June – An unsigned article “An Overrated Book” ran without title in the “Contributors’ Club,” June issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Attributed to Twain, it was later titled in an index for the period. A reading online revealed the writer’s home was Ponkapog, Mass., that of Thomas Bailey Aldrich. The review was of Rev. Edward Payson Hammond’s Sketches of Palestine [Eppard 430-1]. (See entries for June 6, 1877, Oct. 27, 1879 and Jan. 12, 1883.) Note: further evidence that this review of Hammond’s poetry was not Twain’s is his opinion often expressed but never better than his Aug. 10, 1881 to Robert Green Ingersoll: “I am not bold enough to express an opinion about it, for I never read poetry, & a criticism from me would be a thing which I should laugh at, myself.” See entry.

Earlier in the year Candace Wheeler (1827-1923) founded the New York Society of Decorative Arts as an outgrowth of the excitement caused by the 1876 Centennial celebration and exhibits in Philadelphia. Wheeler and Louis Comfort Tiffany did the interior decorating on the Clemens home. Wheeler encouraged women in other cities to establish auxiliary societies. Hartford was among the first six cities to form a group of their own.

Upon receiving Wheeler’s circular, Hartford’s female civic leaders came together, and during this month about 50 of the city’s “public spirited ladies” gathered at the home of Lucy Perkins. Among this group was the widow Elizabeth A. Colt, then owner of Colt Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co., who would become the Hartford Society’s first president. Included were author Harriet Beecher Stowe, Olivia Clemens, Susan Warner, and Mary Bushnell Cheney (1806-1894), wife of Frank W. Cheney (1822-1909) of Cheney Silk Mills. Many of these women were already active in Hartford charity work. The group decided to focus on art education and open a school toward that aim (See Jan. 16, 1878 entry).