Missionary Tree. By Caroline D. Hunt. Large format reproduction.
[Amherst, Mass.: William W. Hunt, 1834.]. Lithograph. 36 x 21.5 inches.....The American Antiquarian Society describes the Missionary Tree as follows:
“… tree chronicling the history of Christian missions and missionaries around the world. The trunk of the tree is the base with Jesus Christ and the Apostles. The branches chronicle important dates in Christianity such as “Origin Missy. in Arabiy Cent. 3rd” “Gospel Propagation Society 1700″ the A.B.C.F.M. (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions) in 1810 etc. At lower left is a key to shortened terms, and a table of the “Summary of Protestant Missions.”” (American Antiquarian Society)
The Missionary Tree gives much space to the activities of the A.B.C.F.M., founded in 1810 by graduates of Williams College, particularly its many missions to the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and other Native American peoples.
Artist and designer Caroline Dutch Hunt (1800-1861) was a long-time educator, perhaps best known for having been the “dominant woman instructor” at the Amherst Academy in 1840-43, while poet Emily Dickinson was a student there (By sheer coincidence Hunt had previously taught Dickinson’s mother Emily Norcross for a time at the Munson (Mass.) Academy.) She had moved to Amherst after marrying the Reverend William Worthington Hunt (1796-1837), who served as the first pastor of Amherst’s North Church from 1827 until his early death a decade later....
References
OCLC 50119771 (Amherst College) and 950902404 (American Antiquarian Society), as of Dec. 2021. Background on Caroline D. Hunt from Alfred Habegger, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. Background on William W. Hunt from Edward Wilton Carpenter and Charles Frederick Morehouse, The History of the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts, p. 225.
Provenance: Peter Howard, Serendipity Books. Berkeley. Item #51-5171
Price: $300.00