Art Collection

Arthur B. Curtis was born in Freeport, Maine in 1854 and trained as a draughtsman; he then moved to Boston and found employment at the American Steam Safe Company and the Damon Safe Company. In 1885, he went into business for himself as a dealer of safes, representing the York Safe and Lock Company of York, Pennsylvania. This safe is painted black with a panel depicting a ship in full sail on the front, while underneath is the address 98 Sudbury Street, Boston, MA. As that was Curtis’s business address beginning in 1885, it seems probable that this was one of the safes he sold from his shop on behalf of York Safe and Lock. By the 1890s, his focus had shifted slightly away from business, as he was twice elected as selectman for Revere and served on numerous town committees. Nonetheless, there are indications that he remained involved with the safe business, as there is a patent registered to an Arthur B. Curtis of Revere from July 1891 for a ‘Bolt Support and Guide for Safe Doors,’ as well as one from December 1897 for ‘Protective Mechanism for Safe Doors.’ 

This painting depicts the East Branch of the Lexington Library in the late 1800s. Opened in 1883 and originally housed in the reading room of the Adams School, the library’s popularity soon led it to seek out larger quarters. In 1891, Ellen Stone offered the Stone Building – constructed by her grandfather Eli Robbins – to the trustees of the library for $2,000, along with a half-acre of land adjoining Follen Church, which can be seen in the background of this painting. A Greek Revival-style structure which had originally served as a private school, a meeting hall and the East Lexington Lyceum, the Stone Building had also hosted such notable speakers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Theodore Parker. The Stone Building housed the East Lexington Branch Library until 2007 when a burst pipe caused extensive damage and the building was closed indefinitely for repairs. 

This chromolithograph is captioned “Importers and Jobbers of Fancy Goods – French, English, German, Bohemian, Austrian and Italian Manufacturers; Tortoise Shell, Ivory and Other Combs; Buttons, Brushes, Cutlery, Indian Beads, Steel Goods, Jewelry, Violins, Strings, Threads, Needles, Pins, Perfumery, Pocket Books, Percussion Caps, etc. No. 245 Pearl Street, near John Street, New York.” It depicts the New York headquarters of WM. H. Cary & Co., an importing business run by William Harris Cary and his brother Isaac Harris Cary. The brothers started their business in Boston in the early 1820s and opened the New York branch in 1827, of which William Harris Cary became the sole owner. He was an extremely successful merchant, so much so that in the 1850 census his holdings were listed as totaling nearly half a million dollars. In this print, the WM. H. Cary & Co. building towers over its neighbors, while the stacks of boxes on the sidewalk and carriages in the street give the sense of a vibrant industrial area. The bright colors are a result of chromolithography, or color printmaking, which caught on in America in the 1840s and quickly became immensely popular due to low production costs and ease of mass-production. Attached to the back of this print is a letter to a Mr. Cary from Grace M. Mayer, a curator of prints and photographs who worked both at the Museum of the City of New York and the Museum of Modern Art from the 1930s to the 1960s, discussing the possible date range for this lithograph.

Sarony & Major (1845-1857) was a lithography firm founded by Napoleon Sarony on Fulton Street in New York City. Born in Québec, Sarony worked as an illustrator for Currier & Ives before starting his own business with Henry Major in 1845. The company produced prints such as a set of views of Commodore Perry’s expedition to Japan under the Sarony & Major name until 1857, when it merged with Joseph F. Knapp and the name was changed to Sarony, Major & Knapp. In 1867, Sarony left to establish his own photography studio, although the firm would continue producing lithographs into the 1870s. Sarony would later become one of the best-known celebrity portrait photographers in New York, photographing such notable figures as Oscar Wilde, Samuel Clemens and William T. Sherman.