Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 2086
Henry Austin Clapp was born July 17, 1841.
On August 12, 1862, halfway through his law studies at Harvard, Henry Clapp sent a letter to the officers of the Harvard Corporation, informing them that he resigned his place as proctor, having enlisted with the nine-months men in the New England Guards Regiment.
By the beginning of October, rumors of departure spread through the ranks of the Forty-fourth, although whether the intended destination was the Potomac or New Orleans or North Carolina was anybody’s guess. Northern morale had been boosted the previous month by the bruising defeat inflicted on Lee’s army at Antietam in Maryland. Was the Forty-Fourth to join McClellan’s army to wipe out the rebels in Virginia once and for all? On October 17 a soldier got a glimpse of a staff officer’s box marked “New Berne,” and orders on October 20 confirmed the fact. The Forty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was bound for North Carolina.
Soon after his return from North Carolina, Clapp began to contribute articles, chiefly book reviews, to the Boston Daily Advertiser. By 1868 the paper employed him as dramatic and musical critic, and he wrote articles for a number of other magazines and newspapers as well. His astute observations on Boston’s theatrical performances gained him a reputation as one of the three or four most influential American dramatic critics of the late nineteenth century. In 1885, building on the enthusiasm instilled by William Rolfe at Dorchester High School thirty years earlier, Clapp began a series of lectures on Shakespeare’s plays. He was invited to repeat his talks many times in the years that followed. A collection of his writings was published as Reminiscences of a Dramatic Critic in 1902, the same year that he became chief dramatic critic for the Boston Herald.
for more information about Henry Austin Clapp, his family and Dorchester in the 19th century, visit
http://www.dorchesteratheneum.org/page.php?id=676
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