Hubert Thomas Parker scrapbook album

ca. 1820-1831

The Rev. Hubert Thos. Parker could not be identified. Places mentioned in the scrapbook suggest he may have lived in or around Worcester, England. Artist signatures include: Mary Parker, Eliz[abe]th Horsley, M. Thornicraft, L. Paget, S. Smith of Worcester, and many sets of initials. "C. H. P." appears frequently, and is the artist of "Fossil fish found on Carzington Hill Oxon. 1820"; this could be Charles Hubert Parker (d. 1883), rector of Great Comberton, co. Worcester (cf. Alumni Oxonienses). Leather-bound album containing various artwork and manuscript entries, presumably by friends and relatives of the Rev. Hubert Thos. Parker. The visual works include: watercolor illustrations of the development stages of the water-beetle, the nettle butterfly, and the dragonfly; a pencil drawing of St. Mary's Church, Hampton Lovett; a watercolor of "Lake of Sarden [i.e., Sarnen]," Switzerland; a pencil drawing of Lord Byron; a watercolor of a "Fossil fish found on Carzington Hill Oxon. 1820"; and other pieces, depicting subjects such as pastoral landscapes, ruins, domestic scenes, birds, and other animals. Among the manuscript entries are: a six-page original collaborative poem, each of the fifteen sections signed by its writer; poetical extracts from Felicia Hemans, Catherine Fanshawe, and Moses Browne; notes on ruins observed at Port-Royal-des-Champs; and an extract from "Recollections of an eventful life, chiefly passed in the army, by a soldier." Dated items range from 1820 to 1831. Laid in is a 1902 autograph letter signed A.H. Hallam Murray, thanking his recipient ("Dear Madam") for allowing him to see her grandfather's album, explaining the Byron portrait is a copy after G. H. Harlow.