This Week @ MHS

By Dan Hinchen

Reminder: The Society is CLOSED on Monday, 30 May, in observance of Memorial Day.

As we slide into the summer months here at the MHS, our programming slows down just a little bit compared to the past few weeks. But don’t let yourself think that there is nothing going on! Here is what we have on tap for our holiday-shortened week:

– Wednesday, 1 June, 12:00PM : The first Brown Bag talk of the month features Kevin Waite of the University of Pennsylvania. His project tracks proslavery activity in California and Southerners’ attempts to capture the Pacific trade, highlighting the centrality of the Far West in the nation’s road to disunion. His talk, titled “The Slave South in the Far West: California, the Pacific, and Proslavery Visions of Empire, 1800-1865,” is open to the public free of charge. Pack a lunch and check it out!

– Thursday, 2 June, 6:00PM : Join us for “The Road to Concord and Stamp Act Stamp Unveiling.” This combined author talk/public program features author and MHS Fellow J.L. Bell, proprietor of Boston1775.net, sharing highlights from his recent book The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War, and how the Society’s collections provided vital clues to this untold story. As a special treat, the U.S. Postal Service will join us for the Massachusetts unveiling of a new stamp commemorating the 250th anniversary of the end of the Stamp Act crisis, the first act of the American Revolution. This talk is free and open to the public but registration is required. A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM.

– Friday, 3 June, 12:00PM : The second Brown Bag talk this week is “‘A Just and Honest Valuation’: Money and Value in Colonial American, 1690-1750.” Come in and listen to Katie Moore, Boston University, whose project argues that colonists mediated economic change within existing moral and social frameworks by re-imagining the origins and nature of value as extrinsic, a conceptual shift reflected in their use of paper money. This talk is free and open to the public. Won’t you join us?

Note: The Library closes early on Friday, 3 June, at 3:00PM.

Posted in This Week @MHS

Pondering Paleography and Soliciting Transcriptions

By Dan Hinchen, Reader Services

Recently, I was in the stacks retrieving an item from the Charles Edward French autograph collection. The item I was looking for comes from the 17th century in Massachusetts, but when I opened the box that holds it, I was immediately stricken by the first folder, which had a date range written on it of 1337-1545.

While I was aware that the MHS holds some medieval manuscript materials, they are primarily small unidentified fragments, or bound religious texts like breviaries and books of hours. Typically, these manuscripts are done in either Latin or medieval French. Here was something completely different.

The item in question (Hold down Ctrl and press + to zoom in)

This vellum item is small, only about 3.5″x9.5″, and contains only about eight lines of text. The writing is neatly ordered and still very clear. I am certainly not any sort of expert when it comes to language, but I can often recognize, at least vaguely, some European languages from the Renaissance period to the modern day. This text, though, I had never seen. 

Written on the back of this little document, at a much later date, is “2d Edward III May 27, 1337″. So now I have a date and perhaps even an author. Still, this doesn’t translate the material for me so I am left with no context for the item or any understanding of the text itself. 

I did a quick search online to see about the history of the English language and found that the variety of English used during the period covering, roughly, 1150-1500 is considered Middle English.

Now I have an assumed author and date, potentially the language of the text, and still no idea what the document may be about. What to do?

I shared my finding with the researcher whose document I was originally seeking and she clued me in to a couple of places that I might go for help, places where paleography (the study of ancient and historical handwriting) is common practice. Perhaps, even, to get a translation of this item. 

If you are hoping for closure in this blog post, I am afraid that I have to let you down. I started to put feelers out to see what help I can get, and that is where the situation stands at present. 

Are you familiar with Middle English writing? Can you identify anything about the document in the image above? If so, please leave a comment below and help us fill in some gaps!
 

Posted in From Our Collections

Beyond John and John Quincy: Thomas Boylston Adams’ Letters and Diary

By Christopher F. Minty, Adams Papers

Thomas Boylston Adams, John and Abigail Adams’ youngest son, spent the majority of his life in the shadows of his father and his eldest brother, John Quincy. In part because of this—and much like his other brother, Charles—writers often overlook Thomas Boylston. Yet he might have been the most interesting of all.

In the next volume of Adams Family Correspondence, however, Thomas Boylston is a central figure. Thomas Boylston wrote fantastically detailed letters to family members. He also wrote to prominent Americans, including editor Joseph Dennie Jr. and U.S. diplomat Joseph Pitcairn. He offers detailed commentaries on not only Franco-American relations and the Quasi-War, but also on the French Revolution, the pageantry and partisanship of domestic politics, print culture, George Washington’s deification, and the intricacies of eighteenth-century travel, all of which he does with a certain panache not typically associated with the Adams men. When discussing allegations of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death on 2 March 1799, he noted, “I believe, nor care a whit about it.” In September 1799, after being presented with German documents, he told John Quincy: “I will never decypher a page of German writing without payment or the prospect of it. It begins to cost me money merely to profess myself a lawyer and I should very soon be insolvent if I practised it without reward or the hope of it.”

His diary is similar. It’s neither as comprehensive nor as prolonged as other Adams diaries, but it’s just as detailed and it’s written in the same style as his letters. Taken together, Thomas Boylston’s writings offer readers a unique picture of elite life in late eighteenth-century America.

On February 22, 1799, for instance, Thomas Boylston noted in his diary that he attended an event to commemorate “the birth day of ‘Columbia’s pride & boast,’” that is, George Washington. On 1 March, Thomas Boylston offered his father a brief summary of the event. He described himself as “animated by the glow of patriotism” and noted that he delivered a toast to “Miss Nelly Custis,” who had recently married Washington’s nephew, Lawrence Lewis. His diary, however, contains a far more effusive description, and, unlike in his letter, he detailed how many people were at the event and, more important, where it was held. Adams noted that about 250 people descended upon Concert Hall in Boston for “a Splendid entertainment.” The occasion was so “Splendid,” in fact, that he had “Had two very unaccountable falls in going home from Concert hall.” More than seventeen “national, spirited & well assorted toasts” were delivered that evening; it’s not hard to guess why he twice lost his footing. “Quer. The cause,” he ended the entry.

Most of Thomas Boylston’s letters and diary entries are similar—wonderfully written, full of personality, imagination, and memory. Perhaps upon the publication of the next Adams Family Correspondence volume, someone interested in Thomas Boylston Adams might put him in the spotlight.

Posted in From Our Collections Tagged

This Week @ MHS

By Dan Hinchen

It’s tough to be believe that we are almost at the end of the month, but here we are hurtling toward Memorial Day. Before the summer unofficially begins, come by the MHS for some history! Once again, we have a week that is heavy with Brown Bag talks, along with a couple other items of note. 

– Monday, 23 May, 12:00PM : Karen Weyler, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, kicks off the week with her Brown Bag entitled “Serendipity and Literary History: The Problem of ‘Firstness’ in Histories of the American Novel.” Weyler discusses how some of her findings here at the MHS might challenge traditional inception points for literary histories of fiction in British Ameria and the early United States. As always, Brown Bag talks are free and open to the public. 

– Tuesday, 24 May, 6:00PM : Join us for a conversation with Joseph Bagley, Boston Archaeologist and Author, who will talk about “A History of Boston in 50 Artifacts.” As a result of the Big Dig and the artifacts it unearthed, Bagley uncovers a fascinating hodgepodge of history that will surprise and delight even longtime residents. This talk is open to the public free of charge, though registration is required. A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM and the program starts at 6:00PM. 

– Wednesday, 25 May, 12:00PM : The second Brown Bag talk of the week is “‘For the Good of the Country’: Captive Trade Networks in the Colonial Northeast, 1630-1763.” Join Joanne Jahnke Wegner, University of Minnesota, as she discusses her project which examines the commodification of captive peoples who were trafficked in the colonies, across imperial borders, and into the Atlantic world. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Thursday, 26 May : This is your last chance to view The Private Jefferson, our current exhibition. The exhibit will close for good at 4:00PM on Thursday. Be sure to come in for a look before it’s gone!

– Friday, 27 May, 12:00PM : To round out the trifecta of Brown Bag talks this week, stop by on Friday for “From the Partisan Press to the Political Procedural.” This talk features Mary Hale of the University of Illinois – Chicago, whose project considers the development of a new post-Civil War genre of political novels specifically by looking at Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s The Gilded Age and Henry Adams’ Democracy.  

The Society is CLOSED on Saturday, 28 May, and Monday, 30 May, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 31 May

Posted in This Week @MHS

Natural Beauty

By Kittle Evenson, Reader Services

Spring has officially, if tardily, sprung here in Boston and researchers and staff alike are again staring distractedly out of the reading room windows at the green grass, new leaves, and vibrant sunshine.

To draw our wandering attention back inside, I decided to showcase a few examples of early Bostonians preserving and portraying the natural world in all its beauty.

While the MHS offers countless examples of artistic depictions of nature, I chose just two to share here: one for its pure beauty, the other for its scientific bent.

The first is a nondescript volume from the Quincy-Howe family papers. Labeled as “Flower paintings, clippings — Eliza S. Quincy,” and dating to the mid-19th century, the volume is part scrapbook, part sketchbook, with newspaper clippings of familial news mounted opposite hand-drawn sketches of ornate flowers.


Colorful painting of a flower in Eliza S. Quincy’s 19th century album of flower paintings and clippings


The emphasis of this work is artistic, the mood of the drawings complements the clippings. They are at turns mournful and celebratory, with romantic lines and rich colors.

A painting of a somewhat mournful-looking flower sits opposite a 1867 poem on the life and death of J.W.R.


A delicately-colored painting of a flower in full bloom is unaccompanied by a newspaper clipping


From a similar period (1850s-1870s) the second example is far more scientific, although the beauty of nature is not lost on the viewer (or creator).


The cover of Ocean Mosses from 1872, owned, if not assembled, by Mrs. Edwin Lamson


Inside 3 bound volumes from the Lamson family papers are pressed clippings of “ocean mosses” and “ocean flowers” collected along New England coastlines. Some are identified with binomial nomenclature, others are left unlabeled. All are impressively well intact for being approximately one-hundred-and-fifty years old.

An unlabeled segment of ocean moss from a Lamson family volume entitled Ocean Mosses c. 1850


A labeled segment of ocean moss from Mrs. Edwin Lamson’s 1872 volume


Even though this collection tend towards a more scientific look at underwater nature, the elegance and beauty of these plants prevails.


Artfully arranged ocean mosses surround a poem in Mrs. Edwin Lamson’s June 22, 1872 volume

The poem wreathed by moss reads:

Not

fanned by the

winds of a summer

parterre, Whose gales

are but sighs of an evening

air, Our delicate, fragile and 

exquisite forms, Were nursed

by the billows, and rocked

By the storms. 


Investigating a bit, this appears to be a slightly modified verse of a longer poem entitled “Seaweeds”:

Oh call us not weeds, but flowers of the sea,

For lovely, and gay, and bright-tinted are we;

Our blush is as deep as the rose of thy bowers,

Then call us not weeds, — we are ocean’s gay flow’rs,

 
Not nurs’d like the plants of the summer parterre,

Whose gales are but sighs of an evening air;

Our exquisite, fragile, and delicate forms

Are the prey of the ocean when vex’d with his storms


I found several versions of this poem, although few bore official attribution. One version, attributed to a Miss Elizabeth Aveline of Lyme Regis, England, that I found most interesting was mentioned in a book by Patricia Pierce on Mary Anning, an English paleontologist whose early 19th century discoveries of Jurassic marine fossils helped shape our scientific understanding of the world. Pierce mentions how Anning scrawled this poem in an album under a clutch of dried seaweed. An eerily similar description to Lamson’s treatment pictured above.

While I found no reference to Anning amongst the Lamson volumes, this tentative, poetic link piqued my interest in the transatlantic discussions of scientific discoveries had by 19th century women. A topic I am sure to continue exploring.

If 19th century depictions of the natural world strike your fancy and you would like to see these volumes in person, please feel free to stop in and visit our library. If you are interested in seeing what other materials we have related to botany and the beauty of nature you can browse our online catalog, ABIGAIL, from the comfort of your own home.

 

Posted in From Our Collections

Following Their Bliss: Two Very Different Trips to California

By Susan Martin, Collection Services

Serendipity is one of the great things about working in archives. Just a few months apart, the MHS acquired, purely by chance, two collections related to members of the Bliss family. Pelatiah Lawrence Bliss (Lawrence to his friends) and James Wheaton Bliss were very, very, very distant cousins. In fact, to trace their exact connection, you’d have to go back many generations, to the 17th century.

While Lawrence and James were contemporaries, there’s no reason to believe they knew—or even knew about—each other. And they didn’t have much in common. Lawrence (1821-1851) was the youngest child of a West Springfield, Mass. tanner. He tried his hand at various careers, working as a store clerk, teacher, and farmer in Georgia, Alabama, and Michigan, apparently without much happiness or success at any of them.

James (1825-1875), on the other hand, was an established Boston businessman. According to the Bliss family genealogy published by a relative, “as a prominent and successful merchant in the clothing trade [James] was highly esteemed. […] Few men of his age were more frequently consulted by their business associates.” He served on the Executive Committee of the Boston Board of Trade.

I did find one interesting parallel between Lawrence and James: both men traveled from Boston to San Francisco, though under dramatically different circumstances. In 1849, Lawrence joined the California Gold Rush and sailed on the Drummond around Cape Horn. The trip took seven months. Twenty-one years later, his distant cousin James rode on the first chartered transcontinental railroad excursion to San Francisco and back. He was home in just over a month.

Both manuscript collections are small, but Lawrence’s papers consist primarily of correspondence, including a detailed 18-page letter he wrote during his voyage on the Drummond. He seemed to have no illusions about his prospect for success in the Gold Rush, worrying, as he watched a sunset, about how “deceitful luster” can lead to “perished expectations.”

 

 

James’s train trip was luxurious. A colleague described the Pullman excursion here at the Beehive a few years ago. The MHS has also digitized a broadside about the trip, as well as the first issue of the newspaper printed on the train. You can find James and his teenage daughter Josie, who accompanied him, listed on both documents. I don’t have a picture of James, but here’s Josie, with the receipt for their fare.

 

Lawrence was unfortunately unsuccessful as a gold prospector. On 8 Aug. 1850, he wrote home, “Misfortune, disaster, & disappointment seem to have attended me ever since I arrived in the country. […] Don’t let anybody come to California whom you can influence.” And a few weeks later, “I cannot blame myself for my ill success, as I have done the best I could.” He died penniless in San Francisco just three days shy of his thirtieth birthday.

As for James, he married Sarah Jane Wood in 1849 (the same year of Lawrence’s fateful trip west) and had six children, four of whom lived to adulthood. He died in 1875.

Posted in From Our Collections

This Week @ MHS

By Dan Hinchen

It feels like spring finally arrived here in Boston. Why not get outside and take a walk to the MHS for some public programs? This week we are heavy on our lunchtime Brown Bag talks, but there are also a couple other public programs to balance things out. Here’s what’s coming:

– Monday, 16 May, 12:00PM : The first Brown Bag talk of the week is titled “Valuing the Body of the Enslaved: From the Cradle to the Grave.” Pack a lunch and come listen to short-term research fellow Daina Ramey Berry of the University of Texas at Austin. Berry presents her framework for understanding the valuation of enslaved peoples from birth to beyond death, based on 10 years of research in northern and southern archives. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Monday, 16 May, 6:00PM : “Jefferson the Architect” is the final public program from the Jefferson Series, which centers around our current exhibition. In this talk, Henry Adams of Case Western Reserve University explores the impact of Jefferson in American architecture and the legacy he has left on our country’s built environment. This talk is open to the public, though registration is required with a fee of $20 (no charge for MHS Fellows and Members). There is a pre-talk reception at 5:30PM and the talk begins at 6:00PM. 

 – Wednesday, 18 May, 12:00PM : Brown Bag talk number two this week is presented by Sarah Templier of Johns Hopkins University, and is called “The Lives of Textiles: Trading and Consuming Clothing, Fabrics, and Apparel Accessories in French and British North America, 1720s-1770s.” The progam presents an overview of Templier’s dissertation research. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Thursday, 19 May, 6:00PM : POSTPONED: “Mass Momentum: Highlighting the Innovation Hub.”

– Friday, 20 May, 12:00PM : The third and final Brown Bag talk this week features Travis Jacquess, University of Mississippi. In his talk, “‘My Principles for Government…Are Fixed,’ Declarations of Independence between Fathers and Sons in the Age of Revolution,” Jacquess argues that the spirit of of independence – the spirit of ’76 – gave rise to the spirit of individualism, which was passed from father to son as a natural product of their experience in the Revolution and their engagement in the new American Republic. This talk is free and open to the public. 

– Saturday, 21 May, 1:00PM : Join us for the final instalment of this season’s discussion of primary readings, Begin at the Beginning, led by Dr. Abby Chandler. “John Gyles’ Odd Adventure : A Different Captivity Narrative” tells a story of his upbringing among the Micmac and Maliseet peoples: a story of understanding and respect, unlike most Puritan captivity narratives that tell tales of horror and fear. This program is open to the public and registration is required at no cost; Please RSVP. 

Finally, if you have not yet come in to see the Private Jefferson, your time is running out. The exhibition remains on view to the public through Wednesday, May 26. Don’t miss it!

There is no Saturday tour this week

 

 

Posted in This Week @MHS

Margaret Russell’s Diary, May 1916

By Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Reader Services

Today, we return to the line-a-day diary of Margaret Russell. You can read previous installments here:

January.

February.

March.

April.

Margaret Russell’s diary entries for May 1916 presented a puzzle which was solved through the collective sleuthing of archivists on social media. Early on in my transcribing I stumbled upon a word in the May 3 entry I could not decipher:

 

 

I posted the image on Twitter and by the end of the evening not only had the word been successfully translated (“sessions”), but the larger story behind the entry had been hunted down by curious followers. It turned out that in May 1916, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America held a meeting in Washington, D.C. at which Margaret Russell attended as a Massachusetts delegate (she writes of being part of “the Boston Party”). Unfortunately, she fell ill while in D.C. and spent much of her time there bedridden. She reports on May 9th that “people [were] very kind in sending flowers.” She spent much of the month feeling poorly, though her diary also records afternoon drives and occasional social calls or family dinners.

 

* * *

May 1916

 

1 May. Monday – Left on the 10 o’clock spent the night at Colony Club & saw Kate who is quite poorly.

 

2 May. Tuesday – Did a few errands, very hot. Met the Boston Party with Francis P. at 3.30 for Washington.

3 May. Wednesday. Opening of the sessions. Felt poorly and thought it was the heat. Lunched at Hattie’s. Drove with F. P. down Potomac. 

4 May. Still hot & do not feel well. Went to White House & thought Mrs. Wilson very attractive. Took drive to Chevy Chase camp. Mass. party in evening.

5 May. Had a bad night & feel feverish so went for Dr. Handin who says it is [liver?]. Ankles red & swollen.

6 May. Saturday. In bed.

7 May. Sunday – still in bed.

8 May. Monday. Frances & all hands left. Miss Didier [illegible] came & is bright & pleasant.

9 May. Tuesday – People very kind in sending flowers. Still in bed but feel better.

10 May. Wednesday – In bed but days pass quickly.

11 May. Thursday – Like Dr. Handin so much.

12 May. Friday. In bed but better.

13 May Friday – Got up after lunch & went for hour’s drive with Hattie & then back to bed.

14 May. The same – Dr. Handin comes every day.

15 May. Sunday – left at 12.30 & got to N.Y. very comfortably. Spent night at Belmont also Miss. Didier.

16 May. Monday – Kate Cary came to see me. Said good job to Miss D– & left on 12 o’c. Miss Ahler joined me at the Springfield. Not too tired. Family to dine.

17 May. Tuesday – Stayed in bed till lunch & then on couch for the rest of day. Felt the fatigue of the journey.

18 May. Wednesday – Sent for Dr. Smith who looked me over. Let me go to drive in the P.M.

19 May.  In bed till twelve – drive to Swampscott after lunch. Then rested. Margaret Bradley engaged to Roger [illegible].

20 May. Friday – In bed till twelve. Went out in my new car for long drive. Feel better.

21 May. Saturday – Out at eleven for errand & to see Aunt Emma. Rested & then to see M. Bradley.

22 May. Sunday – Stayed in till I went to lunch with H.G.C.’s. Then to drive & to Fall River Hosp. to see E. Murray. Family to dine.

23 May. Monday – Doctor says I have improved in all respects. Went to see Marian then Mary’s & after lunch to botany lesson.

24 May. Tuesday. Lunched at Alice Burn’s. Only Sallie Ames & Mrs. Bell. Went to dine & home to rest.

25 May. Wednesday – Errands in the morning. Went to Swampscott.

26 May. Thursday.

27 May. Friday – Walked down town & bought flag. Took a long drive.

28 May. Saturday – Great preparedness procession. Went out & walked about, great enthusiasm.

29 May. Sunday. Walked to cathedral. Photographer came to take the 4 generations. Baby was good. Family to dine.

30 May. Monday – lunched with Marian. To E & E & then Good S–. Saw Aunt Emma.Came home & rested.

31 May. Packing – Packing.

 

* * *

If you are interested in viewing the diary in person in our library or have other questions about the collection, please visit the library or contact a member of the library staff for further assistance.

 

*Please note that the diary transcription is a rough-and-ready version, not an authoritative transcript. Researchers wishing to use the diary in the course of their own work should verify the version found here with the manuscript original.

 

Image: Edith Wilson, no date. Portrait from the Library of Congress. 

 

Posted in From Our Collections

Implementing Technology in Current Jefferson Exhibition was a TAG Team Effort

By Nancy Heywood, Collections Services

Last fall, as the Massachusetts Historical Society planned its current exhibition, The Private Jefferson, an interdepartmental team of staff members successfully pursued a wonderful opportunity to incorporate technology into the galleries.  Thanks to the efforts of Gavin Kleespies, Director of Programs at MHS, and Ryan Gaspar, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Microsoft, MHS staff members were able to showcase MHS digital content in an interactive content management system for exhibitions, Touch Art Gallery (TAG).  Numerous high resolution digital images, short videos, and interactive features are available on a variety of touchscreen devices within the Jefferson exhibition.

TAG was developed by a team of programmers (mostly undergraduate computer science students) at Brown University led by Professor Andries van Dam, the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Professor of Technology and Education.  Carolyn Gress, Marketing Project Manager, Microsoft, coordinated a meeting in October between some staff from the MHS and Professor van Dam and some of his students.  During the visit to Providence, Rhode Island, MHS staff saw and interacted with the digital museum experience they created using TAG for the Nobel Foundation.

Notable features of the TAG system include: the display and delivery of high resolution images of exhibition items and their associated metadata in various sets (“collections”); management of related material including audio and video clips; and interactive segments on topics (“tours”).  Gallery visitors can browse the items, “grab” and zoom in to closely examine the high resolution digital images, select, start (and interrupt) the interactive tours to closely examine the featured images.

Due to several previous grant-funded digitization projects, MHS has many existing high resolution digital images of documents within the Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts.  These digital assets and the existing metadata were good starting points for the implementation of TAG within the Jefferson exhibition, but it took intensive work and effort by many staff members to ready the digital features by the opening date of the Jefferson exhibition.

The digital team (Laura Wulf, Peter Steinberg and I) had to work efficiently to assemble over a hundred images and descriptions.  Bill Beck, MHS’s web developer, worked with Trent Green (the Brown University student who our main contact for TAG server and software issues) on the batch ingest and overall configuration of the system.  Several staff members (Gavin, Sara Sikes, Sara Georgini, Peter Drummey and I) focused on the content for six interactive features and developed outlines and scripts to tell specific stories about the Jefferson materials.  The production of those interactive tours was truly a team effort with Gavin and Bill taking the lead on many sequencing and editing tasks; the digital team assembling more images; Sara, Sara and Peter providing narration for some tours; and Jim Connolly and Hobson Woodward recording additional audio clips.  Three staff members, Chris Coveney, Carol Knauff and Laura Lowell, provided excellent feedback regarding the multimedia overviews (the “tours”).

The digital content and the touch screens of various sizes–ranging from one large (65″) screen to two Dell All-in-Ones and one Microsoft Surface tablets–had to be physically incorporated into the exhibition. Gavin worked with exhibition designer Will Twombly and MHS’s Chris Coveney to ensure that the screens were accessible and functional in the gallery spaces.

The result of so many people’s efforts with the planning meetings, the configurations, the production tasks and deployment steps is an exhibition celebrating MHS’s 225th anniversary with significant historical manuscripts (the core of the collections) as well as value-added digital content on current touch-screen devices.  We strived to make the digital content as informative and user-friendly as possible. 

Please visit the Jefferson exhibition to examine both the original manuscripts on display as well as the digital components on the touch screen devices in the galleries.  Professor van Dam and some of his students will be giving a gallery talk about the development of the Touch Art Gallery system on Friday, May 13, at 2PM.

 

Image:  Screenshot of a tweet Liz Loveland sent during the Jefferson exhibition opening with an image of a manuscript page from the Farm Book delivered on a touch screen device.

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged ,

Part of the Process (ing)

By Dan Hinchen, Reader Services

In many archives, staff numbers are so low that all members must perform many different functions, from accepting new donations of material and housing the material for storage, to arranging and describing (processing) and providing reference assistance. Often, there is even much more on top of this (think: budgeting, fundraising, outreach, etc.). In past jobs I had the opportunity/necessity of donning these different hats.

Here at the MHS we are extremely fortunate in that we have several different departments that are all responsible for carrying out these functions, not in isolation but with focus and a degree of specialization.  All of this results in the smooth operation of the organization as an archive.

As someone who works (and very much enjoys) working on the public side of things, being part of a dedicated reference staff is great. I am able to focus much of my attention on the researchers, both in-person and remote, who want to utilize the collections we hold. However, this means that I run the risk of growing rusty with other archival functions. Thankfully, this is a collaborative organization and we get the chance to work with other departments to varying degrees at different times.

In the past year, I had the opportunity to take part in the re-processing of the George Bancroft papers. This collection of papers from the 19th century historian/diplomat relates to his time as a student – both at Harvard University and at Georgia Augusta University in Gottingen, Germany – as a schoolmaster, poet, historian, and diplomat. Bancroft’s writings and correspondence correlate to myriad events in American history during the 19th century and are a vital source of information for his lifetime.

Bancroft at work in his later years

(from the Marian Hooper Adams photographs, MHS)


Until now, this large collection (60+ boxes, 50+ volumes) was only given a basic level of description in our online catalog, ABIGAIL. While the material has been arranged and accessible to researchers, there was very little information forthcoming about the content of the papers and volumes. With that in mind, the Society decided to revisit the collection and give it a bit more attention in the hopes that more researchers will find their way to it.

While the MHS’ Collection Services department carries out our normal processing activities, we in Reader Services are occasionally able to get a hand in so that we can keep our non-reference skills sharp. The Bancroft papers were my opportunity to get into the process.

I was tasked with going through the 50+ volumes in the collection in order to get a grasp on the general types of volumes they are (i.e. diaires, journals, memoranda books, account books, etc.) and to get some idea of the content therein, then to house the material appropriately, and then to provide descriptions of the various volumes, along with a biographical profile of the man, for inclusion in a new online finding aid.

What this means for me is that I not only learned a great deal about Bancroft’s early life as a student in Germany, but also that I got to practice my processing. This was a bit of a reeducation for me since I have not been in a position to process materials for a few years now. 

Aside from re-housing all of the material in the collection (new boxes for loose papers, cases for many volumes, etc.), the major deliverable item from this project is the new online finding aid for the Bancroft papers. Unlike the catalog records in ABIGAIL, our online finding aids are discoverable via web searches using search engines like Google. Our hope is that now many more people from near and far can more easily learn about what the collection holds and perhaps come to the library to dig in even deeper.

Are you interested in learning more about Mr. Bancroft and his milieu? Take a look through the guide and then consider Visiting the Library!

 

Posted in From Our Collections