Kingston (Massachusetts) Public Library
This month’s exhibit features a collection of holiday ornaments created by the Kingston Lions Club between 1991 and 2001. Each limited edition glass ball bears the likeness of a Kingston icon — from the old Town Hall and Soldier’s Monument to Bildad Washburn’s Tavern on Main Street and the fish ladder on the Jones River near the Elm Street Bridge. Alongside each ornament is a historic photograph of the building or scene depicted. Stop by and take a look.
Kingston’s storied history of building ocean-going sailing vessels stretches from about 1713, when shipwright Samuel Drew and his son Cornelius set up shop on the Jones River, until 1874, when Edward Holmes launched the brig Helen A. Holmes, or perhaps until 1898 when Edward Ransom built only Kingston’s only steamer, the Tiger. As the era of great sailing ships passed away, for a short time Kingston ruled the yachting world.
This month’s exhibit highlights some of the knockabouts, catboats and spritsails built in Kingston and raced in local waters by members of the Kingston Yacht Club, whose annual regatta is this weekend.
Stop by the Library and take a look at this month’s exhibit, which highlights Kingston graduates and graduations from 1862 on.
This photograph was donated by the daughter of one of the graduates pictured. The inscription on the back reads “Vesta Porter. Mamma first girl on left, next to her (front) Susan Quinn & Margaret Holmes. Others are Freda Tobey, Abbie & Adaline Harrub, Philip Smith, Ralph Drew, Stanley Skakle.” Vest Porter wrote the Class Prophecy, which peered into the future lives of her classmates.
In 1938 and 1939, the author Henry Beston wrote three letters to Kingston resident Mrs. Alexander Holmes. The two had met at a retreat on Star Island, N.H. Beston is perhaps best know for his 1928 work Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod. Included with the letters is an autographed first edition inscribed by the author for Mrs. Holmes.
There is a wealth of online information available on Henry Beston. The Henry Beston Society focuses on Beston, his wife, the poet and novelist Elizabeth Coatesworth, while the Friends of Henry Beston place more emphasis on the Outermost House and Beston’s philosophy. To complement the photographs of Beston available on these sites, here is one you won’t see anywhere else — Mrs. Alexander Holmes at Star Island.
Please stop by and have a look at this unique sample of a great writer’s work.
A new exhibit is now in the display case. “Taking Stock — Kingston Investments in the 19th Century” shows a century of local and national stock certificates and related business ephemera.
One of the local items is particularly intriguing.
Little can be found about this early corporation.
The named individuals can be identified. The owner of the shares was George T. Adams, brother of Kingston’s library benefactor Frederic C. Adams. The president of the company was Benjamin F. Ames, listed in vital records as a Kingston merchant in 1848. Secretary William H. Burges was a well known Kingston shopkeeper (first at Burges & Bailey, then Burges & Keith and finally under his own name alone), Town official (treasurer, tax collector, and town clerk) and state representative. The company, however, remains shrouded in some mystery.
The derricks and refineries in the engravings point to petroleum, rather than the whale oil that dominated southeastern Massachusetts in the 19th century. The date 1865 fixes the company at the very beginning of the modern oil industry. The processes of distilling kerosene — first from coal, then from “seep oil” — had been discovered in the late 1840s . The first oil well had been drilled in Titusville, PA, in 1859, and John D. Rockefeller had entered the oil business in 1863 with a refinery in Cleveland.
Beyond these clues drawn from the face of the document, there are more questions than answers, as often happens with historical ephemera. How long did the company last? What exactly did they do? Is there any way to find out more? Inquiring minds always want to know.
The Friends of the Kingston Public Library are offering a lovely set of notecards featuring 12 historic scenes of Kingston from the Local History Room. Some larger prints of these photographs are on display in the lobby. Please stop by, take a look and if you like, pick up a box of cards for the low, low price of $10.
The new exhibit is up, and to help celebrate the 4th Annual Library Pet Show, it’s all about the dogs of Kingston. See snapshots of Library staff members’ pooches! Marvel at the hounds and terriers of bygone days! Wonder at the family portrait with the dog front and center! Enjoy the dog days of summer!
This month’s exhibit highlights photographs, programs and other documents from Kingston’s Memorial Day celebrations.
Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday originated during the Civil War and spread across the country by the end of the 19th century. After the First World War, Memorial Day expanded to honor the memory of all whose lives were sacrificed in war.
For more information on the history of this solemn holiday, look here and here. To see how Kingston has celebrated the day, stop by the Library!
