Parkman's “Montcalm and Wolfe” (Boston, 1885); and William H. Whitmore's “Old State-House Memorial” (Boston, 1887).
WHITMORE, William Henry, genealogist, b.
in Dorchester, Mass., 6 Sept., 1836. He is the
son of a Boston merchant, was educated in the
public schools of that city, and has devoted the
leisure of his business life to antiquarian research
and authorship. For eight years he was a member
of the Boston common council, of which he
became president in 1879, and he is a trustee of the
Boston public library. The degree of A. M. was
conferred on him by Harvard and Williams in
1867. About 1868 he was one of the patentees of
a machine for making cube-sugar, and in 1882 he
patented one for making hyposulphite of soda.
His “Ancestral Tablets” (Boston, 1868) is an
invention of great use to genealogists, being a set of
pages cut and arranged to admit the insertion of a
pedigree in a condensed form. He was a founder
of the “Historical Magazine” in 1857, of the
Prince society in 1858, and of the Boston antiquarian
society in 1879, to which the Bostonian society
succeeded. Mr. Whitmore has been an editor
of the “New England Historical and Genealogical
Register,” in which many of his papers first
appeared, and “The Heraldic Journal,” which he
established in 1863. He has edited “The Poetical
Works of Winthrop Mackworth Praed” (New York,
1860); “The Hutchinson Papers,” with William
Appleton (2 vols., Boston, 1865), “Dunton's
Letters” (1867), and the “Andros Tracts” (3 vols.,
1868-'74), the last three being for the Prince society;
and the “Records” of the Boston record
commission, which he established in 1875 (19 vols.,
with others ready for the press); and he was
co-editor of “Sewall's Diary,” writing all the local
notes (Boston, 1875-'82). He prepared the “Laws
of Adoption,” his codification being passed by the
legislature almost unchanged in 1876; a “Revision
of the City Ordinances,” with Henry W. Putnam
(1882); and a “Report on the State Seal,”
which was accepted by the legislature in 1885.
He reprinted in fac-simile the “Laws of
Massachusetts of 1672” (Boston, 1887). Mr. Whitmore
has contributed to various magazines, native and
foreign, and is the author of many genealogies, the
most important of which are the families of
Temple, Lane, Norton, Winthrop, Hutchinson, Usher,
Ayres, Payne, Whitmore, Lee, Dalton, and Wilcox.
His other works comprise “Handbook of
American Genealogy” (Albany, 1862), reprinted
with additions as “The American Genealogist”
(1868); “The Cavalier Dismounted,” an essay
(Salem, 1864); the “Elements of Heraldry” (Boston,
1866); “Massachusetts Civil List, 1636-1774”
(Albany, 1870); “Copp's Hill Epitaphs” (Albany,
1878); “History of the Old State-House,” issued
by the city of Boston (1882); and “Life of Abel
Brown,” the engraver (Boston, 1884).
WHITNEY, Adeline Dutton Train, author,
b. in Boston, Mass., 15 Sept., 1824. She is the
daughter of Enoch Train, founder of a line of
packet-ships between Boston and Liverpool, and
a sister of George Francis Train. She was
educated chiefly in Boston, and at the age of nineteen
married Seth D. Whitney, of Milton, Mass.
Mrs. Whitney has patented a set of “Alphabet
Blocks,” which are now in general use. Besides
contributing to magazines for the young, she is
the author of “Footsteps on the Seas,” a poem
(Boston, 1857); “Mother Goose for Grown Folks”
(New York, 1860; revised eds., Boston, 1870
and 1882); “Boys at Chequasset” (Boston, 1862);
“Faith Gartney's Girlhood” (1868); “The Gay-
worthys” (1865); “A Summer in Leslie
Goldthwaite's Life” (1866); “Patience Strong's
Outings” (1868); “Hitherto” (1869); “We Girls”
(1870); “Real Folks” (1871): “Pansies,” poems
(1872); “The Other Girls” (1873); “Sights and
Insights” (1876); “Just How: a Key to the
Cook-Books” (1878); “Odd or Even” (1880);
“Bonnyborough” (1885); “Homespun Yarns” and
“Holy-Tides” (1886); and “Daffodils” and “Bird-Talk”
(1887). The last three are volumes of verse.
|
WHITNEY, Anne, sculptor, b. in Watertown, Mass., 2 Sept., 1821. She was educated by private tutors, and early manifested a love for poetry and sculpture, the latter becoming gradually an absorb- ing pursuit. Her poetical writings were collected in a volume entitled "Poems" (New York, 1859). In the same year she opened a studio in her native place, and subsequently making several visits to Europe, studied there four years, producing two of her best works during that time. On her return in 1873 she established a studio in Boston, where she has since remained. She has executed portraits and ideal works in groups, busts, medallions, and statues, including a statue of Samuel Adams, of which two copies, one in bronze and one in marble, are respectively in the capitol at Washington and in Boston (1863); “Roma” (1865); “Africa,” a colossal recumbent figure of a woman, illustrating the civil war in the United States (1873); a statue of Harriet Martineau, belonging to Wellesley college (1883); and the fountain of “Leif Erikson” (1886). The last was unveiled in Boston, 29 Oct., 1887, and the statue above the fountain represents the Norse-Icelandic discoverer of America as a man of physical beauty and vigor, in the costume of the ancient Scandinavian warrior. (See the accompanying illustration.)
WHITNEY, Asa, manufacturer, b. in Townsend, Mass., 1 Dec., 1791; d. in Philadelphia, 4 June, 1874. His opportunities for education were meagre, and, after spending several years in his father's blacksmith-shop, he went in 1812 to New Hampshire, and soon became so capable as a machinist that his employer sent him to Brownsville, N. Y., to superintend the erection of machinery in a cotton-factory. Here he remained till 1830, carrying on a business in machine- and forge-works, when he was appointed assistant superintendent of the Mohawk and Hudson railroad, and became superintendent the following year. Resigning this post in 1839, he was elected canal commissioner of New York state, and for two years superintended the enlargement and management of the Erie canal and its branches. In 1842 he removed to Philadelphia and entered into the manufacture of locomotives with Matthew W. Baldwin, but withdrew from the partnership in two years. Soon afterward he became president of the Morris canal company, for which he applied special machinery to a series of inclined planes worked by steam, by which means
