It was interesting to learn at the Open House at the Boston Athenaeum last weekend that the first painting acquired by the private library (founded in 1807) was this portrait of Kamehameha the Great. The oil on canvas, approximately four by six inches, was painted in 1816 by an unknown artist, likely Chinese, and probably in the Philippine Islands. Considered to be a piece of documentary art, not fine art, the portrait was in its collection but never displayed in Athenaeum exhibitions -- until now. The little painting was the gift of John Coffin Jones Jr. (1796-1861), a Bostonian who was appointed the first U.S. Consular to the Sandwich Islands in 1820. Jones, a Unitarian often in conflict with the Congregational and Presbyterian missionaries trying to convert the natives, is perhaps best remembered for being a philanderer, womanizer, and bigamist. Not a good showing for the Unitarians.
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This portion of Ms. Schinto's website features snippets of her current, long-term project: The Missionary Factory: A Chronicle of the Nineteenth-Century Theologians, Preachers, Bible Scholars, Teachers, Translators, Printers, and Ordinary Townspeople of Andover, Massachusetts, Who Tried to Save the World. Please read the posts from oldest to newest. Archives
January 2023
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