Joseph Lewis Cunningham

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Joseph Lewis Cunningham (1784–1843) or J. L. Cunningham worked as an auctioneer in Boston, Massachusetts, in the first half of the 19th century. [1] Among the many lots he sold were birds, horses, real estate, furniture, sea captains' charts, telescopes, American and European artworks, fishing line, feathers, fabric, guns, musical instruments, fruit trees, flower seeds, printers' equipment, and books.

Boston Capital city of Massachusetts, United States

Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km2) with an estimated population of 685,094 in 2017, making it also the most populous city in New England. Boston is the seat of Suffolk County as well, although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth-largest in the United States.

Massachusetts State of the United States of America

Massachusetts, officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named after the Massachusett tribe, which once inhabited the east side of the area, and is one of the original thirteen states. The capital of Massachusetts is Boston, which is also the most populous city in New England. Over 80% of Massachusetts's population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, Massachusetts's economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a global leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance, and maritime trade.

Contents

Biography

Furniture and 100 pounds of Bologna sausages, 1825 1825 Cunningham auction IndependentChronicle BostonPatriot Jan1.png
Furniture and 100 pounds of Bologna sausages, 1825

His business partners included John J. Linzee (Linzee & Cunningham, India Wharf) [2] [3] and Lemuel Blake (Blake & Cunningham, "respectable auctioneers and commission merchants"). [4] [5]

India Wharf

India Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts, flourished in the 19th century, when it was one of the largest commercial wharves in the port. The structure began in 1804 to accommodate international trade at a time when several other improvements to the Boston waterfront occurred, such as the creation of Broad Street and India Street.

In the early 1820s he conducted his auctioneering from nos. 2-3 Liberty Square; a fire in 1825 forced him to move. [2] [6] In 1826 he built Corinthian Hall, at the corner of Milk Street and Federal Street, and used "the first floor of the building for his extensive auction rooms." [7] "Mr. J. L. Cunningham has erected a noble building... where formerly stood the mansion... of Judge Paine. It has a number of fine halls in the second and third stories, and on the lower floor, is a spacious and commodious auction room; adjoining which, on each street, are several neat and elegant shops. The halls will be much wanted, and Mr. Cunningham is entitled to some thanks for thus arranging his costly building to the public convenience and accommodation." [8]

Milk Street, Boston thoroughfare in Boston, United States

Milk Street is a street in the financial district of Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of Boston's earliest highways. The name "Milk Street" was most likely given to the street in 1708 due to a milk market at the location, although Grace Croft's 1952 work "History and Genealogy of Milk Family" instead proposes that Milk Street may have been named for John Milk, an early shipwright in Boston. The land was originally conveyed to his father, also John Milk, in October 1666.

Federal Street (Boston)

Federal Street is a street in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to 1788, it was known as Long Lane. The street was renamed after state leaders met there in 1788 to determine Massachusetts' ratification of the United States Constitution.

Portrait of Sarah Inman Linzee (1st wife of J.L. Cunningham), by Gilbert Stuart, early 19th century Sarah Inman Linzee Cunningham byGilbertStuart.png
Portrait of Sarah Inman Linzee (1st wife of J.L. Cunningham), by Gilbert Stuart, early 19th century

He married three times, in 1807 to Sarah Inman Linzee (1787-1820), in 1821 to Mary Ann Inman (d.1825), and in 1828 to Catherine Amory. [9] He lived in Boston on Somerset Street (c. 1807) [2] and Bedford Street (c. 1823). [10] He attended Trinity Church. [11]

Trinity Church, Boston (Summer Street) church building in Massachusetts, United States of America

Trinity Church (1735-1872) was an Episcopal church in Boston, Massachusetts, located on Summer Street. It housed Boston's third Anglican congregation. The Great Fire of 1872 destroyed the church building, and by 1877 the congregation moved into a new building in Back Bay.

He died in 1843, and was "buried in vault no.32 under old Trinity Church, Boston, afterwards removed to Mt. Auburn cemetery in Cambridge." [12] A trade auction of "books, stereotype plates and stationery, formerly held by J.L. Cunningham" brought in an "amount... unusually large, between 80 and 100,000 dollars." [13]

Mount Auburn Cemetery cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts

Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge and Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Boston. It is the burial site of many prominent members of the Boston Brahmins, as well being a National Historic Landmark.

Auctions conducted by J.L Cunningham

Jacob Abbot Cummings American bookseller and publisher

Jacob Abbot Cummings (1773–1820) was a bookseller, publisher, schoolteacher and author in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 19th-century.

Rembrandt 17th-century Dutch painter and printmaker

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch draughtsman, painter and printmaker. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history. Unlike most Dutch masters of the 17th century, Rembrandt's works depict a wide range of style and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, biblical and mythological themes as well as animal studies. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch art, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres. Like many artists of the Dutch Golden Age, such as Jan Vermeer of Delft, Rembrandt was also an avid art collector and dealer.

Titian 16th-century Italian painter

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, known in English as Titian, was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno, then in the Republic of Venice). During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.

Canary birds, 1824 1824 canary ColumbianCentinel Nov10.png
Canary birds, 1824
"Nautical instruments, charts, &c... of the late Capt. Charles S. Winship," 1824 1824 Winship auction IndependentChronicle BostonPatriot Nov27.png
"Nautical instruments, charts, &c... of the late Capt. Charles S. Winship," 1824

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References

  1. ↑ Massachusetts directory: being the first part of the New-England directory. Boston: John Hayward, 1835. Google books
  2. 1 2 3 Boston Directory. 1807
  3. 1 2 Boston Gazette, 1812-1815
  4. ↑ Lemuel Blake (1775-1861). Cf. "Quarterly obituary." New England historical and genealogical register, July 1861
  5. ↑ Blake & Cunningham, auctioneers, no.5 Kilby. Cf. Boston Directory. 1823
  6. ↑ Very destructive fire. National Aegis (Worcester, Mass.), April 13, 1825
  7. ↑ Corinthian Hall also had space "which was finished for an assembly room, has become a fashionable place for the meeting of cotillion parties. It was first opened by Mons. Lebasse, for his Dancing Assembly, on the 4th of October, 1826." Cf. Bowen's picture of Boston, 3rd ed. 1838.
  8. ↑ A new hall. Boston news letter. Sept. 2, 1826. Google books
  9. ↑ Henry Winchester Cunningham. Andrew Cunningham of Boston and some of his descendants: a brief genealogy. Boston: 1901
  10. ↑ Boston Directory. 1823
  11. ↑ John William Linzee. The Lindeseie and Limesi families of Great Britain: including the probates at Somerset house, London, England, of all the spellings of the name Lindeseie from 1300 to 1800. Boston: Fort Hill Press, 1917. Google books
  12. ↑ Linzee. 1917.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Daily Atlas (Boston), 1841-1843
  14. ↑ The Repertory; Date: 05-11-1815
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Boston Commercial Gazette, 1820-1826
  16. ↑ Boston Daily Advertiser, June 20, 1822
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Independent Chronicle & Boston Patriot, 1823-1825
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Columbian Centinel, 1823-1825
  19. ↑ Executor's Sale. Catalogue of Valuable Cabinet and other Oil Paintings; and a large number of superior engravings; to be sold at Public Auction, on Wednesday & Thursday, March 30th & 31st, at 9 and 3 o'clock each day, at Joy's Buildings, Cornhill Square, by the Order of the Executors of the late N. Delvaltooth, Esq.
  20. ↑ "Smithsonian Inst".
  21. ↑ New England Farmer, Nov. 13, 1829
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