AFA Autumn 2021

2021 Antiques & Fine Art 79 Family Treasures: 175 Years of Collecting Art and Furniture at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, by Gerald W. R. Ward, Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture Emeritus at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, includes a Foreword by D. Brenton Simons, President and CEO, American Ancestors, and a Preface by Curt DiCamillo, Curator of Special Collections, American Ancestors, both of whom aided the author in the selection of items for study and inclusion. For more details, visit shop.americanancestors.org . Curt DiCamillo is Curator of Special Collections, American Ancestors / New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS). Gerald W. R. Ward is the Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture Emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1864, William Appleton Jr. (1825–1877) donated this small Qur’an (Koran) to the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Appleton’s gift was aptly described as “an elegant Arabic Koran, written in an elegant hand, with an Introduction in illuminated letters.” The Society librarian noted that Appleton acquired it in Damascus, Syria, during his travels in 1854–1855 (the book contains Appleton’s note to that effect). In mid-nineteenth century New England, copies of the Qur’an were not unknown, but this was, nevertheless, a significant addition to the NEHGS library. By 1790, Harvard owned three copies of an English translation of the “Koran of Mahommed” published in London in 1734. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, among others, also owned copies. In June 1806, Isaiah Thomas, the famous early printer, published the first American edition of the Qur’an in Springfield, Massachusetts, printed by Henry Brewer. Appleton’s gift strengthened the holdings of important texts in their original languages at NEHGS. William Appleton Jr. was the son of the very wealthy Boston merchant William Appleton (1786–1862) and his wife, Mary Ann. William Jr. married Emily Warren (1818–1905) in 1845, and was a life member of NEHGS, admitted in 1863. At his death, he was “kindly remembered by his companions who were his fellow travelers during a long and eventful journey in the East,” probably the trip during which he acquired this book. “He was of a retiring disposition, and distrustful of himself. This, with a delicate constitution, prevented him from engaging in active business.” Nevertheless, he was remembered for his “benevolence to the poor, and for his interest in and benefactions to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Dumb Animals.” He was noted for a map of early Boston that he re-created from documents, and for his publication in 1875 of the Narrative of Le Moyne, An Artist Who Accompanied the French Expedition to Florida under Laudonnière, 1564: with Heliotypes of the Engravings Taken from the Artist’s Original Drawings Translated from the Latin of De Bry, a volume also in the NEHGS collection. Appleton died at age 52 and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Appleton Qur’an, maker unknown, probably Syria, mid-nineteenth century. Ink on paper; leather binding. 5⅞ 3 1 in. Gift of William Joseph Warren Appleton Jr., 1864 (R0508).