Leavitts - Makers of Hanna and Lexington Models

[Charles Green]

Concerning Randle McLean Biddle's article in the current Nautical Research Journal : Photo #2 on page 362 - Walter C. Leavitt is credited as the maker of one of the extant Hanna models.  Clyde M. Leavitt made a model and  published a build article with plans in Mechanix Illustrated for one of the versions of the brig Lexington. Can anyone say if Walter C. and Clyde M. were related?  Do either of them have other acknowledged models to their credit?  Was Clyde M.'s Lexington build article in MI his only published article?

[Windships]

Charles, our mutual friend Maury Stuffmann passed your post to me.

Thanks for your question, and thanks for reading the introduction to my article.

 

As you will see, once the balance of the piece is up on the NRG web site, Walter C. Leavitt made two models which he named Hannah. One is in the Marblehead Historical Society, and the other in the Addison Gallery Collection at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. Note that I said "he named Hannah" rather than a "model of Hannah"  That distinction should be made abundantly clear in the full article as well.

 

I don't know one way or the other whether Clyde and Walter are related. Never came across his name in my research.

 

Walter made several other models, and in the full article mention is made of some of them.

 

Re: Lexington - and I'm guessing here -- I think at the time to which you are referring, models made named Lexington might have been based on Charles G. Davis book, from which August Crabtree also built a stunning model, calling it Lexington.

 

Refer to the research by our well-know friend and colleague Clay Feldman, if you want to learn more about Lexington and the various interpretations of her by model builders.

 

Best Christmastime Wishes Everyone

 

Randy Biddle

[Charles Green]

Randy: 

 

Thanks for your reply.  In my mind, I am certain Clyde M.'s Lexington is a copy of Davis's.  I have Clay's Lexington practicum and have mined as far as I can into his references. 

 

As a teenager, in the mid '60's, Clyde M.'s 1947, build article in MI was my first exposure to a POF model and I have never gotten over it!  Since then, even after discovering Leavitt's and all other Lexingtons are fictions, I have collected everything I have come across concerning that vessel.  I couldn't let go of my newfound revelation that two Leavitts involved themselves in the construction of fictitious versions of historical vessels without looking in to it. 

 

Thanks again,

 

Charles           

[Windships]

Happy to get acquainted Charles, thanks.

 

We are of similar mind it seems about not accepting conventional wisdom as truth.

I expect my article to generate some controversy, and it will be welcomed.

Challenging a nearly one-hundred year notion of what "this Hannah" looked like, and other aspects of her history should lead to lively exchanges.

 

In her case, there actually evolved two different interpretations which each for a time, were never questioned by our community. Surprisingly, they arrived on the scene within just a few years of one another. The 1970 Smithsonian model, and soon the Harold Hahn model.

 

As Paul Fontenoy said, stay tuned, keep checking back..I am as eager as anyone to see the complete report on our new web site.

 

Clay Feldman, if you've not already been in touch with him, is very approachable on everything he's delved into.

 

Keep building - and as you are already doing -- ask the tough questions before you waste your precious time at your bench.

 

Randy