Unfinished copperplate engraving, done by Savage after an oil painting (ca. 1796–1817) now attributed beyond question to the same artist, although long accepted as a joint effort with Robert Edge Pine. The copperplate is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society; the oil is in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Devoid of dramatic clichés and allegorical trappings, Savage's rendering is believed to present “as true a picture of the Assembly Room of Independence Hall as we are ever likely to find.” For a full discussion of the engraving and the painting, see James M. Mulcahy, “Congress Voting Independence: The Trumbull and Pine-Savage Paintings,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 80:74–91 (January 1956).

Engraving by Nicholas Garrison dated 1784. Substantial communal buildings (married couples, widows, widowers, single brethren, single sisters, older boys, older girls, and children formed separate “choirs” or homogeneous living groups) overlook the Lehigh River. With a population between 500 and 600 in 1776, the settlement was swollen by several thousand troops late in 1777 when a delegation of Continental Congress members, including John Adams, paid a visit there. One Moravian wrote of this visit: “During their sojourn, the Delegates spoke in high terms of Bethlehem. Those from New England especially, were delighted with our institutions, and the neatness prevalent in the town, promising to exert their influence for the speedy removal of the Hospital and the British prisoners, provided we would consent to their making Bethlehem their headquarters during the war. It was by much persuasion, only, that we induced them to abandon that idea, setting before them the ruinous consequences to our Society, which would inevitably result from such a measure” (John W. Jordan, “Bethlehem During the Revolution,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 13:72–73 [April 1889]). See Adams' account of Bethlehem at p. 266–267.

Document enclosed in a letter from John Bradford, Continental agent at Boston, to John Adams, 11? February 1778. See Diary entry of 13 February 1778 and note, p. 270.

Another enclosure in Bradford's letter to Adams, 11? February 1778; see [DJA02fd3]immediately above.

On 19 September 1779, John Adams submitted his accounts for his first European mission to the Board of Treasury and explained: “The Honourable Board will also see, in this Account of mine, several Articles for Books. I found myself in France, ill versed in the Language, the Literature, the Science, the Laws, Customs and Manners of that Country, and had the Mortification to find my Colleagues, very little better informed than myself, vain as this may seem. I found also that Dr. Franklin, Mr. Deane and Mr. Lee, had expended considerable sums for Books, and this appeared to me, one of the most necessary, and usefull Ways in which Money had ever been spent in that Country. I therefore did not hesitate to expend the sums, mentioned in this Account in this Way, in the Purchase of such a Collection of Books, as were calculated to qualify me for Conversation and for Business, especially the science of Negotiation. Accordingly the Books are a Collection, of Books concerning the french Language and Criticism, concerning french History, Laws, Customs and Manners, but above all a large Collection of Books on the public Right of Europe, and the Letters and Memoirs of those Ambassadors and public Ministers who had acquired the fairest Fame and had done the greatest Services to their Countries in this Way.” Most of the books survive in John Adams' library now in the Boston Public Library. See Adams' Personal Receipts and Expenditures, 1778–1779, and notes there, p. 325–344.

Printed passport with engraved seal, issued to John Adams and his party by Don Pedro Martín Cermeño (or Sermeño) at La Coruña on 18 December 1779, for their expedition across Spain to France. See Diary entry of 15 December 1779 and note, p. 409.

John Adams arrived in La Coruña on the evening of 15 December 1779 with his two young sons (John Quincy and Charles Adams), a secretary (John Thaxter), and a servant (Joseph Stephens), and put up “at a Tavern kept by Persons who speak french.” They remained there until the 26th, receiving visits from provincial and municipal officials. See the Diary entries at p. 409–410.

Examples of this engraved trade card appear in two of John Adams' folio letterbooks bound in white parchment and purchased in Paris soon after his arrival on his first diplomatic mission. See his Personal Receipts and Expenditures, 1778–1779, p. 327 and note at p. 343.

Engraving of John Adams' residence in Amsterdam from early 1781 to early 1782, from Caspar Phillips' Het Grachtenboek, published in Amsterdam, 1771. In contracting with the firm of Sigourney, Ingraham, & Bromfield for the house, Adams wrote, 9 April 1781: “When I return it will be necessary for me to have an House to put my Head in and Furniture, suitable for a Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States to recieve and entertain Company and not in the Style of Sir Joseph Yorke of 80,000 Guilders a Year, but however decent enough for any Character in Europe to dine in, with a Republican Citizen.” On 13 April he added: “I wish you to be particularly carefull about the House, that it be in a good and pleasant Situation, that it be large, roomly and handsome, fit for the Hotel des Etats Unis de L'Amerique.” According to a document by which John Adams sublet the house on 19 March 1782, because he was moving to The Hague, the owner was Abraham Jacobsz. Vorsterman. See note on Diary entry of 28 February 1781, p. 456.

Recent view of the residence (with white door frame) of John Adams in Amsterdam shown in the engraving above.

Titlepage of an anonymous publication entitled A Collection of State-Papers..., The Hague, 1782, with a note by John Adams on his authorship. Between Adams' Memorial of 19 April 1781 and the final act of his accreditation as minister plenipotentiary precisely one year later, 19 April 1782, many petitions and resolves were passed by merchants, municipalities, and provincial assemblies which he gathered and printed in this pamphlet. See his Diary entries of July 1781 and April 1782 and notes, p. 457 and vol. 3:4.

Titlepage of the first volume of John Adams' copy of Antoine Marie Cerisier's weekly paper, Le politique hollandais, begun in 1781, in which Cerisier “inserted every thing that he thought would do honor to America, or promote our reputation and interest.” This volume remains among Adams' books in the Boston Public Library. The allegorical engraving shows “Congress” in classical garb and Indian headdress holding a United States flag and sword over a vanquished Britannia accompanied by a lion. France, wearing a robe ornamented with fleurs-de-lis, is coming to America's assistance with a drawn sword and beckoning to a crowned female figure, obviously representing Spain, to accompany her. In the background another female figure representing the Dutch Republic watches the scene while holding a copy of the Treaty of Westminster of 1674 by which she was allied with Great Britain. In the foreground lies a map of the American scene of conflict. On Cerisier and his journal see Adams' Diary entry of 13 January 1781 and note, p. 453–454.