-1958, including articles of Antiquaries of London. In World War II and book reviews in learned journals such as (on leave from the Peabody Museum) he Speculum, The Huntington Library Quarter- served from lieutenant to commander, USNR, ly, The Antiquaries Journal, American His- with the Office of Naval Records and Library torical Review, Isis, and in the New York of the Navy Department, as a result of which Times, runs to twenty-three single-spaced he was invited to collaborate with Fleet typescript pages. Some of the titles chosen Admiral E. J. King, USN, on a life of the at random are: Gregorian Capitals from Admiral published in 1952. Cluny, Mozarabic Psalter from Santo Do- To name his principal offices and books mingo de Silos, Cunard Cocktails in 1847, is but to touch the surface of the Whitehill Date of the Beginning of the Cathedral of saga. For example, he has been a member Santiago de Compostela, Centenary of the of the faculty of the Peabody Museum of Dowse Library, A Figurehead of Talma, Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard since Canton Factories, A Bibliography of New 1951, and from 1952 to 1956 was Allston Burr England (series) 1947-1957, Funeral Cus- Senior Tutor in Lowell House, with a strong toms, The Grosvenor Library and its Times, disposition toward reclaiming the wayward Confusion Forever; at least two dozen fore- and maladjusted, a number of whom survived words, introductions, prefaces, tributes, as to graduate with honors. well as a dazzling flotilla of catalogues, Creator of scholars, redeemer of souls pamphlets, reports, and minor histories. The Among Harvard lame ducks: They shall waddle studied casualness of his prose style animates like geese, They shall swim the Dead Sea and return with these disparate titles as it does his longer the scrolls, work. His Athenaeum Items are a delight Who confer with the man with the vellum valise. and, in a way, an index of what his versatility He has lectured on history at Harvard, was means to a Library. a founding father and first editor of Daedalus, It is a curious fact that when he is elected a publication of the American Academy of to a new organization, an office is almost im- Arts and Sciences, produced the official his- mediately thrust upon him. Only his inti- tory of the Boston Public Library in 1956 mate friends are aware of the skill, patience, in celebration of its Centenary, founded in and intelligence with which he discharges the 1941 and edited for ten years The American duties these offices involve. Vice president Neptune; is a member of the editorial board of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard, secretary- of both the New England Quarterly and treasurer of the Charity of Edward Hopkins, William and Mary Quarterly, had a large the oldest trust fund in America - of which hand in setting up the important project of (incidentally) Samuel Sewall, the diarist, was the publication of the Adams Papers under his first predecessor - he finds time for a May-August, 1958 Our Frontispiece 123 trusteeship in the Museum of Fine Arts and special interest in music. The Old Berry the Peabody Museum of Salem; and when House, quite fortunately, is built like a good it comes to discovering new quarters for such violin, and the Hi-Fi instrument which Mr. as the Colonial Society of Massachusetts Whitehill procured in parts and somehow whose Publications he edits - he not only managed to put together, floods the place acquires with the greatest alacrity furniture, from cellar to ceiling with Haydn, Mozart, rugs, vases, clocks, and portraits, but has Couperin, and sundry hallelujahs beginning time and energy to restore, for example, the with breakfast or even before. famous study of Francis Parkman as com- A sketch of four or five of his working- pletely as possible down to the last small days (with which he has obliged me) should detail in the placing of Henry Chatillon's send the average reader to bed. These are photograph. not necessarily consecutive days, but the People from here to the James and Poto- drive and activity are consecutive. April 13: mac Rivers seek his counsel on everything Semi-annual meeting of board of Thomas from the Whittier homestead and what Jef- Jefferson Memorial Foundation of Farming- ferson drank, to rail fences and Naval his- ton Club, Charlottesville; Monticello after tory. He is a stickler for accuracy, uncom- lunch; silver exhibition at University Mu- promising in his attitude toward art, hostile seum; cocktail party J. A. Bear: dinner toward anything that smacks of the shoddy Francis L. Berkeley. April 14: Monticello and the specious which includes a great in morning; lunch at Farmington, after which deal of the modern-jealous of the dignity introduced T. B. Adams who speaks (Jeffer- of scholarship, and sympathetic to the ambi- son's birthday) from back portico of Monti- tious and the young. cello; wreath-laying on Jefferson's grave; It would be a mistake, in the lee of this dine at Old Ivy Inn; address Albemarle recital, to think that Mr. Whitehill is in- County Historical Society on "Mr. Jefferson's different to food, drink, and the genial gusto Wines" at 8; drink with Thomas J. Michie of life. Though his friends include an Oxford afterward. April 29: To Aquarium in South classicist, the Chinese artist and writer Boston with William J. Gurney of City Build- Chiang Yee, a score of fellow-historians, a ing Department to see if building could be number of distinguished typographers, edi- adapted for a historical museum; lunch in tors, and directors of museums, he is per- Cambridge with Mrs. J. L. Coolidge and fectly at home with most of mankind. He Alexander Strong at 12:30; drove them to gives and goes to dinners, serves whiskey in Harry Reynolds' funeral at St. John's, Bev- pewter, is never happier than in an open New erly Farms, 2:30; back to Cambridge to pick England or closed Chinese market, buying up Jane; Chestnut Hill Garden Club annual quahogs or bamboo shoots, stays up late meeting at Faulkner Farm at 5; North and rises early, dictates an enormous but Andover Improvement Society annual meet- leisurely correspondence, frequently stands ing in North Andover at 6:30. May 1: 8:15 to write at an old school-master's desk, reads plane to Newport News; drove to Williams- without making visible notes, runs his com- burg; loafed about; lunch at King's Arms; plex life beyond reach of any known date dinner at Lodge; candle-light concert in book, is a picturesque figure at Harvard Governor's Palace; evening party at Lester Commencements (red British gown), and an Cappon's for Council of Institute of Early arresting one at weddings (gray brocade American History and Culture. May 13: waistcoat). He does not fish, play golf, read Talk with Edward Holley of University of the newspaper, listen to radio or watch tele- Illinois who is writing life of bibliographer vision, or take any interest whatsoever in Charles Evans; borrowed Diana's [his sports unless the art of gardening be such. daughter's] station wagon and fetched ten The breadth of his library rich in Latin, chairs from Miss Ruth Richardson's house to French, and Spanish books as well as English Colonial Society; 12:30 Peabody Museum and American - provides a background for luncheon at Faculty Club, with speakers from both pleasure and research. It would be hard Colombia, Brazil, Korea; to Pitman Studio for a layman to pick his special authors, but to inspect model of Back Bay being made among them surely are Ovid, Francis Park- for N. E. Mutual Life Insurance Co.; back man, Arthur Waley, C. S. Lewis, Robert to Boston with Tom Adams; more talk with Bridges, Sir James Frazer, Hakluyt, Helen Holley, and so home. Waddell, S. E. Morison and George Blake. Athenaeum, old chrysalid keeper of light: He has no visible interest in the theater, While the overshoes dry, oversouls are at peace. From this shareholders' haven out into the bite rarely attends concerts, and yet enjoys a very Of the wind sails the man with the vellum valise. Walter Mear Whitehill Boston: Boston Athenaeum, 1974. Walter Muir Whitehill David McCord Walter Muir Whitehill was born in Cambridge in 1905. He took his A.B. cum laude at Harvard in 1926, his Ph.D. at the University of London in 1934. For a man who was, and will be until his voluntary retirement in February 1973, director and librarian of the Boston Athenaeum - fellow, president, secretary, treasurer, clerk, recording secretary, editor, founder, trustee, or member of SO impressive an assortment of learned societies, museums, quarterlies, scholarly and historical projects, councils, and clubs - he is easier to approach than to classify. He is, first of all, an historian; but do historians classify by features and physique as do (for me) the chemists? They do not. Mr. Whitehill could pass in a crowd as the president of a college, the owner of a sugar plantation, a member of Parliament, a man who would speak up to Dr. Johnson and down to Mr. Boswell, a leader in the guild of wine merchants, an amused boulevardier in wax, an amiable walrus - in the years of the mustache - or an ambassador between assignments. Squarely built and soundly dressed, he occasionally affects a homburg for town or a red hat while mowing the grass, but remains inseparable from a variety of outsize pipes, which he fills, quite surprisingly, with a cheap, popular brand of tobacco. He used to talk in brilliant control of a large and sensitive blond mustache in the amorphous shape of a spanner; but since the late sixties he talks in equal control, or simply in possession, of a distinguished grey beard, the adjective spelled with an "e" and the pointed beard itself King Edward VII style. He is proud of such distinguished property; and was pleased one day while crossing Boston Common to overhear some young walking briarpatch say to another: "that was a cool beard!" He is engaging and easy in conversation, meticulous and witty in speech which he punctuates with apt quotation, original in accent in that he savors each one of his words even to the occasional dropping of 'g's in participles, and has a way of looking at you over glasses which he is likely not wearing. He always sits somewhat aggressively relaxed, moves with the fluent motion of a cat, and used to carry with him everywhere except to church a small decrepit vellum valise, the contents of which were quite as astonishing as its owner. Of late he has substituted for this receptical a more ordinary briefcase, much to the regret of several friends. He may be encountered almost anywhere along the Beacon Street, Faneuil Hall, Fenway, Harvard axis - usually on his way to or from a meeting of some sort, or to and from the North Station or a bookstore; yet never giving one the impression of being in a hurry. It is discouraging to certain of his intimates that he is always punctual. In the market place, clericus vagus or saint? In the fever of Faneuil the sigh of Sulpice? Scrutinium tacitum shows the restraint Of Mozarabic man with the vellum valise. 110 He lives with his wife (Jane Revere Coolidge, a Vassar graduate) in their lovely old Berry House in North Andover. A sizable barn, as well as the house, is filled with neatly shelved books and pamphlets - possibly fourteen thousand in all - flawlessly catalogued in the librarian's head. When not at home, you may be sure that the owner is away on urgent errands to such far-off places as Philadephia, Williamsburg, Charlottesville, California, Pugwash, England, Holland, Denmark, Gibraltar, Italy, Greece, or Peru. The Whitehills have two married daughters. Full as his curriculum vitae currently is of titles such as president, editor, trustee, and SO on, it is strictly true that when he is elected to a new organization, an important office is almost immediately thrust upon him. In most cases only those who serve with him are aware of the magnitude of his administrative and revisionary contribution. Window dressing is not in his vocabulary. Sometime president of Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in Massachusetts - the chapter assigned to Harvard in 1779 - he is secretary-treasurer of the Charity of Edward Hopkins, the oldest trust fund in America, trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Peabody Museum of Salem; recording secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society; founder and president of Historic Boston, Inc., which not only saved and restored the original home of the Old Corner Bookstore, but is now in beneficial possession of some of the distinguished real estate on the east side of Walnut Street on Beacon Hill. Consulted by all sorts of people on everything from the Whittier homestead to what Thomas Jefferson drank, he is himself an excellent homesteader in North Andover, where he and his wife entertain historians, editors, classicists, typographers, writers, museum directors, teachers: people gifted in the fluid dynamics of books, art, letters, and comestibles. An inveterate public market man, he often does the formidable cooking himself. And since the background of his life is always books and travel as well as people, a layman should mention among his favorite authors: Ovid, Parkman, Arthur Waley, C.S. Lewis, Robert Bridges, Sir James Frazer, Hakluyt, Helen Waddell, S. E. Morison, George Blake, Chiang Yee, Caryl Haskins, and the compilers of the O.E.D. The energy of the man quite equals the range of his interests. As a freshman in college he was already endowed with the life of the spirit; but not until his junior year did he enter into the life of learning under the sympathetic guidance of the late Kingsley Porter. In his Senior Album he put down "Ministry" as his future occupation. His sojourn at the University of London was largely accomplished in Spain where, amid churches and monasteries, he resolved his researches in medieval Spanish history and art, through most of the years 1928-1936. Out of this came his first book - Spanish Romanesque Architecture of the Eleventh Century, published at Oxford in 1941 and recently reprinted. Returning to Massachusetts in 1936 - he had come back for his Harvard A.M. in 1929 - Mr. Whitehill was for six years assistant director of the Peabody Museum of Salem. He has been director and librarian of the Boston Athenaeum since 1946. Antiquarian instinct, which is no small part of his equipment, brightens his tenure in the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, of which he has been president, and as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. In World War II (on leave from the Peabody Museum) he served from lieutenant to commander, USNR, with the Office of Naval Records and Library of the Navy Department, as a result of which he was invited to collaborate with Fleet Admiral E. J. King, USN, on a life of the Admiral published in 1952. Most recently he has become chairman of the American Council of Learned Societies' Committee on the Dictionary of American Biography. To name his principal offices and books is but to touch the surface of the Whitehill saga. For example, he has been a member of the faculty of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard since 1951, and from 1952 to 1956 was Allston Burr Senior Tutor in Lowell House, with a strong disposition toward reclaiming the wayward and maladjusted, a number of whom survived to graduate with honors. He has lectured on history at Harvard, was a founding father and first editor of Daedalus, a publication of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, produced the official history of the Boston Public Library in 1956 in celebration of its Centenary, founded in 1941 and edited for ten years The American Neptune; is a member of the editorial board of both the New England Quarterly and William and Mary Quarterly, had a large hand in setting up the important project of the publication of the Adams Papers under the editorship of L. H. Butterfield, has served in an advisory capacity to many councils and committees, and as president of the Old South Association, the Club of Odd Volumes, of the Board of Trustees of the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead, and of the Proprietors of the North Andover Hay Scales. In the spring of 1958 he gave the Lowell Lectures; "Supra Montem Posita: The Topographical Evolution of Boston over Three Centuries." His interest and concern with printing and typography is that of a professional. He has probably directed, guided, vetted, or edited the publication of more pamphlets, brochures, miscellaneous papers, broadsides, tracts and trivia than any Bostonian in our time. July-September, 1973 113 What manuscript diary, journal, or log As sure as the plural of moose isn't meese - But is better, as man is for sun after fog, For a vet by the man with the vellum valise? Today he travels widely to lecture; and his Colonial outposts now include directorships in the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, The University Press of Virginia; memberships on the boards of trustees of the National Trust of Historic Preservation, Museum of Navaho Ceremonial Art, Fruitlands Museum, Penobscot Marine Museum, and Marlboro College in Vermont; the editorial board of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, honorary member of the Boston Society of Architects, he has received seven honorary degrees, including a D.Litt. from the University of New Brunswick (Canada) and an L.H.D. from the University of Delaware. Any friend of Walter Whitehill is aware of certain things which he likes, dislikes, or abominates. He has obliged me - at my request - with a small but select list of these opposites. He likes beauty and clarity of language, brevity and punctuality; dislikes jargon and long-winded meetings. He likes the prose style of Samuel Eliot Morison and The Book of Common Prayer; dislikes the writing of educationists and liturgical experiment. He favors classical scholars, Egyptologists, medievalists; dislikes all "social scientists." He likes Gibbon, saints, and nearly all dogs, dislikes C.P. Snow, reformers, nearly all "do-gooders." He likes the view of mountains, but not climbing them; the streets of London and Copenhagen, but not a lake bordered by summer cottages. He likes music at home, Gregorian music, Mozart, Haydn & Co.; dislikes the Boston Symphony programs, unaccompanied polyphonic music, rock - which he generously calls rock music. He likes Chinese calligraphy, a mastery of technique, the architecture of A. Palladio, the sculpture of Bernini; dislikes paint slobbered on canvas, "self-expression," the architecture of Le Corbusier, the sculpture of David Smith. He likes good book design and printing, dislikes (as I do violently) eccentric margins and unjustified lines. He likes staying at home; dislikes going to the opera or theatre. He likes books; dislikes television; likes clubs, a small dinner, eating at a table; dislikes most restaurants, cocktail parties, picnics and buffets; likes Naval officers; dislikes real estate promoters. A bibliography speaks for itself; but the few scattered samples taken chronologically which follow will give the reader at least a notion of the spread of Walter Whitehill's interests - interests by no means limited even to a dozen different disciplines. The years 1925-1940 are defined by articles, reviews, letters, pamphlets, and a single introduction. Of his books, a layman in history and biography would suggest: The East India Marine Society and the Peabody Museum of Salem (1949); his Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record, in collaboration with Ernest J. King (1952); Boston A Topographical History (1959; enlarged second edition, 1968); Independent Historical Societies (1962); Boston in the Age of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1966); Analecta Biographica (1969); and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A Centennial History (2 vols., 1970). Scattered up and down the valleys in between these relative hills and mountains one finds among the vast etcetera: "Gregorian Capitals from Cluny," Rigs of the Nine Principal Types of American Sailing Vessels, "Bad Actors in the Reading Room," "Early Books for the Blind," "Daniel Webster and Venus," "A Foreword to Daedalus," "Cunard Cocktails in 1847," "Tutor Flynt's Silver Chamber-pot," "Chiang Yee Internationally Known Chinese Scholar" (in Chinese translation, Hong Kong); Destroyed Boston Buildings, "Tourist, Stay Home!", "Furniture on the Oregon Trail," review of Numismatic Art in America. Athenaeum, old chrysalid keeper of light: While the overshoes dry, oversouls are at peace. From this shareholders' haven out into the bite Of the wind sails the man with the vellum valise. Though Mr. Whitehill dislikes the theater, it is at this point that the curtain rises. Note: David McCord has contributed a profile of Mr. Whitehill in Vol. 22, No. 6, May-August, 1958 of our Bulletin. The quoted verses are from "The Man with the Vellum Valise," by Mr. David McCord. This poem appeared in Walter Muir Whitehill: A Record Compiled by His Friends, printed by The Anthoensen Press, Portland, Maine. 13 September 1958. 114 BULLETIN OF BIBLIOGRAPHY Vol. 30, No. 3 6 Old walrus, who punctuates period speech With a roll of his flipper, rotund not obese; I. Chronology When he springs like a Cheshire for things out of reach, Not a sound makes the man with the vellum valise. 1905 Walter Muir Whitehill, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 28 Need a wine book? A timetable? Contract? A bill? September. Son of Walter Muir Whitehill, A.B., Harvard, 1903, Lowell lecture? Old memo? Proof? Notes? Spot of grease? and Florence Marion (Williams) Whitehill. A postal from Perk? Swatch of tweed, pen, or pill Walter Whitehill's immuired in the vellum valise? 1918-1920 Attended Boston Latin School. On a ledge in Vermont at the break of the range, Where Winooski is near though it's far from the Lys, 1919-1920 To be grubbing a stump or asleep in the grange Is the dream of the man with the vellum valise. Page boy in Boston Public Library. There are entertaining recollections of this experience in the Sit him down of an evening in June in the last preface to Boston Public Library: A Centennial History (pp. Of the light, when the sky has the stain of cassis; 26-27), below). Though he's blind to the theatre, never miscast 1920-1922 In his world is the man with the vellum valise. Attended Wellesley High School. Graduated June 1922. If his strange bibliography reads like a book, The Graduation Issue of the Wellesley High School Monitor Kingsley Porter might say: Hoc est vivere bis. for 1922 records that W.M. W. was the "biggest boy grind" in He who has what it takes, must have had what it took his class; that his favorite saying was "God bless my soul-rub- bish!"; that he was a member of the Business Club and the Dra- Ad amussim. Amen to the vellum valise. matics Club; and that he served as Manager of the Football Team (of which, according to information furnished by the Manager DAVID McCORD himself, the coach was Albert B. "Happy" Chandler, then brief- ly a student in the Harvard Law School and subsequently Gov- ernor of Kentucky). The Class Prophet predicted that W.M.W. Walter Meir Whitehell would go into "the wholesale junk business" and make "mil- lions." The compilers of the present record do not know wheth- cr the latter part of this prophecy is true (they hope it is), but A Record Campiled by they cannot resist the temptation to point out that no great house in Boston can now be closed up without the Director of His Freedids the Athenxum's being called in to advise on the best disposition of the books and furnishings. throt Portlad , llaw: Anth oensen Press, 1958. 1922-1926 shocking crimes in human history, the martyrdom of King Charles I, and that it was appropriate that in a great institution Attended Harvard College, living in Divinity 23 throughout of learning on the banks of the noble river which bore his name, his four years. Field of Concentration: English. men and women of good-will should reflect upon his sufferings Awarded a Matthews Scholarship, 1925-1926. and upon the evils which had attended the Puritan triumph and A.B. cum laude, June 1926. Cronwellian usurpation." Then followed a spirited reading of Future occupation: "Ministry"-Harvard Class Album, 1926. Marvell's "Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ire- Other gleanings relating to W.M.W.'s college years are thin. land," which made the most of "the noble bearing of Charles As a freshman he engaged in Social Service and the activities of upon the scaffold and of the ruthless nature of Cromwell's exer- the Dramatics Club. Among the scholars who markedly influ- eise of power." The copy of Macaulay's History of England enced him were George Parker Winship in the Library and Ar- then climactically committed to the flames had been bought at thur Kingsley Porter in the Department of Fine Arts. His first il cost of ten cents a volume especially for the occasion, and was appearance in print was in somewhat unexpected company with such a "supreme example of bad paper, bad typography, and a survey of "Religion in Cambridge" in The Gad-Fly, a publica- bad binding" that, "far from providing a cheerful blaze, [it] tion of the Student Liberal Club, April 1925. His next, a review fell to dust without really catching fire." of Hartmann's study of the Cavalier poet Lovelace in The Har- vard Advocate, December 1925, he has described in his own re- 1926-1927 vealing notes: "I took a swipe at the author for his failure to Studied Fine Arts in Harvard Graduate School of Arts and appreciate Charles I. After all I was, at the time, Secretary of the Sciences. American branch of the Society of King Charles the Martyr, 1926-1928 which regrettably died on my hands during subsequent absences in Spain, and, in that capacity, had, one thirtieth of January Tutor in Fine Arts, Harvard and Radcliffe. while an undergraduate, preached a sermon in the Church of the Advent when the Rev. W.H. van Allen was in bed with the pip. 1927, 1928-1929 I cannot remember the year of that indiscretion, although I re- "In the summer of 1927 I came to Spain for the first time and call definitely cremating a copy of T.B. Macaulay's History of began work on Spanish Romanesque architecture and manu- England, with appropriate ceremony, in my rooms at 23 Divini- scripts, which I carried on during the year 1928-29 [as a Carne- ty Hall on 30 January 1925. Subsequently I had to spend half a gie Fellow of the Harvard Fine Arts Department]. Most of my dollar for another copy, for I always liked Macaulay's style how- time was spent in the Benedictine monastery of Santo Domingo ever much I disapproved of his sentiments." de Silos in the province of Burgos, where I worked on the re- This incident has been confirmed and amplified by a friend construction of the destroyed eleventh century church and the who was present, who reports that it occurred at a tea party to history of the monastic library"-W.M.W. in Harvard Class of which the young royalist had invited quite a few guests, "in- 1926, Sexennial Report, 1932. cluding, I believe, some ladies and a faculty member or two. After all were assembled, Walter rose solemnly and informed Santo Domingo de Silos is "fifty-seven kilometres south-cast the company that it was, as everyone ought to remember, the of Burgos, in the partido of Salas de los Infantes. There is now two hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of one of the most I 1941] a motor road from Burgos, but until a few years ago it was necessary to do the last ten miles on foot or with a donkey" IO W.M.W.: A Record I. Chronology II -W.M.W., Spanish Romanesque Architecture of the Eleventh Century, p. 155, note 2. photographique la plus considérable sur le sujet. Ses collègues de Barcelone, notamment le Président de l'Institut d'Estudis Cata- 1929-1930 lans, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, l'appréciaient hautement. Il con- viendrait aussi de signaler ses séjours répétés et prolongés au Graduate student in Fine Arts, Harvard. A.M., 1929. monastère bénédictin de Santo Domingo de Silos, dont les moines, en particulier D. Justo Pérez de Urbel, m'ont parlé de 1930 lui avec beaucoup d'affection." Married Jane Revere Coolidge, A.B., Vassar, 1923, and A.M., Other friends who have contributed recollections of the Radcliffe, 1926, in Cambridge, 5 June. young American savant and his family in Europe remark re- Miss Coolidge was engaged in editing a group of manuscripts peatedly on the Whitehills' capacity to identify themselves with in the Harvard Library which were subsequently published as whatever environment they found themselves in, from Com- Letters of Mrs. Gaskell and Charles Eliot Norton, 1855-1865, postela to Bedford Square; on "the enviable ease and geniality London: Oxford University Press, 1932. Her scholarly and lit- of their domestic arrangements" even after Whitehill infants erary labors since her marriage have been pretty continuous but began to arrive; on their wonderful Ford from the U.S.A., which almost entirely anonymous. Others besides her husband owe her carried them and their friends about the British Isles; on the way debts of this kind that cannot be repaid. in which doors always opened for them-and even for friends of theirs-in cathedral muniment rooms; on the enduring lega- cy of friendships they left behind them in Europe; and on 1930-1936 W. M. W.'s appetite. "From the autumn of 1930 until the spring of 1936 my home Beginning in 1930 the Whitehills spent several summers as was in Barcelona, which I found a convenient center of opera- the guests of the Kingsley Porters at Glenveagh Castle, County tions for work which I was doing upon the art and history of Donegal, Ireland. During one of these intervals the post of Di- the eleventh century in Spain I spent part of each year in rector of the National Gallery of Ireland fell vacant, and a vig- England"-W.M.W. in Harvard Class of 1926, Decennial Re- orous campaign was launched by Irish friends to elect W.M.W. port, 1936. Director. According to his own testimony (recently imparted The fruits of W.M.W.'s archeological and paleographical to one of the compilers of this record), most of the electioneer- studies in several countries during the thirties are recorded in ing took place in Dublin pubs, and good progress was made, but the next section of this volume, together with some autobio- in the end the American candidate lost out, by four votes to five, graphical fragments. A summary of the work in Spain has been to "an Irishman." furnished by a French colleague, now a member of the Faculty 1934 of Letters at the University of Lille: "Pour le séjour de Walter Ph.D., University of London. Dissertation: Spanish Roman- en Espagne, il serait bon d'insister sur le travail extraordinaire esque Architecture of the Eleventh Century; published by Ox- qu'il y a accompli et dont la somme, très résumée, se trouve dans ford University Press, London, 1941. sa thèse: Spanish romanesque Architecture of the eleventh Cen- tury. Il s'agit là de l'enquête la plus complète qui ait été entre- 1934-1935 prise sur les monuments romans espagnols, alors peu connus. Walter a certainement réuni la collection bibliographique et Supervisor of Spanish Studies, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. 12 W.M.W.: A Record I. Chronology 13 1936 W.M.W.'s commanding officer in the Office of Naval Rec- Returned in the spring to the United States and settled at Old ords and Library has recently written: "Walter accepted duty Berry House, North Andover. in my office during the late war with the reservation that he Lectured on fine arts in the University of Pennsylvania Sum- would be permitted to do extra work-such as carrying on with mer School. his editing of Neptune. After a few weeks of early 'shakedown' Appointed Museum Assistant in the Peabody Museum of Sa- adjustment he commandeered several un-used desks with which lem in the fall. to form the boundaries of a sort of corral. Inside this he was 1937-1946 more or less protected from outside intrusion and interruption, and free-coatless and with sleeves rolled up-to work at full Assistant Director, Peabody Museum of Salem; on leave in speed. With evident relish as long as work lasted he would make USNR, 1942-1946; resigned March 1946. his way from desk to desk devouring the pile of papers on each." W. M. W. has furnished a brief account of his Salem years in See further "A Postscript to Fleet Admiral King," pp. 56-60, The East India Marine Society and the Peabody Museum of Sa- below. lem (pp. 31-34, below). 1946- 1941- Founder and principal editor (1941-1950) of The American Librarian (from July 1946) and Director and Librarian (from Neptune: A Quarterly Journal of Maritime History. Continued February 1947) of the Boston Athenxum. (See in the next sec- tion of this book the entries Atheneum Items, "Introduction" as senior member of Board of Editors, 1951- to Boston Atheneum: Six Views, and "Reports of the Librari- an.") 1942-1946 Editor of Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications. On active duty in the U. S. Naval Reserve, entering as lieu- tenant, November 1942; promoted to lieutenant commander, 1947- April 1945; to commander, November 1945. Served in the Office of Naval Records and Library, Navy De- Compiler of "Bibliography of New England" appearing an- partment, writing a History of Headquarters, COMINCH, U.S. nually in the March issue of The New England Quarterly. I.L.L. Fleet, 1941-1945, for the Office of Naval History (unpublished typescript), and drafting Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King's Second 1951- and Third Reports to the Secretary of the Navy, transmitted in Member of the Faculty, Peabody Museum of Archaeology March and December 1945 respectively, and published in King's and Ethnology, Harvard University. U.S. Navy at War, 1941-1945, Washington: Government Print- ing Office, 1946. 1952-1956 Letters of Commendation from Commander in Chief, U. S. Allston Burr Senior Tutor, Lowell House, Harvard Univer- Fleet, and Chief of Naval Operations, and Chief of Naval In- elligence. sity. Released from active duty, August 1946. The Master of Lowell House has written of this epoch in the history of the House: 14 M. A Record I. Chronology 15 "When we evolved the idea of the Allston Burr Senior Tutors, The Senior Tutorship is by definition half-time, and in theory the committee concerned worked out a fairly definite picture the two should run together easily enough. But one is in Boston of the ideal. He was to be a man of maturity and academic stand- and keeps throwing out branches, the other in Cambridge and ing, not a Baby Dean, but one who was concerned with scholar- keeps throwing out tentacles. It was pretty rough, though he ship, teaching, and the general intellectual character of the never said so, and the men who now have behind them magnas House and Senior Common Room; all this on top of the qualities when they might have had cums, or pass degrees when they of understanding that would make his other gifts effective with might have had none, never guessed how driven was the placid the undergraduates. It took discussion to agree on the picture, man behind the pipe." and we soon found that it would take bloodhounds to find the 1953- men. "Finally, one evening when I had been refused by the fifth Member of the Board of Freshman Advisers, Harvard Uni- 'orthodox' prospect, my wife said reflectively that if Walter versity. would take it he would be just the man. It was one of her out- 1955-1957 standing shots. The questions were whether Walter could take Editor of Daedalus, a continuation in new format of Proceed- it, and would take it, and then, which proved quite a question, ings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. whether the powers that were would allow him to take it. However, Authority finally saw reason. 1956-1957 "Walter took to the idea at once. That kind of job is made for his most notable single quality, deep and sympathetic inter- Lecturer on History, Harvard University. In spring term of est in other people. He decided that he could combine the Sen- 1957 taught History of the English Colonies to 1760. ior Tutorship with the Athenium, the Directors of the latter agreed, and September 1952 saw unorthodoxy in the saddle. 1958 "Neither Senior Tutors nor Masters do 'big' things. They deal, Delivered eight Lowell Lectures in Boston, March-May. week in and week out, with one man at a time, over matters that Title: "Supra Montem Posita: The Topographical Evolution of cannot be glamorized. If a Senior Tutor lacks the touch, noth- Boston over Three Centuries." ing spectacular happens; but the place sags. If he has it, the place Guest of Honor, The Glades Congress, Minot, Massachu- sparks. Walter has a peculiar ability to make the man he is talk- setts, 13 September. ing to more interesting, in his own eyes and in those of anyone else around, than he has seemed to be. "Not, of course, that Walter is an unbridled optimist. He has traveled far and seen much, and can tell mud from molasses at a hundred and fifty yards. He does, too, and tells the bystanders. This is what makes him such fun to work with, to dine with, and to discuss his wide interests with. It was, I suppose, at the bottom of my certainty that the House and its Master needed his help over the fence. But I should also point out the amount of work he let himself in for. Running the Athenxum is not a full-time job in terms of punching the clock; but it takes energy. BOSTON ATHEN/EUM Home Library Book Recommendations Athenxum Authors WALTER MUIR WHITEHILL March/April 2010 By Mary Warnement Walter Muir Whitehill (1905-1978) was Director and Librarian of the Boston Athenxum from 1946 until his retirement in 1973. He received his bachelors and masters degrees from Harvard and finished his PhD at the University of London in 1934 for his thesis on the architecture of medieval Spain, not published until 1941. In 1936, he became the assistant director of the Peabody Museum in Salem which he left in order to serve in the navy during World War II. After the war, he came to the Boston Athenxum where he found his home, a base from which he participated in, or, more accurately, led nearly every New England cultural institution or society, and became the epitome of a prolific author. David McCord's unorthodox description of him presents a more interesting picture than conventional biography would and aptly introduces this necessarily abbreviated list of his many publications. Any friend of Walter Whitehill is aware of certain things which he likes, dislikes, or abominates. He has obliged me-at my request-with a small but select list of these opposites. He likes beauty and clarity of language, brevity and punctuality; dislikes jargon and long-winded meetings. He likes the prose style of Samuel Eliot Morison and The Book of Common Prayer dislikes the writing of educationists and liturgical experiment. He favors classical scholars, Egyptologists, medievalists; dislikes all "social scientists." He likes Gibbon, saints, and nearly all dogs, dislikes C.P. Snow, reformers, nearly all "do- gooders." He likes the view of mountains, but not climbing them; the streets of London and Copenhagen, but not a lake bordered by summer cottages. He likes music at home, Gregorian music, Mozart, Haydn & Co.; dislikes the Boston Symphony programs, unaccompanied polyphonic music, rock-which he generously calls rock music. He likes Chinese calligraphy, a mastery of technique, the architecture of A. Palladio, the sculpture of Bernini; dislikes paint slobbered on canvas, "self-expression," the architecture of Le Corbusier, the sculpture of David Smith. He likes good book design and printing, dislikes (as I violently do) eccentric margins and unjustified lines. He likes staying at home; dislikes going to the opera or theatre. He likes books; dislikes television; likes clubs, a small dinner, eating at a table; dislikes most restaurants, cocktail parties, picnics and buffets; likes Naval officers; dislikes real estate promoters. A bibliography speaks for itself; but the few scattered samples taken chronologically which follows will give the reader at least a notion of the spread of Walter Whitehill's interests-interests by no means limited even to a dozen disciplines. [David McCord, "Walter Muir Whitehill," Bulletin of Bibliography vol. 30, no 3 (1973): 114.] Selected Bibliography: Classification followed by call number Spanish Romanesque Architecture of the Eleventh Century London: Oxford University Press, 1941 Cutter: UDHX W587 .S The East India Marine Society and the Peabody Museum of Salem; a sesquicentennial history Salem, Mass: Peabody Museum, 1941 Cutter: U65Sa +P31 +zw A Boston Athenaeum Miscellany: Catalogue of an Exhibition in Honor of the Visit of the Grolier Club on February 11, 1950 Boston, 1950 LC: + Z881 B738 Augustus Peabody Loring, Jr., 1885-1951 Salem, Mass: Peabody Museum, c1952 Cutter: 65 L8964 . .W In collaboration with Ernest Joseph King. Fleet Admiral King, a Naval Record New York, W. W. Norton, 1952 Cutter: 65 K5817 Portraits of Women 1700-1825. Boston Massachusetts Historical Society, 1954 LC: N7634 .M3 Boston Public Library: A Centennial History Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1956 LC: Z733.B752 W5 Boston: A Topographical History Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1959 LC: F73.3 W57 1959 (A second edition was published in 1963 and 1968, and a third edition appeared in 2000.) Captain Joseph Peabody; East India merchant of Salem (1757-1844) Salem, Mass: Peabody Museum, 1962 Cutter: 65 +P3125 +e Boston in the age of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966 LC: F73.52 W5 Dumbarton Oaks; the history of a Georgetown house and garden, 1800-1966 Cambridge, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967 Cutte: UGS6RG D893 .W Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A Centennial History Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1970 LC: N520 W5 Boston Statues Barre, Mass: Barre Publishers, 1970 LC: + F73.64.A1 W45 Massachusetts: A Pictorial History New York: Scribner, c1976 Cutter: 964 +W587 +2 Palladio in America Milan: Electa, c1976 Cutter: UF.P17 .pa Boston Artists and Craftsmen at the Opening of the Twentieth Century Baltimore: New England Quarterly, 1977 Cutter: 96 .7N42 (v.50) RIGHTS & REPRODUCTIONS RESEARCH APPOINTMENT PRESS FLOOR PLAN 00000 BOSTON ATHEN/EUM 101/2 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108 12/9/2015 H-Net Reviews printable amazon.com. version Walter Muir Whitehill, Lawrence W. Kennedy. Boston: A Topographical History. Third edition, enlarged. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2000. xlix + 380 pp. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-00268-5. Reviewed by Michael J. Mezzano (Department of History, Boston College) Published on H-Urban (September, 2000) The third edition to Boston: A Topographical History appears forty after Walter Muir Whitehill's original text, brought up-to-date by Lawrence Kennedy. The underlying theme of the book remains remarkably important. Whitehill documents physical alterations of topography since the Reverend William Blaxton settled on Shawmut peninsula in 1625, and this new edition adds Lawrence Kennedy's chapters on the contemporary Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project, the plans for a new ballpark for the Boston Red Sox, and the South Boston Waterfront Project. Lawrence Kennedy was an excellent choice to update Whitehill's classic. In his preface, Kennedy notes that he and Whitehill share "an abiding love of the city, an enchantment with the story of how it grew," (p. x) but Kennedy's own work makes him extremely well qualified for the task of updating a classic text. Author of Planning the City Upon A Hill: Boston Since 1630 [1], Kennedy's experience as a scholar (he is Professor of History at the University of Scranton), a former employee of the Policy Development and Research Department of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and a product of Boston College give him a wealth of personal information to draw upon. Although the authors write solely to Boston, the process of changing the environment to suit human needs is common to all urban areas (e.g. William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West.[2] As a study of human's adaptations of and to the topography of the region, several unifying themes emerge that provide coherence and organization. They persist from Whitehill's first eight chapters, to the ninth, which he added in 1968, through Kennedy's additional two chapters. They help situate the book within the larger framework of urban history. They include standard problems of urban areas such as sanitation and transportation, growth and stagnation, private versus public improvements to land, and social geography. These assume prominence in Whitehill's first edition, but in the added chapters of the second and third editions tend to give way to architectural and planning critiques. Whitehill's chapters demonstrate the rich tradition of topographical change in Boston. Human agents over the course of almost four hundred years have drastically altered the physical layout, which was originally marked by three large hills on a narrow peninusla. Cutting down hills to fill in marshy areas and coves gave residents more space to build. Private construction of wharves began what Whitehill calls the "inexorable encroachment of land upon water that has marked the history of Boston." (p. 11) Wealth from the maritime trades in the post- Revolutionary city led to the diffusion of the population from the crowded peninsula into South Boston, and to the west of the wharves. Bridges across the Charles River into Cambridge, and along the Dorchester Neck facilitated travel and settlement. Whitehill's research found that property owners whose homes were affected disputed many of these changes. For instance, he finds a lawsuit instigated by William Thurston, whose home on Bowdoin Street was undermined by the Hancock family's excavation of Beacon Hill. This would continue to be a theme in Boston, particularly when highway construction in the 1950s and 1960s threatened entire neighborhoods. Throughout the first eight chapters, Whitehill also examines the architectural legacy of http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=4539 1/4 12/9/2015 H-Net Reviews Boston. He looks at Charles Bulfinch's work in Beacon Hill and the old South End. The filling in of the Back Bay and the South Cove gave architects and builders a large amount of space to work in, and Whitehill finds both good and bad examples of planning and architecture within these areas. The flight of "established families" from the Irish in 1860s and 1870s was typical of many American cities, but in Boston had particularly dramatic consequences. The argument could be made (Whitehill does not do it, noting that the Panic of 1873 was largely responsible) that Irish immigration was responsible for the upper class migration to magnificent new homes in the Back Bay, and the construction of lodging and row houses in the South End. Both areas were filled in roughly simultaneously, but the presence of the Irish (or as John Marquand might have us believe, "men in shirt sleeves' [3] caused many affluent families to seek out the Back Bay for permanent residence. The Protestant families' diaspora would continue into politically separate suburbs, giving Irish bosses, like James Michael Curley and Martin "The Mahatma" Lomasney control over the city in the early twentieth century. In the last of the original chapters, there is a sense that in Whitehill's mind Boston is changing for the worse. In the preface to the 1958 version, there were four mentions of the elevated Central Artery, which would not be fully opened until mid-1959. On page 189, he complains that Storrow Drive (a roadway along the banks of the Charles River) has wrecked the "singular charm" that the waterfront Esplanade gave to the city. In the chapter he added in 1968, his criticism was even more strident. He condemns the "horrendous use of the private automobile" (217) that has led to the disintegration of urban cores. As the long-time director of the Boston Athenaeum, and the author of several books on Boston, Whitehill obviously had a strong affection to the city, and his dismay at the omnipresent automobile is understandable. But even here, his commentary is balanced. Boston of the 1950s and 1960s was undergoing a desperately needed infusion of money and ideas. Reading the first eight chapters, one senses that the attention given to the city over 320 years--especially by the gentle hands of Bulfinch and Mayor Josiah Quincy--was suddenly abandoned. More than most other American cities, the Depression and World War II left Boston in need of infrastructure improvements, as well as economic aid. Whitehill seems to accept this, and in "A Decade of Renewal" presents a well-balanced account of the efforts to resuscitate Boston, under Mayor John Collins and Boston Redevelopment Authority Director Ed Logue. Whitehill seems SO relieved to see anything positive happening in Boston, that he was even liked the city's plans for Government Center. Of the new, and-anything-but- controversial City Hall, he notes that "In my view, it is as fine a building for its time and place as Boston has ever produced." (209) Perhaps, though, this is because as he states on the next page, that these new buildings screen the Central Artery from Government Center. (211) Rather than try to improve Whitehill's work, Kennedy wisely leaves it virtually untouched. (He updates two photographs which in the original version were only drawn-up plans). To Whitehill's last chapter, he merely adds a few parenthetical directives to "(See Chap. X)". In Chapter Ten, "A Beacon Once More," Kennedy strives to establish his own voice within the context of Whitehill's narrative, a creative attempt at which he succeeds wonderfully. He does this by disputing a few of Whitehill's architectural opinions, quoting them within his own work. Where Whitehill saw the positive values of the new City Hall, Kennedy--one might add with the advantage of the passing of time--merely notes that it is emblematic of what was "good and bad about city building in Boston during the 1960s." He calls City Hall Plaza an "unnatural wasteland," that lacks proper scale, focus and context. (243) Still, Kennedy notes that Government Center, and the Quincy Market restoration helped move Boston forward, and reinvigorated the city. The private investments of the 1970s led to a terrific increase in office space. Eventually, architects even learned how to build contextually, incorporating many of Boston's venerable historic sites in building plans. Unfortunately, Chapters Nine and Ten ultimately read like rote architectural criticism. Indeed, the sources shift to articles in Architectural Record, the AIA Guide to Boston, and Boston Architecture. This was perhaps one of the most fascinating parts (certainly the strongest) of Whitehill's original work; as Director of the Athenaeum he invariably had time to sift through the best sources, and mine all possible avenues. Kennedy's chapters, however, focus almost specifically on aesthetics and design. He recounts $150 million dollar "dinosaur of a retail http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=4539 2/4 12/9/2015 H-Net Reviews mall" at Lafayette Place. (252), the Copley Square wind tunnel (257) and the disaster that nearly befell the new Hancock Tower in January 1973. Words like "transitional" or "functional" to describe buildings disrupt the flow from the earlier sections. This is also certainly not to place any blame on Kennedy either, for Whitehill started down that slippery slope in Chapter Nine. The transition seems somewhat jarring--the unifying theme of topographical adaptation seems lost. In a way, though, this is understandable. For by the mid-twentieth century with the completion of the Logan Airport landfill, the topography of Boston is set. Short of filling in the harbor (perhaps a cheaper alternative to the multi-billion dollar federal clean-up project) or the Charles, there was no longer anything to be done, topographically speaking, to the city. The end of annexation in the late 1800s, furthermore, fixed the geographical and political boundaries. Happily, by Chapter Eleven, "Toward the New Millennium," the theme reemerges. It seems in Chapter Eleven that Kennedy is also back on his surest ground. He opens the chapter noting that "Along with the felicitous shift in architectural opinion, political changes affected the city's evolving shape and appearance." (274-5) While there is still a fair amount of architectural criticism (and all of the critiques are well-deserved and quite accurate-- International Place does mar the skyline), Kennedy's focus on the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project (known locally as the "Big Dig"), and plans for the South Boston Waterfront resonate with the early portions of Whitehill. The Big Dig does not seem quite SO novel when Whitehill describes the Church Street alterations in the 1960s, when the city raised 200 flood-prone brick buildings to higher foundations, as well as the 55 acres of land, and three miles of new streets that resulted from the filling in of South Cove. There is a truly impressive feat here. Kennedy and Whitehill have documented incredible physical changes over nearly four hundred years. The book is wonderfully illustrated (173 illustrations, 31 of them added in the new addition), well-researched and accessible. It not only provides an overarching narrative of the history of the city of Boston, it shows how cities in general adapt, alter, and preserve their surroundings. Notes [1]. Lawrence W. Kennedy. Planning the City Upon a Hill: Boston Since 1630 (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992). [2]. William Cronon. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991). [3]. John P. Marquand, The Late George Apley: a Novel in the Form of a Memoir (New York: Collier, 1937). At a key point in the novel the protagonist moves to the high status Back Bay because he sees a neighbor in shirtsleeves, a sign that the lower classes are moving in. Copyright (c) 2000 by H-Net, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission, please contact H-Net@H-Net.MSU.EDU. printable amazon.com. version If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the list discussion logs at: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl. Citation: Michael J. Mezzano. Review of Whitehill, Walter Muir; Kennedy, Lawrence W., Boston: A Topographical History. H-Urban, H-Net Reviews. September, 2000. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=4539 Copyright © 2000 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=4539 3/4 4/18/26 IN MEMORIAM WALTER MUIR WHITEHILL, 1905-1978 F EW men have received the recognition accorded Walter Muir Whitehill during his lifetime. In addition to half a dozen honorary degrees, many awards, and several dedications, he had the rare distinction of having not one, but two publications issued by his friends to do him honor by recording his achievements. The first of these, published in 1958, contained a tribute by Julian Boyd, David McCord's classic poem "The Man with the Vellum Valise," a chronology of Walter's life, a bibliography of his pub- lications, and a list of the organizations to which he belonged, some eighty-two in all. The second, published by the Boston Athenxum in 1974, at the time of Walter's retirement as director, contained additional poems, a reprint of McCord's appreciation that first appeared in the Bulletin of Bibliography (1958), and a revised list of Walter's publications. Nor did his distinctions stop with his retirement; perhaps the most notable performance of his last years was an address delivered before Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain on her visit to Boston in July, 1976. Since the two handsome publications present the record of Walter's achieve- ments, this essay will not gild the lily by recalling the details of Walter's accomplishments. It will, rather, discuss some of Walter's special qualities from a personal point of view. Walter Muir Whitehill was sui generis. Boston will never see the like of him again. It is difficult to analyze the many strands that constituted his unique qualities of mind and heart, for the sum was much greater than the parts. (Certainly of prime impor- tance in explaining Walter's achievements was his ability to work with all sorts and conditions of men. A casual acquaintance with him might lead to the impression that he was simply another Proper Bostonian, but nothing could be less true. He could work comfortably with Proper Bostonians, to be sure, but also with a wide variety of other types of people-from Irish politicians to Spanish monks, from admirals to librarians, from artists to mem- bers of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Not only did Walter work productively with these people; he was deeply concerned with 250 NEQ (1978). IN MEMORIAM 251 their welfare and often performed acts of kindness to help them. Many a young scholar has been speeded on his career through Walter's agency. In his 1958 tribute to Walter, Julian Boyd wrote of people being drawn into his "gravitational field." Certainly there was some- thing electric about his presence, partly because of his personal appearance. Stout, but never fat, invariably clad in a three-piece suit, Walter exuded solidity and respectability. Yet it was his facial adornments that gave him distinction. A moustache, neatly trimmed during his navy days, burgeoned after the war until the term "walrus" came to be applied to it. Walter was proud of his moustache but he could acknowledge quality in others as well. After visiting a friend of mine who had a huge handlebar mous- tache, twisted and waxed at the ends, he said, "Doesn't he keep his in splendid order!" The addition of the full beard only in- creased Walter's avuncular appearance and did nothing to detract from the first impact he had on people. The Whitehill presence was always a powerful force. Walter's influence on people working with and for him added another dimension to his impact on the world around him. I re- member his telling me his formula for success: (1) find competent persons; (2) explain clearly what you want done; and then- LEAVE THEM ALONE. Walter's technique was the antithesis of editorial busybodying.) When I was working on two Colonial Society volumes for him, I remember that my overriding concern was not to let Walter down or to betray his confidence in me. Hun- dreds of scholars all over the country must feel the same way about him. During most of his career Walter worked in fairly rarefied circles, dealing with people of unusual ability in various fields. Yet he never lacked the common touch. One snowy night Walter came to Andover on the train and found that his wife Jane was unable to meet him. Rather than molder in the railway station, he marched up to the center of town and soon found a rather disreputable bar. Far from being put off by the local rum-dums who had gathered there, he greeted them with enthusiasm and wound up being the life of the party. Later he congratulated me and the town of Andover for having such a welcome haven for stranded wayfarers. One can often tell as much about a man from the things that he 252 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY dislikes as from those he likes. Walter had some very positive con- victions. High on the list of his dislikes was anything that smacked of "Togetherness." I remember once making a suggestion at a Colonial Society Council meeting that Walter thought was tainted by "Togetherness." He exploded and laid me out in lavender. Characteristically, a few days later I got a three-page handwritten letter explaining his position and apologizing for the blast. An- other anathema was "Do-Gooders" who interfered in other peo- ple's business. A long time ago he stopped going to the Boston Symphony Orchestra because he was tired of having his ears as- saulted by modern music; he much preferred staying at home and playing Mozart and Haydn on his record player. When the Mas- sachusetts Historical Society decided to introduce evening meet- ings to which ladies would be invited, Walter was stoutly opposed because he deplored a scholarly organization being turned into a social club. And there may have been a touch of male chauvinism in his attitude as well. Last year Walter received a letter written by a man in Georgia trying to enlist Walter's help in his search for a new career. He said that he was a "Creative Services Director" with wide experience in almost every field one could name. Walter drafted a classic reply: I am sorry that I cannot give you any help or encouragement in what you call your "career search." Your communication abounds in words like "creative," "cultural," "evaluation," "product pack- aging" and others that would automatically disqualify you for consideration by any New England institution with which I have a connection. But the letter was never sent. A note on the draft indicated that his wife Jane thought it was "too unkind to this verbose, trendy, lunkhead." Walter could be a tower of strength in a fight, and his loyalty to friends in times of controversy was unbounded Some years ago, when I was president of the Andover Historical Society and Walter was a director, the seventy-nine-year-old curator fell downstairs, broke her hip, and became completely bedridden. I thought the time had come to get a new curator and after enlisting Walter's support presented my proposal to the Board. But many of them were friends of the old lady and my proposal was defeated. Walter rose in a rage. He said in a stentorian voice that he had never seen IN MEMORIAM 253 anything SO asinine in his life. He then proceeded to resign his position and stamp out of the room. Walter's protest changed no votes but the president never forgot his loyal support. Religion was a profound influence on Walter Whitehill's life. Like his dear friend Samuel Eliot Morison, he was both a trained historian and a high-church Anglican. At a tender age he was a choirboy at the Church of the Advent, and as a Harvard under- graduate preached a sermon there. It was not merely whim that led him to write in his 1926 Harvard class book that his future OC- cupation was to be the ministry.> devotion to his church never faltered throughout the rest of his life. He once told me what a comfort it was to him that both his daughters had married good Church of England men. His appreciation of the gorgeous ritual of the Episcopal church contributed to his understanding of Ro- man Catholicism and to his many friendships with Catholics. One thinks immediately of his long friendship with John Cardinal Wright, but there were many others. And this same dedication to ritual may explain Walter's devotion to the city of Rome. How fitting it was that his funeral should have been at the Church of the Advent, where he had been a choirboy almost sixty years before. What an outpouring of Walter's friends was there that day! After the service a friend of mine remarked that if a bomb had been dropped on the Advent that afternoon, most of the social and intellectual leadership of Boston would have been wiped out. Walter's funeral was a triumphant occasion, testifying that in death as in life his church was a primary source of strength. /Walter served as an editor of the QUARTERLY for over thirty years; hardly an issue appeared without something of his in it. In 1947, just after joining the Board, he began preparing an annual Bibliography of New England, and he contributed book reviews regularly. Over the years he wrote several articles as well, perhaps the most charming being "The Vicissitudes of Bacchante in Bos- ton," an account of the difficulties involved in the presentation of a nude statue to the Boston Public Library. In his last years he wrote three memorial pieces: for Ted Shipton in 1974, for Ken- neth Murdock in 1976, and an especially fine one for Samuel Eliot Morison, also in 1976. These were the visible signs of Walter's work on the QUARTERLY, but his contribution was much more than that. Whether it was suggesting subjects for articles, getting people 254 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY to write them, reading articles that had been submitted, or en- couraging the editor, he was eager to maintain the high standards that had been the hallmark of THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY since its founding. Walter belonged to many organizations more important than the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, but none was closer to his heart. From the time of his appointment as Editor of Publications in 1946, his influence on the organization grew steadily until he virtually was the Colonial Society.No only did he carry out his editorial duties with distinction; he got speakers for meetings; he mailed out notices; he kept the membership rolls; he made all the arrangements for the annual dinner and for Council luncheons; and he performed countless other useful acts to make the affairs of the Society run smoothly. In 1954 he persuaded Mrs. Llewellyn Howland to leave her beautiful house at 87 Mt. Vernon Street, together with a generous endowment for its maintenance, to the Colonial Society. Though there was a certain amount of clucking from unimaginative members, who thought that the Society could never make proper use of the building, Walter's hopes for the house have been fully realized. Not only does the Society hold its afternoon meetings there-and until recently its annual dinners- but other organizations have been invited to use its facilities. At the present time the Archives of American Art has an office in the house and conducts most of its business from that location. Since the house was almost unfurnished when the Society acquired it, Walter immediately set out to get it properly furnished. He ca- joled, wheedled, and begged and borrowed furniture of all kinds, together with some handsome portraits. In a surprisingly short time the house had resumed its original elegance. Walter's wide contacts in Boston made it possible for him to achieve what few other Bostonians could have achieved. The house now retains an air of repose and dignity that is one of its greatest charms. As editor of the Colonial Society's publications, Walter main- tained the exacting standards set by his predecessors, Albert Mat- thews and Allyn B. Forbes. In addition to four volumes of Trans- actions, he was midwife to three volumes of the Records of the First Church in Boston, two volumes on land speculation in Maine, two volumes of the Journals of Ashley Bowen, one con- taining the Notebook of the Reverend John Fiske, and two of IN MEMORIAM 255 Harvard College Records. Early in the 1970's the Society embarked on a program of having an annual conference concentrating on some aspect of colonial history. The proceedings of each of these conferences were then printed as another volume in the Society's Publications. The first of these conference volumes was on Bos- ton Prints and Printmakers, the second on Boston Furniture in the Eighteenth Century. When he died, Walter was working on four more conference volumes-one on Maritime History, one on Bermuda, one on Colonial Architecture, and one on Colonial Mu- sic. In addition, two volumes of Trinity Church Records were in galley. When what was actually published is added to what is close to publication, the corpus of Walter's work as Editor of the Colo- nial Society Publications is impressive indeed. If someone had asked Walter what he enjoyed most in life, he would probably have opted for a combination of congenial com- pany, good food, good drink, and pleasant surroundings, My own favorite recollection of him would bear this out. The place was the dining room of the Society's house at 87 Mt. Vernon Street some years ago; the occasion a luncheon of the Council before the meeting held the third Thursday in December; the time, about one o'clock. Outside it was snowing and Christmas was in the air. Since the room was dark, candles had been lit. Good wine had been poured. At the appointed moment the caterer appeared with a large roast pig, which he placed at one end of the table. Walter asked Samuel Eliot Morison if he would carve the pig. The Ad- miral then rose, and with grace and precision performed his task. The scene was pure magic. Meanwhile Walter, who was respon- sible for the magic, sat smiling benevolently on what he had wrought. FREDERICK SCOULLER ALLIS, JR. Dorr Pomiline of 2/4/07. Ward, Thomas When ESSEX INSTITUTE HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS VOL. LXXIII. OCTOBER, 1937 No. 4 "REMARKS ON THE CANTON TRADE AND THE MANNER OF TRANSACTING BUSINESS." From A MANUSCRIPT OF 1809 IN THE PEABODY MUSEUM OF SALEM. T.W. CONTRIBUTED BY WALTER MUIR WHITEHILL mester Among the commercial papers of Captain Benjamin Shreve of Salem, received by the Peabody Museum of Salem in 1930 from the estate of Dr. Octavius B. Shreve, Chemis is an unbound manuscript notebook of sixty pages con- This. taining chiefly records of the business transactions of the ship Minerva of Salem, Thomas W. Ward, master, during a stay at Canton in the autumn of 1809. Pages 4-15 contain the ship's disbursements, port charges and fac- tory expenses, and pages 17-33 the Prices Current at Canton for 1809. Pages 32-42 are devoted to an account of the manner of transacting business at Canton, with brief characterizations of the principal merchants, which 18 here reprinted, while the remainder of the book con- tains copies of the invoices for part of Thomas W. Ward's adventure from Canton and comments upon transacting business with Chinese merchants. removider 1st punid When a ship arrives in Macao Roads it is customary to put anchor at about 3 or 4 miles distance, when no danger is apprehended from the Ladrones, or you may her if you please go within 1/2 mile of the town in 2 fathoms water, where you will be completely sheltered from exter- nal danger, and in case of a Tyfong coming on, there is a channel across into the Typa with 14 fathoms water. Of these circumstances a man may make himself acquaint- (303) 304 "REMARKS ON THE CANTON TRADE AND ed in a short time on shore. There is a post established between Macao & Canton, unless interrupted by the Ladrones. On anchoring you will send your Boat (a China Boat may be hired for two or three dollars as the weather may be, but keep a hostage on board or pay no money till the Boat returns) ashore with an Officer or Master & give in a list of your men, guns, passengers & cargo, of which it is necessary to have some to obtain an entry without trouble; a very little will answer. After you have given in your list (or before) you will call on the Portuguese Governor a few minutes, & you have nothing else to do but take your pilot as soon as they will permit & proceed up to Whampoa. There is nothing gained by endeavouring to hurry these people in giving you a Pilot by loud talking; coaxing & greasing the palms of hands being the only means of do- ing it. I believe in general there is not much trouble or detention, but this year we were 36 hours before we got a Chop for the Pilot, besides paying the whole pilotage, $60 on the nail. You need not be very particular in your Cargo esti- mates handed in here, & if it is expedient, or policy should dictate, you may call your wooden guns Iron, & keep every Chinese out of your Ship & have a whistle on board & make all the show possible. It is generally easy to procure a few men at Macao, to go as far as Whampoa, in your Ship if necessary. Refreshments may be had more reasonable at Macao than at Whampoa. There is a decent tavern or hôtel kept by a M Bodwell, who is obliging, treats you well & is not very extravagant in his charges. Here the Eng- lish, Dutch & other Supereargoes reside during the leisure months: the Americans, I believe, generally tarry at Can- ton throughout the year. You may perhaps see at the windows some handsome Ladies to regale your eyes after a four or five months passage. Having your Pilot on board you are not to place your Ship entirely in his charge, as perhaps more attention is requisite on the part of the Commander than before. He cannot work the Ship, nor does he generally know what THE MANNER OF TRANSACTING BUSINESS" 305 sail is prudent to carry, when a ship will for-reach, or when drop astern. You must by questioning him & by looking at your directions find the Channel & where it is narrow as at the Bay. If beating to the windward or going down with the ebbtide, continually keep his mind fixed on his business by asking questions &c. If you have a fair wind and everything favourable, these precautions are perhaps unnecessary, or some of the Pilots may be better than those I have seen. Of this the master must judge. The navigation is plain generally, and but few accidents ever happen in this river. When you arrive among the shipping, you had better take en- tire charge & place your Ship where you find the best birth mooring with a Stream anchor to Wd (up River) & a Bower to the Eastward, if convenient as near the weather shore as possible. Take care to have your Cables well served. You will now or before perhaps have some applications for the birth of Ship Comprador, and they are all with- out exception a set of cheats, & this they will vouch for, if you should doubt their rascality. They are not so fond of taking a small Ship as a large, the former not wanting SO much provisions as the latter. They will expect a Cum- shaw of 260 or 280 dollars for the Liberty of cheating you out of twice that sum, & that too with your consent as it were, as you are knowing to the fact, without having it in your power to prevent it. The prices of the articles are fixed by old custom, and you agree to pay him the same as other Ships pay. The price of every article must be named in the agreement & he bound as fast as you can bind him. It is sometimes the case that Ships employ the Hoppo- man (or Custom House officer who stays by the Ship all the time you are there to prevent smuggling) instead of a Comprador, in which case you must pay to the Linguist 200$ in lieu of Compradors Cumshaw, & perhaps 20 dol- lars per month wages to the Hoppoman who will supply you at the same rate that the Comprador does. I do not approve of the practice, as it gives the Hoppoman an op- portunity of getting too well acquainted with your crew, & tampering with them, and likewise you often have 306 "REMARKS ON THE CANTON TRADE AND trouble in procuring what things you want by reason of his not being a regular Comprador, & the Mandarins give him much disturbance at times. There is nothing more essential to good order, regular- ity, and safety of a Ship at Whampoa than a very strict lookout for every boat that comes along side, permitting none in the night, particularly the Hoppoman, as there is no villainy that they will not be guilty of if possible.1 They ought to be made at Sundown to drop astern, till Sunrise and never be permitted to come on board, & flogged every time you detect them in any connection with your people. With regard to Compradors, it ought to be agreed that he should be accountable for what is stolen from the Ship, and his accounts to be cut the value of the same. Having immersed the Ship in roguery, we will now look at Canton to which place if you go in a passage boat you must pay Three dollars. The Factories generally occupied by the Americans, are the American, which has 5 parts, the Sweedish which has 6 or 7, the Imperial & the French Factories. The front Factories are generally engaged and rent from 1000 to 1500 & 2000 dollars per annum or season. The Interior Factories rent for 900, 800, 600 & none less than 550 dollars. It is usual for two Ships families to live in one Fac- tory, there being about room sufficient, and no business is transacted at the house which can interfere or clash with each other. If one hires a Factory and afterwards takes in another, it is customary for the new comer to pay in lieu of House rent 550 dollars, and bear his proportion of all expenses, or to pay 1000 or 1200 dollars as may be agreed, and bear no expense whatever. Having taken a Factory, you hire your China Ware of Old Synchong, or some other merchant and your plate of Cumshing or some other Jeweller: your house Com- prador which you now take will furnish your house with what furniture & other articles that may be wanted, & charge you for the use of them. The Philadelphians gen- erally pay the Comprador $100 for Cumshaw and hire 1 Marginal Note: Take care the first day or two after your arrival, as there is more thieving then than afterwards. THE MANNER OF TRANSACTING BUSINESS" 307 of furniture. We paid ours 80 dollars M' Hurd 70 dol- lars M' Dorr 50 dollars & as may be judged expedient. The House Comprador furnishes whatever may be wanted for the use of the Factory & charges the customary prices, and if you expend 1000$ will clear 700 or more. Here you may see & feel imposition to perfection. Of the Servants it will be well to ask a resident, as they know a great many, and can tell you if they are notori- onsly bad. Take care the Washman does not change your linen, that your Servants do not steal, and tell the Com- prador when you employ him that he shall be accountable for all losses taken out of the Factory. Your House establishment consists of Comprador, Cook, Boy & two Coolies to bring water &c &c. and to attend at the Pack House when you ship goods. Having seated you amidst Capons, Geese, Turtle & all the luxuries of life, living at the expense of 3 or 4 dollars per day, or more if you please, we will now call upon the merchants: HOUQUA2 is at the head of the Hong-is very rich, sends good cargoes & just in all his dealings, in short is a man of honour and veracity-has more business than any other man in the Hong and secures 12 or 14 American Ships this year. YOUQUA is next best not rich-honest-sends good cargoes-pushed for money at times- is well esteemed by the E. I. Company & has two shares of their business-will in a few years be head man perhaps. Head of the house is Pwanqua. Youqua excellent judge of Tea. Secures 3 Ships. CHEONQUA4 very rich-suspected of roguery-bad cargoes sometimes. Secures 2 or 3 Ships this year may do very well with a Strong agreement & good looking after. CONSUIQUA Rich-roguish-insinuating-polite- sends some excellent cargoes-some bad Cargoes-not atten- tive enough to business and a man with whom you cannot talk with safety, as he will promise everything & perform what he pleases-not to be seen always. KINQUA honest-poor--few friends-will do at times no advance of cash-good man for black teas. be coaxed. 2 Marginal Note: Houqua is rather dear, loves flattery & can 4 Marginal Note: Do much Bengal business. Marginal Note: Company's Business. 308 "REMARKS ON THE CANTON TRADE AND NUNQUA is in nearly the same case as Kinqua-probably not so honest. LOONQUA PONQUA & HENQUA do no American business, but all the above have a share in the Companys business in rotation, & some two shares. A share in common times is worth to the merchant 70 to 100,000 dollars per annum. It is customary to make a written agreement with the merchant who secures your Ship, wherein is named your outward Cargo-the price-the allowances, and all charges paid by him except boat hire which you pay-Goods weighed on board Ship & free of risk on delivery. Goods which compose the return cargo-prices-qualities-time -musters of particular Kinds of Goods (any unsaleable article in the outward cargo, to be taken off your hands) All damages on outward cargo had best be settled on Shipboard, & whatever items may occur to the Factor. All goods are sent on board by the merchant free of charge except the price originally agreed on prepaid &c All goods are imported free of charge if sold to a Hong Mer- chant except boat hire for which you pay the Linguist from 15 to 25 Dollars per boat of 30 tons. These items ought to be expressed in the agreement. In the sales of any article to outside men have every thing mentioned in the agreement that you can think of make him write down the substance of it in Chinese, & have it read over before his face, & have ernest money of him, before you close the agreement, than if he disapoints you you can keep the ernest money, that being China Custom, & never deliver the article till you have received the full value thereof. There is no risk in advancing money to the first men here, say Houqua, Youqua, Cheonqua, perhaps Consequa, but to the poorer Merchants it is as well to receive the goods previous to payment. It is often the case that the richest of them do not want money: having no immediate use for it, they will not then receive it unless as a favour. others, Sometimes will always & the know, not pushed from themselves, money, they are much for which you if from many probability of their standing may be gener- ally ascertained. It is not best to advance money, but THE MANNER OF TRANSACTING BUSINESS" 309 you may without much risk, if necessary by making proper inquiry. ESHING-Of outside Merchants Eshing is the first. He is & silk merchant but deals in Teas & Nanking likewise. His prices rather high-always has supported the character of an honest man, and many purchase of him without ever seeing their Goods. He is the most candid man in Canton- his goods will pass in the United States without opening. POONQUA-Silk merchant Old Ch. Street, a good man sends good goods & is pretty safe to contract with for Silks. LOONSHONG-Old Ch. St. general dealer-will do well with looking after. WASHING-China St. is next to Eshing-a safe man to deal with, always performs his contracts, is honest no doubt, but more from interest than principle. He will do you jus- tice-is rising very fast in business. HEPSHING-is an honest chow man & deals fairly, because he is wise enough to perceive it is for his interest so to do. He is also rising in the world. YINQUA-Laquered Ware. CUMSHING-Silver Smith. TYSHING-Ivory, Combs, Fans &c. ASHIE-Cabinet Maker. are head men at their business pretty honourable men, & deal fair with looking after. KINGLUN-CHEEQUA-MOUTONO and most of the outside Merchants will cheat you if possible. The best way of deal- ing with these men & most or all of the outside merchants, is to buy by muster & examine & pack at your own house, taking care not to exasperate them too much by sticking too close to the agreement when you are making a very good bargain. And in buying goods by the weight, always make it by English Scales and reduced to Piculs @ 133 1/3. Their a part of the agreement that the goods shall be weighed Dotchings & or weights not being very exact are short weight a stranger very liable to be cheated by them. There are many outside men who do considerable American and English business, some men fancying one man honest, & some another. The only way of trading with safety is perhaps by dealing with those whose char- acter & standing are such as to secure their honesty by ties of interest. It is best to have as small a chow chow chop as possible, the Mandarins giving much trouble 310 "REMARKS ON THE CANTON TRADE" sometimes, in order to which, a great many small articles, may be sent down in the Ships Boats & in other Chops. CHEEQUA & TOWN are the only Linguists I know of; both are very good. I believe I employed Cheequa and had no reason to complain of any want of attention. He is old, but his men are good. TOM BIRDMAN is one who buys & sells every thing, but most in the Ship Chandlery line, & whom we were frequently obliged to deal with some way or other. He is without doubt as great a villain as ever went unhung. Tom BULL, a ships Comprador, is like all other Chinese you deal with, except in one particular: he is an honorable seoundrel, and will tell you how much, & why, & wherefore he cheats you. He is as good as any of them. I dealt with him considerably in selling my outward cargo, & had some trouble, but he was pretty punctual for a Comprador. You must pay the two Side Mandarins as they are called at Canton $19 for their fees, permitting your Boats to pass and examining the Same. OLD SYNCHONG is head China Ware Merchant, is some- times much dearer, often a little cheaper, generally better China & always best packed of any man in Canton. Is a close fisted old miser, gets drunk every day, but performs his contracts & whatever you can bind him to, he will ful- fill. I prefer dealing with Synchong to any other. EXCHING is next has much business-some mean- ness about him-does not pack so well, and China ware not generally so good, great breakage-has considerable business. SONYECK you can make good bargains with, but he is rather slippery rising in the world, active & industrious, get no cyphered China of him. FOUCHONG is a pretty good man, & well spoken of by the Philadelphians. 2% is diducted from all Bills for China Ware and payment made @ 75 Candereens pr Dollar The Ch. St. Merchants are generally Brokers, with whom you contract for goods. They have them made & you pay them: they pay the manufacturer. The prices are generally the same, & where a man abates much, he expects to make it up by cheating you. B7477wl BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY A Centennial History By WALTER MUIR WHITEHILL Director and Librarian, Boston Athenxum Illustrations by RUDOLPH RUZICKA Rb THE see 66 Cambridge, Massachusetts 1959 -OMNIUM LUX CIVIUM