Thaddeus Fairbanks tests his new scale + 1830

Print

Vermont Historical Society

Name/Title

Thaddeus Fairbanks tests his new scale + 1830

Entry/Object ID

2009.2.3

Description

This artwork is a linocut print that portrays a central scene featuring a full hay wagon positioned on a platform scale. To the left of the wagon, there is a team of yoked oxen standing and facing us, while to the right of the wagon, there is a group of seven men and one boy gathered together with waistcoats, tops hats, and canes. All are watching the wagon or facing each other. Adjacent to the oxen, there is a lone man standing nearby his back to us he is holding a prod and wearing boots. He is facing the wagon and the action. In the background, a picturesque country landscape unfolding, showcasing two clusters of buildings. On the right cluster are two medium buildings on a hilltop, perpendicular to each other. On the adjacent hilltop is a tall building next to a long building and two more perpendicular buildings, behind this is rising the pointed spire of a church and behind this s another smaller building with two faces facing us. Another potential square structure lies behind this. On the left cluster are two rectangular, perpendicular buildings, one with a shadowed face towards us and the other all white. In front of this is an "L" shaped building. All over the hill is dappled with shrubbery. Towards the far left, there is a garage or barn structure with four men running out of it. One man in the foreground his legs and arms gesture towards the wagon, one man in the middle with striped pants and suspenders is bending his arms as if running. Two men in the shadow of the doorway outlining in thin white lines showing one aproned man with a tool in hand and the other in a coat. The title of the print is located below the image, "THADDEUS FAIRBANKS" in tall, serif lettering with "test his new scale + 1830" in handwritten style, large, stylistically lowercased lettering and to the right of the title, there is an image of the scale. Additionally, there are pencil notations on the print from left to right, including "Fairbanks 2005," "4/50," and "M. Simpson." On the back dust cover, an information sheet about the inventor is pasted. The print itself is mounted on light beige paper.

Artwork Details

Subject

Fairbanks Scales

Subject Person

Fairbanks, Thaddeus (1796-1886)

Subject Place

Town

St. Johnsbury

County

Caledonia County

State/Province

Vermont

Country

United States of America

Continent

North America

Context

Thaddeus Fairbanks (1796-1886) was an engineer and inventor who, along with his brother Erastus, developed and sold a large number of mechanical devices from their workshop in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Around 1830 Thaddeus created the world's first workable platform scale. This invention revolutionized commerce, shipping, and manufacturing. In 1834, he and his brother incorporated the E & T Fairbanks Company to manufacture and sell these scales worldwide. The company expanded with factories in Asia, Africa, and the Carribean as global sales skyrocketed. The Fairbanks family became very wealthy and founded St. Johnsbury Academy and the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium. Erastus served two separate terms as Vermont governor and helped found the Republican party. Fairbanks scales are still produced in St. Johnsbury today. Currently residing in Lyndonville, Mary Gorham Simpson was born in northern Vermont and raised on a working dairy farm in Burke. After graduating from Lyndon State College, she and her husband, Wilder Simpson, taught school in the area for several years, then moved west. They lived for seven years in Wyoming and 14 years in Alaska, returning to Vermont in 1992. While raising her three children, Simpson took art classes and worked on her own in various media - drawing, calligraphy, and painting. In Alaska, she worked as a graphic artist for the Imaginarium Science Center in Anchorage and as a scenic artist for the Alaska Festival Theater and Anchorage Civic Opera. She did scrimshaw for two shops and exhibit calligraphy for three years for the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Now back in Vermont, she mostly works as a printmaker with subjects reflecting memories of Vermont agriculture.

Acquisition

Accession

2009.2

Source or Donor

Paige, H. Brooke

Acquisition Method

Gift

Made/Created

Artist

Simpson, Mary Gorham (b.1945)

Date made

2005

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Graphic Documents

Nomenclature Class

Documentary Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Framed

Height

16-1/2 in

Width

19-1/4 in

Depth

3/4 in

Dimension Description

Unframed

Height

12 in

Width

16 in

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization