Headpiece, Preface for The One Hoss Shay
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 1/4 × 6 1/4 in. (18.4 × 15.9 cm)
Credit LineGift of Willard S. Morse, 1923
Object number1923-159
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.
