5210004_015_025

Object Type: Asset
In Folder: 5210004-015 Mayoral portraits

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5210004_015_025

Metadata Object Description - Record Information

Record Identifier: 5210004_015_025

Record Creation Date: 2022-09-13

Description Standard: dacs

Metadata Object Description

Title: Mayor Samuel A. Green, 1882

Creator Name: unknown

Type of Resource: photographs

Date Created: unknown

Language: english

Conditions Governing Reproduction: Copyright not evaluated

LCSH Subject Heading: Boston (Mass.). Mayor

LCSH Subject Heading: Portraits

LCSH Subject Heading: Green, Samuel A. (Samuel Abbott), 1830-1918

City: tgn:7013445

Collection name and number: Landmarks Commission image collection (5210.004)

Metadata Object Description - Notes

Biography or History: Samuel Abbott Green became Boston's twenty-fifth mayor in 1882. Dr. Green was born in Groton on March 16, 1830. His ancestors came to America in 1636. He was educated at Groton Academy, which later became known as Lawrence Academy, and at Harvard. After four years study abroad in some of the best hospitals he returned to Boston and began the practice of medicine. He became surgeon of the Second Massachusetts Militia Regiment in 1858, and went to the front at the outbreak of the Civil War, where he served with distinction in his chosen profession. He planned the cemetery on Roanoke Island, one of the first cemeteries for soldiers who fell in the war, and had charge of the hospital ship Recruit on the Burnside expedition to Roanoke Island. His official connection with the city of his adoption extends over many years and covers many activities.From 1860 to 1862 he was a member of the School Board, and again from 1865 to 1872, when he was also superintendent of the Boston Dispensary. From 1868 to 1878 he was trustee of the Boston Public Library, and acting librarian from 1877 to 1878. He was the donor of the Franklin collection of books and engravings now in the Public Library. He was city physician from 1871 to 1882, and in the last part of 1881 was elected mayor as a candidate of the Citizens and Republican parties. During his administration politicians found that it did not pay to lounge in the corridors of City Hall. The Police Commissioners were removed, and receipts from liquor licenses increased by over $22,000, a great sum for the times. In a paper advocating hisreelection, it said:“After ten years as city physician he has probably more intimate knowledge of the poor and a firmer hold on their heartstrings than any man in the community. His home is, and has been for a long period, on Kneeland Street, and there, in the midst of the suffering classes, he has been ever ready to listen to any tale of sorrow or discouragement and any request for counsel or comfort from the lips of the needy."When the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII of England, visited Boston, he was shown the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society, where Dr. Green was at the time librarian. The Prince was interested in John Winthrop’s History of New England and George Washington’s epaulets. The date of the visit happened to be the anniversary of the surrender of Cornwallis.Taken from "Boston's 45 Mayors from John Phillips to Kevin H. White," City Record, Boston, 1979.

Appraisal Information: This is a reproduction.

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