Th e Library's 50th Year The uarto

-SI; ED Q UA RTERLY F OR T HE CLEMENTS LIB RARY ASSO CIATES "UMBER '<>2. SEPTDIRER. 1973

Th e Commodore R eappears suffi cien tly mod est to be purchased from our general fundsl The latest accession includes 67 l·~l I L SE VEN YEARS ago, American scho lars con­ loose letters and document, an order book and cluded that the papers of Oli ver H azard Perry a letter book covering the crucial summer and had been lost or destroyed in the century and a fall campaign on Lake Erie in 1813. and a per­ lulf since the naval hero's dea th in 1819. One of sonal account book exhibiting Pen~ ' s finances th e ma jor contributions of the Clements Library from July, 1815 to November. 1818. The pur­ o historical scholarship in the past decade has chases add imm easurably to the collection 's value been the fillin\'; of this a??arent void with the. as a source for historical research. >.France in th e Caribbean. \797-98, Tripol i must have lell them at his death . protected, in 1804- 05. the War of 1812. the Med iterranean shelved, and catalogued in accord with the high. after the W ar, and a diplomatic mission to Vene­ est archival sta ndards, are available for future zuela in 1819. Because the en tire Perry famil y generations of historical scholars. figures so prominently in early Ameri can naval h istory, thi s coll ection of 482 letters proved to be a research gold mine. Later, the same owner sent the diary of Perry's last cruise. ' Botany in A merica T o our considerable surprise but unbounded ONE OF THE P RIME items in the summer's exhibi­ elation, we learned in June of this year that tion, "Botany in America," was the newly ac­ another descenda nt, possessor of 430 additional quired set of A merican M edical Botany by J acob letters dat ed between 1812 and 1819. was willing Bigelow. botanist and professor of materia med­ to part with his collection through a dealer. ica at H arvard. Lavishly illustrated with full \ Vith the simultaneous successful conclusion of page drawings, it was issued in Boston in three the 50th anniversary fund raising campaign, the volu mes, 1817-1 821 under the author's super­ timing of this inte lligen ce could not have been vision. It is genera lly considered to be the earliest better. Exhibiting their characteristic enth usi­ example in th e Uni ted Sta tes of a book with asm, the Board of Governors unhesitatingly made plates prin ted in color. In the first part. the en­ the purchase with funds of th e Clements Library gravings were colored in the usual fashion by Associates. hand, bu t continuation of that slow method Our excitemen t was therefore predictable when seemed impossible to Bigelow. Therefore, in the one more small lot of Perry papers, rich in 'Var remai ning parts, he successfully experimented of 1812 material, surfaced in J ul y at a price wit h adding the colors d irectly to the copper- easte rn Un ited States, and the first Am textbook in botany by Banjamin Smith ""'....L 1803. The exhibi tion was in troduced by the piction of an Indian garden in Carol ina De Bry's 1590 ed ition of Thomas H ariot's R e

Organic Farming J o"" T AYLOR (1753--1824) known as "T ayler THE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATES Caroline Couutry" would al so he called a J of The University of Mi chigan sonian Democrat today. Consistently, he es states' rights and agrariani sm whil e in the B OARD OF G OVERNORS gin ia House of Delegates and in the U.S. (Ap pointed b y the Regents of the University) His writings also champion ed these causes a the enlargement of the national government, Ca rl W . Bonbright, Flint Like Thomas Jefferson, he too was deeply Edward W. Bowen , Ba)' City ______grossed in the managemen t of a country es R ob ert P. Briggs, Elk Rap ids,cHAIRMAN In particular , T aylor was alarmed by the Tale C. E.Frazer Clark, Jr.j ilo01{;/ield Hills wh ich the fertility of th e land was being El y Corning, Flint----' hausted, a condition which necessitated Thom as--N:,6oss, Ann Arbor spread of large plantation s to ever fresher ( ...... ----J oli'il"R . Dykema, Detroit tory. On his own land he experimented \IIi ­ ----- \Villiam C. Finkenstaedt, Detroit principles of scien tific management which he H arlan H. Hatcher, A rm ArboT would be helpful to others, particularly s David W . Kendall, Detroit landholders. As early as 1803 h e wrote a J ames 1\1 . Klan cnik, Chicago of agricultural essays published in a Georget J am es S. Schoff, N ew York newspaper. T en years later these 6 1 essays w _ J am es Shearer II, Chicago collected and published under th e title of A m t M rs. David F. Up ton, St. Joseph by a "Citizen of Virginia." It is this first editi Lee D. van Antwerp, Northbrook, Ill . published in Georgetown, D.C., which the Howard H . Peckham, Director of th e brary has now acquired. Library. SECRETARY In th e preface the publishers pred ict th is boai of American practices will supplan t Eurc peaa texts which are totall y unsuitable for the Ames-­ plates before printing. never before done on so jean situation. The essays by T aylor which (oJ.. large a scale here. low ed the glowing optimism deal with the spe­ This treatise also signified the wid espread int er­ cifics of crop rotation, fallow land, manurinz est in medical uses of plants. An earlier example plowing under of crops, orchards and livestock, in th e exh ibition arranged by M rs. Haugh was Not th at he neglects the underlyin g philosophies. the first book on plants published in the New There are chapters on the economy of agricul­ W orld , in Mexi co Ci ty in 1615. T he au thor, Dr. ture, the pleasures of agriculture, and the right! Francisco Hernandez, had been sent over from of agric ulture. Two are on the ever present ques.­ Spain in 1570 to investiga te curative plants. A tion of slav er y. Though deploring it, he express<:> more recent example, remarkable for its appear­ more concern at this point about the probl em of ance during the time of early settlemen ts in idle groups of freed slaves for whi ch there is no Michigan , was the Botanic Lum inary, a peri odi­ provision , and recommends their placement in cal p ublished in Saline in 1835-36. the North or in Africa. He devotes several pages Other prize books sho wn from our collections to refu ting views on emancipation in Jefferson's included the first Canadian flora, Jacques Cor­ Noles on the State of Virgi nia . Hut above all nut' s Canadensium Plantarum, 1635; the grea t he a bhors the overseer left in cha rge by an ab­ English Herball by John Gerard, 1597; the mon­ sen tee landlord. Such a manager has little inter­ umental Natural History by Mark Catesby, est in good agricultural practices and leaves after 1731-43, with its vivid examp les from south- impoverishing the land. ) Iovers and Shakers ary rem ains to th e comp u tor. In th e near future the final results of thi s summer's samp ling project E OF THE coun try's leading rar e book for a comp lete ro ster of th e soldiers and sailors ians met at th e Clements Library on May of th e Revolutionary War will be tabulated a t - The group is not organized formally, but has th e Universit y's computing center. (T h is is one meeting annually for severa l years to di s­ of th ree investi gations bein g pursued a t the Li­ common problem s. T h is time th e all-da y brary.) m concerned what appeals, if any. rare libraries can make to foundations. Since Finding out the number of m en who served during the war mi ght seem a simple question, latt er do not want to promote competition but th e more work we do, the more com plicated gran ting funds for acquisitions, what types it becomes. l\fan y m en , of course, served several programs would they support? The wh ole ic was exp lored with several foundation exec- en listments in a number of different re giments. - .es, including th e director of The Foundation The huge bulk of various muster and pay rolls, ter in N ew York, which is maintained by th e financial and pension records, compilations by various sta tes and by such organizations as th e JOTfoundations as an informa tion center. D, A. R., and various other sources con ta in a We all learned some th ing about th e \,roblems vast amou n t of overlap and duplication. \\Tell eI donors as well as of recip ients. Libraries not over a million n am es with data must be reduced . pported -by tax monies; even- in part. vmake a - lry-Iin king togeilier3lrilieitems thatj)crtainTo m onger case for private support, but that is not one particular sold ier. Ideally, a data bank of dIe sole consideration. It was appropriate to en­ biographical information on most of th e soldiers tertain this group of di stingui shed visitors as would result. part of our 50th ann iversary obser van ce. Small samp les from several sta tes have been selected as a trial run this summer. For example, our New H ampshire sam p le consisted of 3.363 comp u tor-coded data sheets for last n ant es be­ H old the evening of Octob er II lor ginning with th e letter L (I. is relativel y eth n ic­ the ann ua l Assembly of the Associates. You ally neutral). By linking together those names will receive an invitation sh ortly. This year which most probably represented the same sol­ tb e ga the ring will be d ifferent. The Associ­ d ier we reduced these to 1519 and a further ates will meet a t the University's Museum reducti on by linking those that possibly repre­ of Art n earby, joining with th e Fr iends of sen ted the same soldier br ou gh t a total of 1244. th e Museum to open an exhibition of illus­ O ther considera tions, h owever, lead us to believe trated sheet music of th e 19th cen tury from th at th ere is still a large number of these data our Corning Music Collection. Mr. and sheets th at indeed represen t on e sold ier but Mrs. Bly Corning 01 Flint, th e donors. will which, a t this point, we have been unable to be h on ored guests. Ther e will be a short link together. talk, a descriptive bulletin, and a perform­ Among other things, th e samples have clearly an ce of some of th e music; as well 3s- re-­ - - ~ . ~-- shown that a necess---ary preliminary step to any freshments. biographical file for Revolutionary veterans is The Board of Gover nors will be a t the a major referen ce work outli n ing th e organiza­ Lib rary in th e afternoon. tional histories of th e com panies a nd regiments of the R evolution.

Of Computors a"d Corpses Old Sou th west

THE LIRRARY 'S AMERICA N Revol ution Bioenten­ TIMOTHY FLlNT. a New En glander by birth and nial project hasn't opened an y graves yet, but it ed ucation, became a western traveler by virtue certain ly has been busy co un ting bodies. In th e of his religious calling. Initially, he served under first decade of thi s cen tury th e Revolutionary th e au spi ces of th e Missionary Societ y of Con­ her oes Gen. Nathan ael Greene and Gov. George necticu t in 1815 with h eadq uarters in Cincinnati Clinton were ex humed and reb uried; our modern asd later at S1. Charles. Mo. and in Arkan sas. As undertaking is instead conveyin g th e R evolution- time went on he turned to other pursuits, espe- cially wntmg and editing. Before his death in Royal harbor, South Carolina, in 1729. Curi...._ 1840 his literary ventures included a memoir of the chart was not published until over Daniel Boone, a history of the Mississippi Valley, later. Soon thereafter, the publishers soW. and several romantic stories with locales in the copper plate to another firm which chang Old Southwest, and points farther west. imprin t and later still, added additional Recently we added to our growing collection to the map area. Thus, the map went of his works Journal of the Rev. Timothy Flint, three issues before 1777, and we are the from the Red Rioer, to the Ou achitta or Tl'a­ to unravel the correct order of succession, _ shita, in Louisiana in 1835. He writes to the result of a purchase made this year, we now owner a report of the survey of the Maison a copy of each of the first three issues. Rouge Grant made by him and his son. Its 31 pages describe the country and general conditions found. Ours is the version from "Waldie's Select National Exhibition Circulating Library" possibly printed in Cincin­ As PART OF ITS Bicentennial celebration, nati in 1836. Separates of the Journal were also National Portrait Gallery at the Smi printed at Alexandria, La. and Philadelphia. Institute in Washington, D.C. has put t a very exciting exhibition on "The Afro-. _ Maps and Their Issue ican in the Age of the Revolution, 1770-I... Manuscript documentation of black par ­ MOST OF THE FUN of bibliography is in finding tion in the War is exceedingly scarce, and unknown variations in printed maps or books own small body of such material is of great that appear identical. In this quest, the scholar torical interest to scholars concerned with and librarian share a common goal. If minute history of "minority groups." In a rare changes of lettering, dates, or names can be the Library has loaned five important doeu identified, we are in a much better position to from the papers of Sir Henry Clinton and determine the publishing history of the item. thanael Greene. We would encourage an ) Recently, we acquired two maps which illus­ visiting the Nation's capitol up until the d trate this point. Capt. John Montresor, the in­ December date to pay a visit to the Smithso ­ trepid British engineer who served 22 years in for this timely display. A handsome catal America, returned to London at one point and of the exhibition has been published. successfully negotiated for the publication of the Map of Nova Scotia or Acadia, in 1768. The map was a large scale effort, printed on four sheets, Rare Books Gathering and included most of what we now call the Canadian Maritime provinces. Meanwhile, Mon­ THE LIBRARY WAS represented by Mrs. tresor's rival, Capt. Samuel Holland, completed Haugh, Curator of Rare Books, at the nati a survey on Prince Edward Island. His map was conference of the Rare Books Section of not printed until 1775, but the publisher of the Association of College and Research Libr Montresor map must have seen a manuscript held in Los Angeles June 21-23. About 180 boot copy of it because he redrew that island on the lovers were treated to a dazzling display of JjJ Nova Scotia map based on Holland's survey. The braries and antiquarian bookshops in the area, publisher then brought out a second edition Excursions were made to notable collections ' without any other indication of the change­ the Huntington Library, the Southwest Museum, such as in the title, which might have noted the the William Andrews Clark Library, Universi alteration. To our knowledge, we are the first of Southern California, and University of Cali­ to determine the difference between the two fornia. Talks were given about special collections editions, and we now own capics of each. in seven other institutions. Mrs . Haugh repom In the early map trade it was also a common that the Californians could rank with the legend­ practice to sell the copper engraving plate to ary joie de oiore and generosity of Texas in another firm. This meant that the same map hospitality, too. could be printed by different owners, who some­ A sober note was introduced in one topic new times erased the name of the previous owner and to these conferences, "The Security of Rare substituted their own. Ship's captain John Gas­ Books and• Manuscripts." Warnings and advice coigne completed a hydrographic survey of Port were given by professionals in security work.