Smoker's Circle, on Boston Common Display & Performance
This print was one page within a broader edition of the Gleason's Pictorial weekly newspaper. As a result, this artifact was one of many identical prints of the newspaper. Because of the paper's instant success with the Boston community and its profitability, this print would have reached a wide audience throughout the city. In every sizable city, dozens of businesses beckoned customers with the promise of conversation, meals, a cup of coffee, lodging, books, and access to newspapers (Steffen 2003, p. 408). Many Bostonians would have had access to identical prints of this newspaper and socialized over it. Due to this, the print would have had a social context. Newspapers were viewed as a cultural resource of vital interest to the public (Steffen 2003, pp. 418-419). Thus, this print participated in the larger public phenomenon of information diffusion. Technological improvements allowed newspapers to affect mainstream political beliefs; newspapers would have had their own political virtues, and many papers would have had optimism about moral reform after coming out of the "Age of Reform" (Nord 2001, pp. 95-104). Heightened accessibility to newspapers allowed the public to engage with political and civic virtues. This print's portrayal of a reformed and recreational Boston Common endorses emerging transcendental philosophies about the benefits of urban access to recreational parks and natural landscapes. By exhibiting how genteel men enjoyed themselves on a recreational version of the Common, this print likely participated in civic engagement with the city's urban reform.