When Essex Lost Its Head, Part III
Circling the world or sitting in a basement — or both
(If you’re just coming to the story now, you might want to read Part I and Part II first to get up to speed)
Let’s get back to Old Baldy and his mid 19th-Century circumambulation. So sometime between 1853 and 1868, Baldy made to back to Boston. Why the two dates and the 13 year gap, you ask? It’s due in part to the impreciseness to a one sentence in the book (“…It is now said, that on being sent back to Boston”) plus the history of the publication of History of the Town of Essex.
You see, our town’s first history book was actually published twice, with the first edition printed by Boston publisher C.C.C.P. Moody in 1853. For that edition, the Reverend Crowell has completed his research up to 1814. The Reverend was presumably hard at work adding more historical material when he passed away in 1855.
His fellow townsman Mr. David Choate then picked up the research football, creating an expanded, revised manuscript that continued through the Civil War. Choate mentions Old Baldy in his chapter, “A Walk About Town,” but it’s not clear if the section is based on his own investigations or incorporating some of Crowell’s research.
In a perhaps extraordinary gesture of fiscal largesse, the Town of Essex published the revised edition in 1868 for on the fiftieth anniversary of its founding, hiring Samuel Bowles & Co. of Springfield, MA to do the printing. That’s the version that you can currently browse on Google Books.
(I know this all may be TMI, but it’s important when you’re trying to establish provenance.)
Now the History of Essex also mentions an affidavit by Moses Andrews, swearing to the veracity of his find. Later accounts claim that the Essex Selectmen, upon inquiries, made an investigation that prompted the affidavit Unfortunately, there is no record of the any such inquiry or affidavit in the town records.
(Trust me I’ve looked — I can give you the names of all the dogs registered in 1855; I can give you figures for how much the schoolmaster made in 1860, but there’s nuthin about Old Baldy)
So it remains unclear who asked Mr. Andrews to attest and sign such a document, and what happened to it.
But other than this history book, are there any other mentions of Baldy in the historical record? Like a ship in a fog bank, we can find a few occasional glimpses over the next century. For example, on March 27, 1869, The Newburyport Daily Herald ran a brief article about the bust, reprinting the account from Crowell and Choate’s book.
OK, that’s something, but it doesn’t tell us anything new.
1889: Baldy’s a Cellar-dwelling Scandinavian
Deeper digging in newspaper archives proved fruitful. On May 4, 1889, The Beverly Citizen published the “investigative” article “Stories of Ancient Beverly” by Beverly businessman and amateur archeologist Andrew Kimball “A.K.” Ober (1825–1893):
A.K. Ober, from a venerable colonial Beverly family (there’s a street named after them) was a local businessman and amateur archeologist whose side passion was digging up Native American artifacts, both in the North Shore and out West, and donating them to local institutes. Clearly he passed his enthusiasm on to his son Frederick Albion, who became a well-known, respected (and more professional) archeologist and explorer.
A.K. was convinced that Old Baldy was a Viking relic. At this time, many Americans were eager to “prove” the existence of ancient European (read White) settlement in North America. However unpalatable his claims, he did do some actual pavement-pounding investigative work.
In the article, Ober covers Old Baldy at length. His research verified some aspects of Crowell and Choate’s 1853–69 account while adding additional layers of mystery. Interviewing Essex residents, Ober confirmed via first-hand accounts that Moses Burnham dug up the sculpture in Essex. He confirmed that Baldy’s face was painted. He confirmed that the bust was displayed in Boston in 1835.
He chased down the account that the Danes that purchased the sculpture may have been the Danish Consul, but that lead dried up, most likely false, with further inquiries to the Consul and correspondence to Denmark. To aid his work, Ober consulted with a “Professor Sears” (possibly John Henry Sears 1843–1910, Curator of Geology, Mineralogy and Botany at the Peabody Museum) and a “Dr. Wheatland” (possibly Dr. Henry Wheatland 1812–1893, President of the Essex Institute). Dr. Wheatland informed Ober that Old Baldy may have briefly been at the Essex Institute as early as 1825. By 1873 the sculpture was in the basement of the Peabody Museum, but Ober admitted that the location of the piece between 1835 and 1873 was unclear.
But in 1889, A.K. Oker definitely confirmed that Baldy’s in the basement of the Peabody Museum:
So how did the Peabody Museum acquire Old Baldy?
This is complete conjecture, but plausible: Old Baldy was supposedly exhibited in a “Cabinet of Curiosities” in Copenhagen, Denmark. Was there any such location in historical record?
There was — and is — the Danish National Museum. It started off in 1816 as a collection of ancient artifacts curated by the Danish antiquarian and archeologist Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788–1865).
Now let’s say an American mariner — also described as a ship captain — saw Old Baldy in this Danish Cabinet of Curiosities circa 1860, and raises a stink about the rock’s origin. Was there a American maritime organization dedicated to acquiring a collection of artifacts?
There was — the East India Marine Society. In 1799, a few merchants and ship captains from Salem, MA formed a society to pool all the odd and cool stuff they picked up on their voyages. In 1825 they hired architect Thomas Waldron Sumner to build a hall (pictured above) to house the stuff. Then in 1868 industrialist George Peabody bought the collection lock, stock and barrel and named it the Peabody Museum.
So we have a Danish cabinet of curiosities and an American cabinet of curiosities founded by mariners, linked by a mariner. It’s possible that Danish director Thomsen got in touch with Peabody Museum representatives (who perhaps conducted the investigation and Moses Andrews affidavit). Thomson finds out Baldy’s not Danish, and so unloads the rock and ships it back to the USA. Some accounts say the Essex mariner was the one that purchased the rock and brought it back.
(Note: I contacted the Danish National Museum’s Communications Director, but never heard back.)
The next question that naturally comes up is — did the Peabody Museum ever display Old Baldy? It’s a hard question to answer. There are 17 editions of the Peabody Museum’s information circular available online, the 1915 edition being the earliest. The 1939 edition specifically mentions that local prehistoric artifacts from Essex County were displayed in Museum’s Hall of Natural History. So we can confirm that “local prehistoric relics” were displayed in the Museum for decades, but cannot specifically identify through this source that Old Baldy was ever displayed. Maybe the public saw Baldy, or maybe he stayed put in the basement.
1935: Baldy gets his Portrait Drawn for a Academic Book
The next time Old Baldy appears in the historical record is 1935. That year, Charles Clark Willoughby (1857–1943) wrote Antiquities of the New England Indians. Willoughby was an archeologist affiliated with Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. (Yes, I know; there are a lot of “Peabody’s” in this story) On p.162 of this work Willoughby included an illustration and brief description of Old Baldy and confirmed that it was in the collection of the Peabody Museum:
Unlike Oker, Willoughby was convinced Old Baldy’s origins were Native American. He included our rock in a study of various other stone amulets and effigies from North American indigenous peoples.
1944: Old Baldy (briefly) Visits Home
In May 1944, The directors of the Essex Historical Society (EHS) became interested in the story of Old Baldy. They had a discussion. They ordered a copy of Willoughby’s book for the TOHP Burnham Library. They decided to see if they could display the sculpture at public meeting . EHS past president and Conomo Point* summer resident Judge Robert W. Hill (1882–1966) was tasked with making inquiries with the Peabody Museum. Hill was a prominent Salem resident, president of the Salem Rotary Club and associate justice for the First District Court of Essex, so clearly a Salem big-wig who naturally had contacts with Museum big-wigs.
(* Note: for non-locals: “Conomo Point” is the original site of the town Poor Farm, which became a summer colony and vacation spot in the 1880's)
And that’s exactly what happened!
On June 13, 1944, the Essex Historical Society held their 85th annual meeting, at which Old Baldy was presented to the public. Sixty people were in attendance. Notices of the event were published on June 13th, 1944, in the Gloucester Daily Times and June 16, 1944, in the Manchester Cricket, whose notice read in part “…One of the interesting exhibits was an Indian relic in the form of a stone head found in Essex in 1810 and loaned by the Peabody Museum to the society for the occasion.”
It’s fun to think that Old Baldy had a brief reunion in his old hometown, probably wrapped in a blanket and driven the distance between Salem and Essex in a 1940’s Mercury Town Sedan.
1955: Blackington Meets Baldy
Circa 1954–5, New England folklorist, journalist, photographer and radio personality Alton Blackington (1893–1963) heard about Old Baldy.
Alton Blackington’s memory has faded, but back in the day he was a big celebrity media personality — think of a blend of talents combining the folksy writing of Garrison Keillor, the investigative reporting of Mike Barnacle and the photojournalism of Doratha Lange. His “Yankee Yarns” radio show on WBZ in the 1940–50’s was tremendously popular. He’s perhaps the most famous mid-century New England folklorist.
Blackington decided to do a story on Old Baldy and bounced between Salem and Essex to find our favorite rock:
“…George S. McIntyre of Essex, who brought the story to my attention, said that he understood that the head was in the Peabody Museum. There I hastened with camera and flash outfit to see what the controversial head looks like today. But it was gone! Not a trace of the old Roman could we find; so we drove to Essex and spent two whole days calling on various people who might help us. The image had been for a spell at the Essex Historical Society, but a careful search through all the cupboards and closets failed. I finally called on a Mrs.. Goodhue, who telephoned Robert Smallage. Mr. Smallage drove us out into the country to call on Reverend Warren Francis Lowe. He insisted the head was in the Peabody Museum. So back we went, and lo and behold! There it was! It had been stored in a far, dark corner of the basement and completely forgotten.”
Eureka! He props up Baldy on a stool and snaps a photo:
It’s amazing tho think he spent two whole days in Essex, considering it’s a five minute walk between the Town Hall, the Historical Society and the Congregational Church.
The photo and Blackington’s account of the search for Old Baldy were included in his book More Yankee Yarns, published by Dodd, Meade and Co. in 1956. Of the sculpture, Blackington quipped, “…the stolid, grim-looking face bears a striking resemblance to Mussolini.” (p.45)
That takes us up to 1956. The next and last part of this story will bring us to the present time, the current location of Old Baldy, and his uncertain future.
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