- 66
Attributed to John Plumbe, Jr. 1809-1857
Description
- Attributed to John Plumbe, Jr.
- SELECTED VARIANT PORTRAITS OF JAMES DUNCAN GRAHAM
Catalogue Note
This and the following ten lots come from the descendants of James Duncan Graham (1799-1865). An army officer, topographical engineer, and scientist, Graham was born in Virginia and educated at West Point, where he learned astronomy and natural science. His first practical experience with topographical engineering was with Major Stephen H. Long’s 1819-21 expedition to the Missouri River and Great Plains. One of the expedition’s goals was to determine an astronomical survey point through which the boundary of the United States and Canada would be drawn.
At the start of Graham’s career, the use of astronomy in determining boundaries was a novel application of the science. Partly through Graham’s work, astronomy became an important diplomatic tool in negotiating frontier boundaries. The longitudinal coordinates provided by astronomy provided a more objective tool for mapping than the traditional river/watershed approach, and the highly-detailed, topographically correct maps that Graham produced by this method were particularly important to the military.
From 1822 to 1853, Graham served as astronomer, scientific supervisor, or commissioner of various important military surveys. He surveyed for railroads in Virginia, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, surveyed in Maine and Vermont, and was the astronomer for the border survey between the United States and the Republic of Texas. For his service as commissioner for the Maine-Canadian border survey and as principal astronomer for the United States-Canadian border demarcation, he was breveted lieutenant colonel.
Graham resurveyed the Mason-Dixon Line in 1849-50, and after the Mexican War, Graham was the chief astronomer in the Mexican Boundary Survey to determine the eastern border of the United States and Mexico. During this expedition, Arizona’s Mount Graham was named for him. When Graham disagreed with others regarding the border’s appropriate beginning point, he was sent back to Washington, where he continued to be involved in the survey’s scientific operations.
In 1853, Graham became a supervising engineer for harbor works and lighthouse districts in the Great Lakes and was stationed in Chicago. After careful study of Lake Michigan over several years, he scientifically proved the existence of lunar tides on the Great Lakes. In 1861, Graham was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Topographical Engineers in charge of surveying northern and northwestern lakes and lighthouses and was later promoted to colonel in the newly combined Corps of Engineers and Topographical Engineers. When his loyalty to the Union was questioned at the outbreak of the Civil War because of his Southern origins, he was removed from his post and investigated. Graham was subsequently deemed loyal to the Union and returned to active service in 1864 as superintendent of sea walls in Boston. He died of complications from exposure after examining a sea wall completed under his supervision during a storm.
Graham was married twice, first to Charlotte Hustler Meade (1803-1843), sister of General George G. Meade, and to Frances Wickham. His three sons were also military men: William Montrose Graham served in army, while Richard Worsam Meade Graham and James Duncan Graham, Jr. were Navy men.
In the daguerreotypes of Graham offered in this lot, he is shown posing with three of his maps, as well as various accoutrements of his military career and personal life. In the daguerreotype on page 53, Graham is shown with a map resulting from his work on the United States border between Maine and Canada: Map of the Boundary Lines Between the United States and the Adjacent British Provinces, From the Mouth of the River St. Croix to the Intersection of the Parallel of 45 Degrees on North Latitude with the River St. Louis Near St. Regis, published in March 1845. In the second portrait, on page 54, Graham appears with a different map, also of the Maine/Canada border, but with different topographical features delineated. Also visible in this daguerreotype, on the table just to the left of Graham’s elbow, is a ninth-plate daguerreotype of a painted portrait (included in this lot and illustrated on page 54) of his first wife Charlotte Hustler Meade who died in 1843, only a few years before these portraits of Graham were made. In the third daguerreotype, Graham poses with one of his maps of the Texas border, most likely his Map of the River Sabine from its Mouth on the Gulf of Mexico in the Sea to Logan’s Ferry in Latitude 31º 58’24” North, Showing the Boundary between the Boundary of Texas (cf. Streeter, Bibliography of Texas, 1438 and 1439), published in 1840.