St. Croix Landmarks Society

Library & Archives

Presents

Reverend Henry Jackson Morton

by Florence Lewisohn
from "Henry Morton Sketch Book" copyright 1975

The Reverend Henry Jackson Morton, an artist with a keen eye and a joyous spirit, came to the Danish West Indies from Philadelphia in the winter of 1843-1844 with his family for the sake of the health of his brother, Quincy. It is to the everlasting good fortune of these present day U.S. Virgin Islands that his numerous sketches, paintings and an illustrated diary of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John were discovered recently. They are here presented as an invaluable historical and Pictorial record.

The visiting minister, his wife Helen and his eight year old son, Henry Jr., who was later to become more famous than his father, along with brother Quincy, settled in as guests of the Anglican minister, Mr. Flavel Mines, in his Frederiksted parish house on St. Croix. Old records indicate that at this time the house in use for the parish was on Strand Street.

Sketching and painting were not new to the Reverend Henry Morton. As a young man his talent for drawing had resulted in his becoming the only non-professional member of the well known Philadelphia Sketch Club. From this eminent group evolved the later Philadelphia Century Club., which then in time became the famous Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

The Mortons had been a New York family since the time in 1761 when an ancestor arrived as a British Soldier and stayed to become a rebel in the Revolution. Henry himself was born in New York in 1807, where he later attended Columbia University and the General Theological Seminary. Ordained as a minister, he moved to Philadelphia to become the assistant to the Bishop at St. James Episcopal Church there. six years later he was rector Emeritus. He must have been a hard worker and a respected beloved man of public spirit for he gathered in honorary degrees, published many writings, and was elected a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania shortly after his West Indian visit.

No one wold have surmised that winter on St. Croix that the son, young Henry Jr., would become a noted physicist, chemist, lawyer and eventual President of Stevens Institute of Technology. Like his father, he had an observing eye and an artistic bent. While still in college he became one of the translators of the then sensational Rosetta Stone, and in 1858, was to illustrate profusely a book on this with his own lithography of the hieroglyphics and many original scenes.

The Rector, age 36 , in 1843, approached the West Indies with delight, curiosity and the keen observation which are all so clearly reflected in these drawings. He left us the most complete single record of any of the many artists who over the centuries tried to capture the islands' unique tropical ambience. He was obviously no staid clergyman, but a man very alive, aware of the nuances of his surroundings and having a thoroughly good time on his Sabbatical.

Surrounded by the easy-going islanders and the novelty of the lush scenery the visiting minister turned artist. From his pencil and brush flowed the joy of his daily encounters and discoveries. He did not anticipate drawing for posterity, yet his slightest sketch dashed off to catch the movement of a street scene or the Drowsy noonday quality of a rural landscape shows lyrical skill and talent. Although Probably always the gentleman -amateur as artists go, his more finished drawings and delicate washes and water colors in the style of the period have a competence and sureness which reflect years of practice.

An irrepressible sense of humor crops up in these vignette, particularly in the diary of the trip he took aboard the "Mercurius" to St. Thomas and St. John. Shipboard life, excursions ashore, the island aristocrats and slaves, street scenes and picturesque countryside all provided spontaneous outlet for his humor and curiosity. Even the invalid brother Quince is depicted with appealing zest.

Luckily, our artist was impressed with the famous island sugar plantations and their Great Houses for in these drawings he has left us an invaluable pictorial record of places and persons heretofore only imagined. His portraits bring alive men and women who once were only names in archival records and give us glimpses of the clothing they wore in which current European styles were modified to suit the climate.

The rediscovered >>lost<< pictures, unknown either to island or Danish historians until the 1970s, now fill in many gaps in our knowledge, not the least of which is in letting us see exactly how certain famous old estates, which now lie tumbled into ruins once looked a century and half ago.

The St. Croix so enjoyed by the Mortons was long past its heyday of exuberant prosperity which had made it a legendary place of sugar and rum and luxurious living. This period had lasted from the 1750s to the early 1800s. The decline came gradually, brought on by the Napoleonic Wars, worldwide depressed markets, the sugar beet and a few droughts.

When Henry Morton sketched the Aristocratic Governor-General Peter von Scholten at his desk in Government House in Christiansted, no one could have anticipated that this man a few years later would be both honored and vilified for his personal decision to free the slaves when revolt threatened in 1848. St. Croix was, then, in this winter of 184301844 an island filled with restless slaves and even more restless sugar estate owners plagued with mountainous debts and worries about losing all the had if Emancipation came, yet living still in the customary style which included unbounded hospitality to such visitors as the Mortons.