Christopher Columbus Baldwin
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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS BALDWIN (1800-35), 1835
Sarah Goodridge (1788-1853)
watercolor on ivory
3 3/8 x 2 5/8 (8.5725 x 6.6675)
Gift of Adelaide R. Sawyer, 1907
Weis #4
Hewes #2
More information
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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS BALDWIN
(1800-35), 1836
Chester Harding (1792-1866)
after a miniature by Sarah Goodridge
(1788-1853)
oil on canvas
36 x 27 7/8 (91.4 x 70)
Commissioned by the American Antiquarian Society, 1836
Weis #3
Hewes #3
More
information
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Christopher Columbus Baldwin was librarian of the American
Antiquarian
Society from 1827 to 1835.(1) He followed in the footsteps of
Isaiah Thomas,
the Society's founder, by adding substantially to the collection.
Baldwin
was relentless in writing to prominent authors and publishers to
ask for
copies of their work. His diary account of the 1834 acquisition of
Thomas
Wallcut's personal library of New England imprints demonstrated
his dedication
as a collector. Baldwin described packing over 4,400 pounds of
bound volumes,
loose pamphlets, newspapers, and manuscripts. He found them 'in
ancient
trunks, bureaus, and chests, baskets, tea chests and old drawers,
and
[they] presented a very odd appearance. The extent of them was
altogether
beyond my expectations.... Every thing was covered with venerable
dust,
and as I was under a slated roof and the thermometer at
ninety-three,
I had a pretty hot time of it. Nothing but a love of such work
could inspire
any man to labor in such a place. The value of the rarities I
found, however,
soon made me forget the heat, and I have never seen such happy
moments.'(2)
An indefatigable collector, he described his philosophy in a
letter
to a colleague in 1834, 'My daily experience tells me that we
cannot determine
what is valuable and what is not. There is scarcely anything that
issues
from the press that will not be wanted by somebody.'(3) Not only
did Baldwin
acquire these materials, he spent much of his time preparing the
first
catalogue of the Society's collections.
Before accepting the post at the American Antiquarian Society,
Baldwin
had studied at Harvard (from which he was rusticated) and
practiced law
in Barre and Sutton, Massachusetts. With his friend William
Lincoln (1801-43),
he published the Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal
and later edited
the National Aegis. He kept a diary from 1829 to 1835; in
it are detailed
descriptions of both his professional and social lives. Baldwin
also used
his diary as a place to record the corporate activities of the
American
Antiquarian Society, to which he was elected a member in 1827.
Baldwin was the Society's only full-time employee. He was
responsible
for the planting of over 500 trees on the grounds in 1834, noting
in his
diary that 'I have dug them up in the woods and brought them on my
back.
. . They will afford a comfortable shade for my successor, if I
should
not live to enjoy it myself.'(4) Alas, he did not.
The next year, Baldwin was sent by the Society's Council to
investigate
ancient burial mounds in southern Ohio. The last entry in his
diary, noted
on Thursday, August 20, 1835, was, 'Start by stage on the
Cumberland road
for Zanesville.'(5) En route, the carriage overturned and he was
killed.
He was thirty-five years old.
Shortly before Baldwin departed for the West, Sarah Goodridge
painted
this miniature. She has been called America's finest woman
miniaturist.(6)
In her own day, Goodridge's miniatures were highly regarded for
their
accuracy of likeness. Her portrait of Baldwin was the 'exact
miniature'
used as a reference for the full-sized canvas painting of the
sitter painted
posthumously by Chester Harding for the American Antiquarian
Society in
1835.(7) At the time, the miniature was still owned by the family
but
was lent to Harding. The miniature descended in the family until
it was
given to the Society in 1907 by Baldwin's niece.
Harding, who was commissioned to copy the miniature two months
after
Baldwin's death, was the most sought-after portrait painter in
Boston.
He and Baldwin had been acquainted for several years, having met
at a
dinner party in 1829. Harding is mentioned in the young
librarian's diaries
several times after their initial meeting.(8) Baldwin's friend,
William
Lincoln, described the Society's satisfaction with the portrait.
'The
Council...[has] procured a portrait by the celebrated painter
Harding,
from an exact miniature of Mr. Baldwin; that the living image of
an associate
so valued and a friend so loved may remain in our halls, as his
memory
will continue in the hearts of those who knew his worth and the
ardor
of his enthusiasm in those pursuits to which our institution has
been
dedicated.'(9)
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1) Baldwin took a leave of absence in 1831-32, during which
time Samuel
Burnside served as acting librarian (see entry for Sarah Dwight
Foster
Burnside).
2) Christopher Columbus Baldwin Diary, August 2 1834,
reprinted in Nathaniel
Paine, ed., Diary of Christopher Columbus Baldwin,
(Worcester: American
Antiquarian Society, 1901): 317-18.
3) Christopher Columbus Baldwin to the Reverend John
Pierpont, March 1834,
Christopher Columbus Baldwin Papers, 1817-1835, American
Antiquarian Society
Manuscript Collection.
4) Christopher Columbus Baldwin Diary, April 19, 1834,
reprinted in Nathaniel
Paine, ed., Diary of Christopher Columbus Baldwin,
(Worcester: American
Antiquarian Society, 1901): 292.
5) Christopher Columbus Baldwin Diary, August 20, 1835,
reprinted in Nathaniel
Paine, ed., Diary of Christopher Columbus Baldwin,
(Worcester: American
Antiquarian Society, 1901): 364.
6) Dale T. Johnson, American Portrait Miniatures in the
Manney Collection
(New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1990): 125.
7) May 1836, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian
Society, 1812-1849,
329.
8) Diary of Christopher Columbus Baldwin, August 23, 1829,
Christopher Columbus
Baldwin Papers 1817-1835, American Antiquarian Society
Manuscript Collection.
9) May 25, 1836, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian
Society, 329.
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