Oil on board painting of College Hill from across the Mystic River in Medford, pictured around 1856. The building on top of the hill is Ballou Hall, the first building of Tufts College. The white house in the foreground is the Paul Curtis House, which is said to be the house mentioned in Lydia Maria Child's poem "Over the River and Through the Woods." The Mystic River is in front of the Curtis house and is home to an old shipyard, possibly the Curtis shipyard.
Attribution:
Champney, Benjamin (attributed)
Attribution Statement:
Image courtesy of Tufts University Permanent Collection, AI 07400
Marble bust of George L. Stearns by Samuel Morse prior to its restoration in 2016. This bust was commissioned in 1879 by Mary Stearns, George's widow, to place in their home on their estate in Medford, Massachusetts.
Attribution:
Morse, Samuel
Attribution Statement:
Image courtesy of the Tufts University Permanent Collection
Commemorative cast bronze memorial plaque of the Reverend Edwin Hubbell Chapin by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. In 1891, the plaque was donated to Tufts Collage and soon thereafter placed in Goddard Chapel. A notice in the school newspaper reads, "A replica of the bas-relief of Dr. Chapin in the Church of the Divine Paternity, New York City, has been presented to the college and will soon be placed in the chapel. This bas-relief is considered by good critics one of the masterpieces of St. Gaudens." (Tuftonian, vol. 17, no. 16 [5 June 1891], page 236)
Attribution:
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
Attribution Statement:
Image courtesy of the Tufts University Permanent Collection: Gift of Friends of E.H. Chapin, AI 05500
A page from the 1937 inventory of artworks at Tufts College, showing that the busts of John Brown and George L. Stearns were on display in the Eaton Library.
This painting shows the Stearns mansion in the center right and the farmhouse to the far right. In the distance on the hill are the buildings of Tufts College, with the tower of Goddard Chapel, East Hall, and West Hall visible through the trees. The road to the left is College Avenue; at the time it was known as the Willows because of the trees on either side. At the corner of College Avenue and the railroad tracks is College Hill train station. The Boston & Lowell Railroad operated on the tracks that separated Tufts College from the Stearns Estate's orchards.
Attribution:
William Hauk
Attribution Statement:
Image courtesy of the Tufts University Permanent Collection
Photograph of Brackett's bust of John Brown showing a 3D-printed plastic replacement nose. With the plastic nose, conservators were able to make a cast and then a new plaster nose. This photograph was taken in 2016 as the bust was being restored.
Attribution:
Brackett, Edward Augustus
Attribution Statement:
Image courtesy of the Tufts University Permanent Collection
A tech from 3D Printsmith 3D-scanning both the damaged bust of John Brown and an undamaged plaster copy from the Boston Athenaeum. This was done in order to prepare an exact, 3D-printed copy of the nose and eyebrow for the damaged bust. This photograph was taken in May 2016.
Attribution Statement:
Image courtesy of the Tufts University Permanent Collection
Photograph of Brackett's bust of John Brown showing damage to nose and eyebrow. This photograph was taken in May 2016 prior to the bust's complete restoration.
Attribution:
Brackett, Edward Augustus
Attribution Statement:
Image courtesy of the Tufts University Permanent Collection
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 Tufts College president Leonard Carmichael to George R. Sands & Son, a conservator in Cambridge, 1950. It was this letter that allowed Tufts University Art Registrar Laura McDonald to put two and two together and realize the noseless bust was that of John Brown. The letter reads, "Gentlemen: Tufts College has a marble bust of John Brown, sculptured by Edward A. Brackett. Some time ago in an accident the nose was broken on this bust. Would it be possible for someone in your organization using contemporary photographs of John Brown to prepare a new nose that could be cemented to the bust? If this is feasible, would you be willing to indicate the cost of your work? Very truly yours, Leonard Carmichael"