Drawing, Technical

Title:

Telegraphic Water-Carrier

Object Name:

Drawing, Technical

Object ID:

2020.021

Creator:

Bachelder, John Badger (1825-1894)Artist

Place of Origin:

Manchester, NH

Date:

1854

Description:

Drawing. Design for a water carrying system, by John Badger Bachelder (1815-1894), 1854. Ink and watercolor on paper. Titled at top, "TELEGRAPHIC WATER-CARRIER." Signed in lower right corner, "J. B. Bachelder Feb 10th, 1854." Depicts a bucket attached to a pulley system by rope, a design intended to fill and transport buckets of water from the well to the house across "telegraphic" wire lines strung between wooden poles. Insets feature five components of the design. Key on left identifies 21 parts, including "stationary pulley at the house," "telegraph post," "car and bucket," "stationary pulley at the well," "pulleys," "guards," "bucket," and "car wheels." Scale at bottom left corner.

Material:

Paper

Dimensions:

H-8 W-16.2 inches

Provenance:

John Badger Bachelder (1825-1894), American soldier, artist, and historian, was born in Gilmanton, NH, son of Moses Bachelder and Sally Parsons Gilman. He attended Captain Alden Partridge's Military School, Pembroke, NH and the Gilmanton Academy, Gilmanton, NH. He then moved to Reading, PA, to work at a school that would later become known as the Pennsylvania Military Institute, becoming its principal in 1851. He became involved with the Pennsylvania state militia and was appointed a colonel in 1852. Bachelder returned to New Hampshire in 1853, settling in Manchester, where he began a career as an artist and publisher of lithographic views of New England communities and travel guides. When the Civil War began in 1861, he accompanied the Union Army of the Potomac in hopes of being present at a decisive battle. There, he would be able to examine the topography of the battlefield, interview participants, and publish a written and illustrated history of the battle. Bachelder's most noted work, which would occupy most of the remainder of his life, was documenting the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. He died in 1894 at his home in Hyde Park, MA.

Credit Line:

New Hampshire Historical Society Purchase

People:

Bachelder, John Badger (1825-1894)

Subjects:

Water carriers, Patent drawings, Technical drawings, Buckets