Records of the Benjamin Bussey collection, 1818-1840s, 1940s, 1990s, 2001 (scattered).

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Records of the Benjamin Bussey collection, 1818-1840s, 1940s, 1990s, 2001 (scattered).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/175315567

This wide-ranging collection contains biographical materials on Benjamin Bussey copied from several publications that appeared at the time of his death in 1842 and later in the nineteenth century. Of interest is an autobiographical sketch in Bussey's own words and unique spelling. There are copies of letters written to him copied from collections at the Dedham Historical Society as well as copies of his will and probate inventory. There are several short general histories of the local Roxbury/Jamaica Plain area including an early history of the lands that would later comprise the Bussey estate and a copy of a map of the area c. 1832. There is supporting correspondence and photographs concerning the fundraising and purchase by the Arnold Arboretum of the 1839 painting of the Bussey Mansion. There are articles (not contemporary) about the Joyce murders of 1865 and the legend of the Bussey ghost. There are various photographs of the Bussey estate from the late nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries, including. Photographs of the mansion just prior to its demolition in 1940. In addition there are photographs of the Gilbert Stuart painting of Benjamin Bussey held by Harvard University. There is a small amount of correspondence concerning the refurbishment of the Bussey tomb in the churchyard of the First Congregational Society (Unitarian) in Jamaica Plain in the 1940s. The bulk of the papers are photocopies of the original documents. There are some original letters from the last half of the twentieth century. The many of the photographs are modern reprints of original negatives. There are some original prints.

0.25 linear feet. (1 box)

Harvard University, Arnold Arboretum, Horticultural Library, Jamacia Plain

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SNAC Resource ID: 6930178

Related Entities

There are 2 Entities related to this resource.

Arnold Arboretum

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jj4czx (corporateBody)

The planning for the Arnold Arboretum Centennial celebration began in 1967 when Dr. Richard A. Howard, Arboretum Director from 1954-1978, appointed committees of supporters and visiting-committee members to raise funds for the upcoming event. The week-long celebration (May 21-28, 1972) opened with a banquet in a downtown Boston hotel that featured an address by William T. Stearn, famous taxonomist and botanist from the British Museum of Natural History. Events included a daylong symposium on "Po...

Bussey, Benjamin, 1757-1842.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b2897h (person)

Benjamin Bussey was born in 1757 in Stoughton (later Canton), Massachusetts. He served in the American Revolution seeing service at Saratoga and rising to the rank of Quartermaster. About 1779 he went into business as a silversmith in Dedham, Massachusetts and he married in 1780. By 1792, when he moved to Boston, his business had expanded into trading in a variety of goods. He was highly sucessful and in the following years engaged in overseas trade as well. He retired from business...