|
Isaiah Thomas by Greenwood
|
|
|
|
ISAIAH THOMAS SR. (1749-1831), June 1818
Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779-1856)
oil on panel
framed: 38 1/2 x 32 3/4 (97.790 x 83.1850)
signed at left: "Greenwood/pinx. 1818"
Bequest of Isaiah Thomas, 1831
Weis #117
Hewes #123
More
information
|
|
Isaiah Thomas, the founder of the American Antiquarian Society,
began
his career as a seven-year-old apprentice to the printer Zechariah
Fowle
(1724-76) of Boston. As a young man Thomas worked as a printer in
the
West Indies and Nova Scotia, before returning to Boston in 1770.
That
year he went into partnership with Fowle and began publication of
the
Whig newspaper The Massachusetts Spy, strongly supporting the
cause of
American independence. In April 1775, two days before the Battle
of Lexington,
amid rumors that his press was to be seized, Thomas packed up his
type,
press, and paper supply and moved to Worcester, a safe distance
from the
British troops stationed in Boston. In Worcester, Thomas continued
to
print patriotic rhetoric and detailed descriptions of
Revolutionary War
battles in the Spy. The press, type cases, and imposing stone that
he
moved in such a rush from Boston may be seen at the American
Antiquarian
Society.(2)
After the war, Thomas continued to live and work in Worcester.
In partnership
with former apprentices, he owned several printing offices and
bookstores,
as well as paper mills and a bindery, employing over one hundred
and fifty
people. Thomas published newspapers, broadsides, sheet music,
periodicals,
pamphlets, and a yearly almanac. He produced over four hundred
book titles
for both adult and juvenile readers, including the first
dictionary printed
in America and the first American edition of Mother Goose's Melody
(1786).
Thomas was Worcester's postmaster from 1775 to 1801. He joined the
Order
of Freemasons in Worcester in 1793 and became Grand Master of
Massachusetts
in 1802.(3)
In that year, at the age of fifty-three, Thomas retired to
pursue his
interests in the history of the young nation and in the origins of
printing.
This resulted in the a two-volume work, The History of Printing in
America
(1810), that remains one of the seminal reference books for the
history
of typography and printing. Several editions of this important
publication
may be found in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society
along
with hundreds of examples of Thomas's work as a printer, including
complete
runs of the Massachusetts Spy and Thomas's almanacs, as well as
dozens
of his pamphlets, broadsides, and books for children. In addition,
Isaiah
Thomas's personal papers, which contain his private and business
correspondence,
diaries, and legal documents are part of the Society's manuscript
collection.(4)
Ten years after his retirement, in 1812, Thomas founded the
American
Antiquarian Society, incorporating it that same year with a group
of like-minded
Massachusetts residents.(5) Explaining the need for such an
institution,
Thomas wrote: "We cannot obtain a knowledge of those who are
to come
after us, nor are we certain what will be the events of future
times;
as it is in our power, so it should be our duty, to bestow on
posterity
that which they cannot give to us, but which they may enlarge and
improve
and transmit to those who shall succeed them."(6) Thomas was
the
Society's leader, serving as the first librarian, director and
president.
As a private collector, he purchased a large cache of Mather
Family material,
including portions of the famous Mather library and donated the
material
to the Society. Thomas eventually gave his entire private library
of books,
manuscripts, and newspapers to the American Antiquarian Society,
along
with a cash bequest and the Society's first building. He also
established
the custom of electing collectors of books and materials to
membership
in the Society, with the expectation that they would consider
willing
their collections to the Society.(7) His foresight set the stage
for the
formation of an unparalleled resource for historical research at
the American
Antiquarian Society's collection to become.
This portrait of Isaiah Thomas by Ethan Allen Greenwood was
painted
six years after the founding of the American Antiquarian Society.
Greenwood
probably first came to Thomas's attention after the artist
produced a
likeness of his son Isaiah Thomas Jr., in March of 1818. In that
year,
Greenwood was establishing the Gallery of Fine Arts in Boston that
displayed
copies of famous European paintings and portraits of well-known
Americans.(8)
The portrait of Isaiah Thomas painted in May 1818 was one of
several prominent
New Englanders. Thomas recorded in his diary, "At the request
of
Mr. Greenwood, Portrait Painter in Boston, sat for him to take my
likeness.
Mr. G. is a member of a new Society in Boston called the Fine
Arts."(9)
This was the first of five sittings for this portrait.(10) The
finished
portrait, which remained the property of Greenwood, evidently
pleased
Thomas and he commissioned the artist to paint his portrait again
the
following month. "Engaged Mr. Greenwood to take my Likeness,
I sat
at his request five weeks since, when he finished one for himself.
I sat
again today for him to take one for myself. Sat six times for this
last
picture. Thomas paid Greenwood $60.00 for it."(11) The
portrait hung
in the Thomas home in Worcester and was bequeathed to the American
Antiquarian
Society at Isaiah Thomas's death.(12)
Read more about Isaiah
Thomas at Mass Moments, a daily almanac of
Massachusetts history created by the Massachusetts Foundation for the
Humanities.
|
|
1) Nichols's annotated offprint version of this
publication is
housed at the American Antiquarian Society. In it, he records
changes
of ownership and provenance of various Thomas portraits that
updates the
Proceedings article.
2) For more on early printing presses including the
Thomas press
at AAS, see Lawrence C. Wroth, The Colonial Printer
(Charlottesville:
University Press of Virginia, 1964), 64-66, 77.
3) For more on Thomas, see Charles L. Nichols, Isaiah
Thomas
Printer, Writer, & Collector (Boston: Club of Odd Volumes,
1912).
4) Isaiah Thomas Papers, 1748-1874, American Antiquarian
Society
Manuscripts Collection.
5) There are portraits of four of the twenty-seven
incorporators
in the collection: Isaiah Thomas, Sr., Isaiah Thomas, Jr., Aaron
Bancroft
D.D. , and William Paine, D.D.The other founders were: Levi
Lincoln, Sr.,
Levi Lincoln, Jr., Harrison Gray Otis, Timothy Bigelow, Nathaniel
Paine,
Edward Bangs, J.T. Kirkland, Jonathan H. Lyman, M.D., Elijah H.
Mills,
Elisha Hammond, Timothy Williams, William D. Peck, John Lowell
(requested
his name be removed), Edmund Dwight, Eleazar James, William S.
Shaw, Francis
Blake, Samuel Burnside Benjamin Russell, Redford Webster, Ebenezer
T.
Andrews, and William Wells. There is an image of Sophia Burnside,
but
none of her spouse.
6) Isaiah Thomas, Sr., Account of the American
Antiquarian Society
(Boston: Isaiah Thomas, Jr., 1813): 4.
7) For more on the early history of the American
Antiquarian
Society, see Nancy Burkett and John B. Hench, eds., Under its
Generous
Dome, The Collections and Programs of the American Antiquarian
Society
(Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1992).
8) Georgia Brady Barnhill, 'Extracts from the Journals of
Ethan
Allen Greenwood: Portrait Painter and Museum Proprietor,'
Proceedings
of the American Antiquarian Society 103 (April 1993): 91-178.
9) Isaiah Thomas Diary, May 20, 1818, Isaiah Thomas
Papers 1748-1874.
10) Isaiah Thomas Diary, May 21-23 and 25, 1818.
11) Isaiah Thomas Diary, June 29, 1818; Ethan Allen
Greenwood's
receipt, February 27, 1819, Isaiah Thomas Papers 1748-1874.
Greenwood
was evidently given a five dollar deposit in June as the receipt
reads,
'[R]eceived of Isaiah Thomas by the hand of Isaiah Thomas, Jr.,
Fifty-five
dollars, in full for painting a Portrait, and for frame to the
same. Price
of Picture and frame $60.00.'
12) During his lifetime, Thomas had two copies of
Greenwood's
portrait made and three more copies were taken after his death.
See Frederick
Weis, 'Portraits in the American Antiquarian Society,' Proceedings
of
the American Antiquarian Society 56 (April 1946): 107-8; and
Charles L.
Nichols, The Portraits of Isaiah Thomas (Worcester: American
Antiquarian
Society, 1921), 4-7.
|
|
|
|
This site and all contents © 2004 American Antiquarian
Society
Last updated March 29, 2006
|
