A list of objects to be delivered to Fine Arts Express by the Tufts University Gallery in September 1998. The first two in the list are the busts of John Brown and George L. Stearns, at that point identified only as "Bust of a bearded man" and "Bust of a man."
Attribution Statement:
Courtesy of the Tufts University Permanent Art Collection
Letter from Edward A. Brackett to George L. Stearns that reads, "My Dear Sir What do you think about taking a bust of old Brown. Can any thing be done about it. I shall be at my rooms till a quarter past 2 o'clock and should like to know what you think about it. Yours with regard, E.A. Brackett."
Attribution:
Brackett, Edward Augustus
Attribution Statement:
Image courtesy of the West Virginia State Archives, John Brown/Boyd B. Stutler Collection
"John Brown and the Colored Child," a poem by Lydia Maria Child, published in Freedmen's Book (Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1869), page 241-242. It had originally been published in The Liberator as "The Hero's Heart" (1860). The text is as follows: "A winter sunshine, still and bright, / The Blue Hills bathed with golden light, / And earth was smiling to the sky, / When calmly he went forth to die. / Infernal passions festered there, / Where peaceful Nature looked so fair; / [5] And fiercely, in the morning sun, / Flashed glitt'ring bayonet and gun. / The old man met no friendly eye, / When last he looked on earth and sky; / [10] But one small child, with timid air, / Was gazing on his hoary hair. / As that dark brow to his upturned, / The tender heart within him yearned; / And, fondly stooping o'er her face, / [15] He kissed her for her injured race. / The little one she knew not why / That kind old man went forth to die; / Nor why, 'mid all that pomp and stir, / He stooped to give a kiss to her. / [20] But Jesus smiled that sight to see, / And said, "He did it unto me." / The golden harps then sweetly rung, / And this the song the angels sung: / 'Who loves the poor doth love the Lord; / [25] Earth cannot dim thy bright reward: / We hover o'er yon gallows high, / And wait to bear thee to the sky.'"
Photograph of Eaton Hall in the winter in 1950. Eaton Hall served as the library from its construction in 1908 until the construction of Wessell Library in 1964. The busts of John Brown and George L. Stearns were at one point on exhibit here at one point..
Grave monument for the George L. Stearns at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. The text reads, "George Luther Stearns. The virtues of this rare man were celebrated at this death by the eloquence of Emerson, and in the poetry of Whittier. An unexampled honor, in his time he sheltered the exiled Hungarians together with John Brown. He saved Kansas to freedom. Almost alone in 1863 he organized the colored regiments, which turned the scale in favor of the Union cause. He expended a fortune in public and private benefactions." Photograph taken in August 2017.
Excerpts from the handwritten will of Mary E. Stearns, who died in December 1901. The excepts itemize a number of specific objects in her house that she would like to be donated to Tufts College after her sons are finished with them. The text reads, "Also to hold for the use and enjoyment of the said Henry during his life the following described articles of personal property situated in the house where I now reside namely: my tall "grandfather's clock" on the front stairway, the "highboy," the cabinet, the tripod table, the old English mirror, all the old-fashioned chairs which belonged to my deceased husband, the bust of John Brown, the bust of George L. Stearns, the bust of Beethoven, the bust of Emerson, the bust of Clytie, the Venus of Milo, and the several paintings painted by my old friend Christopher P. Cranch, excepting only the one hereinbefore given to Lenora Cranch Scott, said articles all to be kept, preserved and used by him during his life in the house where I now live and not elsewhere."