"The John Brown Legend in Pictures Kissing the Negro Baby," by James C. Malin, Kansas Historical Quarterly, November, 1940

"The John Brown Legend in Pictures Kissing the Negro Baby," by James C. Malin, Kansas Historical Quarterly, November, 1940: "The John Brown Legend in Pictures Kissing the Negro Baby
by James C. Malin

November, 1940 (Vol. 9, No. 4), pages 339 to 341.
Transcribed by lhn;
digitized with permission of the Kansas State Historical Society.



THREE pictures were published a year ago under this title and as a result attention has been called to others on the same theme, together with additional information pertinent to the series. Robert S. Fletcher has contributed an article, 'Ransom's John Brown Painting,' and a photograph of the picture in its present state, both of which are printed in this issue. Boyd B. Stutler of New York, who has one of the finest John Brown collections in the country, has been most generous in making available the contemporaneous newspaper articles cited below which are not accessible in Kansas libraries. He directed attention to the painting by T. S. Noble, and furnished a reproduction of the woodcut used in John Greenleaf Whittier's National Lyrics (1865). Members of the Kansas State Historical Society will recall his address before the annual meeting of the Society in 1932. [1]

The Ransom painting was first exhibited at Utica, N. Y., in November, 1860. Mr. Stutler has found a contemporaneous notice of the event which contains the following description:

An event expected for some time past among the interested came off yesterday at the city hall. I refer to the private exhibition of Louis Ransom's picture of 'John Brown Going to the Scaffold.'

John Brown occupies the center of the canvas, standing, as the artist informed us, 6 feet 4 inches in height, being 6 inches taller than life. With a truly masterly Skill the banner of"