Facsimiles in a Popular Historical Magazine

Facsimiles in a Popular Historical

Magazine Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/20/2/111/2743726/aarc_20_2_v151217040663q63.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 By W. EDWIN HEMPHILLl Virginia State Library

EALISM and candor compel me to confess that the optimism implicit in the subject at this session is at least mildly dis- R comforting. Circulation statistics scarcely justify the phrase "Popularizing History and Documentary Sources." The participle "popularizing" should be considered a challenge, not a boast. His- tory is not so generally popular as to be salable in obviously re- spectable quantities. Let us look at some comparative figures. I once heard an address by a representative of the publishing firm that issued Douglas Southall Freeman's four-volume Pulitzer-prize- winning biography of Robert E. Lee. With disarming frankness this spokesman admitted the firm's unbelieving astonishment that it could sell tens of thousands of copies of a footnoted, scholarly work about even so important a hero. Yet these amazing sales brought that distinguished success only to the level of one copy for approximately every 3,000 people in the United States. What seems at first thought to be a much better record was achieved by a historical novel that appeared also in the 1930's, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. In round figures, 1 copy of that book was sold for every 200 men, women, and children in our nation; and perhaps 1 in every 5 or 10 paid their money to see the much-ballyhooed, "super- colossal" movie based on the novel. But who would be so naive as to contend that the popularity of either the book or the movie is attributable primarily to the historical background or content in the story? Did their success not stem chiefly from the appeal of basic human relations and emotions among fictional characters whose tangled web, plus high-powered publicity, would have made a "best seller" and the "movie of the year" even without the backdrop of Civil War and Reconstruction? Consider also the limited popularity of history when it is presented through mediums other than books. In its new form, now 2 1 Paper read at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists in Washington, D. C, October 12, 1956. The author has been a professor of history at various colleges and is now director of the history division of the Virginia State Library and editor of Virginia Cavalcade. ii2 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST years old, a twice-revamped magazine called American Heritage has made the pill more palatable to more people, I believe, than has any other periodical. It is indeed a sugar-coated pill, one might say in this connection, without intending the term to be perverted from a complimentary into a derogatory remark. The number of Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/20/2/111/2743726/aarc_20_2_v151217040663q63.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 copies of American Heritage printed has climbed recently to the unprecedented ratio of one copy for approximately every thousand people in the nation. Suppose that we could add to that record all sales in our country of all other historical magazines, all historical novels, and all nonfictional works of history (including textbooks bought by students not really because they want them) in any recent year. We should arrive, no doubt, at a total that would seem impressive. But I doubt whether the aggregate would average one historical book or magazine per year per person. So far as I know, it has never happened that a majority of the total audience of motion pictures, radio broadcasts, and television programs has in any hour focused its attention upon presentations of historical subjects. No matter through what medium it is offered, history seems to be comparatively unpopular. And the extent of the public's ignorance about our history — dramatized more than a decade ago by the New York Times survey of our college students and curriculums in history and paraded daily anew on dozens of radio and television quiz programs — serves only to emphasize the point. Yet I do not want to be classed among the Cassandras. I recog- nize the fact that people have varied interests; I concede that only in Utopia is it likely that a majority of the people will ever be gen- uinely familiar with their history. To me it seems that more people today, in proportion as well as in number, manifest an interest in history and act in accordance with a knowledge of it than in the days when Francis Parkman's books were "best sellers" and when Harriet Beecher Stowe used a historical problem as her springboard to fame. History's struggle for a place in my countrymen's crowded minds has seemed appealing and worthy enough to me to have en- listed my personal efforts through some 25 years, despite the odds against complete victory. I have campaigned with those who teach history and with those who get it into print. I do not count the battle lost or my life wasted. Even though success in the field of popularizing history can be merely relative at best, we who have mutual interest in the preserva- tion and utilization of the raw materials of history can properly take time to ask ourselves how the battle goes. My operations have been FACSIMILES IN HISTORICAL MAGAZINE 113 confined to narrow, minor sectors of the battlefront; I have never visited headquarters, if indeed there be any such thing as headquarters. The limitations of my years and experience prevent me from qualifying as a witness who can give any over-all report. Yet possibly what I can say from personal observation will contribute Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/20/2/111/2743726/aarc_20_2_v151217040663q63.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 in a small way to an understanding of the larger movements and results. In 8 years of college teaching I found undergraduate and graduate students no less responsive, I believe — and probably not much more so — than do most professors. With varying degrees of success I tried by several artifices to popularize history among them; I even encouraged them to read for credit a fictionalized parody on the Boston Tea Party written in the provocative style of Ring Lardner. In a few students I fathered or nurtured, or at least did not kill, an interest in the subject that has proved to be lasting. But neither the sincerity of my own professions and example nor the most enticing tricks I could devise sufficed to popularize history, I suppose, among the majority of my students. It was obvious that among the least successful stratagems was the assignment of readings in documentary sources. The students, as a distance from the actual sources, were compelled to examine them in the form of reprints. (Heaven forbid that hordes of average students should ever be instructed to handle the original documents!) Even if a student read the Declaration of Independ- ence in facsimile, however, he rarely had enough imagination and knowledge to conceive of himself as Thomas Jefferson, seated with quill in hand before a blank sheet of paper to perform an assignment of national justification. Only rarely did the student ever picture himself as a colonist who was reading for the first time words that would certainly affect his life, his liberty, and his personal pursuit of happiness. Possibly a significant part of the millions who walked through the "Freedom Train" did occasionally pause long enough to relive history, even to make it, vicariously. I think I saw one or two who did so under the stimulus of being in the presence of the "real thing," the original documents in their genuine form, albeit in an unreal setting. Yet I know that few people I have observed are enabled by reprints and facsimiles of historical documents to transmute them- selves into actors on the stage of history. And when they simply see the show from box, orchestra, or balcony seats, they find it far from stimulating. The success, the popularity, of the show depends in part and for some people upon the authenticity of the stage prop- ii4 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST erties; but it also hinges in large measure upon the capacity of the audience. The same limitations and others apply when we consider the ef- fectiveness of most reproductions of manuscript documents in magazines. The setting is unreal. The paper looks new and white, not old Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/20/2/111/2743726/aarc_20_2_v151217040663q63.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 and brown. The ink used by the original writer is not matched by the printer's ink. The so-called facsimile illustration is just, more or less, another illustration — a reproduction obtained like reproductions of modern photographs and printed in a form of perhaps 16 or 32 pages without exorbitantly expensive attention to the special requirements involved in obtaining the illusion of fidelity in facsimiles. On the other hand, it is axiomatic that documents cannot be presented or exhibited effectively to the general public without captions, without explanation. A distinctive, individual, relatively expensive broadside or "separate" for each document affords one of the best mediums for achieving maximum success in printing a facsimile reproduction with fidelity. One can add whatever caption or explanation will enhance the interest and information inherent in the facsimile itself. But magazines can accompany the reproduction with an explanatory article, and in this they have something of an advantage. The artistry of a good piece of writing can attract and maintain interest in a facsimile not reproduced faithfully enough to arrest attention or not obviously important enough in its contents to make the reader pause. And if a skillful article can create a receptive mood for the consideration of a facsimile, so also can the judicious use of appropriate types, white space or margins, and other illustrations pertinent to the text and the facsimile. No magazine with which I am acquainted that aspires to be both purely historical and generally popular — popular in the sense of being circulated widely — has faced these limitations and ad- vantages with a resoluteness equal to that of Virginia Cavalcade. Published quarterly by the Virginia State Library through the past 5^2 years, Virginia Cavalcade carried on its masthead page through its first nine issues an announcement of its purposes. One of these professed purposes was to reveal the wealth of historical resources preserved in the State Library — a wealth consisting, in part, of a few million manuscripts. To fill the 48 printed pages in an issue of Virginia Cavalcade requires 8 to 11 articles (ranging in length from 300 to 3,000 words) and about 75 to 90 pictures. Ten percent of these pictures are reproduced in full color. Any count depends, of course, on how one FACSIMILES IN HISTORICAL MAGAZINE 115 defines a document, but in some issues as much as 20 percent of all the space allotted to articles and illustrations has been allotted to documentary matter. A few examples will serve to illustrate these uses of source materials. The first issue devoted six pages to a facsimile reproduction Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/20/2/111/2743726/aarc_20_2_v151217040663q63.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 in black-and-white of the earliest extant copies, manuscript and of- ficially printed, of the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, to- gether with a brief explanatory text.2 The second issue reproduced in full color, from a manuscript privately owned until that year, a watercolor picturing Yorktown after the surrender of Lord Corn- wallis. Visible in this sketch by Benjamin Henry Latrobe were fore- ground trenches and the ruins of the mansion of a high colonial official. No other pictorial representation of that mansion has survived; the discovery of this sketch was a major "find." With textual introduction and additional illustrations, the artist's own words, written beside his watercolor to the length of six paragraphs, were printed in their entirety.3 A related article was illustrated with a one-color full-page facsimile of a letter written on the day after the British surrender, to the Virginians who were serving in the Continental Congress.4 An article in another issue dealt with the economic depression of the 1780's and with the personal sacrifices of the founding fathers, by showing in black-and-white facsimile, with brief accompanying commentary, manuscript vouchers for payments made to George Washington as a delegate to the Federal Convention in Phila- delphia.5 Election returns and the manuscript minutes of a political caucus provided the bases of two articles about the election in which Thomas Jefferson was first chosen chief executive of the nation.6 Manuscript tax returns prompted an exposition of the furnishings assembled by Jefferson at Monticello, published with facsimiles itemizing the numbers of silver candlesticks, portraits, statues, and other interesting objects there.7 2 William M. E. Rachal, "The Virginia Declaration of Rights," in Virginia Caval- cade, vol. i, no. 1 (Summer 1951), p. 14-19. In the following notes, all of which cite articles in Virginia Cavalcade, the name of the periodical has been omitted. 3 Randolph W. Church and W. Edwin Hemphill, " 'View at Little York in Virginia,' " vol. I, no. 2 (Autumn 1951), p. 44-47. 4 William H. Gaines, Jr., "Thomas Nelson, Jr., Governor-at Arms," vol. 1, no. 2 (Autumn 1951), p. 40-43. 5 W. Edwin Hemphill, "Virginia to George Washington, Debtor: His Income as a Delegate to the Federal Convention," vol. 1, no. 3 (Winter 1951), p. 42-43. 6 Hemphill, "Virginia Inaugurates Nominations by Caucus," vol. 2, no. 1 (Summer I952). P- 28-29; Hemphill, "'In a Constant Struggle': How and Why Virginians Voted for Thomas Jefferson in 1800," vol. 2, no. 4 (Spring 1953), p. 8-15. 7 Hemphill, "Thomas Jefferson and His Personal Property Taxes: an Inventory of the Furnishings of 'Monticello,'" vol. 1, no. 4 (Spring 1952), p. 18-19. u6 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST Virginia's Ordinance of Secession,8 land patents,9 writings con- cerning literary figures,10 a church's records,11 municipal invoices and Confederate bonds,12 a deed to the Natural Bridge,13 a penned commentary on the benefits of a plank road,14 and the entry in a Gov- ernor's diary describing a meteoric shower in 1833 15 are among Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/20/2/111/2743726/aarc_20_2_v151217040663q63.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 other historical source materials shown in facsimile. Such documents have sometimes been presented with imaginative adaptations; modern purposes and meanings not necessarily similar to those of the originals have been evoked. The Summer issue of 1956 used, in one color and in multiple colors, reproductions of architectural sketches proposed in 1797 for Virginia's first State penitentiary; these served to illustrate, in part, a summary of the changing treatment of criminals through the years.16 Some of this may sound like meaty stuff. Even if it isn't, it ought to be, considering the quality of the people who have developed Virginia Cavalcade and have decided what to publish and how to present it. For the staff (excluding, of course, a few clerical and photographic assistants) has consisted from the first of trained historians, bred in the usual academic atmosphere, without pre- vious experience in the somewhat different worlds of journalism and of periodical publication. And through Virginia Cavalcade's first 5 years, as a means of striving toward high standards of historical authenticity, all articles published in the magazine were written by scholars associated with the Virginia State Library. Incidentally, that is a policy we have now begun to relax; but manuscripts from "outsiders" have been verified and edited to an unusual degree before we have accepted them for publication. We shall welcome your contributions, but only if they can be illustrated and on our 8 Robert L. Scribner, "Submission, Coercion, or Secession?", vol. 3, no. 2 (Autumn 1953), P- 43-47- 9 William H. Gaines, Jr., "Settlers Wanted — Fifty Acres Reward," vol. 5, no. 4 (Spring 1956), p. 45-47- 10 Randolph W. Church, "Al Aaraaf and the Unknown Critic: Edgar Allan Poe Receives a Discerning Review," vol. 5, no. 1 (Summer 1955), p. 4-7; Robert L. Scribner, "Father John B. Tabb," vol. 6, no. 1 (Summer 1956), p. 4-10. 11 Elizabeth Dabney Coleman, "Liberty Is Its Name: a Baptist Church in New Kent County," vol. 5, no. 2 (Autumn 1955), p. 43-47. 12 Robert L. Scribner, "Inflation in the 'Good Old Days,'" vol. 4, no. 1 (Summer 1954), P- I4-I9- 13 Robert L. Scribner, "Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson's Rock Bridge," vol. 4, no. 4 (Spring 1955), p. 42-47- 14 Elizabeth Dabney Coleman, "Timbered Turnpike — Petersburg to Boydton," vol. 4, no. 2 (Autumn 1954), p. 4-7. 16 Elizabeth Dabney Coleman, "When the 'Stars' Fell," vol. 5, no. 3 (Winter 1955), P- 34-37- 18 William H. Gaines, Jr., "The 'Penitentiary House,' " vol. 6, no. 1 (Summer 1956), p. 11-17. FACSIMILES IN HISTORICAL MAGAZINE 117 own terms as to whether or not we may wish to tailor your words to our standards and our audience. If, then, I dare to vouch for the history in Virginia Cavalcade and to claim that the magazine uses a high proportion of documentary materials, it remains for me only to evaluate the effect of these Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/20/2/111/2743726/aarc_20_2_v151217040663q63.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 elements on its popularity. Admittedly, facsimiles of manuscripts make "dead" pictures. Doubtless the circulation figures would be more impressive if "cheesecake" appeared on the front covers and was interspersed among articles about the Old Dominion's past. The figures would also be more impressive if the restrictions of red tape and a State budget permitted us to engage in advertising and promotional campaigns of kinds tested and proved in the hard- bitten, result-conscious world of free enterprise. Yet, although they are not yet nearly large enough to eliminate our need for red ink, sales have risen rather constantly to more than 7,000 copies per issue. This number can be compared with the 2,300-copy sale of the 60-year-old quarterly published with few or no illustrations by the Virginia Historical Society and with the smaller circulation of the somewhat similar William and Mary Quarterly. And it can be claimed that Virginia Cavalcade is bought by one of approximately every 700 men, women, and children in the Old Dominion. In ad- dition, one copy goes to an out-of-State subscriber for every two copies delivered to Virginians. These figures signify a modest success. The editor's mail through more than 5 years gives scant evidence that this modest success can be attributed to subscribers' appreciation for the documentary illustrations and articles in Virginia Cavalcade. On the contrary, there is more evidence that people buy the magazine despite the fact that it includes such contents. Nevertheless, although we have been changing other policies from time to time in the light of experience, we are not even considering adoption of any ban on documentary sources. Considering that photography is an art little more than a century old, that relevant portraits and other paintings get scarcer as one moves back beyond that time, and that our scope is three and a half centuries of Virginia history, we shall probably always be comparatively dependent on facsimile illustrations. We intend, therefore, to continue to experiment with efforts to present appealingly reproductions of original sources. One of our formulas will be to do so when they can be presented meaningfully, not merely in the atmosphere of antiquarian curiosity. If they really do make sense, perhaps they will prove to be an effective means of popularizing history.