Illustration for How the Old Horse Won the Bet; They follow at his heels

Illustration for How the Old Horse Won the Bet; They follow at his heels
Illustration for How the Old Horse Won the Bet; They follow at his heels

Illustration for How the Old Horse Won the Bet; They follow at his heels

Date1905
Artist (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: 5 3/16 × 5 1/4 in. (13.2 × 13.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of Willard S. Morse, 1923
Object number1923-198
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsDRAWING
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.
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