
Cover of The Poets'
Album compiled in
1864 for the
Brooklyn Sanitary
Fair from the
collection of the
Longmeadow
Historical Society
I wanted to share
the item in our
collection at the
Longmeadow
Historical Society
that first helped me
begin to piece
together the
connections between
one of the world’s
most celebrated
poets and two
cousins who shared a
name and a deep
connection to
Longmeadow.
If asked to pick my
favorite piece in
our collection at
the Storrs House
Museum, without a
doubt I would pick
this 1864 “Poets'
Album” containing
handwritten and
autographed poems
and poem excerpts
submitted by
prominent
19th-century poets
and writers. The
writings were
contributed to raise
money for the
Brooklyn Sanitary
Fair, a fundraiser
organized to benefit
wounded Union
Soldiers during the
Civil War.

Hand-drawn and
colored Title Page
The Brooklyn
Sanitary Fair took
place over two weeks
in February and
March of 1864 at the
Academy of Music in
Brooklyn, NY. It was
an enormous affair
featuring
entertainment, food,
art displays, and
vendor booths
selling countless
donated items to
help ease the burden
of soldiers who were
wounded fighting for
the Union cause. It
is estimated that
Fair raised $300,000
(equivalent to $5.1
million today) for
the Union soldiers.

Interior of Brooklyn
Sanitary Fair, 1864
Lith. of A. Brown &
Co.
One room at the Fair
featured several of
these “autograph
books” that had been
solicited by various
Sanitary Fair
committee women to
be sold at auction.
One book contained
the autographs of
all members of
Congress in 1864.
Another featured
handwritten
patriotic sentiments
and letters of
support from noted
authors such as
Nathaniel Hawthorne
and newspaper man,
Horace Greeley.
The album that found
its way into our
collection, though,
is deemed “The
Poets' Album.” It is
a brown
leather-bound book
measuring
approximately 12” by
15”. The amount of
wear on the cover
likely indicates
that it has had a
lot of admirers in
its lifetime. It was
sold from the
Autograph Room at
the Fair for $200
and the winning
bidder ultimately
donated it to Rev.
Richard Salter
Storrs (1821-1900) a
beloved Brooklyn
minister and editor
of The Drum Beat,
the daily newspaper
published during the
course of the fair.
Storrs ultimately
donated it to his
cousins up in
Longmeadow to be
held in the
collection of the
Historical Society.
The Poets' Album
contains more than
thirty handwritten
poems and excerpts
of poems by a real
"Who’s Who” of early
Victorian literati.
Among them are Ralph
Waldo Emerson,
William Cullen
Bryant, John
Greenleaf Whittier,
Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Lydia Marie
Child, Lydia Huntley
Sigourney, Henry
Wadsworth
Longfellow, Oliver
Wendell Holmes, and
even Springfield’s
own, J.G. Holland.
Most poems still
bear the original
crease lines from
where they were
folded and mailed by
the author to the
committee member
tasked with
collecting the
individual
autographs and
affixing them into
one larger volume.
It has been such a
thrill for me, an
unabashed nerd of
19th century
literary minutiae,
to spend time going
through this album.
Any Emily Dickinson
in there? No, but
she wouldn’t be.
Though the 1860’s
are believed to be
Dickinson’s most
productive years as
a poet, she did not
willingly share her
poems with the
world. Fewer than a
dozen of her poems
were published
during her lifetime
and all
anonymously. Four
of them were in the
Springfield
Republican. How then
did Richard Salter
Storrs of Brooklyn
acquire three of the
reclusive Amherst
poet’s works to
publish anonymously
in his short-lived
newspaper, The
Drum Beat,
which was published
only for the
Brooklyn Sanitary
Fair?
Enjoy a look at some
of the autographed
poems from The
Poet’s Album housed
at the Storrs House
Museum in
Longmeadow, MA.
-
