THE quarto

No. 48 THE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATES fall-winter 2017

THE GOLDEN DOOR

Cartoonist Joseph Keppler skewered hypocritical, anti-immigrant Americans in this 1893 cartoon from Puck. Titled Looking Backward, it shows five prosperous, well-dressed Americans trying to prevent a working class immigrant from disembarking to a new life in the United States. They conveniently ignore the fact that they too came from immigrant stock, a secret revealed by their shadows.

mmigration is a timely immigration definitely stands out as an look at the Library’s primary sources on subject for this issue of The aspect of our national heritage on which pre-1900 American immigration. Quarto. With angry debates many of today’s leaders seem Clayton Lewis offers a revealing look at raging in Washington and uninformed. This is regrettable, given German immigrant Joseph Keppler and nationwide over whether to restrict the stakes involved. No doubt it’s the influence of his cartoons in Puck Ientry to certain nationalities and idealistic to hope that politicians and magazine, as well as the impact of the religions, looking at the history of pundits will suddenly develop an interest work of Danish immigrant Jacob Riis on immigration to America might shed in the historical antecedents of the ethnic neighborhoods of America’s useful light on the subject. Here at the immigration policy in our country, but in largest cities. For as long as newcomers Clements Library we believe in “applied the unlikely event that history does have journeyed to our shores, writers history,” the Progressive Era perspective secure a voice in the immigration and publishers have produced guides for that a knowledge of the past can help us conversations then institutions like the travelers, as Emi Hastings details in her chart a path to a better future on most Clements will have much to offer. article on the Shamrock Society’s 1816 modern challenges and problems, and The articles here offer an interesting Hints to Emigrants from Europe and its several successors over the next 10-20 publications and the non-English detrimental to American society. Jakob years. Advice on how to become a good newspapers and magazines that sprang Dopp’s fine article on the restrictions, American was a central feature of these up in many American locales were indignities, and cruelties inflicted on nineteenth-century guidebooks, as important factors both in bringing Chinese immigrants from 1850 to 1900 directions on how to assimilate into immigrants to the United States and in is a sobering reminder that prejudice and American society complemented helping them develop a new life here. oppression are constant dangers any practical details on where to settle Of course, many immigrants have time the majority chooses to identify depending on an immigrant’s profession, struggled to find acceptance in our and segregate minorities by color, suggestions (often utterly without factual country. This is no modern religion, ethnic origin, or other points of basis) on the best and cheapest farm development, as the family traditions of difference. In “True Americans,” Jayne land, and unreliable estimates of the cost antebellum Irish, Gilded Age Italians, Ptolemy takes a broader look at the of getting to and settling down in 1880s-1900 Eastern European Jews, and ways that nineteenth-century American different parts of the country. As African Americans of any generation immigrants sought balance between successive waves of European bear witness. Nativist fears of “others” regard for their origins and the hope of immigrants crossed the Atlantic between becoming too numerous, taking away fellowship in a new home, and at the 1800 and 1900 publications aimed at jobs, and threatening “American values” barriers that nativist groups placed in the them came out in a dozen languages, go back at least to the eighteenth way of their progress towards becoming and the Clements shelves feature century, when Benjamin Franklin and American. It doesn’t take extraordinary examples in most of the European Thomas Jefferson worried that an influx insight to draw parallels between the languages. In a pre-electronic age these of unassimilated Germans would prove violent 1830s-40s persecution of Catholics, now one of the largest religious groups in this country, and today’s calls for the exclusion of Muslims as actively working to undermine America. Given the vehemence of today’s debates, it’s unlikely we’ll see a speedy or conclusive resolution to our immigration concerns. If history is any guide, however, we can predict that future generations will look back in astonishment and disapproval at the characterization of groups who are “different” from the majority as dangerous and threatening. As the primary sources at the Clements make clear for pre-1900 America and those at the Bentley Library across campus detail for the twentieth century, there are far more examples—Franklin’s and Jefferson’s Germans, the Irish driven across the Atlantic by the Great Hunger, the Chinese in the American West between 1870 and 1900, Native Americans from New England to California, African Americans under slavery and segregation, Japanese- American internment camps during World War II—of peoples who have suffered here as a result of unfounded cultural bias than there are of those who truly threatened the American way of life. As with all issues of The Quarto, space constraints limit us to the tip of the proverbial iceberg, so readers who find their interest piqued by the materials here will have to come see us An 1848 map for German immigrants identifies Lutheran congregations and missions in the to discover the rich resources these Midwesterkregion of the United States. The names of heavily German cities are underlined with examples represent. color. Detail from: Kirchliche mittheilungen aüs und ber Nord-America, Supplement to issue — J. Kevin Graffagnino no. 8, 1848. Director

Page 2 The Quarto IMMIGRANTS SEE IMMIGRATION

he story of Stone: The Political American immigra- Cartoons of Joseph tion as told through Keppler (1988) that prints and photographs Keppler was “at thirty, Tvaries with the format. a fully formed cynic, Popular print media, ready to believe the mass produced for worst about anyone in large audiences, tend- power.” ed towards commen- Binder recognized tary on the waves of publishing sales immigration. Satirical potential in the mas- prints and cartoons sive German audience amplified social stress- in the United States. es through stereo- Keppler had the talent types and caricatures. to produce compelling Photographs told a dif- and entertaining visu- ferent story. Formal als. Together they portraits from urban launched the German studios and snapshot language weekly Die cameras in the hands Vehme, Illustrietes of new arrivals have Wochenblatt für given us a historical Scherz und Ernst record of immigrant (The Star Chamber: life on a personal An Illustrated Weekly level. Cameras in the Paper in Fun and hands of journalists Earnest) and followed and social scientists that with Puck, also called attention to the in German. Puck extreme challenges focused on European faced by many immi- politics and religious grants. In some cases, debates but shifted the most provocative over time to American commentary on immi- issues during the gration came from the notoriously corrupt perspective of recent Grant administration immigrants them- (1869–1877). Always selves. Charles Taylor’s The Mortar of Assimilation has Columbia stirring the melt- a deft artist, Keppler In 1867, German ing pot with its rich stew of immigrants from many cultures. The only new- exploited the immedi- immigrant Joseph comer who defies mixing is a stereotyped militant Irishman who does not want ate and expressive Keppler (1838-1894), to simply become part of the broth. The cartoon appeared in Puck. possibilities of crayon with his wife and lithography, achieving brother-in-law, settled consummate mastery among family and fellow Germans in painter, and as a cartoonist for the Vienna and insuring that each issue of Puck was St. Louis, Missouri. With advanced art magazine Kikeriki! (Cock-a-doodle-do!). a visual feast. Puck’s humor, always training in the neoclassical style from Behind all this was an unfulfilled ambi- relatively mild, was unfortunately pep- Viennese schools, confidence with pro- tion to study medicine. pered with racial and ethnic slurs that fessional experience as a stage perform- Keppler fell in with a social sphere of were not atypical for the time but none- er, and acute awareness of the despotic hard-drinking St. Louis expat-Germans, theless disappointing during a period power of corrupt rulers, Keppler was a many of whom were fleeing Bismarck’s of social progress. Puck’s demise as a unique talent. Like so many before and militaristic German state. Among the German-language magazine occurred in after, he came to America to find work. bar-room political debates, Keppler 1872, brought on by a series of problems In Europe, Keppler had been a retoucher befriended Hungarian immigrant pub- common in publishing, including staff of tintypes, painter of theater backdrops, lisher Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) and turnover, rising production costs, plus the restorer of artwork, and a stage per- German-American publisher Heinrich death of an influential editor. former and theater manager. He found Binder. Biographer and chronicler Five years later, Keppler, now relocat- modest success onstage, as a portrait Richard West comments in his Satire on ed to New York City, resurrected Puck as

The Quarto Page 3 dants of earlier immigrants, uncivilized and incapable of assimila- as revealed by their shadows. tion into American society; and that Keppler may have often resorted all others are welcome. The figure of to ethnic stereotypes that are Columbia, often a beacon of destiny, a somewhat offensive today, but his god-like image of power and hope, and underlying message was largely the frequent star of immigration alle- one of inclusiveness. gories, appears here vigorously stirring Drawn by another talented the Melting Pot. However, her usual Puck artist, Charles Jay Taylor radiating crown or Liberty Cap has been (1855-1929), The Mortar of replaced with a simple spangled head Assimilation—and The One wrap, and her flag skirt appears more in Element That Won’t Mix pres- the style of a kitchen maid than a god- ents a pestle-pot of multi-ethnic dess. Although the pestle she stirs is immigration. Although many labeled “Equal Rights,” we can’t ignore nationalities are shown contribut- that this was printed in the era when ing to the American medley, one women were still denied the right to vote group is singled out—the Irish. and Jim Crow was on the rise. Brandishing a bloody dagger, a Joseph Keppler died in 1894. He is simian caricature waves a banner now credited with expanding and shaping identifying himself with the Irish American political awareness at all lev- Nationalist organization Clan na els of society with his brilliantly direct, Gael. His sash indicates align- emotionally charged visual allegories. ment with the “Blaine Irishmen,” His legacy extended through his son, former Democrats wooed over to Udo J. Keppler (1872-1956), aka Joseph the Republican Party by James Keppler, Jr., who followed his father’s Blaine (1830–1893) during his career as a satiric illustrator for Puck as presidential run of 1884. well as for rival news magazines Judge This cartoon broadcasts and Leslie’s Weekly. Although his style several messages, including the was derived directly from that of his Jacob Riis’s disturbing but poignant images of life in the allegation that American political father, Udo also created wonderful exam- immigrant slums of New York City were reproduced as parties were willing to overlook ples of American political satire. halftone illustrations in his famous How the Other Half violence from Irish nationalist Joseph Keppler’s remarkable talents Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (New organizations in exchange for and vision enlivened and made palatable York, 1890). votes; that the Irish are inherently the mire of nineteenth-century American

an English-language publication. Puck became pointedly anti-corruption, anti- Catholic, and anti-Tammany Hall, with Keppler’s brilliant political and social satires leading the attack. The expand- ing readership lapped it up, making Puck the most successful American satirical publication of the nineteenth century and inspiring a host of other weekly pictorial satire magazines. Despite Puck’s immigrant origins, and the location of its New York offices immediately adjacent to the immigrant- dense Lower East Side, the magazine rarely tackled immigration issues. As it blasted away at American political pretense and graft, however, there were some notable exceptions by Keppler and other Puck staff artists. Joseph Keppler’s 1893 cartoon Looking Backward points to the hypoc- risy of anti-immigration movements in America. The working-class immigrant shown coming down the gangway is refused entry by a wall of wealthy, well- dressed men—the established descen- Riis identified this grim image as “Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement.” From: How the Other Half Lives (New York, 1890). Page 4 The Quarto streets of New York at all hours, but ‘I have read your book, and I have come particularly deep in the night when the to help.’” The card was from the then- stresses and dangers of poverty were New York City Police Commissioner, most evident. Never an artistic photog- Theodore Roosevelt, who was establish- rapher, Riis’s viewfinder looked straight ing his reputation as an anti-corruption into the face of crime, tenement labor, reformer. Riis famously took Roosevelt the filth of slum housing, and the plight on a series of midnight walks through of children in immigrant neighborhoods. the brothels and saloons of New York’s Through Riis’s harsh but compassion- slums, triggering firings and reprimands ate photos, the dark squalor of those throughout the police force. trapped in tenement housing was vividly Riis empathetically blamed much of exposed, as was the daily undercurrent of the waywardness of the poor on living corrupt landlords and police. Presented conditions and corrupt civic government, together as a lecture and slide show, Riis but he was not without his own bigotry enthralled and horrified audiences at New and presumptiveness. He believed in an York churches and public halls with his ethnic hierarchy that is very troubling stories and images from the streets. today. The solutions proposed in his A break in Riis’s career came when publications included humane improve- two editors from Scribner’s Magazine ments in tenement design, but this was attended one of his lectures and offered coupled with heavy-handed Protestant to publish a feature article with engraved Christian values, applied regardless of illustrations based on Riis’s photos. the religious heritage of his subjects. “How the Other Half Lives and Dies in Nonetheless, Jacob Riis built a durable New York” jolted readers of Scribner’s legacy as a pioneer of modern journal- 1889 Christmas issue, becoming the talk ism, linking written narratives to hard An immigrant woman of unknown ethnic origin in of the town. Scribner’s subsequently truths in visual form. His photos, dif- the great hall on New York’s Ellis Island. agreed to publish an expanded version in ficult to face even today, made a passive Photograph by Lewis Hine (1874–1940). book form, How the Other Half Lives: response to poverty unacceptable and Studies among the Tenements of New demonstrated that the appalling living York (New York, 1890), reproducing conditions of new immigrants were often politics, much the way late-night televi- Riis’s photos directly as halftones. the cause of behavior rather than the sion comedy does today. Additionally, Jacob Riis’s new-found celebrity as result. Together Keppler and Riis have through Puck, the immigrant Keppler a champion of the impoverished would given us a perspective on immigration with his European art training elevated link him to a new and powerful ally: that has contributed to the shape and American satire to a level rarely matched “[H]e came to my office one day when definition of modern America. since. I was out and left his card with the — Clayton Lewis *** simple words written in pencil upon it: Curator of Graphic Materials Immediately adjacent to Puck’s New York offices on Houston and Mulberry streets was the most densely packed resi- dential area in the world, the Lower East Side (peaking in 1910 at approximately half a million people inside an area of 1.5 square miles). Mostly comprised of immigrants who landed just a few miles away at Ellis Island, these throngs com- peted for meager jobs and advancement against the restraints of poverty, unfamil- iar language, and alien social customs. Among the newly arrived and desperate for work was Danish immigrant Jacob Riis (1849-1914), who arrived in New York in 1870. With a talent for writing, a charitable outlook shaped by his religious upbringing, and a drive to succeed to earn the hand of his beloved back home in Denmark, Riis eventually found work as a “muckraking” police reporter for the New York Tribune. Armed with a compact “detective” camera and hand-held magnesium flash device, Riis worked the slums and side New York City tenements late in the nineteenth century.

The Quarto Page 5 HINTS TO EMIGRANTS FROM EUROPE

s increasing numbers of One notable example of the genre is The results of the committee’s work immigrants flocked to North a small pamphlet published by the were first published in New York in 1816 America in the late eighteenth Shamrock Society of New York, directed as Hints to Emigrants from Europe, Who and early nineteenth centuries to emigrants from Europe. The Intend to Make a Permanent Residence in they needed information about what Shamrock Society, also known as the the United States (New York, 1816). The Ato expect when they arrived. Emigrant Shamrock Friendly Association, had Clements Library holds a copy of the guides became an increasingly popular formed around 1816 to provide assis- London edition published the following genre of publication. Often thin, cheap- tance to a growing number of Irish year, under the title Emigration to ly printed pamphlets or pocket-sized immigrants in New York. At a meeting America: Hints to Emigrants from books in plain boards, these guides on June 18, 1816, the Shamrock Society Europe, Who Intend to Make a offered information about transatlantic appointed a committee to draw up “a Permanent Residence in the United travel, the climate and natural resources brief address to Europe, on subjects eco- States, on Subjects Economical and of their destinations, population and nomical and political, affecting their Political, Affecting Their Welfare; Drawn character of its inhabitants, the current welfare.” The members of the commit- up Especially for Their Use, in July Last prices of land, goods, and wages, direc- tee included Dr. McNeven, Mr. Emmet, (London, 1817). The London publisher, tions for traveling, and other useful Mr. Irvine, Mr. Humbert, and Mr. William Hone (1780-1842), was an facts. O’Connor. English writer and bookseller known for Some guides, his political satire and designed to encourage reform efforts on behalf immigration, provided of freedom of the press. an optimistic view of The London edition was prospects in America, priced at one shilling. while more realistic or Another edition cynical guides attempt- appeared in Dublin as ed to dissuade the ill- Hints to Irishmen; Who prepared. C. H. Wilson, Intend, with Their in The Wanderer in Families to Make a America, or, Truth at Permanent Residence in Home (Northallerton, America (Dublin, 1817). 1820), wrote “To emi- According to Alexander grate, or not to emi- Clarence Flick’s History grate—that is the of the State of New York, question.” He conclud- vol. 7 (New York, 1933), ed that, while certain the pamphlet was also skilled tradesmen might reprinted in Belfast and find employment, most “quoted in all British people had better stay papers interested in home. According to immigration.” Wilson, America had a Hints to Emigrants terrible climate, a bills itself as a guide- shrewd, knavish people, book, but it also attempts and an economy as poor to influence and mold the as any in Europe. “I am selected immigrant into convinced no change for the ideal of a hard-work- the better can take place ing American citizen. It in America, unless a begins by addressing the famine should desolate prospective audience of Europe, and America emigrants from Europe: should be blessed with “We bid you welcome to abundance, or a war for a land of freedom; we twenty-five years should applaud your resolution; again ravage Europe, we commend your judg- and America again ment in asserting the become a profiting right of expatriation.” It spectator and common goes on to provide infor- carrier to half the mation regarding three globe!” The influential pamphlet, Emigration to America: Hints to Emigrants key areas of interest: how (London, 1817).

Page 6 The Quarto to adjust to a new climate, interests as a cents), bricklayers (two dollars), and respectability or future prospects to have probationary resident, and future rights laborers (from one dollar to one and a been thus engaged . . . Many gentlemen, and duties as a citizen of the United quarter). However, those in the cities who begin their career as schoolmaster . . . States. should take great care not to be tempted have as good prospects as others of attain- According to the Shamrock Society, by drink, for “the drunkard is viewed as ing the Presidency.” the best time to arrive was during the a person socially dead, shut out from In terms of climate, the guide advises summer, for fuel was expensive and decent intercourse, shunned, despised, or that northern and western Europeans will work scarce in the winter. To acclimate abhorred.” find the states between the 35th and 43rd to the extreme summer heat of the mid- Practical men of science might find degree of latitude most congenial to their dle states, a northern European was good work, but “mere literary scholars” constitutions. These include New York, counselled to adapt his diet to the will find little employment unless they Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, American style: small meals and little are willing to teach children. The pam- Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and the Illinois strong drink. The European diet, con- phlet reassures such persons that “It and Missouri Territories. Europeans are taining too much animal protein, will does not detract from a man’s personal likely to prefer the middle and western cause overindulgence and fever in the summer heat. He should avoid drinking cold water while heated or perspiring, lest it cause severe stomach pains or even death. Laborers should wear loose flannel shirts while working, and change to ordinary clothing when done. Hints to Emigrants paints a sunny picture of prospects in the New World, at least for those who are prepared to work hard. America “is the best country on earth for those who will labour. By industry they can earn more wages here than elsewhere in the world. Our gov- ernments are frugal, they demand few taxes; so that the earnings of the poor man are left to enrich himself; they are nearly all his own, and not expended on kings and their satellites.” However, a caution to idlers and noblemen: the man “who has no quality to recommend him but his birth” is not welcome in America. Concerned that poor immigrants might flock to the United States and lin- ger in the cities, succumbing to drink and other vices, the pamphlet’s writers advise that “It would be very prudent for new comers, especially labourers or farmers, to go into the country without delay, as they will save both money and time by it, and avoid several inconve- niences of a seaport town.” In the coun- tryside, they will learn American methods of farming and be ready to begin their own farms, soon entering the prosperous middle class. Independent landownership is the ultimate goal to which all American citizens should aspire. For skilled laborers and mechanics in the cities, the employment prospects are good. “Industrious men need never Ireland, with its political, agricultural, and economic troubles, was a prime source of immi- lack employment in America.” The grants, especially in the decades before the Civil War. Songs and tales of migration from the pamphlet provides a listing of current “Emerald Isle” were sure to draw a tear of genuine nostalgia or provide a fertile source of wages for stonecutters (two dollars per material for “Stage Irish” performers. William R. Dempster’s The Lament of the Irish day), carpenters (one dollar and 87 ½ Emigrant (Boston, 1840) provides an example.

The Quarto Page 7 states to the southern, being more toler- the Voyage, and an Abstract of the Laws The following year, Robert Holditch ant of cold than heat. Another factor to of England, Relating to Emigration, &c. wrote The Emigrant’s Guide to the consider is American slavery and its &c. (Liverpool, 1817). Also priced at United States of America; Containing impact on society: “Farther to the south, one shilling, this work was “written the Best Advice and Directions where negro slaves are the only, or prin- chiefly with a view to furnish informa- Respecting the Voyage, - Preservation of cipal labourers, some white men think it tion to persons contemplating an emi- Health, - Choice of Settlement, &c. Also disreputable to follow the plough. Far gration to those States.” Of thirty-seven the Latest Infor-mation Concerning the be it from us to cast censure on our pages total, thirteen consist of extracts Climate, Product-ions, Population, southern neighbours; yet, in choosing a from “a pamphlet, drawn up in July last, Manners, Prices of Land, Labour, and settlement, we would have emigrants published by the Shamrock Society, of Provisions, and Other Subjects, take slavery, with all other circumstanc- New York.” Economical and Political, Affecting the es, into their consideration.” Immigrants are advised to put their money in a bank and focus on acquiring a knowledge of American commerce before they attempt to start their own farms or businesses. “It has been often seen, that persons arriving in America with some property lose it all before they prosper in the world.” The pamphlet finally advises immi- grants on the steps to become a natu- ralized citizen, and the benefits of doing so. It concludes with a summary of the American political system, and the importance of emigrants integrating themselves into this system. In The New York Irish (Baltimore, 1996), Paul A. Gilje suggests that the Shamrock Society’s true motivation in publishing Hints to Emigrants was a middle-class effort to shape the Irish American community, discouraging poor Irish and encouraging only skilled workers to emigrate. They feared that the growing number of poor urban immigrants would drag down the Irish American community. If so, the pam- phlet hardly achieved its goals, as poor Irish immigrants continued to flock to the United States even before the Great Famine of the 1840s. As the original Shamrock Society pamphlet circulated in America, Great Britain, and Ireland, it continued to be excerpted and reprinted by other publi- cations. A number of these versions can be found in the Clements Library book collection. Perhaps first to appear was Thomas Smith’s Hints to Emigrants, Addressed Chiefly to Persons Contemplating an Emigration to the United States of America, with Copious Extracts from the Journal of Thomas Hulme, Esq. Written during a Emigration from Ireland was steady for much of the nineteenth century with a spike in Tour through Several of the Principal the 1840s during the “Great Famine.” Most arrivals did, in fact, remain to become Cities and Manufacturing Districts of part of the American “Melting Pot.” A few made their fortunes and returned to the Those States, in the Summer and Autumn “old sod.” This print from the 1850s shows one such fellow contemplating a voyage of 1816, with Instructions Respecting the back “home.” Continued attachment to their countries of origin was a criticism leveled Terms, and Necessary Preparations for against immigrants by nativists.

Page 8 The Quarto Welfare of Persons about to Emigrate to the Melish they did not always credit the to your wishes I waited upon the gentlemen United States, and British America Society by name. As late as 1830, the text of the ‘Shamrock Society,’ who lately pub- (London, 1818). Like the original London can be found excerpted in the fourth edition lished a pamphlet, entitled, ‘Hints to edition of Hints to Emigrants, Holditch’s of S. H. Collins’s The Emigrant’s Guide to Emigrants.’” His conclusion was that the book was published by William Hone, but and Description of the United States of gentlemen he met, being city dwellers, priced at four shillings and sixpence instead America; Including Several Authentic and knew little of the country beyond New of the original one shilling. This more sub- Highly Important Letters from English York. They could not provide such reliable stantial work of 124 pages compiles infor- Emigrants Now in America, to Their information as their pamphlet had led peo- mation from a number of other sources and Friends in England (Hull, 1830). Collins ple to expect. After speaking to the soci- contains excerpts from six different sources cites it as “the report of a committee ety’s secretary, Fearon concluded, “little of advice to emigrants, including the appointed by a society established at New faith can be placed in his answers to our Shamrock Society pamphlet. Along with York, for the purpose of giving useful infor- queries: not that he designs to deceive but information on climate, population, prices mation to emigrants.” Other borrowers he affects to give intelligence” on costs of land, and other useful pieces of informa- include the English topographer Eneas found to be “about 50 per cent. too low— tion, it contains helpful sketches of “the Mackenzie (1778-1832), An Historical, the fact is, he resides in boarding houses American character.” Readers may be Topographical and Descriptive View of the and is not informed upon these subjects.” interested to know that “American ladies United States of America, and of Upper and Like later books that guided settlers to make virtuous and affectionate wives, kind Lower Canada (Newcastle upon Tyne, ca. the gold regions of California, this publica- and indulgent mothers, and are, in general, 1820) and William Kingdom, America and tion was likely written by those with little easy, affable, intelligent, and well bred; the British Colonies: An Abstract of All the real-world knowledge of the matters on their manners presenting a happy medium Most Useful Information Relative to the which they so confidently wrote. But between the too distant reserve and cold- United States of America and the British whether or not the Shamrock Society was a ness of the English and the too obvious, too Colonies of Canada, the Cape of Good reliable source of advice for Irish immi- obtrusive behavior of the French women.” Hope, New South Wales, and Van Diemen’s grants in 1817, their words continued to be John Melish (1771-1822), a Scottish Island (London, 1820). read by would-be European emigrants for mapmaker and publisher based in Phila- Despite the enduring popularity of years afterwards. Hints to Emigrants pro- delphia, first reprinted the Shamrock Hints to Emigrants, the Shamrock Society vides an example of the way in which nine- Society’s Hints to Emigrants in a later edi- might have overstated their own knowledge teenth-century texts were frequently copied tion of his Travels through the United and ability to advise newcomers to the and excerpted in different publications, States of America, in the years 1806 & United States. One visitor to America, fol- from newspapers to books, sometimes 1807, and 1809, 1810, & 1811. Beginning lowing up on the promise of the pamphlet, entirely separated from their original con- with the 1818 edition of this work (first found their information lacking. In June text. While attempting to shape the choices published in 1812), he included an appen- 1817, Henry Bradshaw Fearon (b. ca. 1770) of Irish emigrants and mold them into ideal dix, containing “Hints, by the Shamroc [sic] traveled to America on behalf of a group of American citizens, Hints to Emigrants was Society, New York, to Emigrants from English families who had asked him for itself reshaped to fit other books and differ- Europe.” Melish excerpted it again when help in deciding whether and where to ent audiences. he produced his own emigrant guide in immigrate. The results of his travels were — Emiko Hastings 1819, Information and Advice to Emigrants published as Sketches of America: A Curator of Books to the United States: and from the Eastern Narrative of a Journey of to the Western States: Illustrated by a Map Five Thousand Miles of the United States and a Chart of the through the Eastern and Atlantic Ocean (Philadelphia, 1819). Being Western States of America; a mapmaker by trade, as well as an emi- Contained in Eight Re- grant who had crossed the Atlantic several ports Addressed to the times and traveled extensively throughout Thirty-Nine English the United States, Melish felt himself to be Families by Whom the well-placed to provide useful information to Author Was Deputed, in emigrants to the United States. The book June 1817, to Ascertain also served as an advertisement for his Whether Any, and What other works. In addition to the foldout map Part of the United States of the United States and chart of the Atlan- Would Be Suitable for tic Ocean, it included a six-page catalogue Their Res-idence; with of his other maps, charts, and geographical Remarks on Mr. Birkbeck’s works. In addition to his own words, “Notes” and “Letters” Melish supplemented the text with a two- (London, 1818). The page extract from “Hints to Emi-grants,” Clements Library has the published “some time ago at New-York.” third edition (London, Other writers of emigrant guides con- 1819). tinued to borrow from the Shamrock While in New York, German Lutheran mission villages founded in the Saginaw Society’s Hints to Emigrants, although like Fearon reported, “Agreeably valley of Michigan in the 1840s.

The Quarto Page 9 THE CHINESE MUST GO! ver the course of By this legislation Congress deter- country for any reason. At the same American history, many mined that the unabated influx of time, Chinese or part-Chinese were immigrant groups have received a Chinese into the country posed enough denied the right to obtain American citi- chilly welcome to the United of a threat to “the good order of certain zenship. States. Perhaps none can claim to localities within the territory thereof” The first Chinese immigrants to the Ohave experienced a more hostile that it warranted suspending immigra- United States arrived shortly after the greeting than the Chinese. Indeed, after tion of both skilled and unskilled American Revolution. They were rela- having already experienced four decades Chinese laborers for a period of at least tively few in number and consisted of persecution and discrimination in the ten years. The Exclusion Act also chiefly of students, merchants, and sail- United States, the immigration of addi- required Chinese Americans living in ors who settled in New England for tional Chinese was abruptly suspended the country to carry reentry certificates short periods of time before returning to outright on May 6, 1882, by the passage allowing them to return to the United China. Large-scale Chinese immigra- of the Chinese Exclusion Act. States should they temporarily leave the tion resulting in more permanent settle-

The Chinee Laundryman (Philadelphia, 1880) is one of many pieces of illustrated sheet music shot full of racial stereotypes. Many of those for Chinese workers originated in the California goldfields: Chinese as laundrymen, the ubiquitous queue, the use of pidgin English, unfamiliar culinary habits, and the retention of traditional Qing-era garb.

Page 10 The Quarto ment did not begin until for such men as these, the onset of the stating in another letter California Gold Rush in that he frequently 1848. Most of these encountered “Old immigrants were poor ‘49ers searching every men from Canton ravine and precipice in Province hoping to find the vain hope of finding work in the mines of some spot which has California, although escaped the search of there were also wealthy others . . . These disap- merchants and scholars pointed and unsuccess- among their ranks. ful 49ers are the most Communities of pitiable objects imagin- Chinese immigrants able . . . like the flying began forming into dutchman they seem “Chinatowns,” the old- compelled to maintain a est and largest of which ceaseless search for an is in San Francisco. object never to be Chinese workers found, they live in hope soon developed a repu- and die in despair.” tation for thrift and Throughout the late industry due to their 1840s and early 1850s ability to survive on upwards of 300,000 meager wages earned people relocated to from performing diffi- California to seek their cult manual labor. fortunes. Yet as Their peculiar styles of California’s gold grew dress, their unfamiliar scarcer, Chinese immi- dialects, the long braid- grants were systemati- ed pony-tails or cally excluded from “queues” of the men, certain mining districts the ornate Joss Houses, and wound up perform- theaters, and restau- ing other manual tasks rants, the festivities sur- Although the song John Chinaman (Cleveland, 1869 or 1870) includes such as cobbling, cook- rounding the celebration stereotypes common to most sheet-music illustrations, the lyrics are unex- ing, drayage, house- of Chinese New Year, pectedly welcoming. The tea carrier is dressed as a traditional laborer cleaning, and railroad and many other aspects but Columbia invites him to “leap o’er the crumbling wall” and “Bring construction. They of their culture initially along your tea.” Even more accommodating is her message to John were often employed at were sources of fascina- Chinaman, “For don’t you see. We’ve room enough to welcome all.” the expense of white tion for many laborers on account of Americans. However, whom about 50,000 are Chinamen.” Of their willingness to Chinese people eventually became the Chinese, Watkins remarked that, “a work for reduced wages. Many “desper- objects of derision in the eyes of white Chinaman can save money where a ate” white miners like the ones encoun- working class citizens and immigrants white man could not support himself tered by Charles Watkins, were left from Europe who found themselves in and as fast as the white miners abandon jobless and hopeless, and they soon direct competition with them for limited diggins [sic] which are unprofitable the began to blame the Chinese community low-wage employment opportunities. Chinaman takes possession and makes for all of their misfortunes. The letter book of Charles S. good wages . . . The state imposes a tax Anti-Chinese rhetoric began to gain Watkins provides some insight into the of $3 per month on all Chinamen and traction over the course of the 1850s, hardships endured by both Chinese and other foreigners who work in the mines. although there were still a select few white miners towards the tail end of the . . . None of the Asiatic race are allowed Americans willing to defend them. A Gold Rush. Watkins, a young man from to become citizens of the United States, pamphlet published by the Reverend a relatively wealthy Yankee family in they are placed on the same footing as William Speer in 1856 titled An Humble New Jersey, travelled to California in blacks.” Many of Watkins’s letters also Plea, Addressed to the Legislature of 1854 in search of adventure. Writing describe his experiences working on dif- California, in Behalf of the Immigrants home from San Francisco on July 26, ferent mining crews, including one in from the Empire of China to this State 1854, Watkins noted, “Now the popula- which he was “the only Yankee in the (San Francisco, 1856) refuted many of tion of San F is 60,000 Sacramento party, the rest were Dutch, Prussian, the prevailing accusations leveled 10,000 Stockton and Marysville each Danish & English, all hardy, resolute against the Chinese, including that they 5,000 and Placerville 2,500 . . . The and I might almost say desperate men.” were unhygienic, unassimilable, hea- whole population is about 400,000 of Watkins repeatedly expressed sympathy then, prone to crime, and an economic

The Quarto Page 11 burden. Contrary to popular belief, barred from obtaining American citizen- Mansfield (1859-1933). “In the South Speer wrote, Chinese immigrants sup- ship and were required by law to have at part of this city they are grading a rail plied a vital economic boost to Cali- least one white witness to any alleged road track and being short of keep or of fornia through payment of a special crimes they wished to report. One truly labourers the Irishmen struck for high Foreign Miner’s Tax (the three dollars horrifying story relayed by Speer wages—some three $ per day this monthly alluded to in the Watkins letter involved a group of Chinese miners enraged the Contractors & they resorted book), a fifty dollar capitation tax upon attacked and robbed by four Americans. to the Chinese for a substitute . . . the entry into the United States, property This resulted in one of the Chinese men Irish being provoked at this move of the taxes, tolls for public transportation, the being “mangled in a most horrible man- Chinese gathered together in a mob atti- purchase of mining equipment, and food ner—one wound in the breast reaching tude—and made for the Chinese in a from American merchants. Especially nearly to the navel, through which the rush—and in ten minutes not a China- critical of the unjust manner in which entrails protruded, and when found, the man to be seen for ½ a mile from the the Foreign Miner’s Tax was sometimes wretched creature was holding them in place where the grading was going on.” extracted, Speer wrote “How often do his hands!” Despite the best efforts of The economic depression precipitat- you read of Chinamen shot, or stabbed, Americans like William Speer, however, ed by post-Civil War inflation and the or whipped, or stripped and searched, or little could be done to stem the rising Panic of 1873 threatened to exacerbate a maltreated and insulted in some other tide of increasingly violent anti-Chinese tense situation. Thousands of American way, by the collectors?” Instances of sentiment. businesses (including over eighty differ- extortion and robbery committed against A riot in San Francisco in the early ent railroad companies) went bankrupt, Chinese individuals were frequent, aided 1860s is recorded in the letter book of and unemployment reached historic lev- in part by the fact that Chinese were renowned spirit photographer James V. els. The western railroad companies that survived the recession, such as the Union Pacific, relied in large part on the availability of cheap Chinese labor. Opportunistic demagogues and radical labor organizations, such as the Knights of Labor and the Workingman’s Party, capitalized on the discontent of white workers who felt betrayed by corpora- tions that had chosen to replace them with less expensive Chinese substitutes. Denis Kearney (1847-1907), an Irish American labor activist and leader of the California chapter of the Workingman’s Party who was fiercely critical of Chinese immigration, became well known for ending his speeches with, “and whatever happens the Chinese must go!” Rising tensions between whites and Chinese resulted in anti-Chi- nese riots breaking out across the west- ern United States. At least seventeen Chinese people were tortured and hanged by a white mob in the 1871 Los Angeles riot in the largest instance of mass lynching in American history. In 1885, three years after the Chinese Exclusion Act went into effect, anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States reached its zenith in the small mining town of Rock Springs,

The Chinese Massacre at Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, September 2, 1885 by Isaac H. Bromley (1886). Most of the rioters were members of the local chapter of the Knights of Labor. In 1885 their Wyoming mem- bers refused to work longer hours for the Union Pacific. The railroad then hired Chinese labor- ers to replace them, inflaming the workers’ resentment toward “foreign miners.”

Page 12 The Quarto Portrait of Moy Gin Bon by Lai Yong (right) with accompanying letter (above), in a virtually flawless hand. It was directed to Reverend Alexander R. Thompson.

Wyoming. On the morning of impacted by anti-Chinese furor was a man,” and charging “Melican man’s September 2, 1885, a fight between portrait artist by the name of Lai Yong. price for the same. His principal success Chinese and whites working in coal Lai’s name appears in San Francisco city is in portraits.” Anti-Chinese newspaper mines owned by the Union Pacific directories as early as 1867, making him articles, repressive local ordinances tar- Railroad escalated into a massacre when one of the earliest known Chinese geting Chinese, heightened police pres- a vengeful mob descended upon the American photographers in the United ence in Chinatowns, caustic public Chinese quarter of the town later that States. A portrait of a Chinese man speeches, and even racist musical num- day. Over seventy buildings were set on named Gin Bon (alternately rendered bers became commonplace in cities with fire and as many as fifty Chinese were Moy Jin Bon) produced in Lai’s studio large Chinese populations. Cognizant of murdered before Federal troops were can be found in the Reverend Alexander this outrageous treatment, Lai co- called in to restore order. An examina- R. Thompson subseries of the Thompson authored a pamphlet in 1873 titled The tion of the incident published by Isaac Family Papers at the Clements Library. Chinese Question from a Chinese H. Bromley in 1886 analyzed the shock- In a letter addressed to Reverend Standpoint which vociferously con- ingly defensive responses of several Thompson on September 23, 1871, Gin demned the treatment that Chinese peo- leading newspapers, with one passage expressed his thanks in perfect English ple received in San Francisco and from the Laramie Boomerang reading, for the reverend’s generous support of elsewhere in the United States. How- “The massacre of the Chinamen was the the Chinese Young Men’s Christian ever, like many fellow Chinese Amer- inevitable result of the competition Society of San Francisco. He included a icans Lai Yong appears to have become between the whites and the foreign race portrait of himself along with three other so discouraged by the state of affairs that . . . It is sure that the whites will not members of the organization. he ultimately chose to depart the land he yield precedence to the Chinese dogs. Regardless of their best attempts to had called home for nearly twenty years They will be compelled to leave this assimilate into American society, even and is thought to have returned to his country, peace will be restored, even at the most “Westernized” English- native China. the cost of bloodshed, and the trouble speaking Chinese Americans such as Lai —Jakob Dopp that may come will be chargeable to a Yong and Gin Bon encountered racism Curatorial Assistant monopoly that has wrung the country of on a daily basis. A San Francisco its life-blood, that is now trying to Chronicle article published in 1877 enforce a tyrannical rule, which is to explicitly mocked Lai’s accent, stating starve white men to support Chinamen.” that “Lai Yung [sic], our only Mongolian One of the tens of thousands artist, is painting “heep plicture Melican

The Quarto Page 13 “TRUE AMERICANS” n 1784, Scottish ultimately it was fear and sadness that obliterate the remembrance while my bookdealer William Young provoked this father’s scathing critique. memory remains. Every thing which immigrated to America with his “Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan concerns the country of my birth is to wife and young son. The decision to him,” he quotes from the Bible, “but me interesting.” These “attachments” Ibegin life anew in a country across an weep some for him that goeth away, for bound immigrants to those they left ocean was not an easy one, with finan- he shall return no more, nor see his behind, encouraged cooperation and fel- cial and personal risk looming heavy, native countrey [sic].” William Young lowship with those that arrived after intensified by the emotional upheaval of never did return to Scotland. them, and caused no small amount of leaving one’s kith and kin. William The concept of the “native land” fear among the Americans they joined. Young’s father made sure to underscore figures heavily in the manuscript records There was never, of course, homo- this point in a withering letter he sent of immigration here at the Clements geneity in the racial or ethnic makeup of shortly after William’s departure. The Library. People’s reasons for leaving the American population, and xenopho- Lord, he writes, “has either permitted, or the country of their birth are as varied as bic reactions to non-English immigrants commissioned, you to double my trials; the circumstances that shaped their can be traced back into the colonial peri- you are my first born, and the first that lives—sheer economic desperation, reli- od. An unprecedented wave of immi- gave me such weighty trials, as to crush gious or political persecution, violent gration beginning in the 1820s, however, my spirits and bring down my body in coercion, personal character, and the elevated the issue to urgent, volatile lev- the decline of my life.” While offended desire for adventure—but many of these els. Sparked by the displacements of the by William’s failure to consult him disparate stories are connected by a Industrial Revolution, population booms, about his choice to emigrate, perhaps shared longing for the familiar, for the and devastating agricultural shortages, customs, comforts, and people the numbers of European immigrants left behind. When John Peterkin rose exponentially in the nineteenth cen- emigrated from Scotland in tury. Not until 1819 did the federal gov- 1817, he penned a long list of ernment require the compilation of “all my acquaintances in immigration statistics, and the first Scotland at the time when I bade reports submitted in 1820 documented it a long, perhaps a last adieu,” some 8,000 arriving by steerage. By filling sixteen pages of his jour- 1854 the number of recorded immigrants nal. “No young man ever felt a entering annually surpassed 400,000. In greater struggle on leaving his the face of such change, American anxi- native land than I,” he wrote in a eties about foreign-born populations letter the following year. escalated to new heights. “Ambition and the fear of having By the 1830s politicians were orga- my hopes of advancement at nizing on nativist principles, and in 1845 home blasted, impelled me to the Native American Party, openly cen- take my leave, while the gentler tered on such ideals, hosted its first ties of friendship & other local national convention. Such official nativ- attachments, whispered in low ism rode a rising surge of popular feel- but intelligible accents advised ing that pitted “native” American rights me to stay, my mind was tortured and self-determination against an by these opposite feelings.” unprincipled foreign influence that, it Whether pushed or pulled to was claimed, manipulated and abused American shores, many emi- the right to vote. Attachments to one’s grants’ complex ties to the places “native land” factored heavily in argu- they had lived made the act of ments for limiting naturalization and the leaving an agonizing one. For franchise, an easy way to underscore the some, that homeward pull was supposed inherent, insurmountable ever-present. William Peterkin, divide between American- and foreign- who had immigrated to America born. Americans’ love for their native decades before his relative John, land was imagined as engendering an still felt himself anchored to innate patriotism and devotion to liberty, Scotland. “Though it is near while immigrants’ ties to the places of thirty six years since I left the their birth marked them as unmoored to North of Scotland, yet believe and thus unconcerned about the me Sir my attachments to the American republic. Nativist ire was par- John Peterkin drew up a sixteen-page list of his spot where I was born, and the ticularly directed at Irish immigrants. acquaintances in Scotland to better remember those left companions of my youth, can With nearly half of all immigrants com- behind. He sailed for America in 1817. never be alienated,” he wrote to ing to America in the 1840s originating a friend in 1815. “Time cannot in Ireland, nativists envisioned a

Page 14 The Quarto Catholic horde beholden more to priests, or commitment to another faith, if they contrast to the “owners of the soil,” bishops, and the Pope than to their speak a foreign language, can they be immigrants are described as “those / adopted country. Irish immigrants’ truly American? Who decides? Near them, but not of them, in whose political motives and votes were thus This question, and the social tension vile hearts / The fellest passions reign.” painted as threats to American democra- that underlay it, had real consequences. This conviction that Irish Catholics cy itself. Such nativist ideas appealed to In Philadelphia, Catholic objections to would be innately separate, living in a wide audience of Americans anxious Protestant Bible readings in public about demographic change, economic schools incited local nativist rallies competition, and religious diversity. In in May of 1844. The conflict October 1836, George Albert Thomas, a between the robust Irish communi- young man of Portland, Maine, not yet ty, constituting ten percent of eighteen years old, wrote a letter to the Philadelphia’s population, and the President outlining why he believed vocal nativist majority quickly “Emigration to this country ought not to devolved into violence and rioting be tolerated.” Immigrants’ poverty, that simmered through July. An rivalry for Americans’ jobs, and religion epic poem, Six Months Ago, ranked high on his list of inexcusable inspired by that summer’s events, traits. “They are landed on our shores— distinguishes between the two Monthly & Weekly—aye—even daily opposing groups through the use of by thousands . . . They bring with them geographical language. “They their national prejudices—& they retain knew themselves the owners of the them—We cannot suppose that a foreign soil,” the anonymous poet writes of emigrant feels that interest in our institu- the nativists. “Entailed by those tions—that patriotism & love towards who bought it with their blood, / our country—which a true American And they were not afraid.” Anti- feels.” That difficult, thorny concept of immigrant prejudice is portrayed as a “true American” was, and is, a danger- something natural, driven by patri- ous one. If someone is different enough, otism born of the land, rather than if they harbor love for another country a complicated social construct. In Incendiary engravings of incidents of the 1844 Philadelphia riots capture the nativist violence that engulfed the city that spring and summer. The cover of a pamphlet (right) depicts soldiers intervening to prevent further harm to an “American” couple. The other (below) depicts the burning of St. Augustine Catholic Church, set afire during the disorder.

The Quarto Page 15 close proximity with Americans but never “of them,” intensified nativist reactions. The poem continues, “Americans will not stand by and see / The untamed renegades of other climes / Do murder on the natives of the soil.” Characterizing American-born citizens as those whose every pulse of their “expansive hearts is for the land / Beneath whose sunny skies they first drew breath,” powerful symbolism of the “native land” was used to inspire nativist passion. By the time the 1844 riots settled the homes of approximately thirty Catholic Philadelphians, a Catholic seminary and several Catholic churches had been ransacked or burned, and over a dozen people had been killed. The fear and antagonism spurred by anti-immigrant organizations had real, mortal consequences, and as the 1850s dawned they showed no sign of abating. Amidst all the drama and vitriol inspired by the nativist movement, it can be difficult to remember that most—no matter where they were born—did not endorse violence. “The city is now at peace, although you can not walk a square without meeting soldiers,” one correspondent from our McClintock Family Papers proclaimed in mid-July 1844, as Philadelphia’s riots were quiet- ing. “Mr. Street is better and is improv- ing as fast as could be expected,” the writer continues, describing a man injured in the turmoil, “it is not known yet whether his legs will have to be amputated, he only went to see what was going on.” Not all who were pres- ent at nativist rallies, riots, and debates were crazed and ardent supporters. Some were bystanders like Mr. Street who looked on but didn’t participate. Others, like young George Albert Thomas, who had written to the President opposing immigration, were non-violent and respectable people. George went on to support the anti- slavery movement and Maine’s Under- ground Railroad, served as a choirmas- ter, and directed his local Aged Bro- therhood and Citizens’ Mutual Relief Associations. In many ways, he was an upstanding citizen; but he was also prej- udiced, and that prejudice was shared and expressed and acted upon by enough others that it resulted in violence, perse- George Shifler died early in Philadelphia’s riots of 1844. Nativists promptly claimed him as a martyr cution, and organized political ire that who died protecting the American flag from Irish rioters. In this contemporary chromolithograph targeted immigrants. (Philadelphia, 1844), the mortally wounded Shifler clutches “Old Glory” to the very end. Not everyone rioted over immigra-

PagePage 2 16 TheThe QuartoQuarto tion, but enough people were willing to vote about it to birth a powerful political party based on nativist ideals—the Know-Nothing Party. Secret fraternal societies that developed in the 1840s as exclusionary places for nativists to gather evolved into a national political move- ment. Know-Nothings reached the height of their power in 1855 when the American electorate voted in 43 Con- gressional representatives from the party. Clearly tapping into a widespread xeno- phobic impulse among the American public, nativists’ influence spanned the political sphere to popular culture. An 1855 compendium of essays, The Wide Awake Gift: A Know-Nothing Token, includes a prefatory note claiming, “we lay the Patriotic Offering upon the altar of American Liberty, believing that the incense thereof will prove a ‘sweet- smelling savor’ in the nostrils of all who love the aroma of their NATIVE LAND.” The Know-Nothing moment was short-lived, despite its heavy-handed appeals to patriotism. While their 1856 presidential candidate, Millard Fillmore, garnered some 870,000 votes, he finished a distant third, and the party soon suc- cumbed to the sectional controversies over slavery. Its underlying principles that lionized Americans’ nativity, howev- er, point towards the ideological signifi- cance of birthplaces and homes as the nation struggled with new population dynamics. Affection for a “native land” weaves its way through the history of nineteenth-century American immigra- tion. For many immigrants it served as a unifying force, creating bonds of com- Published at the peak of Know-Nothing political power in 1855, this anthology of munity in a new place and connecting nativist essays (above) is laden with patriotic symbolism. people to those they left behind. The same ideals, however, were also highly divisive when deployed as a political platform. “The Utopia of the imagination, is not the United States of our experience,” the Irish Emigrant’s Guide for the United States warned in 1851. America could be harsh and unwelcoming. It could also be wondrous and abundant and new. If not one’s native land, America could yet be a vibrant one worth making into a home. — Jayne Ptolemy Curatorial Assistant

Troops were called out to suppress the 1844 Philadelphia nativist riots and to con- trol fires set in various parts of the city.

TheThe Quarto Quarto PagePage 173

IMMIGRANT – SOLDIER – ARTIST – BARBER?

t goes without saying that one of the most detailed and intricate yet-naturalized men, but the practice nineteenth-century immigrants drawings in the Map Division. It continued. In the 1820s-1850s the army brought vast amounts of fresh talent to depicts Fort Mackinac on Michigan’s functioned with about a quarter of its the United States. In the three decades Mackinac Island but from the perspec- enlisted personnel composed of foreign- Ibefore the Civil War, the flow of people tive of a bird or a balloonist floating born. An 1838 inspection of Fort Brady was heaviest from northern Europe, hundreds of feet in the air. in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, for especially Ireland, Britain, and the Brenschutz’s story (what we know example, revealed 32 “foreigners” in German states. The newcomers includ- of it) says something about the U. S. one company of 52 men. ed individuals and families with experi- Army as a place where an individual William Brenschutz probably fol- ence in many different trades. Not all of male immigrant might go for food, lowed a similar path to military service. them put their skills to work in the same drink, shelter, and pay. For a non-Eng- Exactly when the twenty-five-year-old occupation once they were in America, lish-speaker, the army also offered a native of Berlin arrived in America is however. One fascinating item in the place to learn the language. Plagued by unknown. Was he a brand-new immi- Clements Library collection might be desertion and the unwillingness of many grant or had he been in the country for a the work of one such immigrant. citizens to serve, the army needed a reg- time? Had he been involved in the William G. Brenschutz’s “General ular flow of recruits. Many officers Philadelphia nativist riots in May and Prospect of Fort Mackinaw” (1845) is complained about the recruiting of not- July? Brenschutz enlisted in the U. S. Army at Philadelphia on August 1, 1844. When asked the nature of his occupation in civilian life he answered, “barber.” Not a word about any talent for drafting, engraving, or other graphic arts. Private Brenschutz reported for duty at Fort Mackinac on October 25. The new soldier was assigned to Company I of the 5th U.S. Infantry then commanded by Captain Martin Scott and stationed at Fort Mackinac, Michigan. Scott was a one-of-a-kind officer, acknowledged to be the best shot in the army. He and his wife, Lavinia, were both avid hunters, and they kept a pack of hounds. The walls of their quarters were covered with tro- phy animal heads. And, over the two years prior to Brenschutz’s arrival, Captain Scott had supervised a com- plete renovation of 63-year-old Fort Mackinac. The results were apparent to all who saw the place. “It is kept with extraordinary neatness” one visitor remarked of the post in 1844. After all his effort to improve the old fort it is not unlikely that Captain Scott was looking for a trophy of his own sort. The full title of the “General Prospect” makes it clear that it was drawn for Scott and referenced the improvements made to the walls and buildings. We do not know how the captain learned of Private Brenschutz’s talent. The artist had the challenging job of drawing an overview of the fort Private Brenschutz’s “General Prospect of Fort Mackinaw” is painstakingly to show what his commandant had detailed, from firewood in the post woodyard (top) to fish-shaped weather vanes accomplished. This the private did by on two of the buildings. laying out a bird’s eye perspective view

PagePage 2 18 TheThe QuartoQuarto that scoops up tremendous detail, from individual buildings to the military gar- dens and even troops drilling on the parade ground under the steady eye of Captain Scott himself. Barber indeed! Brenschutz even included the captain’s black horse, Dandy, and what might be his pack of hounds as well. He visually coded which areas of the complex were built of stone, wood, or earth. It seems likely that the Scotts were pleased with the finished product. Unfortunately, the artist appears to have been less charmed by army life. On July 22, 1845, the immigrant—soldier—art- ist—barber took to his heels and desert- The Brenschutz drawing includes vignettes of activities around the fort. One of ed! This practice was another concern of the most interesting is the scene (below) of a woman (left) with an enthusiastic many officers, who asserted that frequent pack of dogs near the garrison kennels and stable below the fort (today desertion was one more reason to avoid Marquette Park). Is she feeding them? Are they the Scotts’ hounds? Is the recruiting recent immigrants. woman Lavinia Scott? The addition of such personal details must have been Brenschutz’s “General Prospect” requested of the artist by the Scotts. remained a treasured possession of the Scott family. The captain was killed in the Battle of Molino del Rey in 1847 during the war with Mexico. Lavinia preserved the drawing until her own death in the tragic collision and sinking of the steamship Arctic near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in 1854. It then passed to her cousin and remained in the family until presented to the William L. Clements Library in 1941. — Brian Leigh Dunnigan Associate Director & Curator of Maps

DEVELOPMENTS

have overheard our interns mer. When Jim Laramy set up a fund to accessible and in giving students expe- joke that one of the perks of “buy cool old stuff,” he told me about rience in archival work. The Board’s their job is reading other people’s his delight, as a student, in receiving members decided that they would enjoy Imail! Recently, I cleaned out a closet permission from former Director Howard having a connection with future stu- and found a box of letters from my Peckham to use materials for a research dents, and they have funded two new grandmother. As I looked through them project. Meeting Peckham and having internships to nurture and support those and had a snapshot of my relationship the opportunity to read eighteenth-centu- working with historical materials at the with her, I had a renewed appreciation for ry newspapers gave Jim an appreciation Clements. Not only will these students the meaning of letters to the people who for the stories contained within the walls benefit from their internships, they will write and receive them. Our connections of the Clements. He hopes that by pro- also have the opportunity to meet our with each other are important. It is a viding acquisition support, the Library CLA board members. sense of community that has influenced will have the means to continue to find Endowed funds help us link the past recent decisions to establish new endow- and preserve the documentation that and present and make an enduring legacy. ment funds. brings the past to life. Thank you for adding to our Clements U-M President Emeritus Harold At the Clements Library Associates community through your participation at Shapiro was inspired to create a fund Board of Governors meeting in October events, your financial support, and your for manuscripts acquisition after partici- we discussed the success of our summer advocacy. pating in the President’s Bicentennial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) — Angela Oonk Colloquium on campus this past sum- internships in making collections more Director of Development

TheThe Quarto Quarto Page 3 19 ANNOUNCEMENTS CHRISTIAN M. F. BRUN (1920-2017) Resting on a Map Division shelf is a well-used, STAFF NEWS ragged, cloth-covered book with hundreds of Clements Library Director We say many thanks and best wishes to Janet penciled notes in its margins. A Guide to the J. Kevin Graffagnino Bloom who retired from the Library in January. Manuscript Maps in the William L. Clements Committee of Management Janet began as a volunteer but came on staff in Library by Christian M. F. Brun has been in use Mark S. Schlissel, Chairman; 2002 as our Research Specialist. As such, she since 1959, when the author identified and James L. Hilton; David B. Walters; J. Kevin responded each year to hundreds of inquiries described 806 maps, including many of the Graffagnino, Secretary relating to manuscript collections. most beautiful and important in the Clements Never before has the Clements Library collection. The number of manuscript maps has Clements Library Associates Board of Governors Bradley L. Thompson II, Chairman had such a reinforcement of temporary staff as nearly doubled since 1959, but Chris Brun’s John R. Axe, John L. Booth II, Duane N. Diedrich, over the last few months. We welcome Corey organization is still in use. He also co-authored Candace Dufek, William G. Earle, Charles R. Schmidt, our new Joyce Bonk Fellow (2-year the influential reference book Maps and Charts Eisendrath, Paul Ganson, Robert N. Gordon, Helen C. appointment); Sophia McFadden-Keesling, Published in America Before 1800: A Hall, Eliza Finkenstaedt Hillhouse, Martha S. Jones assistant in Books; Allison Schneider in Bibliography. Sally Kennedy, Joan Knoertzer, Thomas C. Liebman, Richard C. Marsh; Janet Mueller, Drew Peslar, Richard Conservation; Caroline He and Garrett Morton It is our sad duty to report the passing of Pohrt, Catharine Dann Roeber, Anne Marie in Manuscripts; Lindsay Barnett and Isabella Christian Brun in Santa Barbara, California, at Schoonhoven, Martha R. Seger, Harold T. Shapiro, Jabra in Development; and Lauren Seroka and Arlene P. Shy, James P. Spica, Edward D. Surovell, the age of 97. He was Curator of Maps at the Benjamin Upton, Leonard A. Walle, Ann Stoner in Reader Services. Clements from 1952 to 1963. Most of his pro- We are also delighted to welcome Emily David B. Walters, Clarence Wolf, fessional life was spent in academic research J. Kevin Graffagnino, Secretary Hanka on a two-year appointment as Marketing libraries. A native of Norway, Chris immigrat- and Communications Assistant and Kelly ed to the western United States in 1923, the Clements Library Associates Honorary Board of Governors Powers for two years as a Digitization year the Clements Library opened. Trained as a Technician. Thomas Kingsley, Philip P. Mason, ski-trooper in a largely Norwegian American Joanna Schoff, Margaret W. Winkelman infantry unit when he enlisted in 1942, he TWO JOIN CLA BOARD fought in Europe. Following his time at the Clements Library Associates share an interest in It is a great pleasure to welcome two new mem- Clements, Chris was Head of Special American history and a desire to ensure the continued growth of the Library’s collections. Funds received from bers of the CLA Board of Governors. Neither Collections and University Archivist at UC Associate memberships are used to purchase historical is a stranger to the Library, and both have long Santa Barbara Library. He retired in 1990. At materials. Annual Membership Contributions: Student personal connections with the place. The first the time of his passing we believe Chris Brun to $5, Donor $50, Associate $75, Patron $100, Fellow is a long-time friend and champion of the have been the oldest living former staff member $250, Benefactor $500, Contributor $1000 and above. Clements, a self-described “archives rat,” who of the Clements Library. Contributions are tax deductible in accordance with current federal and state law and may be made by has never been able to find enough time to check or credit card. more than dent the primary sources held by the Library. Martha S. Jones from 2001 to 2017 CALENDAR OF EVENTS Published by the Clements Library held U-M faculty appointments in History, University of Michigan Afroamerican and African Studies, and Law. November 3, 2017 – May 18, 2018: Exhibit: 909 S. University Ave. • Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, “The Pioneer Americanists: Early Collectors, phone: (734) 764-2347 • fax: (734) 647-0716 She has collaborated with Clements staff on Website: http://www.clements.umich.edu exhibits and publications and has served as a Dealers, and Bibliographers.” Fridays, 10:00 Brian Leigh Dunnigan, Editor, [email protected] member of the Committee of Management. To a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Emily Hanka, Designer, [email protected] our deep regret, Martha has accepted an appointment to Johns Hopkins University in May 1, 2018: Clements Library Associates Regents of the University Board of Governors Meeting, 10:00 a.m. Michael J. Behm, Grand Blanc; Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Baltimore, Maryland. At least we can look for- Arbor; Shauna Ryder Diggs, Grosse Pointe; Denise ward to seeing her on CLA meeting days. Ilitch, Bingham Farms; Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Our other new governor joins the CLA May 25, 2018 – October 26, 2018: Exhibit: Arbor; Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park; Ron board at an earlier point of her career. “D.N. Diedrich, Collector,” Fridays, 10:00 a.m. Weiser, Ann Arbor; Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor; Catherine Dann Roeber currently serves as to 4:00 p.m. Mark S. Schlissel, ex officio Assistant Professor of Decorative Arts and Nondiscrimination Policy Statement Material Culture at the Winterthur Museum in The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action Winterthur, Delaware. Catherine has consider- employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University of Michigan is able experience as an archaeologist and appreci- committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not ates how important archival collections can be discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, reli- in supporting that discipline. Her memories of gion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational pro- grams and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be the Clements Library go back to her childhood. addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/ She literally grew up in the stacks and in the Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, Avenir Foundation Room. Catherine, as many 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388. For other University of Michigan of you already know, is the daughter of John information call 734-764-1817. Dann, the Library’s third Director, and his wife The Scotts resided in the western apartment of Orelia. the Officers’ Stone Quarters. The fish-shaped wind vane (6) is mounted atop their rooms.

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