Sculpted to Inspire: Caleb Tillinghast

FROM NEWSPAPERS TO BOOKS!

What city editor of the Boston Journal became the first State Librarian?

Caleb B. Tillinghast was the Acting State Librarian starting in 1879.
In 1893 the Office of the State Librarian was created.
Mr. Tillinghast was appointed.

Please visit the Library in room 341 between
March 7, 2011-April 15, 2011
to see the State Library’s first State Librarian.

The “Sculpted to Inspire” series is sponsored by the Friends of the State Library.

Sculpted to Inspire: Arthur Buckminster Fuller

Arthur Buckminster Fuller (August 10, 1822 - December 11, 1862) was a Unitarian Clergyman who believed in liberal reforms. He was born in Boston, the child of Congressman Timothy Fuller, Jr. and Margaret Crane.

At the age of twelve, he spent one year at Leicester Academy and then studied with Mrs. Ripley, the wife of Rev. Samuel Ripley, of Waltham. His older sister Margaret helped raise him after his father died of cholera in 1835. She made certain Arthur received a proper education in Greek, Latin, literature, science and mathematics. In August, 1839 he entered Harvard College at the age of seventeen and graduated in 1843.

Fuller traveled to Illinois to run an academy but closed it 18 months later due to ill health. Between 1845 and 1847 he attended Harvard College of Divinity where he received his degree. Fuller preached in various churches including the Unitarian Church of Watertown, the New North Church of Boston, and the Unitarian Society of Manchester, New Hampshire.

He was selected by the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1854 to serve as their chaplain and in 1858 by the Massachusetts Senate to act as theirs. In 1857 he was nominated by the Republicans of Suffolk District No. 2 for the Massachusetts Senate but did not win the election since there were other candidates from his party in that district.

Fuller worked to advance a number of issues. He was active in the temperance and abolitionist movements and endorsed women pursuing a professional career. His belief in a free public education was shown by his serving on the Boston school board.

At the onset of the Civil War, Fuller resigned as a pastor in Watertown, MA to join the Sixteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. When the Sixteenth Regiment went into battle in June, 1862, he participated on the battlefield as a chaplain with prayers and encouragement. After this he became so weak and ill that he returned to Massachusetts. He came back in October, 1862 but was soon declared unfit for service.

Fuller returned once again to give his farewell address on December 7, 1862 and was honorably discharged on December 10, 1862. The next morning as his own regiment was preparing to attack Fredericksburg, VA, he volunteered to go with the Nineteenth Regiment. Wearing the uniform of a staff officer, he was a special mark for the sharpshooters. Fuller crossed the river in a boat to join the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment on the other side. A few minutes later, he was shot dead after having only fired a few shots. It was speculated that Fuller risked his life to accompany the Nineteenth Massachusetts, because he believed the men deserved to have a chaplain by their side as they fought. The Nineteenth's chaplain had fled some time ago.

The Governor of Massachusetts attended his funeral where ministers of several faiths eulogized him. Among them was James Freemen Clarke who declared that "Arthur Fuller was, like most of us, a lover of peace, but he saw, as we have had to see, that sometimes true peace can only come through war…. Fuller served ordinary folk and related far better to farmers, artisans, shopkeepers, laborers and soldiers than he did to the intellectuals who preserved his sister's memory.”* He is buried in Mt Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

His grandson is R. Buckminster Fuller, a philosopher, mathematician and the inventor who invented the geodesic dome composed of triangular shaped spheres and coined the phrase “Spaceship Earth.”

His statue was given to the state in 1863 and is on view in the State Library's main reading room (Room 341) through February 18.

* Unitarian Universalist Association. “Arthur Buckminster Fuller” http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/arthurbuckminsterfuller.html (accessed December 30, 2010)

Sculpted to Inspire: John Davis Long

Who was the 32nd Governor of Massachusetts

and

the 34th United States Secretary of the Navy
and

represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives
from the 2nd District in the late 1800’s?

JOHN DAVIS LONG

Please visit the State Library in Room 341 between
November 15 and December 24, 2010
to see the sculpture of this former Governor.

The “Sculpted to Inspire” series is sponsored by the
Friends of the State Library.

Sculpted to Inspire: George Frisbie Hoar

Do you know who George Frisbie Hoar is?

Do you know why his birthday is significant?

George Frisbie Hoar was born in Concord in 1826,

the same year the State Library was founded.

Please visit the Library in Room 341 between October 4 and November 12, 2010 to see the sculpture of George Frisbie Hoar.

The “Sculpted to Inspire” series is sponsored by the Friends of the State Library.

Sculpted to Inspire: Theodore Roosevelt

The Library will be highlighting this bronze sculpture of Theodore Roosevelt though October 1, 2010. John Gutzon Borglum created this eight years before he began work on the monumental Presidents' heads on Mount Rushmore. It was given to the Library by the T. R. Club of Massachusetts in 1945. This is the first of a number of pieces in the Library's Reading Room that will be featured in the next few months. Please stop by Room 341 in the State House by to view it. The Library's hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00a.m through 5:00p.m.

Sponsored by the Friends of the State Library.

Sculpted to Inspire

The first sculpture in our series “Sculpted to Inspire” is a likeness of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, sculpted by John Gutzon Borglum in 1919. This piece was given to the State Library by the T.R. Club of Massachusetts* in 1945.

John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American artist and sculptor of Danish descent. He was famous for creating the monumental Presidents' heads at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. Borglum met and was influenced by world famous sculptor Auguste Rodin.

Borglum did these sculptures:
● Abraham Lincoln’s head carved from a six-ton block of marble was done in 1908 and was exhibited in Theodore Roosevelt's White House. It can be found in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C.

● Borglum was asked to do a sculpture of Robert E. Lee at Stone Mountain in Georgia in 1915. He decided to do a group featuring Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis on horseback followed by a column of soldiers. He finished Robert E. Lee’s head but was fired from this project in 1925. Nothing of Borglum’s work remains, since the next artist they hired destroyed Robert E. Lee’s head.

● He carved four President’s heads: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt at Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills in South Dakota from 1927-1941. Borglum came to South Dakota in 1924. On March 6, 1941 he died. His son Lincoln “put the finishing touches on his father’s vision” of Mount Rushmore. Borglum felt: "The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt."

*Theodore Roosevelt Club of Massachusetts

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library

Mt. Rushmore and the State Library

What do we have in common?

A SCULPTURE BY JOHN GUTZON BORGLUM

Please visit the Library between July 26, 2010 and September 3,
2010 to see the sculpture of Theodore Roosevelt.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library