1835 Engraved Mammoth Size Membership Certificate of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, fully Issued with Vignettes of the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Completed Monument, Signed in Manuscript by President William Prescott, Architect Solomon Willard, and Directors Including Edward Everett, Abbott Lawrence, Thomas Handasyd Perkins, John C. Warren, and Robert G. Shaw, Framed, Very Fine.
This Mammoth Size engraved certificate, measures 26.75 x 21 inches (by sight), framed to 35.75 x 30.75 inches (not examined out of the frame), displayed under special UV protective Plexiglas. It is headed, "By The Bunker Hill Monument Association, Formed in 1823 and Aided in 1833 in Completing the Original Design by The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association." Above are Two Vignettes measuring about 5” tall x 9” wide, depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill and the completed monument overlooking Charlestown harbor with some surface roughness as shown. This “Two-Vignette” design and A.O. Crane & Co./1833 connection, distinguishes this extremely rare size example from the more common small donation certificates. This huge example is extremely rare, currently professionally matted and framed in a lovely decorative period style scalloped mahogany frame with a gold beaded inner border, ready to display. One other example is located at the Winterthur.

The printed text explains the Association's purpose in commemorating "the 17th of June 1775," and certifies that "William Abbot is a member of the Association, and has contributed to the execution of its patriotic designs," the members having been "elected in 1833." Below, in five columns, the certificate is signed by the Association's President, Vice Presidents, Treasurer, Secretary, Architect, and numerous Directors. Engraving credit connects to “A.O. Crane & Co.”, a Boston print/engraving firm also known for other Bunker Hill commemorative materials. This example is printed in black on a heavy tan wove paper having one horizontal fold below the two vignettes at top and between the text, away from the header “The Bunker Hill Monument Association;” with some water spots in the upper section, and one below “Association.”

1835 falls in a particularly fraught period for the monument. Construction resumed in June 1834 with help from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, after funds ran short, continued for about 17 months, then stalled again in November 1835, leaving the monument at only 85 feet of its planned 220-foot height. The BHMA was chronically short of money throughout the 1830s (it even sold off battlefield acreage in 1839 to pay debts), which is why fundraising appeals like the one that produced your certificate were being pushed hard in 1835. William Prescott signs as President, almost certainly the son of Colonel William Prescott, who commanded the American forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill itself. Solomon Willard signs as Architect; Willard designed and personally superintended construction of the monument's 221-foot granite obelisk from 1825 until its completion in 1842.
The Bunker Hill Monument Association was organized in 1823 to preserve the battlefield and erect a permanent memorial; after construction stalled repeatedly for lack of funds, the Association turned to the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association in 1833 to complete the work, and the monument was finally finished and dedicated in 1843.

This exceedingly rare Mammoth Size certificate with two vignettes, was issued to a significant contributing member in the midst of that renewed fundraising effort, reflects the broad civic mobilization of Boston's most prominent citizens behind the monument's completion. It is not one of the smaller size common certificates with one small image of the monument.

The BHMA was formed in May 1823 when about twenty-five Boston-area men met at Boston's Exchange Coffee House to petition the Massachusetts legislature for incorporation (granted June 7, 1823). The founders included magazine publisher William Tudor, Congressman Daniel Webster, Harvard professor Edward Everett, merchant Thomas H. Perkins, and Dr. John C. Warren (nephew of Bunker Hill hero Dr. Joseph Warren).

Their goal was twofold: to save the actual battlefield from being sold off for development, and to build a monument honoring "those statesmen and soldiers who led the way in the American Revolution." Cornerstone-laying happened on June 17, 1825 being the battle's 50th anniversary, with Daniel Webster delivering a famous oration to 15,000 spectators.

The officers' signatures (Webster, Story, Perkins, Everett, etc., depending on the year) - on virtually every surviving example I've found, these are facsimile signatures engraved directly including the Signatures of the Vice Presidents; James T. Buckingham as President of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, a position the Bunker Hill Monument Association had made a permanent ex: officio Vice Presidency in gratitude after transferring responsibility for completing the monument's fundraising and construction to that organization in 1833, exactly as recorded in this certificate's own heading.

Among the many Directors are Edward Everett, the noted orator, Massachusetts governor, and future Secretary of State; Abbott Lawrence, the prominent Boston merchant and later minister to Great Britain; Thomas Handasyd Perkins, one of Boston's wealthiest and most influential merchants; Dr. John C. Warren, the surgeon who helped found the Association in 1823; Robert G. Shaw; Leverett Saltonstall; and Henry A. S. Dearborn, son of Revolutionary War General Henry Dearborn.