When Essex Lost Its Head, Part IV
The latest on a little rock with a long history (1955–2023)
(The — perhaps — last segment of the Old Baldy saga, if you’re just coming into the story now, you may want to read Parts I, II and III first)
Back in 1955, WBZ radio personality Alton Blackington found Old Baldy in the basement of the Peabody Museum. He published an account of his discovery plus the background history of our semi-famous Roman/Viking/Native American rock in his book More Yankee Yarns.
Like some crabby, craggy, Chebacco cicada, Old Baldy appeared intermittently in print every decade. The first time since Blackington’s visit was in the 1970’s-early 1980’s thanks to the research of two “archeologists,” (I’ll explain the parenthesis later) James P. Whittall (1932–1998) and Dr. Barry Fell (1917–1994).
1975–82: Just Two of Your Average Bronze Age Epigraphic Petrofiliacs
James Whitthall was a director of the Archeological Department of the New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA) and Director at the Early Sites Research Society in Rowley, MA.
Dr. Fell was a Professor of Invertebrate Zoology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology , author of a marine biology textbook and a well-respected expert on echinoderms. Starfish and sea urchins were his thing. But it was through his side-hustle passion that the two connected.
Dr. Fell was fascinated in the art and science of deciphering ancient inscriptions and a proponent of the theory that ancient Celts migrated to North America. Whitthall held similar beliefs, had done extensive field work at places like the Gungywamp site in CT, and must have been in touch with the Peabody Essex Museum, as sometime in the early to mid-1970’s he either took photos or secured image rights to photos of Old Baldy.
Dr. Fell included a photograph of Old Baldy provided by Whittall at Figure 3–9 of his book Bronze Age America, published by Little, Brown and Co. in 1982, specifically mentioning the Old Baldy was on display at the Peabody Essex:
On the next page, Dr. Fell showed an image from Bronze-age Brittany, France to illustrate the similarities:
Now the issue is — and this is why I put the word “archeologists” in quotes — is that stone sculptures are notoriously difficult to date. The material itself can be millions of years old, so you’re dating the sculpting. Just because a carving looks similar does not mean that it’s from a similar time, or culture, or origin. Old Baldy shares many sculptural characteristics with this ancient Breton bust, pictured above, and yes, you could argue that he looks kinda like other Celtic busts like the Corleck Head or the Ballyarton Stone Head. By he equally shares similarities with the 1928 carving by sculptor Henry Moore:
Dr. Fell published several books on the topic of prehistoric Celtic (read “White-European”) settlement of North America between 1975 and 1985, and his books made quite a splash as indicated by this 1977 Harvard Crimson article. Fell was unquestionably an accomplished man who has his supporters but is considered an unreliable pseudo-archeologist by mainstream academics.
1983: Essex Life Magazine
In the summer of 1983, Essex Life Magazine ran an article by Gwenn Wells about the prehistoric history of Cape Ann and the theory of Bronze Age colonization:
The piece included a photo of Old Baldy, provided by the Peabody Museum, which is rather interesting because it implies that the institution may have briefly suspended his basement banishment and placed him on display:
1996: Here Comes the Sheriff
Robert Ellis Cahill (1934–2005) was a Massachusetts politician and Sherriff of Essex County who inherited Blackington’s role as the preeminent New England folklorist and spooky-tale teller. His self-published books are still sold locally, especially in Salem. In 1996, Cahill published New England’s Ancient Mysteries, which included an account of Old Baldy plus a reprint of Blackington’s 1955 Seated-Ancient-Rock-in-Basement photo:
But after Cahill’s book, Baldy’s profile diminished – there were occasional references, such as a brief aside in Robert Citro’s 2005 book Weird New England and a 2006 talk given by the Essex Historical Society, but for the most part our Chebacco rock fell off the radar for over a decade
2019: The Essex Bicentennial
In 2018, the Town of Essex was busy making plans for it’s upcoming Bicentennial. A very brief portion of those plans was spent on chasing down the rumors of this strange rock. The brevity of the search was due in part to the lack of information — all we had at the time was Cahill’s book. I wasn’t part of the Bicentennial Committee’s effort to locate Old Baldy at the Peabody-Essex Museum, but I suspect the phone call to the museum went something like this:
Essex: Hello! Do you have our Rock?
Museum: Excuse me?
Essex: Our Rock! Old Baldy? Do you have it?
Museum: Um…no.
Essex: Oh, OK. Thanks anyway!
But the wheels were now set in motion to finally, definitively locate Old Baldy.
2022: A Visit to the Rock
Thanks to kindly efforts of the Peabody Essex Museum’s collection staff, I was finally able to locate Old Baldy at its Collections Center in Rowley, MA. On April 15,2022, the staff arranged a viewing of Old Baldy (otherwise known as “E28503”).
It was amazing.
(Unfortunately I can’t show any photos of how amazing it — you’ll have to trust me on this — have to be respectful of the museum’s image rights.)
First off, the Collections Center itself is amazing, containing over a million artifacts, ranging from the size of a shirt button to a double-decker bus, all cataloged and protected in a 120,000 square-foot location with climate-controlled spaces and conservation labs. The senior collections manager led me through a series of corridors and warehouse space (just catching a glimpse of part of the immensity of the collection, I definitely got a Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe).
There in a tucked-away corner of the facility was Old Baldy, on a table this time instead of a chair, protected by a blue, padded mover’s blanket. He’s definitely a rock; about the size of a medicine ball, he looks like he’d weigh close to fifty pounds. There’s a deep bore hole at the base of the sculpture, most likely drilled by Thomas Marshall Burnham so that he could put it on his fence post. The stone is a greenish gray, with a pinkish hue round the face – perhaps that is the paint.
After so much proverbial research digging, it was a bit emotional to see this mysterious piece of Essex history face to face. Baldy still wears his trademark enigmatic smile.
2023 and beyond: Free Baldy
The TOHP Burnham Library has submitted a request to the Peabody Essex Museum for a temporary loan application of Old Baldy. It would be great if we could display him back in town, even for the briefest of periods.
Of course, the question will come up — what is this? Who carved it?
Being made of stone, sculptures of course are remarkably difficult to date and the date a sculpture was created is often hundreds of years later that the subject it depicts. (for example, read Mary Beard’s Twelve Caesars about the often complicated history of Roman Emperor busts.)
In 19th Century America, there was a lot of folklore and a small but vibrant cottage industry devoted to manufacturing “proof” of early European settlement in New England (the “petrified Indian boy” at the Henry Sheldon Museum, the Bourne Stone, Newport Tower, the Westford Knight, etc.)
It’s probably safest to conclude that the stone was just a vaguely-head-like stone dug up during the excavation of a New England cellar hole and then with minimal amateur sculpting done by Burnham or Moses Andrews or someone else modified to look like a profile as a lark.
But who knows? Maybe they did find it as is and it started Thomas Burnham off on his career of being an antiquarian dealer. A “Celtic head” sculpture was supposedly found in Searsmont, Maine and a cache of Roman coins were supposedly dug up at Dane Street Beach in Beverly. Things can, and do, turn up in the strangest of places.
But while it is tantalizing to posit who carved the Old Baldy — Native Americans, Romans, Vikings, Bronze Age Celts, 19th Century Americans, Bigfoot or Beyonce — such speculations are perhaps beside the point.
The Essex Historical Society in its June 1944 meeting — the last time as far as we know, Old Baldy was publicly displayed — included the disclaimer “Nothing is known or conjectured as to its origin.”
That’s correct. We don’t know Baldy’s origin story.
But we do know this: Baldy is definitely is a fascinating and unique piece of our town’s early history.
Thomas Marshall Burnham Jr. was the original antiques dealer from Essex and founded what is considered one of the first, if not the first, second-hand bookstores in the United States.
Burnham passed his successful business onto his son, TOHP Burnham, who built our Town Hall and endowed our Library.
The first written account of Old Baldy was written by our prominent pastor and town historian, the Reverend Crowell.
Just as Thomas Marshall Burnham displayed Old Baldy for the children of the village, it would be incredible if we could offer the contemporary children of Essex the opportunity to see — if not touch! — this odd, little rock.
I hope Old Baldy can come home for a visit.
© Chebacco Creative, LLC 2023
