Robert Treat Paine's Copy
A Discourse, delivered before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the semiannual meeting, June 10, 1794.
Barnard, Thomas.
Boston: Printed at the Apollo Press […] by Joseph Belknap, 1794.
Price:
$650.00
About the item
25, [1] pp. 8vo. Contemporary marbled wrappers, "1794" inked onto front wrapper in an early hand. Rubbing to exterior, spine partially abraded, toning to text. A good copy. Provenance: Robert Treat Paine (title page signature). Evans 26620; ESTC W20163. Moniz, “Saving the Lives of Strangers: Humane Societies and the Cosmopolitan Provision of Charitable Aid,” Journal of the Early Republic 29, no. 4 (2009): 609.
Item #377983
After it was discovered that victims of drowning or other accidents could be resuscitated from a deathlike state of unconsciousness, societies dedicated to their rescue began to pop up across the globe. The first such society was founded in Amsterdam in 1767, followed by England's Royal Humane Society in 1774. The Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the second in America, was established in 1786 and staffed largely by clergymen. Rescues were made and rewards given without regard to race or class. "Their efforts were lofty and pragmatic, and, like the antislavery movement, the resuscitation movement helped make moral responsibility to strangers, whether outside one's religious, ethnic, racial, local, or national community, a measure of modern philanthropy" (Moniz).
The present pamphlet includes a sermon delivered at the June 1794 meeting alongside a list of officers and members, details of the organization's finances, and copies of appreciative letters written to the society by people who benefited from its work.
This copy belonged to lawyer, politician and Humane Society member Robert Treat Paine (1731-1814). A signer of the Declaration of Independence, Paine served as the first attorney general of Massachusetts. At the time of publication, he was an associate justice of the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
