Description:
Certificate of completed apprenticeship as a painter issued in 1819 by the "Massachusetts Mechanics Association " to Samuel Deering Lanphar (1798-1849) of Biddeford (Massachusetts until 1820, then Maine). The engraving on vellum with manuscript inscriptions, a red wax seal, and green ribbon has a beehive at the top, anthill at the bottom, and tools of several trades on the sides, all appropriate images for the Association. It is inscribed "Callender Sculp", the work of Joseph Callendar (1751-1821), a Boston engraver. It begins: "MIND YOUR BUSINESS..." In 1795, Paul Revere was chairman at a series of meetings of "Master Mechanics of Boston" held at the Green Dragon Tavern. The meetings resulted in the formation of the "Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association" of which Revere was the first president. The Association was incorporated in 1806 in an attempt to regulate the apprentice system and give financial aid to craftsmaen and laborers in need. The donor is the great-great grandson of Samuel Deering Lanphar and Mariam Tarbeaux (or Tarbox) Felker (1800-1892) of Biddeford, Maine, the family from which the certificate descended.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+86.057 |
