Webster Etching
To THE EDITOR: In my possession is a copy of an etching of Daniel Webster by T. Johnson, a photograph of which is enclosed.
It has been suggested that THE DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE might be interested in reproducing the photograph with a brief story of the way I happened to become the owner of the etching. If it proves to be of sufficient interest for such purpose, you may make such use of it you consider proper.
In the autumn of 1927 I spent several weeks traveling through the Republics east of the Baltic Sea, which before the World War were a part of Imperial Russia. Among the cities I then visited was Reval, the capital of Estonia. I spent a week or more there, stopping at Hotel Petersburg. On the wall of my room hung an etching of Daniel Webster. I endeavored to find out how it came there, but without success. No one seemed to know anything about it, or even about Daniel Webster for that matter. My first thought was to try and purchase it, but I concluded that it might have been left there by some American in the diplomatic or consular service, and consequently did nothing about procuring it.
Since I have made repeated annual visits to Soviet Russia, and after leaving there have frequently stopped off a day or so in Reval, the name of which is now Tallinn, but I have been at one of the more modern hotels there.
On my way back from Russia last September, I again visited Tallinn (Old Reval). While there I noticed that the name of Hotel Petersburg had been changed to Hotel Bristol, and that the building had been enlarged and completely renovated.
Seeing these changes made me think of the etching of Daniel Webster hanging on the wall of my room there ten years before. I entered the hotel with little hope of being able to find out what had become of the etching. I consulted the "Portier." He of course knew nothing about it,—asked me to call back in a day or so, which I did.
When I returned, the old housekeeper came down the stairway—just as though she were sent from heaven—and when the "Portier" spoke to her about the etching, she not only recognized me but remembered the location of the room I had occupied ten years before.
The next day I returned to the hotel, and came away the happy possessor of the etching.
16 Arlington St.,Boston, Mass.
GIFT TO THE COLLEGERalph S. Bartlett '89 has given the etchingof Daniel Webster, class of 1801, reproduced above to the College. Mr. Bartlett'sletter tells the story of his discovery andacquisition of the etching.
