The box pictured above was a Christmas gift given to Alice Longfellow by her aunt Anne Longfellow Pierce in 1881. The box measures less than 4 inches square, and only about 1 ½ inches high. It has a black lacquered finish with gilt octagonal and other abstract designs on its lid and sides. What is most interesting about the box is its family history, which spans at least three generations of the extended Wadsworth-Longfellow family.The box originally belonged to Henry Wadsworth, the son of Revolutionary War general Peleg Wadsworth. Henry was the brother of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s mother Zilpah, and it is from this uncle that Henry W. Longfellow got his first and middle names. Henry Wadsworth served in the U.S. Navy during the First Barbary War in present day Libya. He acted as second-in-command of a daring mission to blow up much of the pirate fleet in Tripoli’s harbor using the fire ship USS Intrepid, but the ship prematurely exploded, killing Wadsworth along with the rest of the crew. Upon his death his remaining possessions were sent home to his family in Maine.
Wadsworth’s niece Anne Longfellow, younger sister of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was the next family member we know of who took possession of the box. In 1881 she decided to pass it on to her own niece, Alice Longfellow, as a Christmas gift. Along with the box came a handwritten note reading “For Alice, With love and best Christmas greetings from Aunt Anne, 1881.” On the back of the note was included some of the box’s history, reading “This box sent home in the chest of the Uncle who fell before Tripoli - and for whom yr. Father was named - Henry Wadsworth - U.S. Navy". The gift of this box from Anne to Alice was a continuation of the Longfellow family practice of giving treasured family items as Christmas or New Year’s gifts to subsequent generations.