HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

I had originally planned to release an interview with an expert this week where we debunked some of the most common myths about the destruction of the tea. Events conspired against me, however. Luckily, the rest of Boston has the 250th anniversary of the Tea Party covered. There are commemorative events taking place around the city and throughout December, so we’ll look at a different detail. In all the hoopla about the tea, it’s easy to forget that the tea ships also carried other cargoes. In this week’s episode, we’ll revisit two classic stories about other cartoes that the tea ships brought to Boston. First, we’ll hear about Phillis Wheatley’s book of poetry, which was on the Dartmouth, through the story of enslaved artist Scipio Moorhead. After that, we’ll learn about Boston’s first street lamps, which were on the forgotten fourth tea ship, the William.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/290/

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More Than Just Tea He Takes Faces at the Lowest Rates

• February 4, 1773 edition of The Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News Letter includes an ad for an enslaved African American man who posesses “extraordinary genius” and who “takes faces at the lowest rates.”
• Letter from Robert Calef with the Countess Huntingdon’s request for a portrait of Phillis Wheatley to be used as a frontispiece
• To S.M., A Young African Painter, Upon Seeing His Works, by Phillis Wheatley
• The frontispiece of Wheatley’s book, which may be adapted from a portrait by Scipio
• Eric Slauter’s essay “Looking for Scipio Moorhead” appears in the book Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World, edited by Agnes Lugo-Ortiz and Angela Rosenthal
• Roberts, Wendy Raphael. “Phillis Wheatley’s Sarah Moorhead: An Initial Inquiry.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 107, no. 3, 2013
• Lacey, Barbara E. “Visual Images of Blacks in Early American Imprints.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 1, 1996
• “An Elegy, To Miss Mary Moorhead, On the Death of her Father, The Rev. Mr. John Moorhead,” by Phillis Wheatley, broadside printed by William McAlpine
• Diary entry of Reverend David McClure documenting his stay with the widow Moorhead after John’s death (h/t JL Bell)
• January 2, 1775 edition of the Boston Gazette and Country Journal carrying an ad for the auction of Rev John Moorhead’s estate, including the enslaved painter Scipio.
• Prince Demah’s signed portrait of William Duguid in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Article by Paula Bagger and Amelia Peck in Antiques Magazine, describing how the Met came to acquire a Prince Demah portrait
• Article by Paula Bagger about rediscovering Prince Demah in the Hingham Historical Society archives (includes Prince’s portraits of Henry and Christian Barnes)
• A 1774 receipt signed by “Prince Demah,” proving he dropped Barnes as quickly as possible (h/t Caitlin DeAngelis)
• Christian Barnes’ March 1770 letter describing her intent to market Prince’s portrait skills and Henry Barnes’ Feb 1771 letter about his fears that Prince will self-emancipate if exposed to Black Londoners (also surfaced by Caitlin DeAngelis)
• More context about how families like the Wheatleys and Moorheads thought about enslaving people via Mark Peterson’s The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power 1630-1865

In Search of Boston’s First Street Lamps Gas lamp Gas lamp Gas lamp NOT a gas lamp Red gas fire box lamp Red gas fire box lamp At Race Point, near where the William wrecked A December 1917 ad in the Boston Globe Boston Globe, 28 September 1968

• In a January 2023 post, JL Bell explains what happened to Boston’s first streetlamps later in 1774
• The wreck of the William, December 20, 1773 Boston Gazette and Country Journal
• Merchant John Rowe’s diary, search for “lamps” to find his work on the committee
• John Adams letter about the benefits of whale oil street lamps
• CA Quincy Norton’s “Lanterns in Early America,” 1904 Connecticut Magazine
• Letter from John Andrews about the street lamps on the William
• Mayor Wu’s plan to replace gas lamps with LED
• Previewing a replacement LED gas lamp
• Mary Beth Norton. “The Seventh Tea Ship.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 73, no. 4, 2016
• Comments about the first lamplighters in Manufactured Gas Plant Remediation: A Case Study, by Allen W. Hatheway & Tomas B. Speight
• Maintaining Boston’s remaining gas lamps

Our Dearly Departed Duke

I had to say goodbye to Duke on the morning when I intended to interview an expert about Tea Party myths. Duke was 14 ½ years old, and he was a very good boy. He was my constant companion, going on daily walks with me and coming along on my morning runs for over a decade. He loved cheese and peanut butter and pizza crusts. He was a champion commuter on the orange line, the blue line, and the commuter rail. He was experienced with canoes, water taxis, and high speed ferries, and he hated them all. He loved to travel, visiting all the New England states, from the top of Mount Washington to the tip of Cape Cod, from the trails of the Blue Hills to the Kennedys’ private beach, and from Portland to Providence to New Haven to Burlington. He didn’t love history as much as we do, but he visited Ticonderoga, Valley Forge, and many other historic sites at our sides.