Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, Post 27

By Elaine Grublin

The following excerpt is from the diary of Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch.

Sunday, Nov. 8th

Of military affairs, the rumor is now, – said to be confirmed to-day, – of the taking of Fort Sumter by our forces. We hear of late sad accounts of the treatment of Union prisoners by the rebels, – their suffering from want of food, etc. Their own destitution may partly extenuate this wrong. God grant the end be soon, & the victory of Union & freedom!

Sunday, November 15th

The rumor mentioned in my last entry [the recapturing of Fort Sumter] was not corroborated; but successive advantages give good hope for the cause of Union and Freedom. We lament meanwhile, for the sufferings of our brave men, prisoners in Richmond, said to be almost starved. A plot has been revealed through the British authorities, formed by refugees in Canada, for attacks on our lake cities etc.

Monday Nov. 23d 1863

Last week occurred the Dedication of the Battle Cemetery at Gettysburg. An oration by Mr. Everett, & some noble words from President Lincoln.

Sunday Nov. 28th

Of public events, I must name with solemn gratitude the victory granted to the union arms near Chattanooga & Lookout Mountain. Hope is again encouraged that the end of this awful strife is near.

 

 

Posted in From Our Collections Tagged

Fur Trade in the Dorr Family Papers, Part II

By Andrea Cronin, Reader Services

“We desire you to embrace the first favourable Wind and weather and proceed to … any other ports places or Islands where you may think it likely to find seal plenty,” wrote the Boston fur merchants Ebenezer Dorr, Ebenezer Jr. Dorr, Joseph Dorr, and John Dorr to the captain of their snow  Pacific Trader, Samuel Edes, on 11 September 1799. The four-page letter details the responsibilities expected of Captain Samuel Edes during his voyage, including those expectations of the crew to capture and skin any available seal for profit.

The letter stipulates instructions on the preservation of seal hides.

…on your arrival at a suitable place for sealing you will immediately secure your vessel and set your people to work killing seal and preserving their hides either by drying or Pickling as the weather will permit, always remembering, that to have them well dried is our wish in Preference to Salting or Pickling.

This preference for dried hides over pickled ones benefited the merchants twofold. Dried pelts were more stable to transport aboard a sailing vessel because pickled ones were subject to putrefaction and other means of deterioration. Dried pelts additionally yielded higher profits than pickled pelts in Canton. If the process of pickling a seal skin seems curious, it may be interesting to know that pickling (preservation of perishables in brine or vinegar) is often part of the tanning process (the conversion of animal skin to leather by use of tannic acid or other chemicals) . The Dorr merchants informed the captain of their preservation preferences to achieve higher profit in market.

 

 

Posted in From Our Collections

This Week @ MHS

By Dan Hinchen

It is a shortened week for us here at the Society with just a couple of public programs happening but, with the end of the Red Sox season, there are no excuses to miss out on any evening events.

First up, on Tuesday, 5 November, is an Early American History seminar presented by Elaine Crane of Fordham University, with Irene Q. Brown, University of Connecticut, providing comment. Beginning at 5:15PM, “The Poison Plot” looks at the marital failing of early 18th century Rhode Islanders Benedict Arnold and his wife, Mary, who in 1738 tried to poison her husband. The story offers new insights into a range of social fault lines that extended beyond their domestic circle: infidelity, illegitimacy, abuse of husbands, female dependency, criminal proceedings, and the role of the state as mediator. Seminars are free and open to the public, RSVP required. Subscribe to received advance copies of the seminar papers.

And on Wednesday, 6 November, come in at noon for a Brown Bag lunch talk given by MHS-NEH Long-term fellow, Nancy Shoemaker, University of Connecticut. Shoemaker will discuss research for her project “Pursuing Respectability in the Cannibal Isles: Americans in Nineteenth-Century Fiji,” which resurrects the history of the China Trade and the early nineteenth-century Pacific as key sites of American economic and political intervention. It explores the formation of an American sense of self through a study of several individuals, including a “beachcomber,” a sea captain’s wife, and a U.S. Consul.

The library of the MHS is closed on Thursday, 7 November, in preparation for the evening’s event, the fourth annual Cocktails with Clio. Named for the muse of history, this festive evening celebrates American history and the 222-year-old mission of the Society. The evening will feature a cocktail buffet at the Society’s building at 1154 Boylston St., followed by a conversation with political commentator, author, and MHS Overseer, Cokie Roberts, at the nearby Harvard Club. Ms. Roberts will discuss her approach to writing bestselling books about history and historical figures, her work as a political commentator, and how she has used the MHS collections in her research. RSVP required. Tickets are $250 per person. All net proceeds from the event will support the Society’s outreach efforts. For more information, please contact Carol Knauff at cknauff@masshist.org or 617-646-0554.

The MHS will be closed on Saturday, 9 November, and Monday, 11 November, in observance of the Veterans Day holiday. Normal hours will resume on Tuesday, 12 November.

Be sure to keep an eye on our events calendar to stay up-to-date with all of the goings-on here at the Society. And do not forget to come in to see our current exhibition, “The Cabinetmaker & the Carver: Boston Furniture from Private Collections,” on display six days per week, Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM. The exhibit is open to the public with a suggested donation of $5.

 



Posted in This Week @MHS

Coming Soon: Massachusetts Historical Review, Volume 15

By Jim Connolly, Publications

Fractious centennial commemorations reveal ethnic and socioeconomic tensions in Boston!

Daguerreotype of “white slave girl” rocks the North, stirs antislavery fervor!

Radical agrarian thumbs nose at Knox, describes self as “Plaintive worm”!

Real cause of Cape Cod salt industry decline EXPOSED!

So we begin in media res with my unofficial headlines for the four research articles that make up the meat of volume 15 of the Massachusetts Historical Review, a rich and satisfying historical meal with all the trimmings followed by a dessert of three book review articles. But first, readers will enjoy an invigorating apéritif in the form of distinguished professor and writer Gordon S. Wood’s “Remarks on Receiving the John F. Kennedy Medal,” which makes plain his views on the current divide between academic and popular history writing.

“Claiming the Centennial: The American Revolution’s Blood and Spirit in Boston, 1870–1876,” by Craig Bruce Smith

The 1870s—the decade in which Boston held celebrations to commemorate key events of the American Revolution—was fraught with conflict. Classes, lineages, races, and sexes raged in the press, in the streets, and in the meeting venues of Boston for the assumed right to “claim the centennial.”

 

“The Real Ida May: A Fugitive Tale in the Archives,” by Mary Niall Mitchell

In the mid 1850s, a daguerreotype of a young girl named Mary Botts—a freed slave so light-skinned she “passed” for white—caused a sensation. The image shocked its audience into a kind of empathy for slaves (and generally for African Americans and Africans under the Fugitive Slave Law) that many might not have felt otherwise. Botts’s story and others related in this essay illustrate the power of the early photographic image to speak to hearts and to change minds.

 

“‘Persecuted in the Bowels of a Free Republic’: Samuel Ely and the Agrarian Theology of Justice, 1768–1797,” by Shelby M. Balik

Follow the adventures of Samuel Ely, a New England minister and agrarian radical who never missed an opportunity to stir up trouble in the name of divine justice. The outspoken Ely railed against what he saw as the unfair distribution of land patents. Eden, he argued, “was a garden containing six acres only, . . . not a Patent, thirty miles square, nor seventy miles long.”

 

“The Making and Unmaking of a Natural Resource: The Salt Industry of Coastal Southeastern Massachusetts,” by William B. Meyer

The Cape might be coveted real estate today, but before the 20th century, it held very few economic opportunities. One of them was the production of salt by the solar evaporation of seawater. Domestic saltmaking was viable because of heavy tariffs on imported salt—for a time, the duty was the federal government’s main source of revenue. This essay tells the fascinating story of the industry’s rise and decline and offers keen analysis that will make you think twice before using the term “natural resource.”

 

The MHR is a benefit of MHS membership. Those who are not yet members can learn about subscription to the MHR or order individual copies here.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged