Appendix E: Biographies

Maynard1

Edward Maynard (Madison, NY 26 April 1813 – Washington, DC 4 May 1891; see Image 329), the son of Moses Maynard (b. Townsend, MA 10 October 1775; d. Madison, NY 27 May 1853; buried Madison Village Cemetery) and his second wife, Chloe (Butler) Maynard (b. 22 March (?) 1777; d. Madison, NY 19 December 1821; buried Madison Village Cemetery),2 “was born on a farm in upstate New York” in a town situated between Syracuse and Schenectady. There, he “attended the village school and Hamilton Academy [and] received an appointment to the Military Academy at West Point in 1831.”3 Because of “ill health and a fragile disposition,” he left the Academy in “his first year and took to studying civil engineering, law, drawing, architecture and anatomy.”4 In 1835, he undertook a career in dentistry, moving to Washington, DC, in 1836, where he set up private practice. He also invented numerous dental instruments, such as the “hand held drill stock.”5 “In 1838, he was the first dentist to successfully use gold foil to fill the nerve cavity, including nerve canals in molar and bicuspid teeth.”6

On 3 September 1838, Maynard married in Sherburne, New York, Ellen Sophia Doty (b. 15 October 1817; d. 3 October 1863; buried Lakewood Cemetery, Cooperstown, NY), daughter of Moses Doty and Elizabeth (Pike) Doty, and “a direct descendent of Edward Doty, … one of the original passengers on the Mayflower that landed at Plymouth Massachusetts in 1620.”7 They had three sons at the time of Maynard’s trip abroad: Edward Harris (1840 – 27 April 1846), George Willoughby (b. 5 March 1843; d. 5 April 1923; buried Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC), and John Doty (c. 1845 – after 1880).8

Maynard was also interested in guns. “The flintlock [system] of gun ignition which had been in use since the 1630s … was found to be awkward and time consuming and was officially replaced by the U.S. Army in 1842 by the adaption of its first percussion musket.9 “In March of 1845 Maynard patented a system of priming for firearms, to take the place of the recently adapted percussion cap” (see Image 338).10

On 20 March 1845, U.S. Secretary of War William L. Marcy (1786–1857) and Maynard signed a contract worth four thousand dollars selling “the privilege and right to use [the latter’s] improvements under certain expressed conditions” (the discussion of which is beyond the scope of this biographical essay). On 22 March 1845, “a similar agreement” was signed between the chief of the Naval Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, W.M. Crane (1776–1846), and Maynard.11

“Encouraged by the ministers of several European countries”12 but, most especially, assured by the Russian envoy to the United States, Baron Aleksandr Andreevich Bodisco (see his biography in this Appendix and Image 283), and the Russian envoy to Great Britain, Baron Ernst Philipp von Brünnow (1797–1875), of their country’s interest in his invention, Maynard undertook in 1845 a trip to Russia and western Europe. His journey began in Springfield, Massachusetts, on 3 July 1845. He took with him only one thousand dollars, expecting to return to the United States in approximately six months (December 1845).13 Maynard left the United States having contracted with Major Thomas L. Smith, registrar of the Treasury, and General J. Washington Tyson, commissioner general for Purchasing, to put up the funds for his traveling expenses, which they failed to do, thus causing him many difficulties in the course of his journey.14 Traveling with Maynard from London to St. Petersburg was George Washington Parmly (b. 22 October 1819; d. London 15 August 1892; buried Brompton Cemetery, London; see Image 339), an American dentist whose practice included New Orleans and Paris before he settled in London.15

They arrived in St. Petersburg on Saturday, 20 September 1845.16 On Sunday morning, 21 September, Maynard called on Major Whistler (see Images 7–8, 21) to deliver some letters to him and was taken by him to the eleven o’clock service at the English Church (see Image 110–111). After lunch, Major Whistler visited Maynard for several hours in the latter’s room at the misses Benson’s boarding house on the English Embankment, where he examined and admired the firearm Maynard had brought to demonstrate to Emperor Nicholas I (see Images 420–423) and other crowned heads of Europe. Whistler told Maynard that the emperor was not in St. Petersburg and would continue to be absent for about a month. Maynard thus realized that he could not return home before spring of 1846 and wrote his wife that he would be unwilling to undertake a second trip, if unable to accomplish his goal on this one, because of the seasickness he had suffered as well as “the inconveniences and disgusts of travelling.” He submitted his invention instead to the committee headed by His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the emperor’s brother. With time on his hands, he hired a “valet de place” and went sightseeing with Parmly. Out of boredom, frustration, and the necessity of earning money, he introduced his dental operation in St. Petersburg. His patients were not only the foreign colony of the city, but also members of the Imperial family and the aristocracy. He was thus able, from his primary profession, to pay his own expenses in St. Petersburg and to send money home to assuage his anxiety over his family’s financial straits.

Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (see Image 439), on examining Maynard’s firearm, “made some remarks about the difficulty which Russian soldiers would have in managing the new lock, and the difficulty which there might be in repairing it (if damaged) by such workmen as accompany armies.”17 Maynard’s response, expressed to his wife, was: “If I had known what clumsy guns were used in Europe, I would have ‘got up’ one to match. I have (of course) taken particular notice of the arms of the soldiers wherever I have been and have seen no muskets so well made as the American.”18 Major Whistler, while having his teeth operated on, agreed, partly on the basis of his own experience, that if Maynard was unable to make headway “pretty soon,” he should leave Russia.19 Maynard was very agitated as he contemplated his situation, which was that he had very little money in his possession, was receiving news that his wife was finding it necessary to borrow money from friends because he could not send any home, and that his flourishing practice was being abandoned by his patients the longer he stayed away.20 On Friday, 7/19 December 1845, Maynard received a letter from the Russian committee rejecting his gun invention.21 On Sunday, 30 December (OS), the emperor returned to St. Petersburg.22

After his lack of success with His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, Maynard hoped he might gain access to demonstrate his gun improvement to His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich (see Image 425), the future Alexander II, through his wife, Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Aleksandrovna (see Images 426–427), who wished her teeth to be operated on. She, however, was ill and would have had to postpone her appointments with Maynard for so long that he could not further extend his stay in Russia.23 In the midst of the peripaties of dental appointments and proposals of conditions to attract Maynard into staying in Russia because of his phenomenal reputation as a dentist, he was stunned by the arrival of a personal gift from Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (see Image 440), whose teeth he had operated on. Hinted at early in their relationship as a distinct possibility, the gift consisted of seven hundred silver rubles and a ring “consist[ing] of a large red Garnet surrounded by fifty small diamonds, surrounded by sixteen large diamonds”24 (see Image 337).

Despite his lack of success with the Russian government, Maynard met in St. Petersburg representatives of other European nations. He successfully negotiated an agreement with a merchant named Charles Thomas Grut interested in buying, as he wrote, “my right for Denmark” and willing “before the papers are made out [to] pay me in cash two thousand five hundred dollars and guarantee to give me in addition ten percent of all he receives from the government of Denmark.”25 Mr. Grut soon after proposed that, together with “his brother-in-law at Copenhagen (who is very rich) … he will not only [also] take Sweden but a large part, or perhaps all, of Europe … even … the world, except for that part sold to the U.S.,” which Maynard encouraged him to do.26 The arrangement concerning Sweden was successfully concluded in mid-January 1846.27

On 20 April 1846, Maynard stopped in at the Whistlers’ to say goodbye.28 He arrived in Berlin on Tuesday, 21 April, having failed completely to demonstrate his gun improvement to anyone in the Russian government or Imperial family who might help him. On the advice of Henry Wheaton (1785–1849), U.S. minister to Prussia, he decided that he would make no such effort in Berlin but wait until “it has been adopted in France.”29 He spent a few days in Cologne and then went on to Brussels. Here, his gun was hailed by the King of Belgium, and work was begun to produce the parts for its use as a sporting gun.30 Again, however, there were many delays.31 While in Belgium, grief was added to his anxieties, when he received the devastating news of the death on 27 April 1846 of his firstborn son, Edward Harris.32 He spent all of May, June, and July in Belgium, heading on 31 July for Paris.33 He arrived in London on Tuesday 11 August, and wrote his last letter home on Monday, 16 August.34 He left for home on 28 August on the Great Britain from Liverpool,35 arriving in New York in early September.36

In addition to the prestige that accrued to him after his dental operations on the Russian Imperial family “he had successfully sold the rights to his [firearm] invention for Denmark and Sweden,”37 and had “his Tape Primer Lock patented in France, Belgium, England, Scotland and Ireland.”38 He had had an offer made to him by Emperor Nicholas I, as he had wished, rather than making an offer to the emperor: “Nicholas I offered him the title of ‘Actual Dentist to the Imperial Family,’ with the rank of Major, if he would agree to remain in Russia for ten years and practice and teach his [method] of practice; Dr. Maynard to be attached to the court with a salary or practice privately, whichever he might choose.” Maynard respectfully declined the offer.39

Four more children (all daughters) were born to the Maynards: Marcia Ellen (b. 6 August 1847; d. 6 March 1926; buried Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, NY); Josephine Gaudette (b. Washington, DC 1 January 1850; d. Rochester, NY 14 February 1931; buried Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, NY); Marie (b. District of Columbia 1852; d. District of Columbia 5 August 1927; buried Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC); and Virginia Dumont (b. District of Columbia 1854; d. 19 August 1926; buried Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC).40 In 1855, the Maynards bought a house in Cooperstown, New York. Ellen (Doty) Maynard died on 3 October 1863 of heart disease.41 Maynard married in 1869 Caroline Ellen Long, called “Nellie” (b. Savannah, GA; d. Troy, NY 13 March 1923; buried Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC), with whom he had one daughter, Edna Long (1870–1938).42

Maynard continued to invent firearms, his “most notable inventions after the tape primer lock [being] the invention of the first metallic cartridge and the first breech loading rifle famed for its use in the Civil War.”43 “The metallic cartridge was eventually adopted by the United States Government, by all manufacturers of breach [sic] loading arms and eventually became the standard cartridge for all rifles worldwide.”44 Having sold his Cooperstown home in late 1855, Maynard bought in 1863 “The Castle,” in Tarrytown, New York. In 1869, he sold it and returned to Washington.45 He died there on 4 May 1891 of Bright’s disease, a kidney disease called “acute or chronic nephritis.” He was buried in the Maynard family plot of the Congressional Cemetery. His “grave is marked by a granite obelisk [with the inscription] ‘Dr. Edward Maynard – Surgeon – Dentist and Inventor 1813–1891’.”46

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In terms of temperament, Edward Maynard was restless; impatient; kind; humorous; and generous in the free care he gave to those who could not afford his services. He was supremely intelligent; inquisitive; observant; a man of outstanding talents; could draw quite well; had a reputation for being gentle as a dentist; was a staunch American, but unprejudicial in praising the amenities of Russian life absent in American life; and was unembarrassedly both open and allusive in his sexual remarks to his wife.47

He was a restless person, who appreciated his wife’s understanding of his disposition. She constantly urged contentment upon him and, in her letters (not extant), approved of him remaining abroad “long enough to decide [his] affairs in some way,” knowing that he would thus be more contented when he did return home.48 His letters contain many instances in which he praises contentment and the circumstances of travel and life in general that can promote it.49 He encouraged his wife to read books from their library he had read and that had contributed to the “interest and enjoyment” he had experienced when actually seeing examples of what he had read about. His particular example of interesting books was of landscape gardening, rural architecture, and villa architecture,50 which he encountered everywhere in the environs of St. Petersburg. He wanted to be close to his wife in every way, but this desire that she read what he had read was part of his exuberance to impart information that accompanied his own active intellect. He explained in copious and intricate detail to his wife the places he visited, the makeup of objects he saw, and the functioning of equipment he observed, drawing with some talent in his letters (see Images 330–337) members of the Imperial family whom he met or saw (Nicholas I; the Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, brother of Nicholas I); his room at the misses Benson’s boarding house; vehicles peculiar to Russian life (a drozhki, a sledge); Persian riding accoutrements at the Tsarskoe Selo Armory; a sphinx in front of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts; the Lapplanders with their reindeer and sleigh; a guest at a masked ball; the ice hills at Catherinehoff; and front and side views of the ring given to him by Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna as his dental patient.

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He did not approach Russian culture and life only with condemnation. He intended to adapt many features from Russian living, expecially those having to do with insulation, to make his own house comfortable. “The walls being of such great thickness (2 to 3 feet, solid brick work) and the windows all double and every crack and crevice caulked and pasted up, the most intense cold out is not heeded in-doors nor the fiercest wind heard.”51 After taking a sledge ride about St. Petersburg, he planned to have a Russian-style sledge made for his family to use at their farm in Cooperstown, New York.52 He showed in his letters that he was in full understanding of how these various Russian amenities were built and functioned.

In observing the lives of the serfs, however, his opinion was that they were more wretched than the American Negroes: “Poor devils! – Black, sour bread and salt is almost the only food the laboring class gets here. I speak of the serfs, or slaves. Our Negroes are ten thousand times better off – better clad, better, infinitely better fed, more enlightened, more cleanly, more honest, and if not more contented, they seem to be far more happy.”53 At the same time, he disapproved of imitations of the Negroes by Parmly, his traveling companion to St. Petersburg, because they reflected badly on him and Maynard as Americans: “he was too fond of telling and acting Negro stories, dances, etc. and Yankee stories etc. etc. all of which, though he did them very well, were always out of place and gave a character to us which I did not choose to share with him.”54

As for the English, he derided their ignorance about America, probably based on conversations at the boarding house or at dinners he was invited to:

Will you believe me when I tell you that an Englishman in a respectable official position under the British government – a man looked upon as a gentleman – asked me the other day if “that Oregon territory was a continuation of the American Continent?” – fact. It is really amazing to see how little of us and ours is known by Englishmen and how what little they do know is measured and shaped and colored by English pride, English prejudice and English bias. They are compelled to do us justice occasionally however. They have learned some things about us that are not easily forgotten and will never be forgiven.55

The last two sentences are almost certainly a reference to the American Revolution and the War of 1812.

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Some of the descriptions he gave and the ploys he used were quite humorous, even comical. He summed up his landladies, the misses Benson, on first meeting them, as “fat enough to be what they seem – very good people.”56 In explaining his appearance in a “shuba,” or furlined-pelisse, he said:

Mr. [Joseph] Harrison [Jr.] … says it is as warm as a feather bed and so thick and soft that it is a great protection against the raps and bruises of traveling. Besides this “schube” I must have a pair of fur boots – things that look as if made for an elephant lined with some cheap fur and reaching about the knees – and a cap, also a fur. Altogether I think I shall make quite a “sizable man” – only picture me at least twice as thick, legs and all, as now – with only the tip of my delicate nose visible – nothing else to tell you whether it is a man or a young elephant standing on his legs!57

Because the sudden windfall from Mr. Grut enabled him to buy Russian gifts for his family, he became as crafty as any traveler and amusingly described to his wife one of his attempts to avoid duties on and confiscation of his purchases: he bought her a gray Russian squirrel fur and had it sewn “into a morning gown for [his own] use.”58

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Maynard’s letters record frequent instances of dreams. One very poignant dream concerned his son George crying and Maynard’s anguished inability to assuage the child’s pitiful state and himself crying as a result.59 His letters also frequently refer with sexual innuendo to dreams that he had had or looked forward to having of his wife (“the Lady”), sometimes containing open expressions of sexual desire. One of the more explicit passages, not about a dream, was written from Berlin some nine months after last having seen his wife: “[I] hope to see you before the year is passed, which it will be on the 3rd of July … I anticipate great happiness when we do meet – it will be like a re-marriage, we have been so long without – ahem! Without seeing each other. ‘We shall see what we shall see’ – and feel it too.”60

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During his four-month wait while the committee headed by His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich inspected his firearms invention, Maynard supported himself by practicing dentistry in his room at the misses Benson’s. He charged his countrymen what he charged his patients in America. His first St. Petersburg patient was charged “5 rubles for plugging (about $3.75) and other charges in proportion.”61 As his fame spread, he raised his fee to ten rubles.62 One busy day, he earned twenty-five dollars.63

His patients from the American community included Colonel Charles Stewart Todd (see Image 278), United States envoy to Russia; Major George Washington Whistler, Anna Whistler (see Images1–5), and Willie Whistler (see Images 27, 30); Joseph Harrison Jr. (see Image 226), of the firm of Harrison, Winans and Eastwick, and his wife, Sarah (Poulterer) Harrison (see Image 227), whom Maynard described as “one of our pretty and sensible women”;64 and John Randolph Clay (see Image 281), U.S. chargé d’affaires to Russia. From among the English, Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes, the Whistlers’ neighbor across the hall, was a patient. Among the others he operated on was a cousin of the misses Benson, Lucy Sherrard Finley (1817–1893; see Image 340), who worked as a governess to Sofia (1833–1880), only daughter of Count Mikhail Nikolaevich Muraviev-Vilenskii (1796–1866; see Image 342), and paid visits to her Benson cousins. Maynard operated on her teeth without payment, because she was “dependent entirely upon her own exertions for her support and unable to pay.”65 He generously devoted considerable time to her. Among the Russians he operated on was a young man, “said to be immensely wealthy and of a very influential family,” whom he called “Sopozhnakoff” (probably “Sapozhnikov”),66 with extremely serious dental problems.

His most illustrious patient, however, was Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, wife of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, and sister-in-law of Emperor Nicholas I. His meeting with her had come about in the following way. With the rejection of his gun invention, he was preparing to leave St. Petersburg, when on Sunday morning, 27 January 1846, Colonel Todd informed him that at noon or one o’clock Dr. Arndt [sic: Arendt] (see Image 343), the emperor’s physician, would call on him. Arendt’s arrival coincided with the visit of a patient, so that Maynard was able to explain the tooth-plugging procedure to him, which highly delighted Arendt. As a result, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna requested Maynard’s services. Although he was planning to leave St. Petersburg in a few days along with Colonel Todd, who had been recalled, Maynard decided to stay on. Maynard informed his wife that “[Major Whistler] advised me to stay if the Court wishes to employ me, as it will be a compliment to me and to the Profession in America” and Colonel Todd agreed to remain in St. Petersburg a week longer.67 Not least among Maynard’s inducements was the fact that Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna was the wife of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, “who condemned my gun, and who may be induced, perhaps, to change his mind,” if Maynard could discuss the gun improvement with him directly.68

Maynard was persuaded, however, to remain for a month or two and Todd left without him. Everyone urged Maynard to keep in mind the prestige of having been invited to perform his operations on the Imperial family. Major Whistler told him “‘it will pay’ – that is to say I shall be compensated.”69 The Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna’s spokeswoman informed him that in naming a satisfactory compensation for his services “I was not to take into account what the Grand Duchess might be disposed to do afterward – by which I suppose she meant some present in addition.” As well, as a princess of Württemberg, she could endorse his gun invention to that state.70

In their relationship, Maynard and Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna were each themselves. He found her “extremely amiable – no nonsense – not being offended at being addressed as ‘you’ instead of ‘Your Imperial Highness’ – she has too much sense not to perceive that my manner of speech is the result of a republican education and she seems too kind not to make all due allowance for it.”71 Etiquette, however, required that he perform his operations in a dress coat.72 If required by most patients, he insisted that they come to his office in his room at the misses Benson’s boarding house; if required to attend members of the Imperial family, he traveled to their palaces to operate.73 He charged the Imperial family fifty rubles ($37.50) per day.74

Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna informed Maynard that she had “never had a Dentist operate for her who was so delicate and easy in his operations,” a statement made frequently to and about him.75 She said “she would talk with [Dr. Arendt] about the way, if any, in which a school of Dentistry can be established here, under my direction.” They discussed an appointment as “Dentist to the Court,” the only appointment Maynard would consider, as he could not leave a full practice at home unless he “step[ped] into a full practice” in St. Petersburg, not only because of the financial considerations, but because he would “forfeit a high rank in a respectable and useful Profession at home to be classed with charlatans here.” Dr. Arendt had explained to Maynard the choice of conditions if he came to Russia to practice. He could “be attached to the Court at a fixed salary, and so, be compelled to go with the court wherever it might be traveling for pleasure or health or other purposes – or … have a private practice and still be Dentist to the Court, but without the fixed salary – the Court paying according to the service they receive. [Arendt] recommended the latter – having tried both ways as physician.”76 Maynard did not agree to choose one of the possibilities on the spot, as requested; instead, he asked that a proposal be made to him by the emperor that he would then consider. Major Whistler, speaking from experience, expressed the opinion that if Maynard “stay[ed] now, and had an office etc. etc. the fame [he] had already acquired would lead to a capital business for a time at least.”77 He explained to Maynard that “it would be better to send for [his wife] than to go for [her], as the fever might abate during [his] absence,” noting how much more expensive life in St. Petersburg was than in Washington, DC, and the difficulties of “not yet speaking French [or] Russian.” Maynard also described for his wife what was better in Russian life than in American, including the structure of the houses, the cheapness and beauty of the furniture, and the compensating warmth of the houses in winter despite the outside cold. Amusingly, even the Benson sisters were drawn into the effort to sound out Maynard as to the conditions under which he would remain in St. Petersburg and practice dentistry.78

Through the endorsement of Maynard by Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmikhel’ (see Image 243), Major Whistler’s superior, chose to have Maynard operate on him and on one of his daughters.79 Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Aleksandrovna, wife of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich, Heir to the Throne, also wished to engage his services,80 while Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna herself wished to have her children operated on.81 The Countess Kleinmikhel’, wife of Major Whistler’s superior, decided not to have her teeth operated on because she was frightened by Maynard’s fees.82 Within the court circle, he possibly also operated on a daughter of “General Alderberg,” describing the child’s father as “said to be only second to one … in the favor of the Emperor.”83

Although Maynard had been told by Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna’s spokeswoman that he might receive a personal gift, he was nevertheless overwhelmed when the secretary of his patient brought him seven hundred silver rubles and a ring consisting of “a large red Garnet surrounded by fifty small diamonds, surrounded by sixteen large diamonds”84 (see Image 337). Because of the generous gesture of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, Maynard, who had not drawn her likeness in any of his letters, bought a small plaster bust of her, “taken several years ago, but still very much like her,” so that his wife might “form a pretty correct idea of her.”85

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Maynard frequently saw the Whistlers. He went to dinner at their home on Saturday, 27 September 1845, and reported to his wife that he “found Mrs. Whistler like most of our women, very sensible and well informed and very amiable.”86 Major Whistler took him on several occasions to the Alexandrofsky Head Mechanical Works (see Images 223–225).87 On Tuesday, 30 September 1845, while at Alexandrofsky, he promised some of the Americans that he would operate on them if he had the time; he felt, however, that “Major Whistler is so kind and Mrs. Whistler and their children so amiable that I must do so for them at all events.”88 On Monday, 27 October 1845, he was able to operate on the teeth of Willie Whistler, “a fine boy of 8 or so years.”89 On New Year’s Day 1846, Anna Whistler had two teeth filled.90 As the emperor was away, and Maynard was asked to demonstrate his firearm invention to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, Major Whistler advised Maynard “to state in the fewest possible words what brought me here and what I wish to do,” which pleased Maynard, as it coincided with his own idea of the appropriate approach.91 Whistler often came to see Maynard at the boarding house, bringing information he hoped might be helpful in presenting the firearm invention.92 He told Maynard adamantly and humorously “that if a gun was presented here for adoption that was – no matter how perfect – even if it would load itself and go off itself when you wished and required nothing to have nothing done for it – still the Russians would hesitate and delay and put off its adoption perhaps for years.”93

He also told Maynard that “so much of what he [himself] has heard about what Americans have done in Europe is false that he looks with suspicion upon all such big stories.” For example, although an American newspaper had reported that Nicholas I “had conferred the Order of the Black Eagle upon ‘Professor Risley’ the gymnast” (see Image 202), Whistler assured Maynard that this was not true and that “Risley attracted no notice whatever here – could only get an engagement in [sic: one] night in a week to perform, etc. and that he was an exceedingly vulgar, illiterate fellow.”94

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Maynard’s sightseeing jaunts included the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (see Images 154–157); St. Isaac’s Cathedral (see Images 119–120); the Alexander column (see Images 116, 132); the Winter Palace (see Images 114–117); the masked ball in the Assembly Hall of the Nobility (see Images 145–146, 333, 373); the reopening of navigation after the ceremony of the Blessing of the Waters (see Image 349); the ice hills at Catherinehoff; the Lapplander reindeer sleigh rides (see Image 347); the Hermitage, with its art collection (see Image 113); and the temporary amusements set up at Carnival time (see Image 345). The highlight of his visit to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts was Briullov’s The Last Day of Pompeii (Poslednii den’ Pompei) (see Image 204), which he felt he would “never forget … while I remember pictures. It is a modern production.”95 He thought St. Isaac’s surpassed St. Paul’s in London “in the design as well as execution” to such an extent that he felt English pride in their cathedral was misplaced.96 He seemed to enjoy being seized at the Assembly Hall of the Nobility by two masked women whom he was unable to identify because “they pretend[ed] not to understand English very well and [spoke] it brokenly and so mixed with French and with voices so disguised.”97 During Carnival, although he

saw some very good pantomime playing [he found] most of the amusements … such as American children 10 years old would be ashamed of; yet here men and women as well as children eagerly crowding to see such contemptible trash. – Riding round a ring, cider-mill fashion, behind or on a little wooden horse – or ditto in a boat – or shocking imitation of a railroad car – or ditto in a sort of swinging box. Of course these are not the Gentlemen and Ladies of Russia; but still they are of a class that we should not expect to see in such places.98

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Beyond sightseeing, Maynard spent a good part of his time with Colonel Charles Stewart Todd, the envoy extraordinary of the United States. He met at dinner at Todd’s quarters in Tsarskoe Selo John Randolph Clay (see Image 281), the chargé d’affaires, and the latter’s wife, Janet (Crawfurd) Clay. Todd expressed his readiness “to do all in his power to serve [Maynard],” attending with him social and cultural events to which the American envoy had little difficulty in obtaining access.99 Maynard attended the races in Tsarskoe Selo, with Colonel Todd explaining to him who all the Imperial and aristocratic personages were. He was taken by Todd to a ball at Pavlovsk100 and to the Alexandrinskii Theatre, where Maynard reported they “saw some very capital acting.”101 They attended the French theater as well as the Italian opera; Maynard was ecstatic over the ceiling of the Bolshoi Theatre, where he heard the Italian opera.102 They also attended the circus, which he found “such, very nearly, as were common in America ten or fifteen years ago – except the horses which were not so good as ours.”103 He was supposed to leave Russia when the recalled Colonel Todd did, but delays caused by operating on the teeth of Imperial and court personages resulted in Todd’s leaving without him.104

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Maynard also received invitations to dine from others than the Whistlers and Colonel Todd. He met through Parmly, his traveling companion, “Mr. Thompson,” also a dentist, and the latter’s two brothers.105 Dining with them on 29 September 1845, he found them “very civil and seem[ing] very glad to have the opportunity of learning something of American modes of practice which the Mr. Thompson complimented very highly.” They had never heard of the American “operation of destroying the nerve and plugging the nerve cavity as well as the decay cavity … until I told of it.”106

He also dined at the home of Mr. Gellibrand (see Image 265) on 21 March 1846, where most of the American colony was assembled, and four people expressed a wish for his dental services.107 Maynard apparently had a much better time here than he had had at the home of Willam Hooper Ropes, Mr. Gellibrand’s brother-in-law.

On Monday, 25 February 1846, he had dined at the home of “Mr. W.H. Ropes,” where he had

never felt at such a time so much at a loss what to say or do in order not to appear stupid. The fact is the only things they talked of were such as were only known to themselves and of no earthly interest to me. There was one Englishman present and Mr. Rope’s brother and Mrs. Rope’s sister. Mrs. Ropes and sister (Englishwoman) play and sing delightfully. Mr. Joseph Ropes (the brother) sails from Liverpool for Boston on the 19th of April – to return in autumn.108

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Maynard also left substantial charming and informative comments in his letters about the misses Benson and their boarding house, its inhabitants and daily and social life, thus filling a gap in the general knowledge about their establishment (see Benson in this Appendix).

Notes