Dear List, I found this auction item on e-bay and wanted to let everyone know in case someone was interested in this engraving of Calvin Whitney. I copied the description below. Take care. Michelle Meyer Posner Click here: eBay item 3725673248 (Ends May-30-04 21:00:12 PDT) - CALVIN WHITNEY Norwalk, Ohio, Purdy, Palmer, Dean, 1884 FABULOUS STEEL ENGRAVING CALVIN WHITNEY In the late 1800s many publications were produces depicting scenes of the United States and the world along with glimpses of art from the famous museums of the world.. The majority of the population did not travel and relied upon these publications to see what the rest of America and the world really looked like. They became familiar with the famous paintings in Europe's museums from the pictures they saw in these publications. Photography was developed in the mid 19th century and still in its infancy, printing processes were developed to reproduce these original photographs in publication for the world to see what people, places and the great art masterpieces really looked like. Some of this wonderful historical record has survived for us to study and enjoy today. We are offering a collection of Steel Engravings which appeared in one of these publication, in 1884. " A MORSEL OF GENUINE HISTORY IS A THING SO RARE AS TO BE ALWAYS VALUABLE" THOMAS JEFFERSON (from a 1817 letter to John Adams) You are bidding on one of these Antique Steel engraving. We offer you this beautiful steel engraving of Calvin Whitney, of Norwalk, Ohio, wholesale lumber dealer, and president of the A. B. Chase Organ Company, was born in Townsend, Huron County, Ohio, September 25, 1846, and is consequently thirty-six years of age. His father, Charles Whitney, removed from Connecticut in 1819 (when only seven years old), to Richland County, Ohio. In 1840 he was united in marriage with Miss Roxanna Purdy, formerly Miss Roxanna Palmer. To them were born six children. Palmer, the eldest, gave great promise of a useful and honorable career, but, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted as a volunteer in Company A, Twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and after a year of gallant service, was mortally wounded at the battle of Shiloh, and died ten days thereafter; Anne, the second child, died when less than two years old; Calvin, the third (and now the oldest living son); John L.; Richard B.; and Idalia L. Whitney, are still living. Their father, being a farmer of limited means, was only able to give his children the benefit of a common school education. Calvin early developed a passionate fondness for mathematics, and when only ten years of age took great delight in studying the hardest and most complex problems in arithmetic. He received great encouragement from his mother, who often sat up with him until midnight, and by the light of a tallow candle pored over the lessons for the morrow. For whatever of success he has achieved thus far in life, and for what the hidden future may yet have in store for him, he gives great credit to that loving mother who so faithfully helped and encouraged him in his early youth. At the age of fifteen his school days were over, and the next three years were spent on the farm, in helping his father, or working for other people. When eighteen, Mr. Whitney went into business for himself, by renting a farm, or rather taking a farm to work on shares. He pursued his work with his usual energy, and had the finest crops in the neighborhood, until in July they were overtaken with a destructive hailstorm, and almost utterly annihilated. Mr. Whitney afterward said that he took this as an indication that Providence did not design him for a farmer. In the fall of 1865 he collected what little means he had-some four hundred dollars-and went west, and started in the hardwood lumber business, in a small way. As his means were so small, and he had as yet no established credit, the business was at first on a very limited scale, but from the first it was a success, and grew in magnitude each year until now, and for several years past, the volume of business done has aggregated from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand dollars annually. On November 5th, 1868, he married Miss Marian Dean, daughter of Royal Cady and Marian (Smith) Dean, of Townsend, Huron County, Ohio, and after one year of married life spent in the West, he removed in April, 1870, to Norwalk, where they have since resided. In the fall of 1875 Mr. Whitney helped to organize the A. B. Chase Organ Company, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, for the manufacture of reed organs. In April 1877, upon the death of Mr. A. B. Chase, and when only thirty years of age, Mr. Whitney was unanimously elected president of the Organ Company, and has held the office continuously ever since. Under his energetic management, assisted by L. L. Doud, secretary, the organ business has grown to vast proportions, and extended from Atlantic to Pacific, and from Canada to the Gulf, besides an export trade to Europe and Australia. They are now manufacturing and selling about three thousand organs annually, with bright prospect of soon doubling that number. Mr. Whitney has for many years been a strong temperance man, but has nearly always acted with the Republican Party, believing it to be the party of progress, and that more practical results would be obtained for the cause of temperance by working for it through that organization. In February 1875, Mr. Whitney and wife united with the First Methodist Church of Norwalk, and have been active and zealous members of that Church ever since. Mr. Whitney has just given expression to his benevolence by giving ten thousand dollars to the Church Extension Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to be named, in honor of his beloved wife, "The Marian Whitney Fund," to aid in building new churches in the far West. For several years, Mr. Whitney has been greatly interested in caring for the superannuated and worn-out preachers of the North Ohio Conference. This culminated, in the fall of 1882, in an offer by Mr. Whitney to give five thousand dollars to help make up a sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, for a permanent fund to be used in support of superannuates of this conference. Mr. Whitney's parents were members of the Baptist Society for half a century, and in their zeal for the cause of the Church, imparted to him a like spirit. He is not only deservedly regarded as a great businessman, but devoid of austerity he lives beloved for his many good and pleasing qualities. This engraving is over 100 years old, it is not a modern reproduction. This engraving measures 4" x 6 1/2" on heavy stock paper measuring 8 1/2" x 11 3/4". The digital image does not do this engraving justice. Matted and framed would make an outstanding addition to any antique print collection.. An engraving is an intaglio process of printing, where the design to be produced is cut below the surface of the plate (made of steel, copper or wood), and the incised lines are filled with ink that is then transferred to paper. Our U. S. currency is a very good example of the engraving process. This steel engraving is from a collection done in 1884. It is not a modern reproduction.