Murray Photograph and Some Historical Background on Boston

JPG's of this heliograph (i.e., photograph) and its cover were recently sent to me by a gentleman who purchased it in an antiques mall in Illinois. Adam Reaves identified this picture as one of  Rev. WHH Murray.

Here is a little information I have found concerning the photographer Boynton & Co. who took the Murray photograph (uh, excuse me, heliographic artist. Photographer and HA were used interchangeably in those days.)

According to the census information I have found for Boston, Boynton & Co. did not exist in 1865. The photographer George H. Boynton listed himself as a clerk in 1865 and did not live or work at 313 Washington Street then. By 1870 Boynton & Co. had become Boynton and Heald on Washington Street. Mr. Sumner B. Heald was the new partner. The Boyntons were a large family living or working in several of the homes on Washington Street then. 

In 1872 there was a great fire in Boston that consumed roughly 65 acres of the downtown including the building at 313 Washington St. From what I gather, Boynton and Heald went out of business and the building was never rebuilt. Neither man continued in photography that I could find. Notably, Rev. Murray's Church at the time of the Great Boston Fire was the Park Street Congregational Church. The church escaped the fire by a mere two blocks. Boynton & Co. could probably been seen from the front steps of the church as it was consumed on the western perimeter of the fire.

All that being said, I would say that the photo was taken somewhere between 1868 and 1872.

According to at least one writer for NPR, Murray was reported in the press of his day to be almost single-handedly responsible for redefining the word "vacation" to apply to middle-class Americans. Actually the railroads were looking for a way to get people to travel and make use of their trains. They latched on to Murray and his book to get folks to vacate the house and travel when they had time off work. Until Murray the middle class still called time off a "holiday". Vacations were for the courts, congress, and universities which were vacated during summer recess.

Murray's book created a mass exodus to the mountains and wilderness areas of America. And the railroads benefited greatly from this new era of summer travel and camping.