Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 22.

[p. 76]

The Medford ‘Syren.’

Among the interesting reminders of busy times in Medford is the rigged model of the clipper ship Syren (the 449th in the list and the first of those built in the year 1851, and in the yard of Sprague and James) which may be seen at the Historical Building.

Within two years there has come to the Society a photograph of the Syren lying at a wharf; also from Mr. Shepherd Brooks a photograph of the Ellen Brooks, 480 tons, built by George Fuller for R. D. Shepherd in 1834, the 197th in the list of Medford-built ships. These are especially interesting. The Syren is given as 1,050 tons in the list in Brooks' history.

In 1851 Frederic Gleason of Boston began the weekly publication of Gleason's Pictorial, probably the first of its kind. Its illustrations were wood cuts, as it was long before the modern half-tone process. An examination of its pages is well worth making, and therein we find one of the Syren and reproduce here the text. Vol I, p. 149, (July 5, 1851):