Lovecraft Goes to a Museum

[23 November 1928 to Wandrei]

I hope to get to Boston next week to see the new wing of decorative arts at the museum. … From all accounts, it will make Metropolitan’s American wing a back number.

Compare:
[23 November 1928 to Derleth]

Sometime soon I am going to see the new wing of the art museum there. It is devoted to architectural interiors from 1493 to 1801, & is said to be so representative that it makes the Metropolitain Museum’s American wing retreat as a back number. This is right in my line, & with the museum so near at hand (an hour by train – two by bus) I mean to take advantage of it. It opened yesterday.

{Mr. Joshi notes in the Derleth letter collection that HPL did not go to the museum until January 1929. Those details Chrispy will post shortly.}

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[4 January 1929 from HPL and Samuel Loveman to Wandrei]

Ave, young Melmoth! {HPL’s affectionate nickname for the often hitchhiking Wandrei – CP} Behold the Convention! We’ve been treading the ground which you’ll recall from a year & a half a go - & glimpsed the Excellent Lunch (opposite the Y) * from a car window this afternoon.

{The Y is the YMCA, in those days an inexpensive hotel for some travelers. The Excellent Lunch is said by Mr. Joshi to possibly be represented by the Ideal Lunch in HPL’s story “The Shadow Over Inssmouth”. – CP}

[16 January 1929 to Wandrei]

I stayed in Boston a day longer that Loveman …

[12 January 1929 to Derleth]

Last week I had a pleasant & unexpected visit from my poetic friend Samuel Loveman, & was able to shew him the quaintness & antiquities of my beloved Providence for the first time.

I then accompanied him to Boston, & introduced him to the historic reliques of that ancient metropolis.

P.S. I enclose a few postcards of last week’s trip.