Rediscovering an American Community of Color presents eighty-three heretofore unpublished portraits reproduced from Bullard’s glass negatives depicting African Americans and Native Americans from the ethnically diverse Beaver Brook neighborhood in Worcester, Massachusetts. Bullard’s surviving logbook identifies nearly eighty percent of the names and locations of his subjects, thus allowing for their personal stories – and those of their community – to be told.
In addition to the Book Prize, Historic New England selected two Honor Books for recognition this year: Drawn from Nature & On Stone: The Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane by Georgia B. Barnhill and Melissa Geisler Trafton and Musical Clocks of Early America, 1730-1830 by Gary R. Sullivan and Kate Van Winkle Keller.
Drawn from Nature & On Stone is a comprehensive look at nineteenth-century American artist Fitz Henry Lane (1804–1865) as a lithographer. Lane is best known for his marine paintings, but before that phase in his career, he was a skilled printmaker. The book explores his success creating illustrations for sheet music, advertising materials, and city and town views.
Musical Clocks of Early America uses 130 remarkable clocks to tell the story of the gifted craftsmen who, between 1730 and 1830, had the expertise and skill to produce such intricate mechanisms as clocks that played music.
The Book Prize awards will be presented at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts, on November 15, 2018, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. The event includes a reception, remarks, and a book signing. Books are available for purchase. Please call 617-994-6679 or email [email protected] to reserve a spot.
