In this exhibit, the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections has selected items from their extensive collection of family papers and institutional records to pay tribute to students past and present. View Exhibit
This work, which illustrates the arrangement of the first legislature of the United States, was created by thirteen-year-old Lemuel Blake, who seems to have attended a Pleasant Street School. The work was part of a collection donated to NEHGS by the Dorchester Antiquarian Society. As there is no further information on the work itself, research was conducted in an attempt to identify the individual and the school itself. An obituary was published in Register 15 (1861), 277-78, for a Lemuel Blake, of Boston, son of William and Rachel (Glover), also of Boston. It indicates that Lemuel was born in Dorchester on August 9, 1775, and died March 4, 1861. He established himself in the book and publishing business, and was active in military affairs.
One of the first schools in the United States was built on Settler's Street (later renamed Pleasant Street) in Dorchester in 1639. This could very well be the same "Pleasant Street School" that is noted on Blake's work.