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Found In The Stacks: “Boldly” by Nils Hogner

Written by Bill Bucklin

Artist and author Nils Hogner was well known in Litchfield from the 1930s until his death in 1970. He wrote and illustrated a dozen children’s books on his own, in addition to illustrating sixty others, thirty of them written by his wife Dorothy.

Boldy, created by Hogner in 1953, is the story of a timid little puppy who is laughed at by his littermates for not living up to his name. But one day Boldy faces down a fox and discovers that a big heart can live in a small body.

Hogner captures Boldy’s timidity perfectly on the cover, setting the stage for the captivating illustration of Boldy’s triumphant reunion with his deeply impressed family after the fox encounter.

Nils Hogner and his wife Dorothy lived at Hemlock Hill Farm in Litchfield. Hogner was known for his murals, and contributed posters for local horse shows. Many of Hogner’s children’s books are about horses, among them Dynamite the Wild Stallion and The Nosy Colt.

Hogner grew up in Massachusetts, studied art in Boston, and traveled to the Southwest to begin his painting career. He met and married Dorothy while he was a professor at the University of New Mexico. It isn’t clear what prompted the couple’s move to Litchfield, but their residence was very much the community’s gain.

Found In The Stacks: “Rails of the World: A Monograph of the Family Rallidae” by S. Dillon Ripley

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Written by Bill Bucklin

Lying on its side among the shelves of old leatherbound volumes, the big book with three stately birds on the front cover practically begs you to pick it up. Rails of the World: A Monograph of the Family Rallidae by S. Dillon Ripley is not about railways, but about Ripley’s favorite subject–birds. From a review by Roger Tory Peterson: “Among the least known and most elusive of any major bird species, rails manage to colonize remote islands, impenetrable jungles and desolate shorelines in almost all regions of the world.”

*Rails of the World: A Monograph of the Family Rallidae* by S. Dillon Ripley (1977)

The book is a window into the world of S. Dillon Ripley, one of Litchfield’s most fascinating residents. Rosemary Ripley, his daughter, said in an interview: “My father was interested in birds from a very young age. My grandmother was a single mother. She decided to take the family to live in India for a year. My father was 13 and living there opened his eyes to the natural world.”

Ripley continued his interest in bird species as a teenager in Litchfield in the 1920s. Later he became a professor of ornithology at Yale University, served as Director of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, and in 1964 became the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. His greatest contribution to Litchfield is the Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy, which he and his wife founded in 1985.

S. Dillon Ripley died in 2001 and is buried in Litchfield’s East Cemetery, but his legacy is very much alive in Litchfield.

Law School Letters

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The Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library at the Litchfield Historical Society has recently purchased three new letters pertaining to the Litchfield Law School and its students. Two of the letters are likely relatable to many of today’s parents as they discuss the expense of educating children.

The first letter, written in 1815 by Putnam Catlin, father of Litchfield Law School student George Catlin (who later left the law to paint) was addressed to his friend Steuben Butler and detailed the financial difficulty in providing for his children’s education:

I am obliged to consider myself as a mere farmer, republican farmer, Beechwood farmer, without a hired man in this hurrying season of the year. How then am I to spare George and James? I admit that your reasoning is just in regard to George but I know not how to spare him at this time. I shall not be able to give him a public education. If he shall persist in the choice of law he will have to glean for himself an education in some law office, perhaps. I may indulge him a year at Litchfield, in the meantime, I will do better for him if it be in my power. Should my ‘ship arrive from England’ or should I make sale of some land I can spare he may be more favored.
Putnam Catlin to Steuben Butler, May 3, 1815

detailed image — Putnam Catlin by George Catlin, Smithsonian American Art Museum, between 1840-1849

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Miss Jones Letter

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1847 Litchfield CT stampless folded letter red CDS and 5 rate [H.3508] - Picture 1 of 3

Letter, Julia Henrietta Jones to Laura Boardman Lane, March 31, 1847

As noted before, we have alerts set up for eBay and various auction sites to notify staff when Litchfield-related items and collections appear. A few weeks ago, I added this item to my watchlist on eBay. Individual letters are often bought and sold by stamp collectors who care little about the contents as was the case with this. Although I had requested an image of the contents, the seller did not comply. Instead, I received an offer to buy the letter for $8.49. Noting that it had a return option, I decided to take a chance- the name Laura Lane was familiar from my work on the Boardman papers, and the 1841 made me wonder whether the author was a former Litchfield Female Academy Student.

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Dr. James Russell Cumming

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Image from https://www.civilwarphotosleuth.com/photos/view/6055/

The Litchfield Historical Society is pleased to announce the acquisition of a collection of original letters from Dr. James Russell Cumming, a surgeon with the 12^th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers from 1862-1865. Born in North Adams, MA in 1830, Cumming studied at the Canajoharie Academy in Canajoharie, NY prior to teaching in Colebrook and Farmington, CT. He married Jane Elizabeth Cowles in 1853. The couple had one child, a daughter named Daisy, prior to his wife’s death in 1856.

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