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CSM 2019 Newsletter

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CSM 2019 Newsletter The Colonial Society of Massachusetts September Volume XXIV, Number Dear Colonial Society Members: Doing Local History, ou perhaps recall that severe damage suffered by the Twenty-first Century Style YSociety’s house in the unusually cold winter of - set us on a course of major rehabilitation and restoration of the structure. This led to an assessment of CSM members may welcome learning more about the the condition of our Charles Bulfinch-designed Ebenezer Parkman Project (http://www.ebenezerpark - house and several corrective building projects, notably on man.org), a remarkable cooperative effort undertaken by the roof, carefully overseen by our member Lynne Ross W. Beales, Jr. (Professor Emeritus, College of the Spencer of the firm Spencer, Sullivan & Vogt Architec - Holy Cross), Fellow Member James F. Cooper (Direc - ture/Preservation. Work on the building is now complete tor, New England’s Hidden Histories), Dr. Anthony T. and the security systems that protect the house and its Vaver (Local History Librarian, Westborough Public Li - occupants from fire, intrusion, and other hazards have brary), the American Antiquarian Society, the Massa - been updated and expanded. Our Curator, Toby Hall, has chusetts Historical Society, and the Colonial Society of prepared a maintenance log and a projects schedule. Massachusetts, all under the general auspices of the Confident that the building is in good shape, our Westborough Center for History and Culture. House Committee, ably chaired by Richard Nylander, has Among the treasures held at the Westborough Pub - turned its attention to the furnishings, a remarkable as - lic Library and the American Antiquarian Society are semblage of early Boston and Newport furniture and Parkman Family Papers that include the diary and ser - paintings that were given to the Colonial Society in the mons of the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman ( - ), who s by the families of the historian Francis Parkman, served as the first minister of Westborough, Massachu - William Ellery Channing, William Crowninshield Endi - setts, from until his cott, Samuel Eliot Morison, and others. House Commit - death. Throughout his tee member Robert Mussey has drawn on his long experi - ministry, he kept records ence and substantial expertise in conservation to guide the treatment of some real treasures—a stunning looking glass for the church, made regu - made in Boston c that has a mate in the Diplomatic lar entries in his diary, Reception Rooms at the Department of State in Wash - wrote sermons, kept up an ington; a massive looking glass of the s from Salem; a extensive correspondence, handsome pier table, c , by the Boston firm of Emmons and served as clerk of the and Archbald; and Francis Parkman’s childhood bed with Marlborough Association brass mounts depicting Little Red Riding Hood! Several of Ministers. Because of its paintings have been restored through the generosity of location just west of members Robert Bayard Severy and David Burnham. The Reverend Ebenezer Parkman Boston where a number of Our historic surroundings at Mount Vernon Street key roads converge, the reflect and promote our mission to advance knowledge town saw visits during the eighteenth century by a num - and understanding of early New England life and his - ber of important religious figures, such as Jonathan Ed - tory. I hope that many of you will have an opportunity to wards and the controversial revivalist James Davenport. visit the house in the coming months. The Westborough Church, under Parkman’s relatively Sincerely, conservative leadership, weathered numerous changes, Donald R. Friary President The Colonial Society of Massachusetts together with the coming of the American Revolution. New Program To Support Colonial Parkman’s extensive manuscripts and the records of the town of Westborough together provide one of the most History for K- Audiences complete pictures of life in a rural New England town during a period of rapid cultural and intellectual change. This academic year the Colonial Society is pleased to an - Professor Beales has made Parkman the focus of his nounce a new pilot program to support educational pro - professional career, mining the diary not only for infor - grams that enrich students’ understanding of the history mation on church affairs, but also on topics as diverse as of colonial Massachusetts and expose students and their Parkman’s relations with servants, attitudes toward mar - teachers to new resources, findings, and ways of thinking riage and births out of wedlock, and customs of weaning about early America. Small grants totaling not more than and child-raising. Beales transcribed both the diary (four $ will be awarded on a rolling basis, and funds may thousand pages in typescript) and the records of the local be used for K- educational programming, professional ministerial association; he also prepared an index to development programs for teachers, or after-school or Parkman’s sermons. summer enrichment programs serving school-aged audi - Maureen Ambrosino, the energetic director of the ences. Applicants must demonstrate that they have re - Westborough Public Library, recognized the unique na - ceived funding from at least one other source. All pro - ture of the town’s manuscript collections and helped cre - posals must be recommended by a member of the ate the Westborough Center for History and Culture to - Colonial Society, so if you know of or are involved with gether with Anthony Vaver as its Local History a worthy project we encourage you to let us know! Librarian. (How many towns in New England have a li - This initial pilot program will allow the Colonial So - brarian dedicated to its local history collections? Not ciety and its membership to develop a better understand - Boston!) To improve access to these remarkable materi - ing of the public need in this area and assess what an ex - als the Center created the Ebenezer Parkman Project and panded role for the organization might look like in the posted the diary on its webpage together with links to a future. To apply, please contact colonialsociety@veri - number of allied documents. zon.net. The Colonial Society entered into this cooperative endeavor by underwriting the transcription of the West - borough Church Records to be done by New England’s A Brief Report on Publications Hidden Histories under the expert supervision of Fellow Member Jeff Cooper. When the transcription is com - plete, facsimile pages of the manuscript will be posted On July , the Colonial Society welcomed the members online side-by-side with the transcription. It will appear of the Society for the History of the Early American Re - on both the Colonial Society and the New England’s public (SHEAR), who were attending their annual Hidden Histories websites. meeting in Cambridge, to a party celebrating the publi - The Parkman Project, launched February , , is cation of The Insurgent Delegate: Selected Letters and Other designed to grow as more of Parkman’s writings are tran - Writings of George Thatcher edited by Fellow Member scribed; in cooperation with the American Antiquarian William di Giacomantonio. The Insurgent Delegate is Society, New England’s Hidden Histories is currently somewhat unusual among Colonial Society publications publishing Parkman’s ministerial association records, ser - in two ways: first, it marks a rare foray into post-colonial mons, relations of faith, and hundreds of pages of mis - material and, secondly, it concerns the District of Maine, cellaneous writing. The Parkman Project will later supply an integral part of Massachusetts until . Many of you maps indicating places of local historical interest de - are already enjoying the letters of this quirky, somewhat scribed in the diary. The founders of the Parkman Project atypical New England Federalist, who was an early abo - believe that, in the end, no eighteenth-century commu - litionist, Unitarian freethinker, and insatiable book col - nity in Massachusetts will be better documented than lector. Westborough. Those who wished should also soon receive in the mail the two-volume Colonial Records of Kings Chapel , the painstaking work of Fellow Members James Bell and James Mooney. The story of this beleaguered outpost of Anglicanism in Puritan Boston makes interesting read - The Colonial Society of Massachusetts ing, while at the same time supplying a wealth of ge - tated by Fellow Member Frank Bremer, is accompanied nealogical material amidst the births, deaths, and mar - by essays on Bradford and the religion of the Pilgrims by riages it records. To assist the genealogist, Julie H. Otto Bremer, the history of the manuscript by Minkema, the has produced a marvelously comprehensive index to ac - Native American context by Wampanoag scholar Paula company the volumes. The volumes’ design, by Jeanne Peters, and an analysis of the list of the Hebrew words Abboud, is intended to echo the beauty of the manu - Bradford appended to the manuscript written by Eric D. script records which they reproduce in print. The Bishop Reymond of Yale University. The printed volume should of London saw fit to assist his Anglican clergy with a appear early in . large library of books on theological subjects so that they What other books might appear in is less cer - would be able to counter the arguments of their often tain. We anticipate at some point in the future a sixth and better-educated Calvinist rivals. The vast majority of final volume of The Papers of Francis Bernard, which will these books still survive as a unified collection at the cover the years after his return to Britain until his death Boston Athenæum and are the subject of a special exhi - in when Bernard was an important advisor to British bition there this fall organized by Curator of Rare Books administrators seeking to deal with the deteriorating po - John Buchtel. litical situation in the colonies. The Memoirs of Josiah Cot - Appearing in your mailboxes during the winter will ton and Other Allied Documents, edited by Fellow Mem - be the second volume of The Correspondence of Thomas ber and Bancroft Prize-winner Douglas Winiarski, has Hutchinson covering the years through .
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