by Kate Melchior, MHS, and Patrick McGravey, North Andover MS
Every year, the MHS awards the Kass Teacher Fellowship to one or more K-12 educators. The is designed to offer K-12 teachers the opportunity to focus on historical research that will support their classroom efforts, discovering new primary sources to use in their classroom and deepening their understanding of history and humanities.
In 2021, Patrick McGravey of North Andover Middle School in North Andover, MA was awarded a Kass Fellowship to pursue research into North Andover resident William Symmes Jr and his role casting what was possibly the key vote that led to the ratification of the US Constitution. Patrick spent several months pouring through the MHS archives discovering primary sources for educators to use when teaching the history of civic action in Massachusetts. Read about Patrick’s research experience and his findings at the MHS:
Civics in Action from the William Symmes Jr. Experience
Patrick McGravey, Grade Eight Civics, North Andover Middle School
Mr. William Symmes “Yes” vote at the Massachusetts 1788 Ratification Convention for the US Constitution
In the fall of 1996, I began my teaching career at the North Andover Middle School which is in a New England community chock full of history from the colonial, revolutionary, and constitutional time periods. As I walked into the building that had just been newly renovated, I noticed a large banner that said, “Symmes House” which was obviously the name of the wing where my first classroom would be located named after someone of great importance. Growing up in this town, I had never heard of this name and as I asked around no one could tell me its overall significance including the building principal. It was twenty years later when I was reading an article about the annual Town Meeting where I saw that name again as the Manager of Town Meeting was dedicating part of the program to this man that had eluded me decades ago. It turns out that William Symmes Jr. was a representative at the Massachusetts 1788 Nomination Convention for the US Constitution who went against his constituents and voted yes for its approval. This became part of something that historians call the “Massachusetts Compromise” which was made up of an addition of a Bill of Rights combined with the US Constitution that eventually led to its unanimous adoption by all thirteen states.
This ratification process would eventually become part of my new curriculum in 2018 when my grade eight course went from U.S. History I to an intensive year of Civics based on a change in the Massachusetts History and Social Science Frameworks. It was a very exciting time for my students and I as we were creating something new together that would eventually have great meaning to them as civically engaged adults. Part of my instruction was to have various civic actors come into my classroom including the Town Manager who told the story of William Symmes Jr. to all of my students who were riveted with the overarching question of was this man a hero that helped bring about the ratification of the US Constitution by leading a group of voting members to change their positions impacting history forever or was he a villain who went against the wishes of his fellow townspeople who had instructed him to vote no on this crucial issue?
It was just a few years later that I received an email from the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) about offering the 2021- 2022 Kass Teacher Fellowship which would “offer an opportunity to focus on historical research that would fill a knowledge gap and address a need in the curriculum.” After my application and eventual acceptance, I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to explore this topic further and have a wide variety of resources available directly connected to the 1788 Massachusetts Ratification Convention for the US Constitution and possibly the story of William Symmes Jr. What follows is a story that truly impacted me as a civic educator and strongly presents evidence that the MHS is one of the best places for all educators to learn from materials and resources that are easily accessible which can be used in multiple ways to interact with students learning both Civics and U.S. History.
Childhood Home of William Symmes Jr, Andover (Now North Andover, MA)
After having my preliminary meeting with staff from the MHS, I immediately found two online resources created by them which were websites dedicated to the 1788 Massachusetts Ratification Conference. This was an amazing place to start with a detailed examination of this process which is not always covered in such an impressive manner. The website was so user friendly with a multitude of artifacts digitized and only a click away for the researcher. I was able to find a map of communities across Massachusetts that detailed their votes on ratification, newspapers from the week on the Ratification Convention, and a voting register with all of the members that were present including Symmes. I was so excited to not only be researching Symmes but also gaining knowledge about the ratification of the US Constitution process which will now become an integral part of my Civics course.
After just a few hours of research, I was able to find North Andover which was called Andover on the map detailing the overall votes (unrecorded due to a clerical error), a newspaper article from this time period that actually quoted Symmes, and the voting register with his “Yes” vote written in black ink. This was such an exciting and quickly developing process and personalized all that I was doing within my research of this topic as well as this man. At this point, I realized that William Symmes Jr. was not just an isolated learning topic and experience for my students but rather an integral part of my curriculum unit on the ratification of the US Constitution. I could now literally bring Symmes into my classroom showing my students that he played a huge role in this process as he was quoted on the front page of the newspaper and went on record as voting for ratification going against his constituents at the Massachusetts convention.
In addition, I was able to find his speech against ratification at the beginning of the convention and a second speech a few days later advocating for approval with the stipulation that a Bill of Rights would be added to the US Constitution which eventually became a development in other states’ ratification deliberations. This could not be more clear evidence that this organization not only knows its history but is on a mission to make it accessible to educators and students in interactive and meaningful ways which I was experiencing throughout this fellowship.
In the fall of 2021, I was actually able to visit the MHS library and do authentic research with the artifacts themselves which was a huge highlight for me especially with the COVID 19 restrictions over the past year and a half. The staff was so diligent both before and during my visit. The ABIGAIL request system was such an efficient experience and I was able to find even more resources including books about this topic, newspapers from this time period which actually quoted Mr. Symmes and the official voting ledger from the Convention with his signature and “Yes” vote right in front of my eyes. I was able to take a video of this that I will share with all of my students to deeply personalize this moment. I strongly encourage all of my fellow educators to not only use the resources of the MHS but to also apply for all of these multiple fellowships where you will have rewarding experiences and opportunities like the one I went through and be treated like a historian with access to so many resources along with the impressive knowledge and expertise of the staff.
I was also able to find more information about William Symmes in follow up research within college textbooks about this time period where actual chapters were dedicated to this man that I had no knowledge of years ago. I also found a periodical that documented a series of lectures in Andover and North Andover entitled a “Memorial Discourse on William Symmes, Esq” that took place in the winter months of 1859- 1860 asking history to take another look at this historical figure. The central theme of these highly attended talks was that Symmes was someone that was courageous who did the right thing for his community and should be revered in the history of the Andovers not vilified as someone that went against the wishes of his constituents.
In addition, I made a new connection with the North Andover Historical Society to learn even more about this topic and controversial local historical figures. One important part of this story was the reaction of Symmes’ constituents to his voting change which was described in one publication as “for his perfidy, Symmes’ constituents retired him from public life.” In my research, I learned that he left Andover with his successful law practice to move up north to Portland, Maine which was then part of Massachusetts. This then led me back to the MHS where I was able to find two speeches that Symmes had made to his new community with one being on the twenty third anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1797 which was a few years before his death in 1807. Once again, an opportunity presented itself for my students to learn the “What Happens Next ” as part of this remarkable story of history where Symmes was able to move on, form another successful law practice and proudly serve as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives as well as a School Committee member for his new community in Portland.
As I wrap up my research for this fellowship, I am now working on a curriculum unit about the ratification of the US Constitution making Symmes the centerpiece of this historical event. I am also inviting the Manager of Town Meeting back into my classroom to facilitate a debate on the legacy of William Symmes Jr for my students. In addition, my students and I are going to work together on a mini Civic Action Project to rededicate the Symmes wing in a more meaningful way to guarantee that all members of our school community now know who this man was and the impact that he had not only on the community of North Andover but on the legacy of the United States. These meaningful and engaging experiences for my students and I could not have taken place without this fellowship as well as the impressive work of the Massachusetts Historical Society as an organization. They clearly want to not only keep history alive in all of our minds but also make it accessible for all, proving that we are all “historians” and deserve to be treated in this manner with access to incredible resources in a way that is both welcoming and meaningful at the same time.
In 1765, nearly 100 Massachusetts vessels fished and whaled the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Straits of Belle Isle, which lie between Newfoundland and Labrador. There were several Cape Cod whalers, including the two ships that concern us today, captained by Capt. Joseph Doane of Chatham and Capt. Lot Gage of Harwich. On 21 June the hunting was good in the Straits; a sizable number of boats from several vessels were in the water, and numerous whales had been sighted. One whale had succeeded in eluding capture, until Asa Nickerson, commanding one of Doane’s boats, drove his “iron” into it. The whale sounded with the line. At some point thereafter, Gage himself struck the same whale and Nickerson’s line came free. Gage was able to maintain control over the whale, supervise the kill, and bring its marketable parts aboard ship.
It seems that Gage then owned the whale and the rights to all proceeds made from it, right? Not according to Doane who then demanded one-eighth share in the profits of the whale since his sailor caught the whale first. Gage stood his ground and Doane had no choice but to take him to court.
This is where the story gets very interesting and dramatic! The two captains brought the case to the Inferior Court in Barnstable on Cape Cod, where people were swayed to a side, depending on long-standing rivalries, which ship’s sailors told them the story, or because they held a financial interest in one of the ships. Sides were chosen all along the Cape and public opinion was running rampant.
In June 1766, John Adams was asked to serve as counsel to Doane in his suit for that one-eighth share. James Otis, Jr., John Adams’ mentor as a lawyer, as well as James Otis, Sr., represented the Gage interests.
Depositions were taken in Barnstable, but public opinion was so strong on each side that both lawyers felt that holding the trial in Barnstable would be detrimental since a partial jury would not be found there. It was agreed between them that depositions are fine, but the Vice Admiralty Court would be the place for the eventual trial.
On 6 January 1768 John Adams entered “Joseph Doane v. Lot Gage, rela. a Whale” on the docket for the Vice Admiralty Court. At this time Robert Treat Paine, a whaler himself for a brief time, joined the father and son Otis on the counsel for Gage.
I’d like to pause here because there are things happening in Boston that would have made emotions run even higher. In October 1768, 2,000 troops arrived from his Royal Highness’s Army to quell suspected rebellion in Boston. This came after taxes were levied in the previous years and Bostonians refused to pay them which resulted in tax collectors’ property and bodies being attacked. The soldiers were there to dampen the fervor in the town, but it stoked the fire of rebellion instead and eventually led to the Boston Massacre on 5 March 1770, after which the soldiers were sent out of Boston.
I’ve written before about James Otis, Jr. and his volatile, if brilliant, nature, but an incident occurred during this time that shines a little light on his character and capacity. Otis was known for having exemplary oratory capabilities and could wax poetic for literally hours. However, he could also have bouts of mania where he would malign his enemies in Boston papers, have abrupt changes in mood, and be despondent for days. In September 1768, one of his enemies finally had enough. Otis responded in one of his newspaper writings to something tax collector John Robinson had said about him. Robinson and Otis happened upon each other in a Boston coffeehouse and a fight ensued. Robinson struck Otis on the head with his cane, after which Otis was never quite the same. He had mental struggles before this, but after the incident it was difficult for Otis to carry on conversations, handle his law cases, or do his duty to the Massachusetts General Assembly. His family eventually secluded him in a friend’s house. Although he would periodically dine with friends or other Assembly members, it was obvious he was very different.
With all this going on in Boston, and personally with Otis, on 22 April 1769 the parties agreed to submit the matter to arbitrators.
Watch for Part 2 coming soon, where we will discuss the particulars of the case and the outcome.
By Neal Millikan, Series Editor for Digital Editions, The Adams Papers
Transcriptions of more than 1,400 pages of John Quincy Adams’s diary have just been added to the John Quincy Adams Digital Diary, a born-digital edition of the Adams Papers editorial project at the Massachusetts Historical Society. The new material spans the period January 1839 through December 1842 and chronicle Adams’s involvement with the Amistad court case as he also continued serving in the United States House of Representatives.
In July 1839, fifty-three Africans revolted aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad as they were being transported by their enslavers from Havana to another Cuban port. During the revolt, the Africans killed the ship’s captain and another crew member, demanding to be returned to Mendiland (now Sierra Leone). However, the remaining Amistad crew were able to divert the vessel from its course. On 24 August a U.S. revenue cutter seized the Amistad off Long Island and brought it into the port of New London, Connecticut. The Africans were imprisoned at New Haven, Connecticut, while their case moved through the U.S. District and Circuit Courts.
While he offered opinions and advice on the Amistad case as early as September 1839, John Quincy Adams did not take a formal role until a year later. Abolitionists visited the former president at his home in Quincy on 27 October 1840 and convinced him to join the Amistad defense team when the case went before the U.S. Supreme Court. In his diary, Adams noted his reluctance to provide further legal counsel. “I endeavoured to excuse myself upon the plea of my age and inefficiency—of the oppressive burden of my duties as a member of the House of Representatives, and my inexperience after a lapse of more than thirty years . . . before judicial tribunals.” However, the abolitionists “urged me so much and represented the case of those unfortunate men as so critical, it being a case of life and death, that I yielded.”
The trial opened in February 1841. John Quincy Adams began his oral arguments for the defense on the 24th, speaking for “four hours and a half, with sufficient method and order to witness little flagging of attention, by the judges or the auditory.” Pleased with his performance, he modestly assessed: “I did not I could not answer public expectation—but I have not yet utterly failed.” Adams returned to the court on 1 March to conclude his argument on behalf of the Amistad Africans and spoke for another four hours. The court’s opinion, delivered on 9 March, ruled that the Africans were free and could return home.
As he revised for publication his oral arguments in the Amistad case, John Quincy Adams mused in his diary on the current state of the emancipation cause in the United States. “The world, the flesh, and all the devils in hell are arrayed against any man, who now, in this North-American Union, shall dare to join the standard of Almighty God, to put down” the issue of slavery. He lamented that his own physical infirmities prevented him from doing more to further the cause. “What can I, upon the verge of my seventy-fourth birth-day, with a shaking hand, a darkening eye, a drowsy brain, and with all my faculties, dropping from me, one by one, as the teeth are dropping from my head . . . what can I do for the cause of God and Man? for the progress of human emancipation? . . . Yet my conscience presses me on.” The following year, Adams recorded that his continued opposition to slavery produced considerably different reactions in the North and South. While northerners routinely wrote to him asking for an autograph, the letters he received from southerners often contained “insult, profane obscenity and filth.”
For more on John Quincy Adams’s life, navigate to the entries to begin reading his diary. The addition of material for the 1839–1842 period joins existing transcriptions of Adams’s diary for his legal, political, and diplomatic careers (1789–1817), his time as secretary of state (1817–1825), his presidency (1825–1829), and his early years in the House of Representatives (1830–1838) and brings the total number of transcriptions freely available on the MHS website to more than 9,800 pages.
The Adams Papers editorial project at the Massachusetts Historical Society gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our sponsors. Major funding for the John Quincy Adams Digital Diary was provided by the Amelia Peabody Charitable Fund, with additional contributions by Harvard University Press and a number of private donors. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in partnership with the National Historical Publications and Records Commission also support the project through funding for the Society’s Primary Source Cooperative.
For today’s blog, I’d like to give you a behind-the-scenes peek at the work of archivists, specifically some of the small challenges we face in processing and preserving manuscripts for researchers. Collections come to us in all shapes, sizes, and physical conditions. While the work is interesting and rewarding, you may be surprised how long it takes to get a collection ready for use. Here are a few of the issues that make our jobs a little harder.
First, let’s talk about processing. Processing involves physically arranging a collection and describing its contents in a catalog record or collection guide. Imagine taking the carton shown above, removing all the letters from their envelopes, arranging them chronologically, identifying correspondents and subjects, etc. So, what are the most common hurdles?
An undated letter
Undated manuscripts. I give this issue pride of place in my list because of how common and how frustrating it is. Archivists may be able to date a letter based on a postmark (if we still have the envelope), a partial date, or internal clues, such as the passing mention of a recent event. The black border on the letter pictured here tells us a relative of the writer has recently died. However, archivists don’t read all the letters in a collection and seldom have time to do the digging necessary to date undated letters.
Unattributed manuscripts. I’ve seen this primarily with diaries, which is understandable. After all, most people probably don’t think their diaries will ever be read by anyone else. (God forbid!) But so much information is lost without this context. Who was this person? What experiences did they live through? Like letters, diaries can often be identified with some investigation, but it’s time-consuming.
Unidentified photographs. I wrote a few years ago about processing a large collection of family photographs and having to identify the baby pictures of three sisters who looked almost identical. We see so many terrific photographs come through our doors, it’s a shame when we can’t tell you who’s in them.
This word is “some,” believe it or not
Difficult/illegible handwriting. Archivists get better at this with practice, but it never really stops being tricky. If you’re responsible for processing a large collection of someone’s papers, you’ll become intimately familiar with their handwriting and the way they form certain letters, but then you’ll move on to the next collection and start all over again. Centuries-old writing sometimes barely even looks like English.
An example of cross-writing
Cross-writing. It was very common for correspondents, when they were running out of space but had a little more to say, to return to the first page and write across it at a 90-degree angle, as shown in this letter by Margaret Fuller. In this example, the end of the letter is right on top of the beginning. I’ve seen many variations of this, including writers who scribble along the margins or even turn a letter upside down and write in the gaps between the lines.
Duplicate copies. For modern collections, one of the biggest problems is excessive duplication. A collection, particularly the records of an organization, will usually contain multiple photocopies of documents that take up unnecessary space and need to be weeded.
Next up is preservation, the key to the long-term survival of our collections. Preservation encompasses everything from conservation—the physical repair of individual documents—to temperature and humidity control, light management, and the selection of acid-free enclosures. It also includes all the little steps we processing archivists take to ensure that a given document lasts as long as possible.
Newspaper stains the papers it touches
Acidic paper. Newspaper clippings, as they deteriorate, will not only become more brittle themselves, but they’ll also emit acid that does the same thing to the papers that touch it. You’ll see the pattern of staining on documents that have lived next to clippings for a period of time. It’s not just newspapers, either; the same kind of poor-quality wood-pulp paper was used for telegrams and some 20th-century copy paper. MHS archivists generally, time-permitting, photocopy newspaper clippings and remove the originals, or at least isolate any acidic paper.
Onion-skin paper. This unmistakable thin paper was common in airmail because of its light weight. It was also used for carbon copies of typed business correspondence. The ink on these copies is frequently faint to the point of illegibility, and the paper tears very easily.
Rust from metal fasteners
Metal fasteners. Ah, staples and paper clips. I often think archivists should be sure to keep up with their tetanus shots. Some past recordkeepers even used straight pins to attach pages together. And if a collection has been kept in a damp and/or warm environment before coming to the MHS, the rust (and rust stains) resulting from these metal fasteners can be epic. Rubber bands get an honorable mention here, too, because as they dry and harden, they will also stain paper. When fasteners are necessary, we use plastic paper clips.
Post-it® notes, tape, and other forms of adhesive are dangerous for paper even after they’ve been removed. Some residue of the adhesive remains on the paper and will damage it over time. Best to avoid them altogether.
Deteriorated leather bindings
Red rot. Red rot is what happens to leather that has been exposed to humidity and/or high temperatures. This image shows how poor the condition of leather-bound volumes can become. Red rot is also, as any archivist or special collections librarian can tell you, a huge mess; it will crumble onto shelves, desks, your clothes, everything. Volumes that are literally falling to pieces can’t be handled by researchers, so the MHS measures each volume and orders custom-fitted cases.
Organic material. More than a few collections contain other forms of organic material, such as leaves and flowers pressed into volumes, as well as locks of human hair. These items are removed.
This is only a partial list; I haven’t mentioned digital records or issues related to the reference side of things. If my fellow archivists or librarians out there want to add anything in the comments, you’re more than welcome!
Abigail Adams’s death on 28 Oct. 1818 represented a cosmic shift in the Adamses’ universe. As her daughter-in-law Louisa Catherine Adams explained, Abigail was “the guiding Planet around which all revolved, performing their separate duties only by the impulse of her magnetic power.”
Though her death touched every member of the family, John Quincy Adams, then in Washington, D.C., knew his 83-year-old father would be the most affected. On 1 November, having received notice that his mother was gravely ill, he wrote in his diary, “Oh! what must it be to my father, and how will he support life without her who has been to him its charm?”
The next day, John Quincy received confirmation of his mother’s death. He retired to his chamber to weep and then reflected on what this loss would mean to his father.
“She had been fifty four years the delight of my father’s heart; the sweetener of all his toils—the comforter of all his sorrows; the sharer and heightener of all his joys— It was but the last time when I saw my father that he told me . . . that in all the vicissitudes of his fortunes, through all the good Report, and evil Report of the World; in all his struggles, and in all his sorrows the affectionate participation, and cheering encouragement of his wife, had been his never failing support; without which he was sure he should never have lived through them.”
John Quincy wrote to his father, lamenting their mutual loss and assuring his father it was “the dearest of his wishes to alleviate” John’s pain. “Let me hear from you, my dearest father; let me hear from you soon.” On 3 November, John Quincy repeated to his diary, “It is for him, and to hear from him that my anxiety now bears upon my mind.”
John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 Nov. 1818
On 10 November, John Adams responded to his “ever dear, ever affectionate, ever dutiful and deserving Son.” He wrote that “The bitterness of Death is past. The grim Spector So terrible to human Nature has no Sting left for me.” Knowing John Quincy was agonized to be separated from his father at such a painful juncture, John reassured him that “the Sympathy and Benevolence of all the World, has been Such as I Shall not live long enough to describe” and that his “consolations are more than I can number.”
John Quincy wrote to his last-surviving sibling, Thomas Boylston Adams, on 22 November. “I have received a short Letter from our dear and honoured father, and have heard from various quarters of the fortitude with which he has met the most distressing of calamities. Knowing his character as I do this was what I expected.” John Quincy confided to his brother that he still fretted for their father. “The struggle which is not apparent to the world, is not the less but the more trying within— Watch over his health, my dear brother with unremitting, though if possible to him imperceptible attention. Assist him with unwearied assiduity in the management of his affairs; and always according to his own deliberate opinions and wishes.” He stressed this last point. “Let the study of every one around him be to gratify his wishes, according to his ideas, and not according to their own.”
Indeed, John Adams had lost the person who most carefully watched over his health and affairs, but it was the loss of Abigail’s constant company and conversation John felt most severely. Though Adams put on a brave face for his family—his letters from this period are filled with levity and self-deprecating jokes—his boredom and loneliness saturate the page.
John Quincy couldn’t leave Washington, so he dispatched his eldest son, George Washington Adams, to Peacefield during Harvard’s winter break. “He is fond of your company,” John Quincy wrote to his son. “You can render yourself very serviceable to him; and . . . you can be in no possible situation better adapted to the improvement of your heart and the cultivation of your Understanding than with him.”
In December 1818, the bereaved patriarch and his grandson embarked on a project that thrills the heart of this editor. The two Adamses tore Peacefield apart in search of family papers. “Trunks Boxes Desks Drawers locked up for thirty Years have been broken open because the Keys are lost. Nothing Stands in my Way. Every Scrap Shall be found and preserved.”
John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 Dec. 1818
Though John Adams had been kicking around Peacefield since 1801, it was the loss of Abigail that stimulated this frenzied search. Perhaps her death made him reflect on his own mortality and legacy. Perhaps he just needed a project to keep him busy. But I wonder if the quest to find old family letters wasn’t a grieving widower seeking the company and conversation of his dearest friend.
The Adams Papers editorial project at the Massachusetts Historical Society gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our sponsors. Major funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Packard Humanities Institute. The Florence Gould Foundation and a number of private donors also contribute critical support. All Adams Papers volumes are published by Harvard University Press. Major funding for the John Quincy Adams Digital Diary was provided by the Amelia Peabody Charitable Fund. Harvard University Press and a number of private donors also contributed crucial support.
When I look through the archives of the MHS, I find myself laughing a lot. Not everything is funny, of course, but enough to remind you that these towering figures from history were, in fact, human beings that made mistakes and experienced awkward situations, just like anyone else. I’ve gathered a few stories revolving around plants that I hope you enjoy as much as I do.
In his diary on 6 June 1771, John Adams recounts what I took to be an exaggerated and funny tale about eating fruit, told by his friend Mr. William Barrell. In the end, Adams moralizes that it’s a wholesome way to eat:
“Barrell this Morning at Breakfast entertained Us with an Account of his extravagant Fondness for Fruit. When he lived at New market he could get no fruit but Strawberries, and he used frequently to eat 6 Quarts in a Day. At Boston, in the very hottest of the Weather he breakfasts upon Water Melons—neither Eats nor drinks any Thing else for Breakfast. In the Season of Peaches he buys a Peck, every Morning, and eats more than half of them himself. In short he eats so much fruit in the Season of it that he has very little Inclination to any other Food. He never found any Inconvenience or ill Effect from fruit— enjoys as much Health as any Body. Father Dana is immoderately fond of fruit, and from several other Instances one would conclude it very wholsome.”
More from John Adams, this time when he was in Paris on 7 December 1779 on a diplomatic mission, when he had an unfortunate experience with caustic nut oil:
“Yesterday the Chevr. de la Molion gave me some Nuts which he call’d Noix d’Acajou. They are the same which I have often seen, and which were called Cooshoo Nuts. The true name is Acajou Nuts. They are shaped like our large white Beans. The outside Shell has an Oil in it that is corrosive, caustic, or burning. In handling one of these Shells enough to pick out the meat I got a little of this oyl on my fingers, and afterwards inadvertently rubbing my Eyes, especially my Left, I soon found the Lids swelled and inflamed up to my Eyebrow.”
If you have ever handled spicy food then rubbed your eye, I know you are cringing as much as I did when I read that!
Abigail Adams is famous for inoculating her children for smallpox while her husband was away at the Continental Congress in 1776. This was cutting edge medicinal science at the time. So, when her mother-in-law took to carrots as a way to heal an arm sore, she did not believe it would work. However, in this letter to John on 21 February 1796, she remarks on the potential of carrots to heal this type of malady, perhaps as a joke.
“Tho I have not seen her since, I saw her Arm last week. There is not the appearance of a Soar upon it. It is matter of surprize and proves the powerfull efficacy of carrots in such cases as the rose kind.”
On 18 October 1820, John Quincy Adams was enjoying an evening with friends, including a beautiful young woman, when he was teased and challenged to come up with a poem about myrtle and geranium leaves for an album they were creating together. However, he disappointed the group, as he was unable to come up with anything imaginative on the spot. Afterwards, Adams notes that what was especially mortifying for him was the young woman’s impression of him as a man with an “inability” to produce a poem. Although he admits “I produce no impromptus,” later that night, he did write a poem for his friends to place in the album:
“Leaves of unfading verdure! here remain!
Myrtle of beauty! still thy place retain!
Still o’er the page, your hope-ting’d foliage spread;
Imprison’d still, your genial fragrance shed.
But Oh! could language, worthy of the theme,
Give instant utterance to fond fancy’s dream;
When your frail forms, her gentle hand shall raise,
The page should blossom with perennial praise:
A sweeter fragrance than your own should rise”
The Adams family may have been prominent, learned, worldly, and presidential, but these stories revolving around plants found in the MHS archives, are examples of the ways they could also be simply human. Perhaps what we can learn from the above is to always eat your carrots and fruit, and be careful which nut shells you handle—or, at least, don’t rub your eye afterwards!
It’s time again for National History Day in Massachusetts! Our students and teachers are hard at work on their “Debate and Diplomacy in History” themed exhibits, performances, documentaries, websites, and essays.
Want to support our students and learn a wide array of interesting histories? Volunteer from home as a judge for one of our Virtual Regional competitions! We need your help to provide quality judging and a great contest experience for the students. Not only will you support our NHD MA students, but you will have the opportunity to learn about a wide array of histories. No prior experience required, just a love of history!
Our 2022 Regional Competitions will be held virtually this year. Judging for our South Shore competition will take place on Saturday, 5 March, and our Greater Boston competition will take place on Sunday, 6 March. Judges will receive project materials a week in advance, and on their contest day will meet with other judges to review and provide feedback. After judging is completed, judges will then join students, teachers, and parents for a Reflection Roundtable as students discuss their research process and discoveries.
To learn more about judging and to register for one of our competitions, visit our Judges page! For more information about NHD in Massachusetts and to see examples of past projects, visit our website or e-mail us at nhd@masshist.org.
I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce our Beehive readers to an exciting project at the MHS. In an effort to draw attention to collections that contain material documenting historically underrepresented populations, library staff have added four new subject guides to our website. They describe items and collections related to African American history; Native American history; the history of sexuality, including LGBTQ+ populations; and the history of the economically disenfranchised.
New subject guides cataloged in ABIGAIL
This is a relatively new endeavor for the MHS. Of course, we have hundreds of guides available at our website, but they describe the contents of individual collections. We use these guides to explain a collection’s organizational scheme and assist researchers to locate specific material. The four new guides serve a different purpose. They bring together material from across MHS collections, and with them we hope to highlight the lives and experiences of individuals traditionally overlooked or undervalued in the historical record.
The subject guides are similar but not uniform. The guide to African American resources, first written over fifteen years ago, was substantially revised just a few months ago. It contains a fairly comprehensive overview of material related to enslavement, freedom seekers, the antislavery movement, and emancipation; the colonization movement; African Americans in the American Revolution and the Civil War; African American organizations and education; civil rights; and other subjects. Its contents are grouped chronologically by era.
Collections listed in the guide to Native American resources are arranged within general subject areas, such as “The Land,” “Missions to Native Americans,” “Diplomacy and Warfare,” etc. The guide covers many aspects of Indigenous life, society, governance, and history. Staff members made significant efforts to identify specific individuals and nations where possible, and we particularly wanted to highlight manuscripts, artwork, and artifacts created by Indigenous people.
The guide to the history of sexuality takes the form of an alphabetical list. Included is material related to sexual desire and behavior, sexual and gender nonconformity, courtship, pre- and extra-marital sex, gay rights, sex work, birth control and abortion, pregnancy and childbirth, and other subjects. This guide is necessarily less comprehensive than the others, as the MHS holds thousands of collections of family papers, and most of them cover, to some degree, topics like courtship, marriage, childbirth, etc.
This guide also proved challenging for another reason. It can be difficult to determine the exact nature of relationships between people who leave an incomplete historical record or who had to be circumspect because of stigma or prejudicial laws. The parameters of relationships have also changed over the years, as has the language used to describe them.
The last of the new subject guides covers the history of the economically disenfranchised. Like the guide to Native American resources, it’s organized into broad subject areas so that similar collections appear together. Most MHS material on this subject documents the work of charitable organizations and reflects the class prejudices of the time, but you’ll still find some fascinating details about the lived experiences of impoverished communities. The guide also identifies some first-hand accounts of poverty and hardship.
These four new subject guides—along with our list of presidential letters at the MHS—include links to available collection guides and/or catalog records, so researchers can easily begin requesting material.
Researchers have always been able to use our online catalog ABIGAIL, of course, to search for collections by subject, but a catalog requires controlled vocabulary—that is, subject terms defined by an authority, such as the Library of Congress. The choice of words and the format of these access points must be consistent to be useful. Our new subject guides, however, allow us to include more detailed contextual information, use our own terminology, explain how collections relate to each other, and draw attention to material that may not otherwise get the attention it deserves.
The MHS will continue to collect in all of these subject areas, and additional relevant material will undoubtedly be uncovered in collections we already hold, so the subject guides will be revised as needed. We also hope to create more of these kinds of resources to assist and encourage research into other underrepresented populations.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped with this project!
By Rakashi Chand (she/hers), Senior Library Assistant
The COVID-19 Pandemic continues to loom over all aspects of our lives—well past the point any of us initially imagined—and our patience wears thin. Many wonder if there will ever be a return to ‘normal’.
In researching the diaries of people who survived the 1918 influenza pandemic, it is apparent that after a public health emergency was declared to stop the spread of the influenza, things seemed to settle and daily routines resumed.
Two collections at the MHS show how people managed, survived, and thrived during and after the 1918 Influenza Pandemic: the Eleanor Shumway diaries, 1913-1918 and the Clara E. Currier diaries, 1918-1932. In the diaries kept by Shumway and Currier there is one striking commonality. Both diarists record that on 29 September 1918 everything shuts down ‘on account of’ or ‘because of’ the Epidemic.
The Eleanor Shumway diaries consist of two diaries kept by Eleanor Shumway of Newton, Mass. while she was in her late teens and early twenties. The collection was acquired in October 2020. It accompanies the Eleanor Shumway scrapbook already held by the MHS, and the Eleanor Shumway photographs removed from the Eleanor Shumway Scrapbook. Entries in the diaries primarily describe her social activities, lessons at Newton High School, sports and other recreation, church and Sunday School attendance, and family matters. Beginning 16 September 1918, entries describe Shumway’s training as a nurse at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
Eleanor Shumway Line-A-Day Diary, cover
From 1914 to 1917 Eleanor consistently wrote in her Line-A-Day diary, but in 1918 she was not as consistent. Her entries trail off on 31 May 1918 and are left blank until 16 September when Eleanor records:
“Mon. Entered P.B. Brigham Hospital. Madeline Wentworth and I room together in a funny apartment house on Wigglesworth Street. 26 in our class. Very nice girls. 3 other girls on our floor.”
On 17 September she writes:
“Tues. Great time getting into our uniforms and over to breakfast at 6:40. Books were given out and we were given rules and regulations. In eve Madeline, Gertrude [–] and I walked up Parker Hill.”
18 September through the 26 September are left blank.
On 27 September 1918 Eleanor records only one line:
“Fri. Carried trays and took temperatures.”
28 September 1918:
“Sat. Carried trays for past [week? Hour] Got 1 O’Clock car home. Walked down street with mother and Mrs. Shute. In eve-ning wrote letters.”
On 29 September 1918, Eleanor notes the epidemic:
“Sun. Slept late. No Church because of Epidemic. Went to dinner at Taylors. May & [–] & I went to walk in woods. Came back at 10 with Madeline.”
Eleanor Shumway diary entry for September 29, 1918
30 September 1918:
“Mon. Patient for bed [evaluating] in PM. Madeline and I went down town. Did errands & went for dinner at café de Paris. Walked home & studied in eve.”
1 October 1918:
“Tues. Cleaned House. Beat rugs. Patient for Bed [making/walking] P. M. Madeline and I walked over to Coolidge Corner. Got eats and walked back. [–] supper. Danced in evening.”
The days go on filled with studying, exams, walks to Coolidge corner, dinners and even trips to the Orpheum Theatre. Life returned even more so as Eleanor wrote on 11 November 11 1918:
“Mon. End of the War. Fighting stopped at 6AM. Everyone wild with Joy. Bells rang, whistles the all day. Went in town with Mad. Stayed un till 7. Then went home. [–] The town had a victory parade.”
Again, the entries continue with walks, dinners, and nursing exams, until 12 December when Eleanor writes:
“Fri. Wallace Seaward died of influenza..”
Eleanor Shumway diary page, December 12th 1918
After a few more diary entries, mostly about Eleanor’s nursing exams, the last entry in the Line-A-Day diary is on 18 December 1918:
“Wed. Did lab work all day long. Dissected a frog in anatomy. In P. M> went down town to do errands. Didn’t accomplish much. Met Gerty & had a sundae at Baileys. Met [Stanley] May. Slept in Mary Ellen’s room.”
The Clara E. Currier diaries consist of three paperbound diaries kept by Clara E. Currier of Haverhill, Mass. (1 July 1918 to 31 December 1919, 1 January 1925 to 31 March 1926, and 1 January 1928 to 1932. Brief entries describe her daily activities; social calls; letters written and received; church and Sunday School attendance; sewing, gardening, and canning; sightings of early airplanes; attendance at minstrel shows; events such as eclipses and earthquakes; her attack of measles in 1925; family matters; and the weather. In 1918, Currier references the influenza epidemic and the end of World War I. The Clara E. Currier diaries were acquired in September of 2020.
Cover, Clara E. Currier diary 1918-1919
While most entries describe the weather, daily activities, meeting friends and family, and efforts to assist the Red Cross, beginning in September we start to see entries that reflect the impact of the Influenza Pandemic in Haverhill, Mass. On 22 September 1918, Clara writes:
“Went to Church morning and evening and S.S. A pleasant autumn day. Ada called, went to the Y.W.C.A. with flowers for Ethel who is sick with gripe or Influenza.”
On 29 September 1918, Clara mentions the epidemic:
“A beautiful day. No Church on account of Epidemic. Schools and theatres closed for the week. Took a little walk and called on Alice B. Laisdall. Wrote to Elsie and Mary.”
Clara E. Currier Diary page inclusive of September 29, 1918 entry
Skipping ahead a few days, the next mention on the epidemic is on Saturday, 5 October:
“A dull day. Went down town on errands. Influenza still raging.”
The days of October and November are filled with crocheting, dress making, jam making and calling on friends – and sometimes calling on friends while going to volunteer at the Kenoza Base hospital, which at the time was set up for Influenza patients.
On 7 December, she mentions being sick though she does not identify her sickness as influenza:
“A cold day. Awful tired and lame.”
8 December 1918:
“A dull day. Went to church in the a.m. and S.S. Am not feeling well. Wrote to Elsie and Mary.”
9 December 1918:
“A pleasant day. Don’t feel much better. Crocheted and knit a little.”
December 10, 1918:
“A beautiful winter day. Felling better but not very strong. Did a little sewing. Had a letter from Mary.”
Clara E. Currier Diary page describing her illness, December 1918
Clara recovered from her illness, and continued canning, sewing, and paying visits to friends. Based solely on the number of days she was ill, we can likely conclude that Clara was sick with and overcame the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.
Here is a look at the virtual events we have planned this week:
On Tuesday, 1 February, at 5:15 PM: The American Funding with Katie Moore, University of California, Santa Barbara; Ann Daly, Mississippi State University; and comment by Simon Middleton, The College of William & Mary.
This panel discussion will consider two papers on the history of money from the mid-18th through the early 19th centuries. Katie Moore’s essay will examine the political, economic, and monetary preconditions that informed the colonial Massachusetts land bank “controversy.” While previous scholars have linked the land bank to parallel events such as the Great Awakening or to the coming of the American Revolution, this paper reappraises it as a solution to the dull demand for labor that shaped Massachusetts’ economic decline after Queen Anne’s War and imperial restrictions that prohibited the colony from issuing its own currency after 1741. Ann Daly’s essay will then consider the cultural construction of monetary value in the antebellum US through two approaches to valuing individual coins. Known as the ‘science of real money,’ the first was a system of scientific analysis developed by federal scientists at the US Mint for elite capitalists. At the same time, lower-class Americans developed a competing, sensory approach to assessing coinage. Whether they deployed scientific assessment or embodied inquiry, all Americans needed to gather knowledge to protect themselves from bad money. This event is part of the Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar series.Register for this online event.
MHS Fellows are invited to this mid-year meeting to discuss proposed bylaws changes and vote. All elected MHS Fellows are encouraged to attend. The meeting will be held online and in-person so that more people can participate in the discussion. Please note, that only those participating in-person will be able to vote. Register to attend online or register to attend in person.
Visit www.masshist.org/events for a complete schedule of events. If you missed a program or would like to revisit the material presented, please visit www.masshist.org/video or our YouTube channel. A selection of past programs is just a click away.
