John Foster : the earliest American engraver and the first Boston printer / by Samuel Abbott Green. Pub. by the Massachusetts Historical Society at the charge of the Waterston Fund, no. 2.

  • Samuel Abbott Green
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John Foster : the earliest American engraver and the first Boston printer / by Samuel Abbott Green. Pub. by the Massachusetts Historical Society at the charge of the Waterston Fund, no. 2. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/182 page 8
    which Foster’s ‘‘ Scheame ” could be connected, so that the expression evidently applied to the “A. B. C.” publication. At this period Foster was living at Dorchester, where he was engaged in teaching a grammar school. Presum- ably as a young man he had a natural gift of drawing or sketching, and a knack of carving wood which stood him in good stead when earning his living after gradu- ation from college. Without doubt he was a self-taught artist; and, while teaching was his vocation, he took up engraving as an avocation which noway interfered with his regular duties as a teacher. A clever young man as he was, probably he received from various sources sug- gestions in regard to the art. Mr. Savage, in his Genea- logical Dictionary (I. 287), mentions Edward Budd, a carver,” as living in Boston during this period, though none of his handicraft has come down to the present time. He may have given Foster a few hints in regard to engraving or cutting in wood. In his will Foster speaks of his ‘‘ carueing tools ” and of his ‘‘ cuts and coolers [colors],” showing that carving and engraving were allied occupations. In the Century Dictionary one of the definitions of the word “carve” is to engrave. It is not at all likely that this hobby clashed in any way with his regular calling, — it was simply a by- product of his brain. Foster’s family attended Richard Mather’s church in Dorchester, where John was baptized, and there must have been a certain intimacy between the members of his family
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3