[Rarebooks] FS: 1881 ‘Arkansas Stone Baby’ Folk Art Fraud Carte de Visite

[Joslin Hall Books & Ephemera]

1881 ‘Arkansas Stone Baby’ Folk Art Fraud Carte de Visite.

The second half of the 19th century saw an explosion in interest in  
excavations of remains and artifacts of ancient life and peoples; this  
interest in turn fueled a secondary upsurge in amateur carvers and  
promoters anxious to make a quick profit without doing any actual  
excavating. “This stone image was discovered at the famous Eureka  
Springs, Arkansas, on the first day of October, 1880, by T.H.  
Campbell, four feet below the surface of the earth, while digging a  
well. When discovered it was inclosed in a composition of blue clay,  
charcoal, and lime, a portion of which has not been removed from the  
image… The image is twenty-six inches in length, and weighs  
eighty-five pounds”.

The extraordinary carving was offered to the Peabody Museum in Salem,  
Massachusetts for purchase and was examined by Dr. M.E. Wadsworth  
whose examination not only found that the figure could not have been  
buried in the earth for very long, if at all, but that that soil/chalk  
composition surrounding it which had not been removed contained scraps  
of modern printed paper. “Of course”, Dr. Wadsworth concluded his  
report, “in the light of these facts, further discussion is  
unnecessary”. The Peabody returned the figure to Mr. Campbell with the  
report and the suggestion that the carving be destroyed, a suggestion  
which was certainly not followed, as an 1881 newspaper reports that  
the figure was purchased by the Smithsonian Institution, but there the  
trail ends.

Carte de Visite. 2.25”x4.25”. Some soil and wear, corner crease. [48964]  $175

Pictures =>
<https://www.joslinhall.com/images460/th-48964-cover.jpg>
<https://www.joslinhall.com/images460/th-48964-cover2.jpg>


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