Lossing, Benson John Collection

Biographical Note:

Benson John Lossing, a wood engraver, illustrator, author, editor and publisher, was born in 1813 in Beekman, Dutchess County, New York, to a farmer of Dutch decent. Orphaned at age 12 in 1824, he moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, where in 1825 he began a seven-year apprenticeship to a watchmaker. During the years of his apprenticeship his spare time was spent studying history and journalism, which would ultimately become his lifetime avocation. At the age of twenty-two he was made joint editor and proprietor of the Poughkeepsie Telegraph, and later became joint editor of the Poughkeepsie Casket, a literary fortnightly. His work with the latter publication provided him with the opportunity to learn the art of engraving on wood from J. A. Adams, illustrator for the paper.

Losing moved to New York City in 1838 and in 1839 began two years of editing and illustrating for J. S. Redfield's Family Magazine. During his spare time he produced his first book, Outline History of the Fine Arts, in 1840. In 1846 he teamed up with engraver William Barritt, with whom he worked until 1869.  During this time his illustrations appeared in the Young People's Mirror and several other periodicals.  

Around 1848 Lossing conceived of the idea of writing a narrative sketchbook on the American Revolution. The first installment was published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1850, but three years passed before the completed Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution was published. To gather material for the work, Lossing traveled more than 8,000 miles throughout the United States and Canada. Often he would hastily make sketches while traveling from which block drawings were done later for engravings. The book was critically acclaimed and won him a wide reputation.

During the thirty-five years that followed, Lossing published prolifically, and was either author or editor of more than forty titles. Among them were two more of the pictorial series, covering the War of 1812 and the Civil War. In 1860-1861, the London Art Journal featured a series of his articles describing the history and scenery of the Hudson Valley; the articles, with pen-and-pencil sketches, were published in 1866 under the title The Hudson: From the Wilderness to the Sea.  From 1872 to 1874 he was editor of the American Historical Record and Repertory of Notes and Queries.

In 1868, Lossing moved to Dover Plains, Dutchess County, New York, in which his home was called "The Ridge."  Here he had a fireproof library constructed to house his personal collection of over five thousand books. Lossing was actively involved in several charitable, civic, literary, and historical clubs and societies in Dutchess County.

Lossing was twice married: first, to Alice Barritt, daughter of Thomas Barritt, on June 18, 1833; after she died in 1855, he married Helen Sweet, the daughter of Nehemiah Sweet, November 18, 1856.  Benson J. Lossing died June 3, 1891, at his home in Dover Plains.

Scope and Contents Note:

This collection is comprised chiefly of correspondence related to Benson J. Lossing's long and varied career as a wood engraver, illustrator, author, editor and publisher.  His correspondents, representing a who's who in arts, education, history, literature, journalism, publishing, law, government and politics, include Joel Benton, Albert Smith Bickmore, Henry B. Dawson, John A. Dix, Samuel Adams Drake, Theodore Dwight, Harvey Gridley Eastman, Abraham Bruyn Hasbrouck, Joel Tyler Headley, Franklin B. Hough, Samuel F. B. Morse, Horatio Seymour, and Washington Hunt. Many of the letters relate specifically to his research and writing endeavors. Some of these letters also include comments on political and social issues of the time, which encompassed the Civil War and the subsequent Reconstruction era. One letter that is especially interesting was written by Julia Clinton Jones, daughter of DeWitt Clinton, who described her experiences of living in Helena, Montana, when the place was still a frontier settlement.  The correspondence is generally arranged chronologically with a few exceptions.

Special correspondence files include several letters with librarians at the New York State Library regarding materials in its holdings related to the American Revolution; letters with various individuals that relate to obtaining a photographic image of the Emancipation Proclamation; and a collection letters related to Lossing's work as editor of the Young People's Mirror, a periodical for youth that was published by Edward Walker of New York.

In addition to correspondence, this collection contains nineteenth-century photographs of President Abraham Lincoln's final manuscript of the Emancipation Proclamation that was issued on January 1, 1863.  The original manuscript was destroyed in the 1871 Chicago fire. Other items of note are drafts of Lossing's articles and assorted research notes; a sketchbook, ca. 1830s, that contains drawings that appear to have been take-offs of works done by famous artists like Asher B. Durand, and a diary, 1855-1856, of Helen Lossing, that contains comments on lectures attended, Friends' meetings, discovery of Revolutionary War manuscripts at Kingston, the raising of the West Point chain, and reminiscences of her father regarding Revolutionary War officers.

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