July 4th, 1835-Dated Hand-Colored Engraved Membership Certificate of the Providence Marine Society, (Rhode Island), Issued to Capt. Augustus Carpenter, Engraved by William Hamlin after T. Young, containing "the Earliest Extant View of Providence." with the Society's Gold Embossed Seal, Fine.
This Hand-colored Engraved Certificate, 1-page, measures 15.25 x 9.75 inches (by sight), framed under special UV Plexiglas to 17.5 x 12.25 inches. It certifies that "Capt. Augustus Carpenter was regularly admitted a Member of the Providence Marine Society, the 4th day of July 1828," the certificate itself given under the Society's hand and embossed foil Gold Seal in Providence in October 1835, and signed by P. Gladding as Secretary and Richmond Bullock as President. The engraved sheet is divided into five vignettes: at upper left, ships under sail at sea; at upper center, Neptune driving a chariot drawn by sea horses; at upper right, a lighthouse and a wrecked vessel along a rocky coast; at right center, an American Heraldic Eagle with shield and banner. Displayed across the bottom panel, is a long Panoramic View of the Providence waterfront. A gold embossed seal depicting a ship under sail is affixed at lower left. This print has apparently been laid down for presentation with some conservation to the outer margin edges the paper showing some light creases. The paper is even in age tone with brown ink signatures and dates. Critically, there are no membership records known or available prior to 1886, meaning this certificate may be one of very few surviving artifacts documenting an 1828 admission at all, thus it is exceedingly rare.

In 1798, William Hamlin engraved the original Copper-Plate for the Providence Marine Society's membership certificate, a design later noted as containing "the earliest extant view of Providence." The certificate combined several illustrated panels: a scene of warships at sea, Neptune in his chariot, a shipwreck along a coast, the American eagle, and a long horizontal view of Providence Harbor, based on a design drawn by the artist Thomas Young (catalogued as Stauffer 1249 in the standard reference on American engravers). Hamlin's plate was reused for decades, surviving examples are documented from around 1830 and 1832, so this 1835 certificate for Captain Augustus Carpenter was very likely printed from that same original 1798 Hamlin plate, making it part of a historic design lineage that ran for at least 35+ years. Provenance: Old tags on the frame’s reverse Ex: Christie’s, NY Americana Collections - Stass & Gemmill; Vintage The Old Print Shop, New York tagged.
The Providence Marine Society was founded in 1798 as a mutual aid society for sea captains, established by commanders of vessels for their relief in distress, and for the relief of their widows and children. It later spun off the Providence Marine Corps of Artillery in 1801, and the Society itself dissolved in 1951, with its surviving records mostly financial records and later correspondence rather than early membership lists are now held by the Rhode Island Historical Society.

Richmond Bullock was a real, prominent Providence figure active in exactly this period. He was president of the Commercial National Bank (organized February 11, 1833) in Providence, and in November 1835, the same month named on this certificate he presided as president over a large public meeting of Providence citizens. A leading banker of Bullock's standing serving as president of the Providence Marine Society at the same time fits when such mutual-aid societies for ship captains were typically headed by well-connected local merchants and financiers rather than active seafarers.

This original certificate was engraved by William Hamlin, among the earliest engravers active in Providence, Rhode Island, after a drawing by T. Young, and is recorded in Stauffer's standard reference on American engravers. The Providence Marine Society, organized along the lines of similar marine societies in Boston, Salem, New York, and other American port cities, provided relief to ship captains and their families in hardship and helped found the Providence Marine Hospital in 1827, the year before Carpenter's admission recorded here.