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Anomalous Apparitions of Light in Colonial America: Visions of Comets, New Stars, the Aurora Borealis, and Rainbows

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Anomalous Apparitions of Light in Colonial America: Visions of Comets, New Stars, the Aurora Borealis, and Rainbows ANOMALOUS APPARITIONS OF LIGHT IN COLONIAL AMERICA: VISIONS OF COMETS, NEW STARS, THE AURORA BOREALIS, AND RAINBOWS A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Megan E. Holmberg May 2019 Examining Committee Members: Dr. Miles Orvell, Advisory Chair, English Dr. Michael Kaufmann, English Dr. James Salazar, English Dr. Jessica Roney, External Member, Temple University Department of History ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the body of literature that formed around anomalous light apparitions (comets, new stars, the aurora borealis, and rainbows) as it explores questions about the representation and response to celestial and meteorological phenomena during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in colonial America. I further consider the ways that these texts’ meanings are informed by rational scientific thought and by other non-scientific or non-rational, emotive, or aesthetic modes of thinking. I consider how these phenomena elicit a set of empirical yet emotionally-charged observational practices that complicate how we understand the roles of the rational and the non-rational in the scientific literature of this period. I argue that non-rational passionate investments are evident within or as part of the period’s rational scientific literature; they act as the impetus for scientific inquiry therefore forming an integral part of the scientific endeavor. This dissertation further explores how the practice of writing about these phenomena generates and facilitates the formation of communities of amateur scientific observers in colonial America. I further investigate how practices of data collection contribute to knowledge about the regular and irregular behaviors of celestial bodies, and how this knowledge impacts everyday practices essential for survival such as farming and travelling. What science writing from this period demonstrates is the ability for multiple ways of thinking to be in play simultaneously; these texts show how several worldviews (i.e. science, Puritanism, popular religion) are intrinsic to each other. Because of their liminality, these texts function outside of traditional categories such science, religion, and natural philosophy. Furthermore, they destabilize traditional conceptions of genre with their blend of rational and non-rational modes of thought and their ii incorporation of fact and fiction. While I treat these literary texts within their historical contexts, I am also interested in the ways in which these texts reach modern audiences, particularly in academia at a time when the humanities and sciences are positioned against one another. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Miles Orvell, Dr. Michael Kaufmann, Dr. James Salazar, and Dr. Jessica Roney for making this project possible. I am especially grateful to the chair of my committee, Dr. Orvell, for his guidance and valuable feedback on the drafts of these chapters. I am indebted to Dr. Kaufmann’s excellent graduate course in Early American Literature because this is where I was first inspired to study the literature of early America. Likewise, I am indebted to Dr. Salazar for his guidance and assistance on these chapters. I am grateful to Dr. Roney for agreeing to be the outside reader and her feedback on my second chapter. Additionally, I would like to thank my former professors and mentors at Boston College: Dr. Rosemarie Bodenheimer, Dr. Elizabeth Kowaleski-Wallace, Dr. Robin Lydenberg, Dr. Kevin Ohi, and Dr. Frances Restuccia for encouraging me to continue my graduate work at the doctoral level. I owe a special thanks to Dr. Ohi for his unwavering faith in me. Lastly, I am grateful for the support of my family, especially my husband, Fred, my daughter, Sonia, and my cats, Lucy, Micetta, Io, Terra, and Cooper. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………..iv INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..vi Chapters 1: COLONIAL SCIENCE: THE EARLY AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL LANDSCAPE……………………………………………………………………1 2: ‘COMETOMANIA’: THEORIES OF BLAZING STARS IN COLONIAL AMERICA…………………………………………………..…….41 3: ‘NEWS FROM THE STARS’: THE IMPACT OF FIXED AND NEW STARS ON COLONIAL AMERICAN LIFE……………………………………...…………81 4: ‘UNCOMMON OCCURENCES IN THE CLOUDS’: OBSERVING THE AURORA BOREALIS IN COLONIAL AMERICA………………………………………117 5: THE RAINBOW UNWOVEN: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RAINBOW IN COLONIAL AMERICA………………………………………………………..150 6: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………187 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………196 v INTRODUCTION In 1719, the northern lights made a rare and magnificent appearance over Boston. This event incited people to venture outside to experience the wonderous display and inspired them to record and share their observations. Those who contributed to the body of writing on this event, such as Cotton Mather, Thomas Prince, and Thomas Robie, represent the aurora borealis in their writing by offering qualitative details about its size, shape and color; however, these empirical observations are accompanied by imaginative, aesthetic, and wonder-filled references to images of a great conflagration, spirits battling, and blood spilling in the sky. Comets, the appearance of new stars in the heavens, and rainbows elicited a similar set of rational and non-rational responses from observers as these phenomena were interpreted as confirming or challenging God’s intervention in the earthly realm.1 The stories these writers tell are curiously complex: they elude the colonial American sense of genre as well as our modern sense of it with their frequent interweaving of the rational and the non-rational, the real and the imagined, and fact and fiction. I argue that this elusiveness is what makes these texts transformative, both in their respective historical periods and our modern world, as they resist categorization and reveal the instability of genre. It is this instability, when genre fails to hold meaning together in one way or format, that catalyzes new imaginative pathways, ultimately leading to the transformation of knowledge boundaries. More pointedly, my project calls attention to the instability of “science” and “religion” as categories and it demonstrates how these labels fail as ways of discussing the texts' content. Literary analysis of these 1 I employ the terms “rational” and “non-rational” to discuss two modalities of thought and expression. Rational responses rely on reasoning and sound judgement while non- rational responses are emotive or rely on intuitive principles. vi early “scientific” texts reveals how the meaning behind these categories or genres is constantly shifting.2 My dissertation examines the body of literature that formed around anomalous light apparitions (comets, new stars, the aurora borealis, and rainbows) as it explores the following preliminary questions: How are these phenomena represented in colonial literature during the seventeenth and eighteenth century? Why does this set of phenomena come to the fore or, in other words, why is this culture so responsive to these phenomena? What groups of people were interested in the phenomena and why? How do these texts speak to the cultural issues of the time, such as the rise of science as an institution, the Enlightenment, and changes within the Puritan faith? In what ways are these texts’ meanings informed by rational scientific thought and in what ways are they informed by other non-scientific or non-rational, emotive, or aesthetic modes of thinking? As secondary questions, I consider: How do these texts function within a genre or constitute a genre? In what ways do the categories of “science” or “religion” support or fail these texts? What we think of as science in the twenty-first century is different from science in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, but is our modern sense of this disciplinary category—as producing something real, factual, and rational—stable? Within the body of literature on meteorological and celestial events, I consider how these phenomena elicit a set of rational yet emotionally-charged observational practices that complicate how we understand the roles of the rational and non-rational in 2 I use the term “science” with the awareness that science is not yet an established discipline as it is in the modern sense with categorical distinctions such as physics, geology, etc. While the term natural philosophy or natural history is more of an apt fit in certain contexts, I frequently use “science” to call attention to the practice of empirical observation that is underway during this period. vii the scientific literature of this period. My project is concerned with how passionate investments such as fear, wonder, and joy shape scientific inquiry and offer a lens through which we can understand the emerging discipline of science among colonists during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I argue that these non-rational passionate investments are evident within or as part of the period’s rational, empirical scientific literature; they act as the impetus for scientific inquiry therefore forming an integral part of the scientific endeavor. In New England, these passionate investments typically manifest as religious ones; however, I purposefully avoid an argument that places all emotive outpourings within the scope of Puritanism as it is difficult to know when New Englanders’ emotions were prompted by their faith or when their faith acted as coping
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