The Winterthur Library

The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

                                               

Title:               Poetry 

Dates:             ca.1800-ca.1900

Call No.:         Col. 324         

Acc. No.:        [various – see detailed description]

Quantity:        1 box

Location:        34 B 1

 

 

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

This miscellaneous and still growing collection is comprised of both printed and handwritten poetry, both original productions and copies of work by others.  Some of the poems are illustrated or decorated.  The poem "On my honored Mother's Birth-Day" features seven small watercolor illustrations depicting house interiors with figures; this is dated 1806.  One poem is about a chandler’s shop and what will be sold there; this is illustrated with an interior view of a shop.  Pigs, tobacco, shipwrecks, fiddlers, and the dear departed are commemorated in other poems.

           

 

ORGANIZATION

           

Arranged by accession number.

 

 

PROVENANCE

           

From various sources, both purchases and gifts.

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

People:

            Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910.

            Henderson, Henry Dillon, 1840-1876.

 

Topics:

            Fenwick Hall (Hotel : New Saybrook, Conn.)

            Amateur artists.

            Birthdays.

            Christian poetry.

            Clothing and dress – Pictorial works.

            Freemasonry – Songs and music.

            Interior decoration – 19th century.

            Interior decoration – Pictorial works.

            Mothers in art.

            Mothers – Poetry.

            Mourning customs.

            Pigs – Poetry.

            Shipwrecks – Poetry.

            Stores, Retail – Poetry.

            Stores, Retail – Pictorial works.

Tobacco – Poetry.

Women artists.

            Broadsides.

            Songs.

            Calligraphy.

Poetry.

            Watercolor painting.

            Poems.

            Elegies.

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 34 B 1

 

                                                                             

58x24              An untitled handwritten poem beginning "A planter of great reputation/ Rais’d eighteen Pigs on his plantation."  The poem is about the pigs, all of whom had classical names such as Adonis and Agamemnon. 

                                    Not signed, not dated, but possibly circa1810. 

                                    The paper is watermarked Matthews.

 

72x163            "Chandlers Shop" and "Lovely Night," both poems printed on the same sheet.  At bottom is printed "Wholesale Song Mart," apparently the seller of the broadside.  The poem about the chandler’s shop mentions products which will be sold there.

            In upper left corner is a small woodcut illustration depicting a man behind a store counter.

 

75x58.2           "Lines written on the Shipwreck of the Medora," a printed sheet with ornate border.

                                    The Medora apparently sank in Lake Ontario.

 

76x98.1097     “Zur Erinnerung,” a poem in German printed on embossed paper.  Part of the poem seems to been cut off.

                                    This poem came in with a large group of papers with a Pennsylvania German association.

 

77x267.1         "Tobacco an Ode," a handwritten poem

                                    On reverse is note "From the papers of Thomas S. Lester of Southhold [sic], L.I.-dated above 1836."  Also on back are a list of names and amounts (this list is dated 1836).  The back was also used for arithmetical calculations.

 

78x242            "The Happy Ship-Carpenter: or, The Heroic Damsel," a printed poem now mounted on card stock.   Decorated with a small woodcut illustration of barge or ferry on a river. Note written on card stock says "Boston? 1820?”

 

80x75              “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” printed in honor of Julia Ward Howe, president of the New England Women’s Club for a birthday anniversary, May 27, 1819-1889.  The front cover includes an inscription in Greek.  Inside is printed Mrs. Howe’s account of how she came to write the poem.  The poem is illustrated with lilies.  The folder was printed by L. Prang & Co., Boston.

                        (trex 8337)

 

80x214            "On my honored Mother's Birth-Day," a handwritten poem signed J.T. Jr., New Bond St., 24 Dec. 1806. 

                                    Includes eight small watercolor illustrations showing one landscape and seven house interiors with figures.  Four of the interior scenes depict two men sitting and drinking at a table in front of a fire; one of the men is telling the other about his mother.  (In the fourth scene, the mother appears as an angel.)  Another scene shows the mother blessing her son James; a piano is off to one side and there are paintings on the wall and a patterned carpet on the floor.  In another scene, the mother is shown painting at an easel.  Portraits are on the walls in this room, and a model of a house sits on a table.  The remaining scene takes place in this same room, but a dining table has been set up and the family is eating.  The mother is wearing what appears to be a laurel wreath. 

                                    Paper is watermarked John Ball, 180[illegible].

 

82x72                          Short untitled printed poem beginning “If thou be borrow’d by a friend,” concerning returning books to owners.  Includes the statement "Read slowly, pause frequently, think seriously, return duly, with the corners of the leaves not turned down."

 

82x93                          Untitled poem beginning “No never shall my soul forget,” signed George, dated 1848, written on sheet of printed stationery with illustration of man and woman in a hay field, entitled "Summer."  The stationery was printed by E.H. Knight of Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

85x108            "Shells of the Ocean," poem printed on a sheet with ornate border. 

                                    Published by Andrews, Printer 38 Chatham St., N.Y.

 

85x109            "Oh, Breathe not Her Name," and “Choice of a Wife,” two poems printed on one sheet, with ornate border.  L.A. Jones wrote the words and Frederick Buckley the music for “Oh, Breathe Not Her Name.”  (Music is not included,)   

                                    Published by H. De Marsan, successor to J. Andrews, Publisher, 38 Chatham St., New-York.

 

86x161.1-7      Set of seven printed cards with poems and hand colored printed illustrations.  On reverse of several cards are other poems, handwritten.  Not dated, but ca. 1800-1820.

 

                        .1         “The Child’s Morning Hymn,” with illustration of a boy kneeling by his bed.  Initials M H L H are written on the back.  [The H’s might be K’s.’]

 

                        .2         “Public Worship,” with illustration of people in church listening to sermon

 

                        .3         “The Dying Christian to His Soul,” with illustration of man in bed and another man sitting next to bed.

 

                        .4         “To My Mother,” with illustration of woman sitting in garden outside a house; she holds a baby in her lap and near her is a young daughter holding a toddler.

 

                        .5         “A Dialogue,” with an illustration of two sisters in garden outside a house.  On back is a handwritten poem which begins “The rose that weeps with morning dew.”

 

                        .6         “Bee,” with illustration of woman and very young boy (still in a dress) looking at bee skeps.  On back is a handwritten poem beginning “Adieu ye verdant lawns.”  One corner of card is broken off.

 

                        .7         Untitled poem beginning “Behold! A sweet and lovely child,” with illustration of a dead child laid out on a table in a room draped in black.  The child appears to be in a winding sheet, but is not in a coffin.

 

92x113.2.        “Funeral Dirge,” a printed card decorated with a Masonic emblem and American flags within a black border; printed by Whitehead and Hoag Company, Newark, N.J.  The dirge was to be sung to the air “Old Hundred.”

 

92x113.3.        “Another Friend at Rest,” a card printed in memory of H.D. Henderson, by B.M.D., October 10, 1876

 

                        [note: This was printed possibly for Henry Dillon Henderson, who died in Peterboro, New York, on Oct. 5, 1876.  He was born in 1840, the son of Caroline Malinda Coe and Alanson Henderson.  He was married to Mary Elisabeth Northrup, and they had several children.]

 

92x119            "Contentment," a handwritten poem, signed M. Goss, Pokepsie. 

                                    Illustrated with calligraphic eagle, over which is a banner with the words “Liberty Emblem.”  The paper is watermarked S & A Butler, US.

 

97x33.1           “A New Song Made on the Death of a Young Woman, to Shew How Soon the Fairest Flower Bows Its Head and Clo[torn] Earth Become Our Softest Bed,” a broadside ballad backed by a Connecticut newspaper dated June 1805.  The ballad is decorated with a picture showing the Grim Reaper (albeit with wings and wearing a crown), a skull and cross bones hovering over a coffin, and a skeleton holding an arrow, within a border of skulls with crossed bones and hour glasses.  Written in the upper left corner is “Jemima Pain, her ballet [sic] given to her by John Lese[?].”

 

04x127.6         “The Lonely Dove,” a poem with decorative borders and title, written on lined paper

 

12x155.1         “The Fiddler’s Legacy,” not signed, no date, circa 1850?

 

12x155.2         “Christianity,” written for L[?]sia Smith, from M. C. Raymond

 

12x155.3         one side: poem: “Mercy,” printed by J.B. Bateman, Printer and Publisher, 26, Paternoster Square, [London];

                                    Other side: a short printed meditation on Romans 6, verse 23.

 

15x30.4           Untitled poem beginning “On the beach at Saybrook,” written in pencil on a piece of stationery from the hotel Fenwick Hall located in New Saybrook, Connecticut, from 187-.   

                                    The stationery is printed with an illustration of the hotel, of which D.A. Rood was proprietor; the paper is lined.  Initials, perhaps J.G.L., are written on the last page.

 

15x37.3           “Mother Dear,” printed poem on piece of embossed stationery. 

                                    The initials S P R A, and the words Sutton St. appear in the embossed design.