“Let Us Show These Scoundrels That We Can fight.”

5/4/2015

The Solon Perkins Flag, recently conserved at Museum Textile Services, underwent a long and arduous journey to arrive at our studios. By tracing this path we learn about the history of the flag, the man, the city of Lowell, Massachusetts.

Flag as found in the basement of Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

Flag after conservation by Museum Textile Services.

This flag is one of two Cavalry Guidons referred to in a letter written by Major General Benjamin F. Butler of the 8th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. The soldier's mother, Mrs. Wealthy Perkins, was given the flag by the estate of General Butler. (Butler, who outlived Perkins by 30 years, went on be a congressman, Governor of Massachusetts, and presidential candidate in 1884. He is also the namesake of the B. F. Butler Post 42 of the Grand Army of the Republic, which was established in Lowell in 1868.) A letter from Butler to Wealthy Perkins was published in the Lowell Daily Sun on December 15, 1894, in an article stating that the flag and Butler’s letter were, “to be put in Memorial Hall.”

Similar guidon showing missing white silk tips.

The two sashes in this box belonged to two of the bravest cavalry officers I ever knew. The smaller one was worn by Henry A. Durivage, 1st lieutenant of the second company, Mass. unattached cavalry, who was lost overboard from the steamer North America on the Mississippi river at the head of the Passes, April 21, 1862. The larger one belonged to Capt. Solon Perkins of the same company, who was killed near Port Hudson, La., in June 1863. Both were dear friends, and better or braver men never lived.

B.F. Butler

The Lowell Memorial Hall burned to the ground in March, 1915, taking with it many relics of Lowell history. Fortunately, prior to her death in 1896, Mrs. Perkins gifted the flag to Charles L. Knapp, then treasurer of the Middlesex Trust Company, Trustee of the Lowell Cemetery, and Clerk of the city of Lowell Water Board. The Memorial Hall building was reconstructed under the guidance of the original architect, Frederick W. Stickney, and is now called the Pollard Memorial Library.

From a 1919 Lowell Sun article we learn that the Perkins flag was at that time displayed on the wall above Middlesex Bank President F. P. Gilly. After several more years at the bank, it returned to the Knapp home. According to Charles Knapp’s wife Mary Sawyer Knapp, it was they who, “carefully preserved [the flag] by mounting under glass in a beautifully hand-carved frame.” In 1929, Mrs. Knapp invited Trustees of the Lowell Memorial to view the flag with the aim of donating it to the new Lowell Memorial Auditorium, constructed 7 years prior. The flag was installed at the Auditorium on November 12, 1929.

Lowell Memorial Auditorium, dedicated on September 21, 1922.

Location where the Perkins Flag hung, between two plaques listing the nearly 500 Lowell men who gave their lives in the Civil War.

It is not known how long the Solon Perkins Flag was displayed in the Hall of Flags at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium but its condition at the time it was rediscovered holds some clues. It hung across from a set of large doors which let in light and dirt from the busy street. There is also a return vent nearly the width of the frame located directly below where the flag was hanging before its removal. Although the tattered condition of the flag may not have changed much since its early 20th-century framing, the combination of dirt and its ragged appearance likely moved trustees to retire it from display.

Discovery of the Perkins flag must be credited to Steve Purtell and Gus Kanakis, who saw it in the basement propped against a wall behind a piano. They brought it to the attention of the Greater Lowell Veterans Council, who began the search for conservators for both the frame and the flag.

Camille Myers Breeze founded Museum Textile services in 1999. She is a prolific author, and educator of museum personnel and emerging conservation professionals in the US and abroad.

1 Comment

Ms. Sam Katz

6/10/2015 01:33:13 pm

Thank you for your grand preservation efforts on this important and beautiful relic. I live with Henry Durivage – that is, the five-foot by four-foot portrait of Henry Durivage painted by Francis Bicknell Carpenter, most likely posthumously and most likely commissioned by Henry’s parents after his death. I also live with a CDV of Henry, acquired from a different antique dealer in a different City, but, quite mysteriously, during the same week that I purchased Henry’s portrait in 2009. As for the painting, I lost him not once, but twice, at auction before I was able to acquire him the third time around.

Henry was the original Commanding Officer of the Third Massachusetts Unattached Cavalry, succeeded by Solon Perkins after Henry drowned in the Mississippi River upon falling overboard the frigate North America around 1:00 a.m. on April 23, 1862. He was feeling ill and went on deck with his brother Alexander, a Lieutenant in the employ of General Butler. The brothers returned to the ship’s indoor quarters, but then Henry went outside again to get some air by himself. That’s when his colleagues heard him fall overboard. No one knows whether he had a heart attack or was possibly hit by gunfire, as an era engraving by Currier & Ives shows heavy shelling from the shore. As General Butler wrote, Henry’s troop was serving on a flotilla of 54 ships on their way to take the City of New Orleans. General Butler must have gotten the ranks of Capt. Henry and his Lieutenant brother confused by the time he wrote the letter to Mrs. Perkins.

Henry’s father was the 19th century sportswriter, translator, poet, playwright, and painter Francis Alexander Durivage. While the senior Durivage was quite the renaissance man, and the family was socially well positioned, he took a job as a civil servant after he and his wife moved to New York City upon Henry’s death. Originally hailing from Boston, then Lowell, Massachusetts, the senior Durivage’s Uncle (and Henry’s great Uncle -- his grandmother’s brother) was the famous statesman Edward Everett. While Henry’s brother Alexander was also killed during the Civil War, his sister married a New York City merchant and their West 45th Street, Manhattan home was mentioned in the New York Times in its Friday, February 4, 1881 obituary of the senior Durivage. The site of the home is now the Marriott Marquis Hotel and Theatre, across the street from The Booth Theatre.

While it may be presumed that both sashes mentioned by General Butler were burned in the March 1915 Lowell Memorial Hall fire, there really is no way of knowing that for sure. It is possible the sashes were also gifted by Mrs. Perkins to someone before the fire, and if they should resurface anywhere, I would greatly appreciate knowing about it. Additionally, if anyone has any other reliable information about my beloved Captain Durivage, please email me at samkatz@nycdetectives.org I’d be most appreciative. -- Ms. Sam Katz, New York City, New York.

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“Let Us Show These Scoundrels That We Can fight.”

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