Memorial at Mary Wade

The Mary Wade Home organized a lovely memorial service for Dad on Friday. Senior staff attended, as well as a number of residents and their residents, and Jo and I. I read Dad's poem, "Houqua," which he wrote in high school (see below) and played Artie Shaw's rendition of "Begin the Beguine," which Dad often said was his favorite song. Kristen Paolella, who organized the service, read Emerson's poem, "Terminus," and we talked for a while about Dad--everyone wanted to hear stories.

Bio from the Forbes House Museum

Thanks to Robin Tagliaferri for this:

About Crosby Forbes:

Henry Ashton Crosby Forbes Ph.D., was born on 25 June 1925 in Westwood, MA, the great grandson of China Trade merchant, Captain Robert Bennet Forbes. He attended Dedham Country Day and Milton Academy, and later served as quartermaster in the United States Navy Landing Craft Infantry during WWII. Forbes earned an undergraduate and graduate degree at Harvard University in 1950 and 1961, respectively, and was recognized as an international expert in Asian export art. He married Grace Pierce on 16 July 1955, and is survived by two sons, Robert Pierce Forbes of New Haven, CT and Douglas Bowditch Forbes of New York, NY.

Dr. Forbes was founder of the Museum of the American China Trade, which opened its doors in 1964. He was a highly respected authority on the American China Trade, dedicating his life’s work to the conservation of Chinese export art and family artifacts. Forbes’ heritage included eleven family members who engaged in the China Trade from 1789- 1891.

Among his many accomplishments, Forbes was the author of Chinese Export Silver (published by the Museum of the American China Trade, 1975), a definitive, internationally recognized volume of research.

In 1984 the Museum of the American China Trade became the Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House, and is now the Forbes House Museum. Forbes also spent over two decades as curator of Asian export art at Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, MA.

For more information on FHM programs, special events, membership and group tours, call the Museum at 617-696-1815 or visit the website www.forbeshousemuseum.org.

There'll always be English shoes

From HACF's journal, Feb. 9, 1963:


     "Ach, if it weren't for small blessings like splendid English shoes and magnificent suitings and good clean-cut clothes, I think I'd die. That's my only unalloyed satisfaction--a nice splendid pair of well-cared for English shoes! The most excellent product of its kind, the summation of generations of carefully preserved skills handed down in almost direct line silnce the days of Greek civilization--the culmination of the shoemaker's craft. That is something to walk in--like the winged shoes of mercury. But why did they always give me bunions until the last pair?"

Bibliography from LibraryThing

• Chinese export silver, 1785 to 1885 2 copies
• Chinese export silver: A legacy of luxury : a loan exhibition from the… 1 copy
• Hills and streams: Landscape decoration on Chinese export blue and white… 1 copy
• Warner Varnham - A Visual Diary of China and The Philippines 1835 - 1843 1 copy
• Shopping in China, the artisan community at Canton, 1825-1830 : a loan… 1 copy
• Massachusetts help to Ireland during the great famine 1 copy

I didn't know about two of these.

Dad at Mary Wade

Concert night, October 2011.

Thanks to all

The informal service at Forest Hills on Friday went extraordinarily well.  Thanks to family and friends who came out. Special thanks to Erin Brown Hastings of Beecher and Bennett, who made all the arrangements. Forest Hills faxed the documentation on the family plot, and requested Erin to find out from my Dad's relationship to the original proprietor, Margaret Forbes:

The answer is, she was Dad's great-great-grandmother--the mother of Robert Bennet Forbes. The cemetery opened in 1848, and Margaret purchased the family plot five years later, in 1853. 

That's a long time ago.

Obit in the Globe

FORBES, Henry Ashton Crosby 87, of Cambridge, MA, died of natural causes on Sunday, July 22, 2012 at the Mary Wade Home in Fair Haven. Born in Westwood, MA, on June 25, 1925, the youngest of five siblings, to the late Allan and Josephine Crosby Forbes, he was the beloved husband of 48 years to the late Grace W. (Pierce), loving father of Robert Forbes & his wife Joanne Foodim of New Haven and Douglas Forbes & his wife Heidi of Manhattan, NY, and devoted grandfather to Rachel and David. A descendant of Robert Bennet Forbes, one of America's great China trade merchants, Forbes charted an unlikely path for himself when, in 1965, he founded the Museum of the American China Trade in a home he'd inherited from his aunt. One of the earliest scholars to look specifically at this type of cross-cultural art and history, Forbes was a leading force in the field for over forty years. He was a frequent lecturer and writer on all aspects of Asian export art and in 1975, Crosby wrote (with John Devereux Kernan and Ruth Wilkins) Chinese Export Silver: 1785-1885, which remains the definitive volume on the subject. Forbes' kindness and generosity made him beloved by nearly everyone he met. He loved music, rarely missing the BSO, and was an active member of the St. Botolph Club, the Club of Odd Volumes, and many other societies. In 2011 he moved to New Haven to be closer to his children. A Memorial Service will be held in December. Contributions may be sent to the Forbes House Museum, 215 Adams Street, Milton, MA 02186. Beecher & Bennett, 2300 Whitney Ave., HAMDEN, in care of arrangements. To send a condolence to his family, please seeobituaryat:www.beecherandbennett.com

Published in The Boston Globe on July 29, 2012