Welcome to Our Newsletter, the Weymouth Historical Gazette
Hello Weymouth history fans! Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Weymouth Historical Commission’s electronic newsletter. We have included “gazette” in the title of the newsletter to pay homage to the first regular Weymouth print paper, published in 1867. To quote from the first issue of the Weymouth Gazette of May 2, 1867, we hope that our newsletter “will be found worthy of preservation for the future, while it is of interest in the present.”
Our intent is to publish on a bimonthly basis. In each issue we will have one main story that will focus on a Weymouth event or person. In some cases we will choose a topic from Weymouth that has a connection to events in the nation or the world. The newsletter will also alert you to historical events that are occurring in Weymouth or on the South Shore that might be of interest to you. We will include activities of Weymouth 400, the Weymouth Historical Society, and the Abigail Adams Historical Society.
We will publish brief historical tidbits about the town, historical photos, and occasional book reviews of relevant subject matter. The newsletter’s content is still fluid and will be molded by reactions and comments from the readership. We will be drawing on the expertise of the commission members to contribute articles that they deem of interest. Most of all, we will strive to be accurate with our information and make the newsletter a fun read. So enjoy the first issue and learn a little about your town, Weymouth.
Edmonia Lewis Stamp
Do you still enjoy the thrill of sending and receiving information by snail mail? Well what better way to do that then by affixing a stamp that has a Weymouth connection! Earlier this year the Postal Service released a forever stamp honoring noted 19th century artist Edmonia Lewis.
Lewis was a mixed race woman (Ojibwa mother and West Indies father) who was born in Rensselaer, New York in 1844. She attended Oberlin in 1859 but left before graduating and moved to Boston where she studied with local sculptor Edward Brackett. During her time in Boston she did portraits of local anti-slavery advocates.
Edmonia moved to Rome, Italy in 1865 and began working in marble. Unlike other artists of that time who had local workers finish their artwork, she did all of her stonework because she feared that her work would not be accepted as original. She did portrait heads, biblical studies, and works portraying Native American Heritage and oppression of African-Americans. She died in London in 1907.
Several of Lewis’s works can be found in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. However, you only have to go as far as the Tufts Library to see one of her original works. In 1865 she created the bust of Maria Weston Chapman, one of her earlier works in marble. Maria was a Weston, born on the Weston Estate, now Weston park and the Tufts Library. She is best known for her support of noted abolitionist
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