Almanac Fall 2009 a Publication of the American Antiquarian Society Number 78
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almanac Fall 2009 a publIcaTIon oF The amerIcan anTIquarIan socIeTy number 78 In ThIs Issue n Acquisition of AAS acquires Emory Washburn Papers Washburn papers n Member’s news n Fellowship news hen the (1870-1927). Minnie worked for hammer came the U.S. Sanitary Commission n New residence for down on during the Civil War, and there is scholars W March 26 at Swann Galleries significant correspondence n PHBAC in New York, AAS was the regarding her activities. Her son New books winning bidder on a large Frank graduated from Harvard Summer Seminar and important collection of and the collection contains n CHAViC manuscript papers of Gover - numerous letters from him while Report on the nor Emory Washburn and his he was teaching at St. Paul’s year’s activities family and descendants. School in Concord, New n AAS Heritage The collection was purchased Hampshire, and later when he AAS and the with money from the J. Lee, was practicing law. Supreme Court Henry F. De Puy, and Emory Washburn’s profes - noTable Adopt-a-Book Funds. sional correspondence includes evenTs Emory Washburn (1800- letters from such notables as Louis 1877) was born in Leicester, Agassiz, Salmon Chase, Henry OCtOBER 22, 5:30 Massachusetts. He attended Wadsworth Longfellow, Charles Annual Meeting Dartmouth College and then Eliot Norton, and William H. OCtOBER 28, 7:30 Williams College, from which Seward. Letters written to 1st John Brown he graduated in 1817. He Washburn while he was governor Program: then read law with Charles suggest appointments and ask for by Bruce Ronda Augustus Dewey in Worces - Emory Washburn (elected to AAS, 1827) help in various matters. A very Antiquarian Hall ter. and in addition to his law interesting series of letters NOVEMBER 3, 7:30 practice he had a distin - concerns Washburn’s appointment 2nd John Brown guished career as a member of the Massachusetts House to the faculty at Harvard. There are also many letters Program: of Representatives, a judge, and Governor of the state from Washburn’s former law school students describing Kevin Radaker from 1853-54. He was defeated in a bid for a second their current situations and asking for advice. as Henry David term when the Know-Nothing Party swept the Massa - Also in the collection are diaries kept by Washburn, thoreau chusetts elections in 1854. While serving in the state leg - including his very detailed account of a European trip in Mechanics Hall islature, he was elected a member of AAS in 1827. 1852, and lectures, Independence Day orations, and NOVEMBER 6, 7:30 Washburn was appointed professor of Law at Harvard thousands of receipted bills for Washburn’s family and 3rd John Brown in 1856 and held that post for the next twenty years. He business expenses. Program: lived in Worcester and later in Cambridge. An 1861 letter from an unidentified friend describes by David S. The collection acquired by AAS includes a wealth of Emory Washburn as “a good farmer, a good neighbor, Reynolds material pertaining to Washburn’s personal and profes - a good lawyer, a good Congregationalist and a good Antiquarian Hall sional life. A substantial group of family letters spanning tactician.” NOVEMBER 17, 7:30 several generations includes correspondence of Wash - Although it will be some time before the collection is A Brief History of burn, his wife Marianne Giles Washburn (1810-1898), fully processed, it is already available for research. Cheapness and their daughter Marianne “Minnie” Washburn Batchelder thrift in America (1831-1922), and her son Samuel F. “Frank” Batchelder by Lauren Weber AAS in the News member noTes NYU professor ANNETTE GORDON- program. There will be an open forum to REED (2000), whose The Hemingses of discuss Grove Music’s present and future Fulcrum Publishing of Monticello: An American Family had been at the annual meeting of the American Golden, Colorado, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for history ear - Musicological Society in Philadelphia which was established lier in the year, received the George Wash - in November. by former AAS Council ington Book Prize for the best book related Chairman ROBERT C. DAVID SHIELDS (1995), professor of to the founding era. The Exchange Artist by BARON (elected in English at the University of South Carolina, JANE KAMENSKY (2001) was one of 1989), is celebrating its has been named the recipient of the Modern three finalists for the prize. For a fictional twenty-fifth anniversary Language Association’s 2009 Distinguished imagining of the Hemings family, a special this fall. Scholar Award for American literature. 30th anniversary edition of S ally Hemings, JOHN E. BASSETT (2001) has announced A Novel by BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD When ROBERT SKOTHEIM (1989) his intention to resign as president of Clark (elected 2008) has been published by retired from the presidency of the Hunting - University at the end of this academic year Chicago Review Press, which also re-issued ton Library in 2001, he thought he was after a decade of service in that office. The President’s Daughter, her novel retired for good; but when Occidental William S. Mosakowski, chairman of imagining the life of Harriet Hemings, College’s president resigned after a brief Clark’s Board of Trustees, said “John’s daughter of Thomas Jefferson (1814) and tenure, Bob could not resist the call to give leadership has strengthened the university Sally Hemings. his service as interim president. He is happy for many years to come. He has set a tone to report that he is now retired again. for the campus, bringing together faculty, students, alumni, and the board to improve FelloWshIp aWards the university collaboratively. He has kept us focused on the best interests of the STEPHEN MIHM (2007) has been University, improved fundraising, renewed awarded a CHARLES A. RYSKAMP our focus on science, oversaw many (1982) fellowship by the American Council material improvements and recruited a of Learned Societies to work on his new significant number of our current faculty book project, The Country’s Currency: A and administration.” History of the Dollar from the American Revolution to the American Century. JOSEPH J. FELCONE II (1992) was PAUL M. WRIGH T (2004) has bee searching the UK National Archives for his awarded a Katherine F. Pantzer, Jr., Fellow - project of creating a copy-specific bibliog - Harvard Law School professor BRUCE ship in Descriptive Bibliography by the raphy of eighteenth-century New Jersey MANN (2008) was elected to the Council Houghton Library at Harvard University imprints. In a bound volume of miscella - of the Omohundro Institute for Early for work on “Mammon and the Muse: neous pamphlets, letters, and broadsides, American History and Culture. President Eliot, P.F. Collier, and the Har - he found an unrecorded copy of John Dun - vard Classics’ ‘Five-foot Shelf.’” lap’s July 4, 1776, printing of the Declara - JANE NYLANDER (1984) was one of tion of Independence. We now know of eleven people named as an Honorary twenty-six surviving copies instead of Member of the American Institute of FelloW noTes Architects. Honorary members are people twenty-five, and Felcone informed the Baron Artist Fellow 2007, HEIDI W. DUR - who, although not architects by profession, National Archives that they have three ROW’S The Girl Who Fell From the Sky have offered distinguished service to the copies rather than the two that were was awarded the Bellwether Prize for profession. previously cataloged. Although the literary fiction addressing social justice and discovery was made in October 2008, it Oxford University Press has appointed was named by Publishers Weekly as one received widespread notice in July at the DEANE ROOT (2004), professor of music of the top ten most promising debut novels time of the Independence Day celebration. and director of the Center for American of the year. Music at the University of Pittsburgh the new editor-in-chief of its Grove Music -2- AAS Annual Meeting he 195th Annual Meeting will open, with William Freehling Treflecting on his 1967 Bancroft Prize-winning book Prelude to Civil War, which analyzes the South Carolina nullifica - tion crisis of 1832. At a time when the nation is again divided and polarized, it is worth re-examining that frac - tious historical period. Freehling’s talk, the sixth annual Robert C. Baron Lecture, is called “The Nullifica - tion Crisis and the Causes of the Civil War—Revisited” and will take place in Anti - House at 9 Regent Street in early 20th century quarian Hall at 7:30 on Thursday evening, October 22. New Residence for Scholars On Friday a panel on Christopher Columbus Baldwin will examine the life and ll fellows and other researchers who have braved the morning and evening contributions of this early librarian as the rush-hour traffic on Salisbury Street to cross from the Goddard-Daniels House to Society approaches its bicentennial in 2012. athe library will be pleased to learn that the house directly adjacent to Antiquarian Jack Larkin of Old Sturbridge Village, who is Hall on Regent Street is being renovated to serve as a residence for visitors using the library. compiling a new edition of Baldwin’s diaries, Even more important, the house will be solely dedicated as a residence whereas the Goddard- will lead the panel. For full details of the Daniels House’s multipurpose nature meant that residents were frequently barred from meeting, consult the website at using the kitchen, dining room, or lounge because of meetings, social events, and educational www.americanantiquarian.org programs. The plan is to begin construction in the fall and have the residence ready for occupancy by the time of the library’s busiest season in the late spring and summer.