In the early 1870s, twenty year-old Marcellus H. Goodwin was listed as a music teacher in city directories for Newburyport, Mass., residing at 32 Federal Street in the home of his father, Abel L. Goodwin. In later years, Marcellus worked as an upholsterer, but died died prematurely in 1883.
The Goodwin scrapbook is a typical production of the period in which the pages in a bound volume (in this case containing work records from 1841) are pasted over with newsclippings, mostly from the early 1870s. Goodwin favored poetry, aphorisms, and brief tales -- sometimes humorous, but other times including curious facts -- which, as far as can be discerned, were clipped from the Boston Courier, Newburyport Herald. Goodwin also pasted in three colorful fashion plates, a small series of illustrations of buildings at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, and an original poem, "A short sermon."
See similar SCUA collections:
Fashion plate
In the early 1870s, twenty year-old Marcellus H. Goodwin was listed as a music teacher in city directories for Newburyport, Mass., residing at 32 Federal Street in the home of his father, Abel L. Goodwin. In later years, Marcellus worked as an upholsterer, but died died prematurely in 1883.
The Goodwin scrapbook is a typical production of the period in which the pages in a bound volume (in this case containing work records from 1841) are pasted over with newsclippings, mostly from the early 1870s. Goodwin favored poetry, aphorisms, and brief tales -- sometimes humorous, but other times including curious facts -- which, as far as can be discerned, were clipped from the Boston Courier, Newburyport Herald. Goodwin also pasted in three colorful fashion plates, a small series of illustrations of buildings at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, and an original poem, "A short sermon." The volume itself is bound in an attractive marbled paper boards with leather spine.
The identity of the person who assembled the scrapbook is uncertain. The free front flyleaf and front end paper contain what appears to be an ownership signature, "M. H. Goodwin, Newburyport," which suggests a connection to Marcellus H. Goodwin, and the last page of the volume includes a handwritten listing of newly elected members of city government signed M. H. Goodwin in 1879. However the scrapbook may have more complex provenance and may include contributions from women in the Goodwin home, as judged by the fashion plates.
The collection is open for research.
Provenance unknown.
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, Dec. 2015.
Cite as: Marcellus H. Goodwin Scrapbook (MS 484 bd). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
