Hammatt Billings

Portrait of Hammatt Billings

Charles Howland Hammatt Billings (1818–1874) was an artist and architect from Boston, Massachusetts.

Among his works are the original illustrations for Uncle Tom's Cabin (both the initial printing ^[1] and an expanded 1853 edition), ^[2] the National Monument to the Forefathers, the Civil War monument in Concord, Mass., and the 19th-century granite canopy (since replaced) for the Plymouth Rock memorial. He worked for some years with his brother Joseph Edward Billings, also an architect.

He was the artist of one of the well-noted portrayals of the Battle of Lexington.

Selected designs

• Wesleyan Building, Boston (Bromfield Street), 1870
• College Hall, the original structure at Wellesley College, 1871-1875, destroyed by fire in 1914
• Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church
• Boston Museum (theatre)
• National Monument to the Forefathers

Image gallery

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  Liberator masthead, designed by Billings, 1850

• 

  Illustration from Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1853

• 

  1853 advertisement for "Hammatt Billings, designer and architect"

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  Plymouth Rock canopy, 1867 (replaced in 1920)

Notes

1. Stephen Railton, University of Virginia. "First edition illustrations, Uncle Tom's Cabin". Retrieved 2006-05-18.
2. Stephen Railton, University of Virginia. "Illustrations for the "Splendid Edition"". Retrieved 2006-05-18.

Further reading

• M.M. Ballou. Life story of Hosea Ballou: for the young. Boston: A. Tompkins, 1854. Illustrations by Billings. Google books
• Bernstein, Robin (2011). Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights. New York University Press, pages 95-97, 105-119. ISBN 978-0-8147-8708-3.
• O'Gorman, James F. (1998). Accomplished in All Departments of Art: Hammatt Billings of Boston 1818-1874. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 1-55849-148-1.
• O’Gorman, James F. Hammatt Billings, in The Private Library Autumn 1994, published by the Private Libraries Association
• Richard Stoddard (January 1972). "Hammatt Billings, Artist and Architect" (PDF). Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2007. Retrieved 2006-05-18.
• Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell (October 2010). Milton: A Compendium. Charleston, SC: The History Press. ISBN 978-1-59629-377-9. Chapter One includes a biography of Billings

External links

• Works by Hammatt Billings at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Hammatt Billings at Internet Archive