Martin P. Kennard

Kennard was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.{{Cite news |date=1903-11-13 |title=Martin P. Kennard - Death of a Formerly Well Known Boston Merchant |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/biddeford-saco-journal-martin-p-kennard/138731740/ |access-date=2024-01-14 |work=Biddeford-Saco Journal |pages=1 |archive-date=2024-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114194545/https://www.newspapers.com/article/biddeford-saco-journal-martin-p-kennard/138731740/ |url-status=live }} He started his career as a jeweler with the Boston firm Jones, Low & Ball, and later became a principal at Bigelow Bros. & Kennard. This company was later reorganized as Bigelow, Kennard & Co., with the partners at that time being Alanson Bigelow and William H. Kennard.{{Cite news |date=1903-11-14 |title=Article clipped from The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe/52576360/ |access-date=2024-01-14 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=2}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFUcAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22M.+P.+Kennard%22&pg=PA301 |title=The Jewelers' Circular |date=1919 |publisher=Jewelers' Circular Company |pages=301 |language=en}} The company sold "high-quality domestic and imported silver, glass, and clocks."{{Cite web |title=Bigelow Kennard & Co History ~ Antique Clocks Guy Reference Library |url=https://www.clockguy.com/SiteRelated/SiteReferencePages/BigelowKennardHistory.html |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=www.clockguy.com |archive-date=2023-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326114349/https://clockguy.com/SiteRelated/SiteReferencePages/BigelowKennardHistory.html |url-status=live }} The business operated under this name until 1971, and Harvard University holds some of the firm's records in their library special collections.{{Cite web |title=COLLECTION Identifier: Mss:773 1830–1925 Bigelow, Kennard & Co. records |url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/11/resources/652 |website=hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu |access-date=2024-01-14 |archive-date=2024-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114202012/https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/11/resources/652 |url-status=live }}

In 1854, Kennard moved to Brookline, Massachusetts, and, along with figures such as Ellis Gray Loring and William I. Bowditch, was an the activist with the Boston Vigilance Committee, which was dedicated to protecting fugitive slaves.{{Cite web |title=History of the town of Brookline, Massachusetts / by John Gould Curtis; a memorial to Edward W. Baker; prepared under the direction of the Brookline historical ... |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112049406942?urlappend=%3Bseq=357 |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=HathiTrust |pages=261–263 (Vigilance) |language=en |hdl=2027/uiug.30112049406942?urlappend=%3Bseq=357}} Kennard is also a primary source on the visit of Mikhail Bakunin to the United States in 1861.{{Cite journal |last=Cutler |first=Robert M. |date=August 1988 |title=An Unpublished Letter of M.A. Bakunin to R.Solger |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020859000008749/type/journal_article |journal=International Review of Social History |language=en |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=212–217 |doi=10.1017/S0020859000008749 |issn=0020-8590 |access-date=2024-01-14 |archive-date=2024-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116165221/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/an-unpublished-letter-of-ma-bakunin-to-rsolger/0505397935B9831A0FC93DAAA41E2800 |url-status=live }} Kennard later became a customs house collector in Boston. From 1868 (when he ceased to take an active interest in business){{Cite book |last=General Theological Library |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fo0XAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Martin+P.+Kennard%22&pg=RA5-PA48 |title=Annual Report of the Directors of the General Theological Library |date=1899 |publisher=The Society |pages=48 |language=en |access-date=2024-01-14 |archive-date=2024-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116165316/https://books.google.com/books?id=fo0XAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Martin+P.+Kennard%22&pg=RA5-PA48#v=onepage&q=%22Martin%20P.%20Kennard%22&f=false |url-status=live }} until the 1890s, he held Treasury Department appointments in Boston.{{Cite web |title=Brookline Historical Society: People |url=https://brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/archives/slideShowPeople.asp?ID=Winsor01 |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=brooklinehistoricalsociety.org |archive-date=2021-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028123614/https://brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/archives/slideShowPeople.asp?ID=Winsor01 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=1903-11-13 |title=Martin P. Kennard Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal-martin-p-kennard-dead/138731625/ |access-date=2024-01-14 |work=The Journal |pages=2 |archive-date=2024-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114194225/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal-martin-p-kennard-dead/138731625/ |url-status=live }}

He was a member of the Boston Art Club, the Boston Union Club, the Boston Commercial Club, the Mercantile Library Association (committee on lectures),{{Cite book |last=Emerson |first=Ralph Waldo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OQ6nz3uhP8C&dq=%22Martin+P.+Kennard%22&pg=PA105 |title=The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson |date=1939 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-07516-9 |pages=105 |language=en |access-date=2024-01-14 |archive-date=2024-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116165218/https://books.google.com/books?id=-OQ6nz3uhP8C&dq=%22Martin+P.+Kennard%22&pg=PA105#v=onepage&q=%22Martin%20P.%20Kennard%22&f=false |url-status=live }} the Merchants Club, and the Tuesday Club.{{Cite news |date=1903-11-14 |title=M. P. Kennard Dead at 85 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/boston-post-m-p-kennard-dead-at-85/138732372/ |access-date=2024-01-14 |work=Boston Post |pages=4 |archive-date=2024-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114195359/https://www.newspapers.com/article/boston-post-m-p-kennard-dead-at-85/138732372/ |url-status=live }} Kennard was described a "Republican of the most pronounced stripe," and as a "staunch Unitarian" who was a member of the First Unitarian Church of Brookline. Kennard was survived by his wife Caroline Kennard, a naturalist and women's rights activist, and four children.{{Cite journal |last=Bent |first=Arthur Cleveland |date=1937 |title=In Memoriam: Frederic Hedge Kennard 1865-1937 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4078088 |journal=The Auk |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=341–348 |doi=10.2307/4078088 |jstor=4078088 |issn=0004-8038 |access-date=2024-01-14 |archive-date=2024-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114200637/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4078088 |url-status=live }} Their son, Frederic Hedge Kennard was a landscape architect and naturalist involved in birding and in the preservation of the American bison. Frederic's daughter, Dr. Margaret Kennard, was a notable 20th-century neuropsychologist.{{Cite journal |last=Dennis |first=Maureen |date=September 2010 |title=Margaret Kennard (1899–1975): Not a 'Principle' of brain plasticity but a founding mother of developmental neuropsychology |journal=Cortex |language=en |volume=46 |issue=8 |pages=1043–1059 |doi=10.1016/j.cortex.2009.10.008 |pmc=2907425 |pmid=20079891}} His son Edward Parry Kennard also worked as a silversmith.{{Cite web |title=Edward Parry Kennard |url=http://www.americansilversmiths.org/makers/silversmiths/156027.htm |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=www.americansilversmiths.org |archive-date=2022-11-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129140651/http://americansilversmiths.org/makers/silversmiths/156027.htm |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |last=Rainwater |first=Dorothy T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6_oJAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Martin+Parry+Kennard%22 |title=Encyclopedia of American Silver Manufacturers |date=1998 |publisher=Schiffer Pub. |isbn=978-0-7643-0602-0 |pages=177 |language=en |access-date=2024-01-14 |archive-date=2024-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116165218/https://books.google.com/books?id=6_oJAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Martin+Parry+Kennard%22 |url-status=live }} The Martin Parry Kennard house now houses Brookline Music School.{{Cite web |title=Brookline Historical Society: Photo Tour |url=https://brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/archives/slideShowStreets.asp?ID=Walnut-67 |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=brooklinehistoricalsociety.org |archive-date=2024-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114202311/https://brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/archives/slideShowStreets.asp?ID=Walnut-67 |url-status=live }}

• Lewis E. Jenks

{{reflist}}

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=W6OrIzQTSOMC Address of Martin P. Kennard: In Behalf of the Subscribing Citizens, on Presentation to the Town of a Memorial Portrait of the Late Brig.-Gen'l Edward Augustus Wild, Together with the Response of the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and the Impromptu Remarks of Other Gentlemen Present. (1894)]

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Category:1818 births

Category:1903 deaths

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:Abolitionists from Boston

Category:19th-century American jewellers

Category:American silversmiths

Category:Businesspeople from Boston

Category:People from Brookline, Massachusetts

Category:People from Portsmouth, New Hampshire