1892 - R. V. Murray - Engraver for Bee Publications

R. V. Murray was a beekeeper, an engraver and engraving business owner in Cleveland, Murray & Heiss. 

Another one of my interests is wood engravings, especially done for commercial publications.  Before the dreadful photo-engravings of the turn of the century, delightful hand engraved artwork, if done well, was often able to capture the spirit of the thing being portrayed.      

     


This article is about Murray. 

The Progressive Bee-Keeper is his work.

GLEANINGS ARTIST:   A BEE-KEEPER, MUSICIAN, AND ARTIST.

A great many of our readers have admired the humorous style of the Rambler etchings. While the Rambler, or John H. Martin, of Riverside, Cal., suggests, by a rough drawing, the funny incidents of his travel and observation, it is R. V. Murray, of Cleveland. O., who remodels the drawings, giving them character and expression. 

As Mr. Murray is a bee-keeper and an artist, and is already familiar to the readers of Gleanings, we thought it might be interesting to give you his picture, and therefore solicited from him notes from which we might prepare a biographical sketch. 

R. V. Murray is the senior member of the firm of Murray & Heiss, the engravers who, we presume, have done three-fourths of all the engraving that has been done for the bee-keepers of the United States. 

When we talk about hives, brood-frames, bee-spaces, queens, drones, and workers, they know just what we mean. For instance, in writing instructions we tell tnem to put the bee-space above the frames or sections, and they know exactly what we mean. Mr. Murray, however, is a bee-keeper, or, rather, owns a few colonies in or near the city limits of Cleveland. He has had the bee-fever, got over it, and experienced the exquisite pain of bee-stings, hived swarms, and has done every thing, in fact, except secure a big crop of honey. In fact. In a city like Cleveland it is a hard matter for bees to find very much natural forage, and no doubt Mr. Murray has done well under the circumstances, even to make the bees work for nothing and board themselves. Many a bee-keeper counts himself lucky, in these days of bad seasons, if he can do even that.
From the reading of the notes, one might possibly gather the idea that Mr. Murray knows something about music. Although he gives you no direct hint to that effect, he is a very fine musician, and is especially skilled in playing the guitar.

"At about the age of 19 I took my first lessons from a teacher in drawing, who located for a while in our village—a Mr. Bryant—a painter and lover of art, and those three terms of evening lessons I today look back upon as one of the brightest spots in my life. But the dark cloud of the Rebellion interrupted my studies, and shot the life out of one of the most lovable of teachers; for, true to his moral teachings, he was willing to die for the principles he loved. His teachings were always accompanied with moral lessons. This man, for he was a true man, and one who followed closely after his Maker, and has left an impression upon my life coupled with his noble actions, was always in the endeavor to show the why and wherefore of every thing—the cause and effect, whether applied to drawing or other things. 

... 

During the war I was engaged by the Spencer Rifle Co., of (Tremont Street) Boston, and while there made good use of my time evenings, and what spare time I could command, by studying under various teachers and schools.

1860s, Tremont Street- image courtesy of the Boston Public Library

From there I went to Amesbury, Mass., with the intention of learning photography; but my employer, Mr. Clarkson, soon went out of business, and my career in that direction came to a sudden close. 

In my early days our family lived in this same town of Amesbury, and I felt somewhat at home, so I went into the mills there and stayed a year or so. It was at this time, or just before the photographing business was given up, that I made the acquaintance of that lovable and renowned Quaker poet, John G. Whittier. and I have had many friendly talks and visits with him; have met him in his rambles along the Powow River and the meadows of the Merrimac.

...In 1867 or 1868 I left home to take up that branch of business, and to engrave the same on metal, at first under a Mr. Chandler, then under Woodbury, whose place I afterward filled....Then came that great event, and what appeared as a terrible evil (which turned out a blessing, as most appearances do), the great fire of Oct. 9. 1871, and blotted out academy, music-house, and a thousand things which entered into my life, and atone time barely escaping with even that: with clothes torn and burnt, with body bleeding, I, with multitudes, made our way to the lake, and in many dangers made our way to places of safety. 

I was in a dazed and helpless condition. But, let the details of those events pass. Suffice it to say that at that time I realized more than ever that great truth, and the blessed hope that came with it, that "the Lord's providence is exerted for our good every atom of time.  

... 

The music-plates of the sheet-music department were saved in an underground vault, and were afterward purchased by S. Brainard's Sons, of Cleveland; and this circumstance, and my intimate knowledge of the catalogue, etc., brought me to Cleveland (have not seen Chicago since). 

... 

After serving the Brainards about a year I became associated with the business of wood engraving as artist and designer, and have been in that up to date....In looking back I can see now what the Chicago fire was all about (that is, so far as regards myself), which was, that I might meet and wed one of God's loving helpmeets, and to give me work to do which I should not otherwise have had. ..."

R. V. Murray............. 

Cleveland, O., June 1.

To read the entire article go to Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1892.

Notes: Spencer Rifle Co., was in Boston from 1862 to 1868 in the Chickering building on Tremont Street.  I assume it was an office of some sort as manufacture was in Connecticut.