page_title: Joseph Lewis Cunningham
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Lewis Cunningham / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Sarah Inman Linzee Cunningham (1787-1820) (first wife of J.L Cunningham of Boston, Massachusetts), by Gilbert Stuart. She was the daughter of Captain John Linzee.
context_page_description: Joseph Lewis Cunningham or J. L. Cunningham worked as an auctioneer in Boston, Massachusetts, in the first half of the 19th century. Among the many lots he sold were birds, horses, real estate, furniture, sea captains' charts, telescopes, American and European artworks, fishing line, feathers, fabric, guns, musical instruments, fruit trees, flower seeds, printers' equipment, and books.
context_section_description: His business partners included John J. Linzee (Linzee & Cunningham, India Wharf) and Lemuel Blake (Blake & Cunningham, "respectable auctioneers and commission merchants").
  In the early 1820s he conducted his auctioneering from nos. 2-3 Liberty Square; a fire in 1825 forced him to move. In 1826 he built Corinthian Hall, at the corner of Milk Street and Federal Street, and used "the first floor of the building for his extensive auction rooms." "Mr. J. L. Cunningham has erected a noble building... where formerly stood the mansion... of Judge Paine. It has a number of fine halls in the second and third stories, and on the lower floor, is a spacious and commodious auction room; adjoining which, on each street, are several neat and elegant shops. The halls will be much wanted, and Mr. Cunningham is entitled to some thanks for thus arranging his costly building to the public convenience and accommodation."
  He married three times, in 1807 to Sarah Inman Linzee (1787-1820), in 1821 to Mary Ann Inman (d.1825), and in 1828 to Catherine Amory. He lived in Boston on Somerset Street (c. 1807) and Bedford Street (c. 1823). He attended Trinity Church.
  He died in 1843, and was "buried in vault no.32 under old Trinity Church, Boston, afterwards removed to Mt. Auburn cemetery in Cambridge." A trade auction of "books, stereotype plates and stationery, formerly held by J.L. Cunningham" brought in an "amount... unusually large, between 80 and 100,000 dollars."
caption: Portrait of Sarah Inman Linzee (1st wife of J.L. Cunningham), by Gilbert Stuart, early 19th century
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