Home The American Neptune: A Quarterly Journal of Maritime History and Arts Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Museum of the East India Marine Society, Page 274
Volume V. No. 4 October 1945
Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Museum of the East India Marine Society, Page 274
274 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
in which history was the dominant feature of the things exhibited, the in­terests
of virtuosi were even more inclusive.
So much, in brief, for the Virtuoso's background.
There is evidence that as early as 1836 Hawthorne was toying with the
thought of writing A Virtuoso's Collection and also that he was associating
the idea with the Marine Museum. Even in such unimportant details as
the entrance to the Virtuoso's Collection and the extent of the room in
which it was exhibited the connection is seen. The Marine Museum is lo­cated
on Essex Street, once described by Hawthorne as a 'long and lazy
street lounging wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula
••• .'12 From the sidewalk a passageway feebly illuminated by the flickering
light of a gas-lamp led to the stair case by which visitors ascended to the
Museum Hall. The floor area of the room was about 4500 square feet.
Hawthorne introduces the Virtuoso's Collection in this fashion:
The other day, having a leisure hour at my disposal, I stept into a new museum, to
which my notice was casually drawn by a small and unobtrusive sign: 'To be seen
here, a Virtuoso's Collection.' Such was the simple, yet not altogether unpromising
announcement, that turned my steps aside, for a little while, from the sunny side­walk
of our principal thoroughfare. Mounting a sombre stair-case, I pushed open a
door at its summit .. ..
Farther on we are told that the virtuoso's hall was 'extensive,' and else­where
that it was 'spacious.'
The source of the Virtuoso's Collection is indicated in the passage of the
paper which describes Don Quixote's 'Rosinante':
... if my heart had not warmed towards that pitiful anatomy, I might as well have
quitted the Museum at once. Its rarities had not been collected with pain and toil
from the four quarters of the earth, and from the depths of the sea, and from the
palaces and sepulchres of ages, for those who could mistake this illustrious steed.
A comparison between the odd associations disclosed by the museum
catalogue and similar arrangements in the Virtuoso shows a kinship be­tween
the two museums. The precedent for such a collation is close at
hand, Hawthorne himself setting the example. In the Virtuoso he notices
'the tendency to whimsical combinations and ludicrous analogies, which
seemed to influence many of the arrangements of the Museum.' In an­other
place the same idea is suggested in Hawthorne's remark:
12 Works (Boston, 1883), v, 23.
Title Volume V. No. 4 October 1945
Description Articles include: The Mount Vernon's Voyage from Batavia to Nagasaki in 1807 by Allan B. Cole; Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Museum of the East India Marine Society by Charles E. Goodspeed; Notes of Some New England Three-Masters by Robert H. I. Goddard, Jr.; The Dismal Swamp Canal, Part II by Alexander Crosby Brown; and Register Tonnage and its Measurement, Part II by John Lyman. Issue also includes Notes, Book Reviews, and an Index to Volumes I through V, which includes a list of vessels with compound names.
Date 1945, October
Subjects Ammunition; Arms sales; Barges; Bills of lading; Brown, Alexander Crosby, 1905-; Canals; Coastwise navigation; Cole, Allan B., (Allan Burnett), b. 1914; Davison, John, Captain; Deshima (Nagasaki-shi, Japan); Dismal Swamp Canal (N.C. and Va.)—History; Displacement (Ships); East-India Marine Society of Salem; Goddard, Robert H. I., Jr.; Goodspeed, Charles E. (Charles Eliot), 1867-1950; Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. Mosses from an old manse; Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864; Indexes; Lake Drummond (Va.); Locks (Canal); Lyman, John, Dr., 1915-1977; Maritime contracts; Masts and rigging; Nagasaki-shi (Japan); Naval architecture; Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie; Peabody Museum of Salem; Sailing; Schooners; Ships – Measurement; Ships' papers; Steamboats; Strother, D. H. (David Hunter), 1816-1888; Tonnage – Measurement – Law and legislation; Ward, Malthus A. (Malthus Augustus), 1794-1863;
Title Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Museum of the East India Marine Society, Page 274
Author Charles E. Goodspeed
Description 274 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE in which history was the dominant feature of the things exhibited, the in­terests of virtuosi were even more inclusive. So much, in brief, for the Virtuoso's background. VIII There is evidence that as early as 1836 Hawthorne was toying with the thought of writing A Virtuoso's Collection and also that he was associating the idea with the Marine Museum. Even in such unimportant details as the entrance to the Virtuoso's Collection and the extent of the room in which it was exhibited the connection is seen. The Marine Museum is lo­cated on Essex Street, once described by Hawthorne as a 'long and lazy street lounging wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula ••• .'12 From the sidewalk a passageway feebly illuminated by the flickering light of a gas-lamp led to the stair case by which visitors ascended to the Museum Hall. The floor area of the room was about 4500 square feet. Hawthorne introduces the Virtuoso's Collection in this fashion: The other day, having a leisure hour at my disposal, I stept into a new museum, to which my notice was casually drawn by a small and unobtrusive sign: 'To be seen here, a Virtuoso's Collection.' Such was the simple, yet not altogether unpromising announcement, that turned my steps aside, for a little while, from the sunny side­walk of our principal thoroughfare. Mounting a sombre stair-case, I pushed open a door at its summit .. .. Farther on we are told that the virtuoso's hall was 'extensive,' and else­where that it was 'spacious.' The source of the Virtuoso's Collection is indicated in the passage of the paper which describes Don Quixote's 'Rosinante': ... if my heart had not warmed towards that pitiful anatomy, I might as well have quitted the Museum at once. Its rarities had not been collected with pain and toil from the four quarters of the earth, and from the depths of the sea, and from the palaces and sepulchres of ages, for those who could mistake this illustrious steed. A comparison between the odd associations disclosed by the museum catalogue and similar arrangements in the Virtuoso shows a kinship be­tween the two museums. The precedent for such a collation is close at hand, Hawthorne himself setting the example. In the Virtuoso he notices 'the tendency to whimsical combinations and ludicrous analogies, which seemed to influence many of the arrangements of the Museum.' In an­other place the same idea is suggested in Hawthorne's remark: 12 Works (Boston, 1883), v, 23.
Mount Vernon's Voyage Pg 255
Nathaniel Hawthorne Pg 266
Three-Masters Pg 286
Three-Masters P 17
Dismal Swamp Canal Pg 297
Register Tonnage Pg 311
Index Pg 331