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Herman Melville place "Arrowhead" - September 4, 1897
Major collection: Hart Nautical
Named collection: Allan Forbes Collection
Object type: photograph
Maker: unknown
Place made: United States, Massachusetts, Pittsfield
Date made: 1897
Materials: ink; paper
Measurements: 6 in x 8 in
Nomenclature: historical
Classification: whales
AF-HA-0435
Named collection: Allan Forbes Collection
Object type: photograph
Maker: unknown
Place made: United States, Massachusetts, Pittsfield
Date made: 1897
Materials: ink; paper
Measurements: 6 in x 8 in
Nomenclature: historical
Classification: whales
Photograph of the fireplace in Arrowhead, the 18th-century farmhouse in Pittsfield, Massachusetts of Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick. The words "I and My Chimney" are inscribed on the stone facing of the fireplace. The story "I and My Chimney," published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine in 1856, contains one of the most complete descriptions there is of Arrowhead during the Melville occupancy. The story is a fictitious account of the efforts of a wife to remodel an ancient farm house by replacing the central chimney with a grand hallway. Melville used Arrowhead as a model for the house, and the story is filled with accurate descriptions.
AF-HA-0435