James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) "Memoriae positum R. G. S.": autograph manuscript (fair copy), 1863.
Like John Brown, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw became a hero to Boston abolitionists. His death at Fort Wagner prompted a great wave of literary and artistic memorialization by Saturday Club members. One of the most famous of these was James Russell Lowell's poem "Memoriae Positum R. G. S." Lowell represents Shaw's death by saying, "he fell forward as fits a man." The poem is featured in the memorial to Shaw and the 54th regiment created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, which faces the Massachusetts State House on Boston Common.
MS Am 1910 (13) - Gift of Mrs. Lloyd K. Garrison, Mrs. Alexander D. Harvey, Frances Jay, and Mrs. Lawrence Fox, 1975.