Great Elm on Boston Common 1876 - Original - Scarce - Spurr\'s - Louis Prang For Sale

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Great Elm on Boston Common 1876 - Original - Scarce - Spurr\'s - Louis Prang :
$117.94

Rare Antique Louis Prang Lithograph. The Great Elm on BostonCommon. Destroyed February 15, 1876. Lithograph, L. Prang & Co. Image &Printed Message on Spurr’s Papered Veneer-Wood Made from the Tree, Signed bySamuel C. Cobb, Mayor of Boston. March 31, 1876. “Rare souvenir lithograph of a famous elm onBoston Common, made from an earlier photograph. The great elm stood on BostonCommon from early times until 1876, when it was destroyed by a huge gale. Itsrings were examined in 1876, and its age found to be about 220 years--whichwould date the tree to about 1656. The \"Great Elm\" was a populartourist stop in the 1800s, and was often referred to as Boston\'s \"OldestInhabitant.\" This lithograph, by Louis Prang, on a paper veneer of woodbark from the tree itself.

City leaders also sought to pay tribute to the nowlost venerable icon. The Mayor of Boston, Samuel Cobb, released a statement ona unique medium: pieces of wood from the tree that had been transformed into athin veneer. He used this platform to celebrate the tree\'s legacy to thecommunity. Under a majestic image of the Great Elm, the mayor summarized theloss of an icon: \"As the Great Elm on Boston Common, with an age in yearsoutdating the settlement of the Town, was destined to fall, by wind and decay,during the time it was under my guardianship, as the Mayor of the City, I cando no less than give the attestation of my name to certify, that this is aperfectly correct view of it, just before it fell, and that the surface on whichthe photograph is presented is a veneer from the wood of the veritable andvenerable Tree. March 31, 1876, Samuel C Cobb, Mayor of Boston.\"

From Wiki:

The Great Elm stood at the center of the Boston Common untilFebruary 15, 1876. The earliest maps ofthe area only showed three trees, one of which was the Great Elm. The other twotrees, one of which was most likely the famed Liberty Tree, had been lost longbefore the Great Elm finally fell in the nineteenth century. Up to that point, the elm symbolized theBoston Common\'s landscape since—an early advocate for urban improvementasserted—the figure represented the finest example of \"the favorite ornamentaltree among us.\" The Great Elm\'s popularity inspired broader environmentalefforts within the region. Consequently, planters believed that they \"mustplant [elms and oaks] for posterity,\" implicitly hoping that their effortswould result in a similar majestic outcome.These ancillary planting efforts elevated the popularity of the largesttree in the area, the Great Elm.

Age and history

The tree has garnered the attention of Boston citizensthroughout time. Nineteenth century boosters like Nehemiah Adams promoted thetree as the central actor of \"the history of Boston and of ourrevolution.\" It was \"often referred to as Boston\'s OldestInhabitant\". Regular measurements highlight the impressiveness of theGreat Elm\'s presence. According to Celebrate Boston, \"in 1825 it wassixty-five feet high, the circumference at thirty inches from the ground beingtwenty-one feet eight inches, and the spread of the branches eighty-sixfeet.\" Over time, the tree continued to grow. By 1855, it stood \"seventy-twofeet and a half feet high; height of the first branch to the ground, twenty-twoand a half foot; girth four feet from the ground, seventeen feet; averagediameter of the greatest span of branches, one hundred and one feet.\"While the tremendous size of the tree attracted visitors, the weight andattention also placed enormous stress on the elderly tree that eventuallycontributed to its downfall.

The Boston Society of Natural History funded a scientificand historical study of the tree to determine its age and importance to thecity, region, and nation. They noted that \"the tree is an American Elm,belonging to a species admired and cultivated abroad for its gracefully pendantbranches.\" Based on their research, they concluded that by 1722 the treewas already over one hundred years old, because of textual descriptionsregarding its size. As such, in 1855 they concluded that \"there is nothingimprobable in the belief that the Elm on Boston Common is more than two hundredyears old.\"

While some groups sought to scientifically determine the ageof The Great Elm, apocryphal tales also attempted to highlight the history ofthe famous tree. Samuel Barber showed that, by 1670, a tradition emerged that\"Hezekiah Henchman, or his father Daniel\" planted the tree. Some haveattempted to connect this to the Hancock family since a Henchman descendant,Lydia, married Thomas Hancock. Thomas and Lydia adopted his nephew, JohnHancock, who later became the President of the Second Continental Congress andGovernor of Massachusetts. In so doing,folklorists sought to connect The Great Elm with an iconic figure of theRevolutionary War era.

Usage and transitions

The Great Elm sat at the center of the Boston Common, whichcity leaders purchased in 1634 for £30. Initially, the open area served thecity as a cow pasture. As a result, veryfew individuals directly interacted with the Great Elm until the citytransformed the designated section into a recreational center.

The Great Elm did not immediately become a locus ofrecreation. Rather, early in the city\'s history, the Great Elm helped fulfillcivic corporal punishment needs. Native Americans, including the medicine man,Tantamous, were executed there during King Philip\'s War.[9][10] According toMary Farwell Ayer, \"tradition asserts that many of the early executions inBoston took place on a limb of this tree. Many persons were tried and condemnedto death during the seventeenth century.\" This reflected a broaderimplementation of the death penalty in Boston, which also included temporarygallows on the Common as well as firing squads.The Common, which at the time was often neglected due to its ruralsetting, began to transform once houses were built along its perimeter. Some ofthe most elite Bostonians, like John Hancock\'s uncle Thomas, desired to be nearthe Great Elm in the Boston Common, and built their large residences as closeas possible.

This had a very positive impact on both the Boston Commonand the prestige of the Great Elm. Even though the grounds were still used formilitary training, the Great Elm was no longer used for public executions.According to Ayer, as the number of people living nearby increased, the citybegan to improve the Common\'s condition and it consequently became an even more\"popular recreation ground of the townspeople.\" During all of these transitions, the GreatElm stood as a silent witness to the city\'s progress.

Some of the elm\'s wood was used and preserved in booksconsidered \"rare\" today. Its wood appears on the back cover of\"Stark\'s Antique Views of Ye Towne of Boston\" from 1882, forinstance. Along with it is a message from the mayor of the time. A chaircrafted from its wood sits in the rare book room of the Boston Public Libraryfor all to admire the tree\'s importance in Boston history.

Destruction and social significance[edit]

The age and overuse of the Great Elm gradually weakened itsstructural integrity. Over time, the amount of attention that it received ledto its inevitable demise. In the mid-nineteenth century, the city placed afence around the tree to prevent individuals from climbing on its weakenedbranches. In June 1860, a major storm severely damaged and scarred the tree.Finally, on February 15, 1876, another major storm that included heavy windstoppled the Great Elm.

Mark Antony Dewolfe Howe argued that the loss of thisnatural treasure \"may have served a good purpose in making the communitymore tenacious of all its other possessions in the Common. As such, the social significance of thisnatural wonder inspired efforts to further preserve the Boston Common as anatural refuge alongside urban development. Prior to its destruction, the GreatElm represented a central location for visitors to meet. Even when the citytook precautionary measures to protect the iconic centerpiece after adevastating storm in 1860, the tree still served as an inspirational symbol ofBoston\'s past and present communities. Fortunately, photography emerged in timefor images of the majestic Great Elm to be taken before it ultimately perished,and a number of groups had the opportunity to pose in front of the venerableicon.

Plaque to the Great Elm

The loss of the Great Elm had a tremendous impact on thecity\'s residents. In the same year the tree fell, an author known simply asWaterston wrote an essay on its legacy. Although a bit overdramatic, he notedhow \"thousands of citizens gathered earnestly around, eager to take onefarewell look, and to gain, if it should be possible, some memento, however,slight, of this historic and patriarchal representative of the Past.\"

Modern visitors are still drawn to the location of The GreatElm. Rather than being encountered by an immense piece of nature, visitors inthe twenty-first century now encounter a small plaque (photo shown above) thatcelebrates the legacy and importance of the Great Elm Tree to the BostonCommon. The simple plaque rests in stark contrast to the dominance of the GreatElm. It shares that this was the \"site of the Great Elm: here the Sons ofLiberty assembled; Here Jesse Lee, Methodist Pioneer, Preached in 1790. Thelandmark of the Common, the Elm blew down in 1876. Placed by the N.E. MethodistHistorical Society.\"

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