Vol. 22 - An Unknown Artist’s Florida Keys Diary, 1851
- Florida Keys History Center
- Jun 3
- 14 min read
Welcome to “Island Chronicles,” the Florida Keys History Center’s monthly feature dedicated to investigating and sharing events from the history of Monroe County, Florida. These pieces draw from a variety of sources, but our primary well is the FKHC’s archive of documents, photographs, diaries, newspapers, maps, and other historical materials.
By Corey Malcom, PhD
Lead Historian, Florida Keys History Center
Introduction
A photocopy of a diary recording an 1851 voyage to the Florida Keys is found in the files of the Florida Keys History Center. The document was sent in 1972 from the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Delaware to FKHC founder Betty Bruce. The letter to Mrs. Bruce referred to illustrations, but they were not included. This writer inquired to the Winterthur about them, and digital copies were provided. These items are excerpted from a larger work in the Winterthur collection titled “Diaries of a Boston Artist,” a two-volume journal kept by an unidentified Boston-area resident and written between 1851 and 1854 and 1857 to 1864.[1]
The copied portion held at the FKHC spans from February 25, 1851, to May 14, 1851 – a section documenting the author’s journey from Charleston, South Carolina, to Key West, Florida, then from Key West to Havana with a return to Charleston. The transcript presented here covers only the time he spent in the Florida Keys.
The unknown diarist arrived in Key West on March 3, 1851, and he stayed in the Keys for two weeks before heading to Cuba. Across those 14 days he wrote of his experiences, but he was also an artist and sketched and painted multiple scenes from his travels. Through his words and illustrations, the diarist kept details of his travels in the Florida Keys, including the area’s natural environment, social life, economics, and architecture.
The Florida Keys were truly islands at the time and traveling to or from there was done only by sea. The diarist arrived at Key West on the steamship Isabel, a commercial vessel that called regularly with passengers, mail, and cargo as it steamed between Charleston and Havana. As he made the journey, the diarist described some of his shipboard experiences and the quirks of his fellow travelers.
On reaching the Florida Keys, one of the first things the diarist noted was that he was “close to the celebrated reef where the wrecks occur,” a reference to wrecking. Through proximity to the Florida Reef, Key Westers had built one of the wealthiest communities in the United States via the salvage of ships that struck what was then one of the world’s great maritime hazards.
Also at the time of the diarist’s visit, new structures were being built that would ultimately put an end to wrecking. Iron lighthouses were being constructed along the reef – new aids-to-navigation that would help tame the longtime hazard. Once completed, the lights would warn mariners of the reef’s presence and gradually put the wreckers out of business. The diarist witnessed the earliest stages of their construction, and as a friend of Isaiah W.P. Lewis, the engineer overseeing the initial phases of the assembly of the Sand Key Lighthouse, he was able to visit the remote island site and document what he saw.
The diarist met several Keys residents – merchants , ship captains, farmers, and servants among them. Some of these people were figures who continue to loom large in Keys history, including the newly elected U.S. Senator from Key West, Stephen Mallory, and attorney and fellow diarist William Hackley. In addition to the people he met, the diarist also touched on a diversity of other subjects, including festivities, food, and fishing.
Five sketches accompany the Keys section of the diary, all depicting mundane scenes – a mule standing along the shoreline, the cook’s shack on Sand Key, houses, a view of the Key West harbor front – but they are significant because they represent subjects found nowhere else. The diarist’s intentions for the sketches are not known: Were they studies to be finessed later, or were they simply for his memories? Whatever the reason, having images to add to words gives new perspectives into the mid-19th century Florida Keys.
At the end of his stay in Key West, the diarist left for a multi-week tour of Cuba. He returned on the Isabel in early May, but only for a quick stop before heading to Charleston. Frustratingly, a list of passengers who arrived in Charleston on the Isabel has been found, and it likely contains his identity, and this writer has researched all the names; none match what is known about the diarist in any obvious way. For the time being, the “Boston Artist” remains an enigma, but even without fully knowing the man who made the observations, his documentation of the Florida Keys gives fresh and valuable glimpses into life on the islands nearly two centuries ago.
Diary Transcript
The following transcript utilizes the diarist’s original spelling and punctuation (with the one exception of this writer altering a racial epithet). Words, people, places, and situations that might be unfamiliar to the modern reader are explained or identified via footnotes.
“Friday 28th [February]. Engaged my passage to Key West.[2] Dr. Buchanan & daughters here.
Saturday 1st of February [sic] 1851.[3] Started at seven o’clock A.M. in the steamer Isabel, in a rainy still morning. I tried to make some acquaintances, but everyone seemed half sick & cross. We were soon out of sight of land, & except the meals nothing occurred to make a break till 8 P.M. when I tucked in.
Sunday 2nd. Weather warmer but dull – everybody better. I made the acquaintance of Mr. Egleston who was going out as a tutor with a rich Havanero, Mr. Carillo, who was also on board with his family, governess, carriage & horses, & a quantity of servants. Mr. C. told me that everything I wanted to know about Cuba, & finally invited me to go with him to his plantation, which it is needless to say I snapped at quickly enough. Another pleasant foreign family, & several Frenchmen, a sick Purser, &c. helped to make the time pass pleasantly away, & I turned after a really great day on shipboard.
Monday 3d. We saw the land at a distance last night, & day are passing quite near it, & close to the celebrated reef where the wrecks occur. Saw the lighthouse building on Carysfort reef which seems to stand in the open sea.[4] The color of the water is constantly varying & often as green as emerald. At six o’clock, we stopped at Key West, & I was glad enough to shake hands with Mr. Lewis,[5] who took me up & installed me in very nice quarters with Capt. & Mrs. Curtis[6] – “so far so good.”
Tuesday 4th. Walked with Lewis to an observatory to see the island & then across to see marks of the great hurricane 1846 Oct. 11th.[7] Saw on the way some large Banana trees in a garden, some queer wild fig trees, also the gum-eleme,[8] the cocoa-nut, the pawpaw, the tamarind, & many others for the first time. The weather is warm enough for thin clothes, though a norther has blown all day & it is called cold. P.M. loafed & smoked.
Wednesday 5th. Found an old mule standing in the water before breakfast & sketched him vid.[9] P. 27th (Fig.1) & at nine o’clock took the boat and stood over to Sand Key, throwing my breakfast on the way. The island is the queerest place imaginable, without a vegetable of any kind & with a hole in the center dug for the lighthouse, where the tide ebbs & flows. Lewis has quite a nice house & fixings, & we lived well.[10] The pelicans are about & dart about there, & one was shot for a youngster who went out with us as bird collector. Saw plenty of sardines caught & examined the iron work.
Thursday 6th. Tried sardines & found them excellent & and at noon saw grouper & snapper & ate the latter – good. P.M. sketched vid. P. 26th Cook’s house (Fig. 2).
Friday 7th. Came up & P.M. began the sketch of a curious wild fig.
Saturday 8th. Finished Mrs. B’s sketch & wrote letter all day. Tired.
Sunday 9th. To church & heard pastor Adams, a Puseyite,[11] the people looked very well, with an air of more style than our country congregations – some rather pretty. After church Lewis saw his schooner come in & was soon in a nice pucker.[12]
Monday 10th. Went after breakfast to see them land cattle from a little vessel, which brings them over from the main, & a queer sight enough it was. They are hauled out by the horns & come up all spread out.[13] I then sketched on a block a gum-elleme tree near the barracks, & P.M. commenced sketching vid. P 28th – the house & cocoa-nut trees (Fig. 3). Eveng Capt. Howland & Mr. Hackley here.[14] Supped on oysters.
Tuesday 11th. Visited Hackley to make arrangements. Sketched in colours.
Wednesday 12th. A wreck came in & prevented Hackley from going, so I was obliged to borrow a little sail boat from Tift[15] & started with Williams at noon.[16] We had a delightful sail among the Keys, & landed at five at Henry Gager’s, & found his old negro Bob there.[17] Walked out & examined the lagoons, found nothing to shoot, & supped on fried pork & cold sweet potatoes; turned in on an old stretcher, with a stool to keep my legs from going through. Waked up cold once or twice, but did well enough.
Thursday 13th. Roused up Billy at daybreak, & found the n___er[18] off & after breakfast lost some time in searching for a piece of gold I dropped between the cracks of the floor. Found it. Made a sketch vid. p. 29th of Gager’s house (Fig. 4) & started. Passed through Bocca Chica with the North East trade. Shot at a Cormorant on the way, & came into Key West in two hours & a half. Lewis was here, & took me in the eveng to a party given to Governor Brown[19] by Mr. Wall,[20] which ended by nearly all the men getting fiddled on Champagne, singing a wrecking song, & toasting a wreck a week. 2 o’clock.
Friday 14th. Finished my wild fig tree. Eveng Mr. & Mrs. Campbell here.[21]
Saturday 15th. Hunted Billy Williams in conjunction with Capt. Curtis & having run him down we took Clapp’s[22] boat & went to Sand Key; Mr. Lewis was actively engaged in superintending, & in the eveng the new apparatus was up. Come home in a brilliant moonlight, with just breeze enough to bring us to the wharf.
Sunday 16th. A good sermon from Mr. Adams. Eveng at the Lancaster’s[23] with Lewis.
Monday 17th. Finished the gum-eleme, & called at Wall’s, where Miss Eliza told some queer stories.[24] P.M. made a sketch vid. P. 30th of a part of the town (Fig. 5), Tift’s look-out, &c. while waiting for the Isabel. The boat did not arrive till 12 o’clock, & we had a boisterous passage. Mr. Mallory[25] & Dr. Pinkney, Misses Brown, Ward, & Triplett on board.
Tuesday 18th. Passed the Moro at eleven & pleased enough we were with the extraordinary scene; everything new, even to me. The people, all in bright colours, the high forts & walls, the crowds of shipping; the volantes, the queerest looking things in the world, the flat roofs, the government boats, all strange. We waited for the visiting officers, till we saw it was too late to get our trunks, & at last at half past two, landed in the Havana.”
The diarist traveled then through Cuba and generally found his experience there to be unpleasant. On May 5, 1851, he began to search for a way home. In a series of terse diary entries, he describes his journey from Havana to Charleston, with a brief stop in Key West:
Monday 5th. Look at a vessel – no go I think. Heat awful. Must quit this.
Tuesday 6th. Paid my passage by the Isabella. Navy men – good fellows. Shop &c.
Wednesday 7th. English steamship Captain – Mr. Jackson – Adams &c. gone in the Hetzel.[26]
Thursday 8th. Walk with Jackson before breakfast. Pack, on board at ½ past 4th. Rough.
Friday 9th. Lots of passengers – almost all sick – room mate an English Yew – sick too. Meet Lewis at Key West. On board with us – Miss Bremer – traveled Englishman. Still rough.
Saturday 10th. Smoother. Ladies begin to appear. Snobby party of Taylors, poor set.
Sunday 11th. Fine day – Charleston Harbour. Smuggle a little [illegible] with segars to no purpose. Mr. Brewster – all well. Come to Mr. Tomkins – good news from home.”
End of transcript
End Note: Though the identity of the diarist is not known, his name is most likely recorded in this passenger list:[27]
“In steamship Isabel, from Havana via Key West – J.J. Taylor and family, S.J. Howland, daughter, son and serv’t, H. Atkins, lady and daughter, Miss L. Claret, Miss A. Marvin, Miss L.D. Johnson, Miss A. Picault, Mrs. Matlie, M. de Campos and lady, C. Marti and family, R. de Rivas and family, C. Pair, lady and child, L. Morse, L.E. Springer, E. Pouvert and Son, J. Hubbard, J.D. Bethune, J. Lampden, J.W.P Lewis, R. Brest, J. Tyre, W. Terret, J.W. Perry, G. Cole, E.L. Smith, Count A.L. Koscielski, Juan Playte, Count L. Dromscilskiscoviski, J. Acebo, A.J. Nunez, F. Diesdiel, J. Medina, F.J. Corredo, F. Hidalgo, J. De Villa, A. de Cueto, F. Dedon, M. de Chavez, R. de Estevez, D. de Pino, J.L. Rodriguez, E. Disdier, F.E. Agosti, F. de Gay, Pedro de Villa, A.J. Mosculines, Yignacia, M. de Arrigunaga, Riquelene, F. Olivier, F. Verrier, M. Averhoff and Brother, F. Dominguez, T. Calzada, D. Vaughan, F. Knowles, J. Wilson, B. Gonzales, D. Lang, S. Sanders, N. Bond, J. Quinn, D. Farren, R. Antonio, E. Carrol, M. Laughlin M. Laughlin, and 48 in the steerage. For Savannah – T.D. Belchasse and Son, Miss Frederika Bremer, Mr. Jadilske, Mr. Perry, W. Murphy, W.P. Allen, Mrs. Cail and Son, W.D. Averett, W.J. Dougan, C. Vuria, A. Barreto, W. Saste, A. Johnson, J.B. Cooley, W.D. Corteon, and 10 on deck.”
The traveling companions recorded by the diarist, “Mr. Lewis” (recorded as J.W.P. Lewis) and “Miss Bremer” (as Miss Frederika Bremer), are in the list. Even the “Snobby party of Taylors” he wrote of are accounted for (as J.J. Taylor and family). Surely the name of the Boston Artist is also on this list, but with such scant information to start with, figuring out which of the many is not so easy.
[1] Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library, Joseph Downs Collection No. 607, “Diaries of a Boston Artist,” Folio 143. A description of the writer says, “Although the keeper of this volume is not identified, it is clear he was an artist from Boston, Ma. Evidence suggests that he came from a prominent family.”
[2] The diarist was leaving from Charleston, South Carolina.
[3] This date is in error. It should read March, as there are only 28 days in the previous month, and the following month in the diary is April.
[4] The Savannah Georgian of March 1, 1851 (p.2) published an item about the new Carysfort Reef Lighthouse, explaining how it would revolutionize navigation along the Florida Reef: “The construction of the screw pile light at Carysfort reef, under the superintendence of Maj. Lenard of the Topographical Engineer Corps, is progressing rapidly, and he expects to show its light on the Fourth day of July next. The importance of this light to the navigation of the Gulf will be readily understood, when I say that it stands upon the most seaward part of the reef, known as the elbow of the reef, about nine miles from the land, immediately on the edge of the Gulf, and in about twelve feet of water… The light will be the first-class Fresnel lamp, one hundred feet above tide water, and its flashes will be seen from the deck of a ship twenty-five miles in clear weather.”
[5] Capt. Isaiah W.P. Lewis, engineer, designer of the iron lighthouse at Sand Key and who was overseeing its initial stages of construction.
[6] Cornelius Curtis and wife Mary. In the 1850 federal census for Key West, Capt. Curtis was listed as a merchant. According to Judge William Marvin, the Curtis’ lived on the northwest corner of Caroline and Duval streets.
[7] The 1846 Hurricane, with near Category 5 winds and an 8-to-9-foot storm surge, devastated Key West. Only five structures were left standing and most of the island’s ships were wrecked by the tropical cyclone.
[8] Gumbo Limbo (Bursera simaruba).
[9] Abbreviation of videte; a remark directing readers to a specified place.
[10] A correspondent for the Maine Democrat visited Sand Key and wrote a descriptive account on February 6, 1851 (published March 18, p.2) that is worth repeating here: “We made a trip to Sand Key - a small island about 15 miles S.E. of Key West. It is composed of sand and corals; it is three acres in extent – formerly it had a lighthouse – but it was swept away with nine persons in the great Hurricane; now a light ship is anchored near it… A party of engineers, under the command of J.W.P. [sic] Lewis, assisted by W. Dennisson, Esquire, of Boston, distinguished civil engineers, are engaged in erecting a new iron Light house, which will be a most magnificent house. Under the sand is the coral formation, into this are screwed seventeen iron piles, so prepared as to prevent them from rust, these piles are put down sixteen feet, upon this are pillars twenty feet high, and then an iron floor is laid - this portion is the keeper’s dwelling, and will be divided into nine large rooms – above this is a hollow shaft, one hundred and thirty feet in height, enclosed in a frame work of iron rods firmly screwed together.”
[11] Rev. C.C. Adams, who served the island’s Episcopal church, from 1846 to 1555. Adams was apparently a follower of English theologian Edward Pusey, a leader of the Oxford movement, which sought a renewal of Catholic thought and practice within the Church of England in opposition to any Protestant tendencies (see: Browne, J.B. (1912). Key West, the Old and the New, The Record Company, St. Augustine, pp.28-29; https://www.britannica.com/event/Oxford-movement).
[12] Per the Charleston Courier of March 26, 1851 (p.2): “March 9 – Schr. J.W. Swain, Townsend (master), Philadelphia, materials for Light House at Sand Key.’
[13] The Savannah Republican of March 26, 1851 (p.2) reported, “Schr. Emma, from Tampa, with cattle for this place [Key West].”
[14] “Hackley” was Wm. R. Hackley, a prominent Key West attorney and noted diarist. Unfortunately, Hackley’s diaries for 1851 have not been found to provide his version of the events. Capt. Joseph Howland was master of the New Bedford, Massachusetts schooner Eliza, and he supplied whale oil to the lighthouses. The New-Bedford Mercury of March 21,1851 (p.3) reported Howland had arrived in Key West on March 8.
[15] Brothers Asa and Charles Tift were leading Key West businessmen.
[16] “Williams” (aka “Billy”) was likely William E. Williams, brother of Courtland Williams, the captain of the Sand Key Lightship. Their mother had died at Sand Key in the 1846 hurricane.
[17] Henry Huling Geiger is listed in the 1850 federal census as a 44-year-old Monroe County planter. Robert Allen, a 63-year-old Black freeman, lived with Geiger.
[18] A racial epithet referring to Robert Allen.
[19] Thomas Brown, Florida’s second Governor (October 1, 1849 – October 3, 1853). He had first arrived at Key West on February 28, before taking a tour of the Everglades, the East Coast, and the Upper Keys. Gov. Brown was accompanied by Judge William Marvin, and they witnessed the March 8th wreck and subsequent salvage of the brig Galveston on Conch Reef during their excursion (“Loss of a New Orleans Vessel,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 28, 1851, p.2).
[20] William H. Wall was an English-born Key West merchant, “the first to accumulate a fortune” on the island, according to J.B. Browne (op. cit. p.189).
[21] Likely Robert P. and Helen Campbell. He is listed as a merchant in the 1850 federal census for Key West.
[22] James C. Clapp. He is listed in the 1850 federal census for Key West as a 31-year-old merchant.
[23] The evening was likely at the home of Jospeh B. and Ann Lancaster. He is listed as Circuit Court Judge in the 1850 federal census of Key West.
[24] Likely Elizabeth Wall, the oldest child of William H. Wall (see fn. 20).
[25] Stephen R. Mallory was a Key West attorney, who had just been elected U.S. Senator for Florida.
[26] The Hetzel was a steamship employed in the U.S. Coast Survey.
[27] “Passengers,” The Charleston Mercury of May 13, 1851(p.1), lists all those who on the Isabel arrived at that port on May 11, 1851.
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