HANNAH’S REVOLUTIONARY OTIS COUSINS #3: the “other” Hannah Otis

"The Million-Dollar View of Boston Common"

SMITH (Post, Dort, Winsor, Secord, Harris, Harris, McCall, Otis, Thacher, Gorham, Howland, Tilley, Hurst)

Our Otis Family Connections

Faith McCall’s mother -HANNAH OTIS- was the great-granddaughter of

1635 Immigrant, John Otis, Jr.

Sons of John Jr. included John Otis III and our 6^th GGF Joseph Otis.

Both of these brothers had sons (James & Nathaniel-1^st cousins).

Both James and Nathaniel had daughters named HANNAH.

This made Hannah Otis (of James) and  7GGM Hannah Otis (of Nathaniel) 2^nd Cousins.

This sketch is about our 2^nd Cousin, the “other” HANNAH OTIS.

Detail from Hannah's work

HANNAH was one of thirteen children born to James, Sr. and Mary (Allyne) Otis, and one of six who survived infancy. Her family were among what was considered the 18^th century Massachusetts “elite” and, as such, were painted by popular portrait artists of the Revolutionary era along with the likes of George Washington, Paul Revere, John Hancock, John Q. and Samuel Adams. Paintings commissioned by John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and Joseph Blackburn provide vivid images that allow us to look back 250 years into the eyes of our more famous Otis cousins: James “the Patriot” Otis, Mercy Otis and her husband James Warren, Samuel Allyne Otis and his son Harrison Gray. Even Hannah’s parents sat for professional portraits in 1760. Unfortunately, I could not find a painting of cousin Hannah. Instead, I found something better.

 

Hannah Otis' "View of Boston Common" c1750

At the age of eighteen, Hannah completed what I like to call her “Million-Dollar View of Boston Common.” It was a huge undertaking, requiring untold hours of delicate needlework and creativity. As explained by the Google Art Project (now Google Arts and Culture):  

“Affluent girls were educated in the feminine arts of embroidery, painting on glass, and quillwork, as well as in reading and writing. After completing a sampler in their embroidery classes, girls worked pictures that proudly were hung in the family home. While the majority of the pastoral scenes depicted on Boston schoolgirl embroideries are based on European print sources, Otis's chimneypiece is a realistic depiction of Boston Common, with the beacon on Beacon Hill and the stone mansion, built in 1737 by merchant Thomas Hancock, clearly delineated.”

Measuring an impressive 53 inches wide, Hannah’s pictorial needlework tapestry was hand-crafted upon linen -stitch-by-knot- with wool, silk, and metallic threads. As a mantelpiece display, her carefully-preserved work is a folk depiction of what was, at the time, a familiar scene: Boston Common. Upon closer examination, you will see the Beacon Hill signal light and old North Church in the distance, a “pre-Revolution” British flag flying over a blockhouse, and the Hancock Manor prominently placed amid the three oldest oaks of the commons (one that may likely have been the infamous “hanging” tree). Examples of North American flora and fauna are scattered throughout the scene, with a variety of birds a’flight and a’light. It is thought that the man and woman in the foreground are the guardian uncle and aunt of John Hancock, with young John riding upon his pony, attended by his groom.

Detail of Hancock Manor

The scene is clearly a labor of love, wonderfully executed and designed without pretense of fine artistry or symbolism. Since Hannah was born in 1732, she was yet a teenaged girl when she completed it. Little did she know that 269 years later, her work would be sold at Sotheby’s for over a million dollars! Her “View of Boston Common” was purchased in 1996 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for $1,157,500.



Photo: Wikipedia Commons