The Essex County Gold Mines First Discovered By Summer Residents Who are now “Pillaged_Plunderd [sic] and Robbed By the Tax Collector . . .” From "Stearns"
- Title:
- The Essex County Gold Mines First Discovered By Summer Residents Who are now “Pillaged_Plunderd [sic] and Robbed By the Tax Collector . . .” From "Stearns"
- Alternate Title:
- The Essex County Gold Mines
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Brown, Otis F.
- Other Creators:
- Heliotype Printing Co.
- Date:
- 1887
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2206.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_2206_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1870 - 1899
- Subject:
- Money & Finance
Politics & Government
Satirical
Pictorial
Unusual Graphics/Text - Measurement:
- 38 x 26 sheet (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This is a satirical cartoon aimed at the rich and powerful of Boston who, by the middle of the 19th century, had been summering for generations on elegant estates on the North Shore of Massachusetts Bay, the "Gold Coast" of Essex County. Beginning in Nahant in 1870, many of these wealthy families declared the Gold Coast their legal residence in order to reduce their taxes. (Massachusetts municipalities imposed taxes on the personal property of residents, and the Gold Coast offered lower tax rates and less sophisticated assessors than Boston.) The summer communities were happy to support the maneuver, because it generated greater revenues for them at the expense of Boston. Garland 1978, 249.
This happy relationship was threatened in 1885 by an entirely unrelated development: the spread of public horsecars, "those conveyors of the masses from the ovens of the city to the seaside," and the danger that the estates (and property values) of the wealthy would be overrun. Ibid. 285. In response, the residents of two communities in the City of Beverly - Beverly Farms and adjoining Pride's Crossing - proposed legislation that would have incorporated themselves as a new municipality, which would have permitted the wealthy Bostonians to protect their property from invasion by "the masses." But the existing municipalities fought the proposal aggressively because it would have deprived them of vital tax revenue, and the battle raged in the Massachusetts legislature for two years. During the fight, Gold Coast municipal officials retaliated by raising tax assessments dramatically, "uncovering in the process nearly two million dollars concealed in paper assets," which led the Bostonians "to rise up almost to a soul in righteous wrath." Ibid. 286-87. In the end, the governor vetoed the proposed new municipality, and the tax officials reduced their new assessments.
This map is undated, but was likely prepared in 1887, at the height of the dispute, and OCLC gives it that date. The note at the top says that it is a "Photo-Lithograph of a Sketch by Otis F. Brown of Hamilton." Brown (1833-1905) was an antagonist of the Bostonians; he served for many years as the town clerk of Hamilton, a municipality close to Beverly, and was elected to the legislature in 1886 serving the Third District of Essex County. http://bostonraremaps.com/inventory/satirical-cartoon-of-essex-county-mass/, accessed December 16, 2015. Silver, and a smaller amount of gold, had actually been discovered in Essex County in 1874 (ibid.), and Brown's drawing was entitled "The Essex County Gold Mines, First Discovered By Summer Residents." The text on the drawing, likely quoting the arguments of the Bostonians, says that the summer residents "are now 'Pillaged Plundered and Rolled By the Tax Collector.'" The text is highlighted in gold, along with the wealthy areas of Nahant, Swampscott, Marblehead, Beverly Farms and Magnolia and the horse-drawn carriage of the fashionable wealthy.
A slightly different version of this cartoon - perhaps Brown's original - is illustrated in Garland 1981, 9. For another example of gold highlighting used in a satirical map, see ID #2053, The Silver Dog with the Golden Tail, a political cartoon supporting William Jennings Bryan's attack on the gold standard in the 1896 presidential campaign against McKinley.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.