Illustration for How the Old Horse Won the Bet; Back in the one hoss shay he went
Datec. 1891
Artist
Howard Pyle
American illustrator, 1853–1911
Illustration CitationThe One Hoss Shay with its Companion Poems, How the Old Horse Won the Bet & The Broomstick Train, by Oliver Wendell Holmes (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1892)
MediumInk and watercolor on paper
Dimensionssheet: 7 1/8 × 6 3/16 in. (18.1 × 15.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Willard S. Morse, 1923
Object number1923-201
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextOliver Wendell Holmes was well known not just as a professor anatomy at Harvard but also as an author of light verse. The One Hoss Shay tells of a one hundred year old horse-drawn carriage that finally, and suddenly, breaks down. In How the Old Horse Won the Bet, a "poor forlorn old beast" amazes everyone with his speed in winning a race. The Broomstick Train attributes the flashing sparks of new electric trains to witches riding alongside them.
