Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 10.

[p. 101] position of the head had no other fault than that of being a little intensified;—the nose, for instance, a very little longer and more drooping than the original's, the head rather thicker through and a little more bowed forward than his. But you have drawn a full arching eye, which is the reverse of my father's. Your shaggy eyebrows are perfectly correct, but the eyes beneath them were neither large nor full. The unusual thickness of the brow gave them the appearance of being sunk in the head, though this was not the case. Their color was a very clear, lively blue, and they had a remarkably straightforward look. In his, however, as in most faces, the mouth to me was the expressive feature. Sister calls the mouth in your sketch a flap-doodle one, if you know the meaning of that expressive word; to me it is a Peter-grievance one, and I suppose our united meaning is weakness and pensiveness. Now in the first place, my father's lips had a remarkably firm, well-set open and shut, yet united with great mobility, so that the play round their muscles, or of, more properly, almost indicated what he was going to say. The form you will be likely to best come at by remembering the form of mine, and making them in proportion to the face larger and handsomer. Godward my father was often awfully solemn, but manward he was always fearless, and generally cheerful, traits in which this sketch seems a little deficient, the general expression being a blank gravity, rather than the readiness for a breeze, which sister glories in having received by direct descent from her father.

note. This letter refers to the picture of Dr. Osgood in Brooks's History of Medford. It is from a sketch made by Dr. Furness, and the letter is of interest as showing how the picture was regarded by the daughters of Dr. Osgood.