VOL. I. N O.8 THE C LE M ENTS LIBRARY ASSO C IATES FA l l 1997

SAVING OUR NATION 'S HISTORICAL HERITAGE

he Clements Library tions when it could use a few more value and importance will ever be (++>",q./ celebrates its 75th birthday employees (we have a staff of 10 people) preserved in their entirety, and be made in 1998. Coincidentally, the or new computers? available to the public. is if institutions . year marks the IOOth anni ver­ A full answer would involve a such as the Clements Library are willing sary of the earliest, serious book and lengthy history of the Library and the to purchase them . And unfortunately for manuscript purchases by \Villiam L. rare book trade, but three particular scholarship. ours is among the few rare Clements and the 50th anniversary of the points should be made. First, despite the book librari es still active in the market. Clement s Library Associates. Altho ugh importance of public records, much of When the Clements Library buys a many other activities gro up of manuscript are planned to mark letters, it is rarely a these milestones, question of coming to noth ing could be more this institution or going in keeping with the to another one. 11 is Library's primary usually a matter of function than making saving the collection several outstanding for research purposes additions to our per­ or losing it altogether. manent collections. If the Clements was not Over the past extremely active in the year, the director and market, very important the Clement s Library bits and pieces of our Associa tes Board of nation 's histor ical Governors have been heritage would be kee ping their eyes open totally lost. for a few particularly Every historical outstanding item s or library or museum, in collections to acquire raising and expending as part of our 75th Thomas Smith's \'iew ofthe Lower Niagara Riverfrom Queell JIVII Heights fund s, is faced with the anniversary celebration. dilemma of conflicting Found them we have, actually a few our history is documented only in private priorities . Beyon d basic operat ing more than we had bargained for. The pape rs- letters, diaries, and non­ expenses, does the institution emphasize University has generously advanced us governmental arc hives- materials which staff grow th. conferences. outreach funds to sec ure the materials for the legally rem ain private property until programs, and costly exhibits and social duration of the fund-rai sing campaign , owners and descendants wish to dispose functions-activities that encourage the but their permanent acquisition depends of them by whatever method they public to make greater use of existing upon the generosity of our friends. choose. Second , increasingly "old collections? Or does it con centrate What does adding a few more things" are valued by owners as financial efforts on continued collection growth, collections do to enhance the Clements, assets-as something which potentially maximizing available funds to preserve which is already known as a great might pay medical bills, college tuition, the unique documentation of our nation 's research institution? Why take on the or car paym ent s. There are willing history which rem ain at risk of being agg ravati on of deficits and fund-raising purchasers at flea markets, antique fragmented and lost? campai gns? Wh y does the Clements shops, and local auction houses through­ There was never any question in the Lib rary, as it alway s has, devote 30 to out the country. Thi rd. the only way mind of William Cleme nts. He devoted 50 percent of its total income to acqui si- many historical materials of uniq ue well over half of his earnings to acquir- ing the co llec­ I hope you tions placed in will enjoy reading this institution in the description of 1923. and in the these co llections decade thereafter. on the following he spent more pages. All of than twice as you, as members much again. of the C lements At his death, Library Associ­ in 1934, the ates, will soon Clements Library be receiving the and its contents annu al dues letter had a monetary Thomas Smith's view a/Cohoes Fails on the Mohawk River from CLA value several Chairman John times his own net Wheeler. The worth. He simply felt that saving and her Union officer fiance who was Library is appealing to foundations for making available the unique and appo inted by Lincoln to care for and support in its present campaign, but we price less original source materials of our educate the recently freed slaves of the have to depeod largely upon individual nation 's history was a responsibility that Mississippi Valley. mem bers like you if we are going to be someone had to assume. whatever the successful in makin g these exciting cost. What could be a more fitting I An extremely rare, nearly complete additions to the collections. tribute to his memory, on the 75th forty-five year run of Frank Leslles Elsewhere in this issue is infonna­ anniversary of the Library's foundin g, Illustrated Newspaper. one of the great tion about how you can give an indi­ than for you to follow his example and news magazines and pictorial records vidual letter, pic ture, or volume in your insure the permanent preserva tion of of America n history from the Civil own or someone else's name. As a way outstanding historical material? Repre­ War through World War I. of thanking you for your generosity, the sented in our proposed 75th annive rsary Library is offering excl usively to donors An extraordinary cache of letters that purchases are these fascinating items: of $ 100 or more a complimentary copy survived from the eighteenth-century of One Hundred and One Treasures of British Indian Department. that allows Topographical dra wings by an officer the William L. Clement s Library, an us to hear the thoughts and frustrations in the 90th Regiment of Foot, showing elegant and lively new publication on the of Native Americans as they were the fortifi cations on St. Lucia in 1780­ Lib rary's col lections. caugh t in the middl e ofconflicts, first 1781, when French and Briti sh fleets Many charitable institutions conduct between the French and English, then battled for contro l of the West Indies. special fund-raising appeals the way car the Briti sh and Americans. from the They are five of only a few dozen dealers and furnitu re stores run once-in­ early 1750s to the 1790s. existing contempo rary drawings that a-lifetim e sales. They never end! \Ve have not conducted a form al fund-raising record the American Revolution. The letterbooks of William Henry campaign for fifteen years. We also do Lyttellon, colonial governor of South An 1820s sketchbook containing not, as an increasing number of organi­ Carolina , written in 1756-1759, eighteen waterco lors, arguably among zatio ns do, send out more than one critical years in the French and Indian the finest surviving pictures of the solicitation letter a year. Our approac h War, when powerful Cherokee tribes Ame rican landscape as it was being would not pass muster with most fund­ threatened the colony. These transformed from wilderness to raising strategists. But the Clements letterbooks contain the governor's cultivation, including partic ularly fine, way. old fashioned as it may be, is to outgoing corre spond ence. They are detailed views of Staten Island and request special help only when there is the missing half of the Lyttehon New York harbor. a special reason for it. Papers purch ased by the Clements Thi s issue of The Quarto, and the four decade s ago! I A collec tion of papers from a family dues letter that you will soon receive. who once occ upied a log cabin in the exp lain our need s and our hopes for There was one other item on our list Ohio River wilderness (architectural celebrating the Clement s Library's 75th as well- the letterbook of a brilliant descriptions of the cabin are in the birthday. All we ask is that you give our young Quaker Loyalist. forced by the collection) that document a captivity camp aign serious consideration. If you America n Revolution to leave his during the War for Independence, as feel as we do, that what we want to Philadelphia home to complete his legal well as the trials of Indian warfare and accomplish has real merit, that the education in New York City and front ier settlem ent. preservation of our historical heritage is London-but a generous donor has truly important in today's wor ld, please The letters and diaries of a fearless already pledged the funds necessary to be as generous as possible. pro-U nion Southern girl living at the purc hase it. The perm anent acquisition of the items described in this issue of center of the siege of Vicksburg, - John C. Dann, Director written while shells were exploding The Qua rto depends entirely on our around her, along with the pape rs of ability to raise the necessary funds.

PAGE 2 THE QUAlUO BEYOND THE PICTURESQlJE THOMAS SM IT H' SA.M ERICAN SKETC H ES . 1820-1826

homas Sm ith was a highly capable served as a managing director of the scenes record a separate tour. While the T businessman. one of a genera tion Bank of Liverpoo l and a director of the waterco lors are difficult to date pre­ whose expertise in ma nufacturing and London and Birmin gh am Railway. cisely, an unfinished pencil sketch of marketing textiles made early nine­ Having completed a successful, and Fort Niagara shows architectural features teenth -century Britain the world' s presumably lucrative ca reer, he settled in place only from 1818 to 1823. and a premier industria l power. He was also a on an estate in Kent. Thom as Smith died dramatic view from Queen ston Heights watercolorist of great ability. Sm ith 's in 1864 and is buried in a local church­ includes details dating from the same talent, previously unknown. is now yard near Tun bridge wells. peri od. revealed in an album of R"ir""''''''...'''''="..".,.,...,.,..---'''''''''''''',.",...,.,.,..,.,.,., When Thomas American views that in Smith travelled from their extraordinary Charleston to Quebec in bea uty and fine detail the early I820s. he may com bine the best have appeared to be one qua lities of trad ition al more among an ever­ Brit ish topograph ical growing number of drawing and watercolor tourists- fell ow landscape pa inting. Englishmen, Ame rica ns, Sm ith's Ame rican and European s-who sketches. 1820-1 826. an boarded stagecoach and album of views in North steamboat to traverse the America and Canada, new United Stat es in incl uding eighteen pursuit of picturesque watercolors and four scenery. An educated, draw ings, was acquired afflu ent elite, these by the Clements Library touri sts had been in a successful bid at ca ptivated by the Christie's Lond on Thomas Smith's view a/New York Harbor/ rom New Jersey profusion of travel auction of topograph ical accounts published in pictures in May 1997. The Clements Th omas Smith record ed his the 1820s and inspired by finely Lib rary Associat es Board of Governors American sojourn with his watercolors . engraved viewbooks glorifying the expressed strong interest in preservin g His few letters, still in famil y hands, are American landscape. When they arrived, this fine album for future generation s, disappoi nting ly silent about his artistic man y were armed with sketchbooks and saving it from the fate that all too often activities. but Sm ith is known to have journa ls, determined to record the awa its albums of this quality-being mad e a trip to New York in the late natural wonders they had read about in dismembered, the sketches removed and spring and summer of 1820. To j udge their guidebooks. Romant ics, they sold individua lly, and the context in from his album, he travelle d up the believed, as one con temporary wrote, which they were created foreve r lost. A Hudson and Mohawk rivers, the route that "a useful and pleasurable end of successful fund-raising effort will keep most favored by travellers both for its travel is the satisfaction and improve­ the album intact. convenience and its beauty. Smith ment which are recei ved from the From the few facts we know. the visited Niagara Falls and returne d via the picturesque beauties of nature ." In their biograph y ofThom as Smith reads much Tho usand Islands, Montreal. and tastes, they reflected the aest hetic of"the like that of any prosperous English Quebec. Smith seems to have been Picturesque" popularized in England and businessman active in the years bet ween particularly taken by the scenery around America by the writings of the Reverend the Napoleonic \Vars and the Am erican West Point and, of cou rse, Niagara Falls. William Gilpin . Beginning in 1782. in a Civil War. Born near Coventry in 1799, Two watercolors includ e some of the series of widely read travel book s. Gilpin he joined his uncle ' 5 Manchester finn. earliest detailed views of Staten Island set the rules for lookin g at nature. First, Joseph Sm ith & Brothers, and was soon and New York harbor. Th ey show travellers should seek " picturesq ue spending much of each year in Char les­ Bedloe's Island, selec ted many years beaut y of every kind." in all " the ton, South Carolina , with occasional later as the site for the Statue of Liberty. ingredi ents of landscape, trees, rock s, trips to New York. He followe d this Although the order of Smi th 's compos i­ broken-grounds, woods. rivers, lakes, pattern, buyin g cotton for English mill s, tions sugges t a contin uo us jo urney from plains, valleys, mountains and dis­ from 1819 through 1827 . Smith then Charle ston to Quebec, the scenes from tances." Sec ondly, these elements joined a Liverpool cotton importing firm West Point to Niagara are distin gui shed should be combi ned in varied scenes, and remained in the business until his by brilliant autumn foli age. Either his with contrasts of "lights and shades , retirement in 1850 . Along the way. he 1820 trip was extended, or the northern height s and depths, cultivated and wild:'

TH E (l.!JAlnO PAGE 3 watercolor noted ,"This is particularl y fortun ate technique. for students of the genre. There is Smith, who may sometimes more to be learned by a well have been student of watercolor from an unfinished familiar with oil work." painting, applied We can only speculate on Smith's his colors more training as an artist and his motivation in boldly and creating his album. How did this young opaquely than cotton merchant become a fine land­ did traditional scape watercolorist? When he com­ watercolorists, pleted his "American Views," land scape who added a painting was at the peak of its popularity thin wash of in the Anglo-American art world, color to a elevated by the genius of Constabl e and drawing Turner. Provincial art academies, in executed in imitation of London's Royal Academy, pencil or pen were being establ ished on both sides of and ink. (The the Atlantic. In England, organi zation s Thomas Smith's \'iea' ofStaten Island from Manhattan delicate coloring like the Old Water-Colour Society and of Lieutenant the Associated Artists prom oted the art and viewed as if in a picture frame. Charles Forrest 's views of St. Lucia, of landscape watercolor. In English and Bnt Thomas Smith did more than also seen in this issue of The Quarto, American book shops Smith could have follow the Picture sque crowd. Although is typical of traditional watercolor style.) found drawing books and manuals his views focus on natural vistas of University of Michigan Profe ssor dealin g exclusively with this genre. Did rivers, harbors, waterfalls, estuaries, Emeritus of Art William Lewis, a he record his American experien ce so escarpments, and on settings still largely specialist in watercolor painting, has painstakingly because he intend ed to pristine though no longer wilderne ss, noted that Smith's stronger use of color have his views engraved for publi cation, there is a power and vitality in his "represe nts the artist's knowledge of or were they done for his private watercolor land scapes that goes beyond changes in watercolor practi ce taking pleasure? the picturesque. Smith offers much place in England at that time ," innova­ What we do know is that Thomas more than beauti fully idealized natural tions introduced by artists Thomas Girtin Smith created a rare, unsurpassed visual scenes. When he paints Niagara Falls or and J. M. W. Turner. Professor Lewis record of the New Republic-at the Queenston Heights above the Niagara was impressed that Smith 's views are moment the American landscape was River, or traces the Hudson Highlands, all "c areful pieces," like the best being transformed from wilderne ss to he has an almost geological sense that topographical drawings, rich in highly cultivation, before it was forever altered allow s him to capture the dynamic accurate detail. Commenting on the by the relentless growth of population, quality of these natural phenomena. survival of four unfinished compositions industrialization , and the pollution that The difference begins with his in Smith 's album , Professor Lewis also would inevitably follow.

LOOKING AT THE NEWS FRANK LESLIE'S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER

e live in an age when great events in a timel y fashion and help mold their leisure activities. W unfold before our eyes, often in opinions of developments around their Frank Leslie, founder and namesake "real time" through the technology of country and the world. of the paper, was an English immi grant television and satellites. Americans of For more than 66 years, many who had learned the engraver 's trade and the first half of the nineteenth century Americans obtained their visual impres­ worked on the stall of the London had to wait month s or years for anythin g sions of current events from the pages of Illustrated News. After arriving in the more than a printed account of the news. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. It United State s in 1848, he was employed In most cases, they never saw images of was one of the great popular publications by a numbe r of earl y pictorial publica­ the people, places, or happenings that of the late nineteenth and early twentieth tions before producing the first issue of shaped their world . What an innovation, centuries. From its inception, this his own illustrated newspaper in then , when the illustrated newspaper weekly newspaper printed gripping December 1855. Leslie introduced burst upon the popular market, offering images full of the drama and sensational­ innovative techniques in the preparation pictures of events that were often only ism of politics, war, scandal, sports, and of engravings that , in some cases, days old. For the first time, images disaster s, natural or man-made, along­ permitted the publi cation of images co uld influen ce large numbers of people side tranquil scenes of domestic life or within twenty-four hour s of an event.

PAGE 4 T HE QUARTO His market expanded greatly when the The Clements Library has long Civil War provided an opportunity 10 possessed a com plete run of Leslie's for LIEUTENANT illustra te scenes of conflict that could the years of the Civil War, the period for not be captured or widely distributed whic h it is best known. But, aside from FORREST'S ST. throu gh photograph y. Leslie's fortun es a few scattered runs from the 1850s, declined in the 18705. however, and he l 870s and I890s, this visua l chronicle of LUCIA was driven into near-bankruptcy before the growth and vibrancy of the last half his death in 1880. of the nineteent h century and the ieutenant Charle s Forrest. 90th Despite its shaky condition, the astoundi ng changes of the first two LRegiment of Foot. was just another paper outlived its founder. It was decades of the twe ntieth was missing junior officer in the Briti sh Anny of the revived by Leslie's widow, Miriam, who. fro m our collection. For some reason, Ame rican Revolution. He probably in an unique public relations move in while Harper's Weekly, the magazine 's considered himself less fortunate than 1882, legally changed her name to greatest rival, is relatively common. many of his fellow subalterns. Not only "Frank Leslie" and managed the paper there are very few extensive runs of did he serve in a high-numbered for fifteen years. Leslie's regularly Leslie's in American libraries. The regiment, sure to be disbanded when incorporated new technologies and Clements' recent purchase comprised peace carne, but the 90th had been sent entered the twentieth century with its 45 years-worth of Leslie's. from the end to the West Indies. known with much covers increasingly taking on the look of nf the Civil War to 192 2. If our ca m­ j ustification as " the graveyard of the a magazine. Durin g World War I. the paig n is successful, the Library will hold British Army," Fortunately for us, publication boas ted a weekly circulation approximately 85% of the entire run of Forrest whiled away some of his time on of more than half a million readers. this important publication. the island of 51. Lucia in 1780-1781 by Leslie's did not long survive the end of The great value of Leslie 's is its draw ing detailed watercolors depicting the war. however. Its quality decl ined vast collection of pictures. It is also an its most strategic sites. dramatically after 1918, and it ceased accurate barometer of how popular Unlike Smith 's more arti stic publicat ion in June 1922. publicati ons changed during the late r renderings of scenic America in the nineteenth century to both I820s, also presented in this Quarto, Lieutenant Forrest's views are very ~.' ~ depict and incorporate rapidly developing new much in the tradition of military THE WAR IN PI€TURES tech nologies. Photograph ic topographical drawing. While attrac­ illustrations made their tively showi ng the sweep of deep bays e s Iie's ,.," '0 em. debu t in the paper in 1890, and rugged mountain s along the followed within a year by northwest coast of 51. Lucia. their photo covers . These gave purpose was primarily to convey way to full color artistic information. All include annotations covers and changes in showing the locations and strengths of form at and advertising to harbor batteries. and they are drawn address the tastes of the from perspectives that allow important new century. Leslie's naval anchorages to be reco gnized from covers from World War I the sea. For historian s of the American incl ude striking illustra­ Revolution, Forrest' s dra wing s offer tions by James Mont gom­ visual documentation for a reg ion that. ery Flagg and Norma n after 1778, beca me the primary theater Rockwell. amo ng man y of naval maneu vering between the others. The paper reflects French and the British. America's fascination with Britain's war in America began in the development of the 1775 as an attempt to pacify rebellio us automobile and the colonies. Th ree years later, with airplane. modern high-rise Continental troops still in the field. the cities, and the tool s of conflic t began to attract traditional modem warfare . Leslie's European enemies: first France, soon contains regu lar and followe d by Spain and Holland. All had supportive covera ge of the interests in the West Indies, and Britain late nineteenth-centu ry shifted subs tantial naval and milit ary renaissance ofAmerican assets there followi ng the French naval power. It also has declaration of war. The French struck much to say about Ameri­ the first blow, in September 1778, by ca n politics and political seizing the Briti sh island of Dominica. campaigns and is particu­ Two months later. a British squadron James Montgomery Flag!:'s World War I version ofUncle Sam firsl larly rich in political sailed for the West Indies from New appea red on Leslie's cover, December 29. / 917. pointing a pistol at the ca rtoons for the decades of York. escorting ten regiments that had Kaiser, demanding "Gel OffThat Throne!" the 1870s and 1880s, been serving against the rebe llious

TH E Q!)ARTO PAGE 5 NATIVE AMERICAN VOICES SELECT IONS FROM THE BRITIS HINDIAN DEPARTMENT CORRES PON DEN CE "A. ~ew f rom the Two Gun Battery;'St. Lucia, showing the British defenses in 1780, when French and British fleet s battled for control of the West Indies during the American Revolutionary War. n July21, 1767, the British O Supenntendent of Indian Affairs, Sir William Johnson , was visited by a Americans. French Admiral d'Estain g's perhaps serving as a marine. A month fleet len Boston the same day. The two after Forrest sketched Gros Islet Bay, Schenectady Indian trader named naval forces headed for the Leeward Admiral De Grasse received orders to Cornelius Van Slyke. who had just returned from three years captivity by the Islands in a race narrowl y won by the sail north to support the campaign that Indians. Taken near Detroit in 1763 by a British, who gained control of the main culminated in the decisive Franco­ band of Chippewa, Van Slyke had been harbor of the French island of St. Lucia American victory at Yorktown. given by them to a group of Potawatomi on December 12 and then , begin ning Lieutenant Forre st retired from the only a day later, deft ly repe lled a series service after the American Revol ution living "3 days walk" west of SI. Joseph, near present -day Chicago. John son had of land and naval attacks by d 'Estaing. and perhaps saw these drawings as a known Van Slyke for years. To some The issue was far from deci ded . Most source of income. The five were extent it may have been a social visit, but of the Leeward Islands changed hands at obv iously once part of a sketchbook least once during the next four years containin g additional watercolors. for Johnson, it was also an oppo rtunity to interrogate someone before all this activ ity climaxed in the Twelve views, including the five who could provide valuable and scarce British naval victory at the Battle of the represented here, were engraved and inform ation on the western Indians. Saintes in April 1782. Although the published in London between 1783 and Van Slyke reported that most of the French again landed on St. Lucia in May 1786. Every one of the prints is native chiefs in the area were pro-French 1781, they were repelled a second time, extremely rare. The original watercol­ and the island remained British for the ors , of course, bring us closer to reality and had been encouraged, by visits to New Or leans and posts on the Mississippi, to duration of the war. itself, and they provide students of expect the French and Spanish Lieutenant Charles Forrest's views printmaking with a rare opportunity to to soon go to war aga inst the British. of SI. Lucia were drawn in 1780 and compare the original and printed Whenever Van Slyke expressed a wish 1781 and may be divided into two versions. Two of the print s were used to to go home, his captors told him, "Child, groups relating to activities in those illustrate John C. Darin's 1988 edition of why would you think of leaving this place respec tive years. Th ree show the main The Nagle Journal (pages 62, 64). of safety and going down amongst the harbor and naval facility at Carenage Jacob Nagle, who was impressed into English to be killed , for the French, Bay on the island 's west coast and the British naval service after being Spanish, and we will soon fall upon them include notes identifying locations of captured in an Ame rican privateer, and destroy them ." the fighting of Decem ber 1778. These served on a British sloop in the exac t The natives Van Slyke lived with had were done in 1780, soon after the 90th locations pictured by Forrest one year Regiment arrived from England in earlier. participated in the French and Indian War at Lake George in 1757, and they were March and before a hurricane devastated It is probable that if the Clements convinced that many of their people had St. Lucia in October. The other two Library does not perman ently acquire died during the course of the expedition focus on the anchorage of Gros Islet this lot of five dra wings they will be because the English had poisoned them Bay seven miles north ofCarenage Bay. purchased by a dealer and sold sepa­ and intentionally given them smallpox. These were drawn in June 1781 at a time rately. At the Library, Forrest's Van Slyke also inform ed Johnson that the of intense maneuvering between the detailed topograph ical drawings Sac, Potawatomi . and Reynard tribes were rleets ofAdmirals Rodney and De complement both Nagle's journal and at war with the Illinois Indians and that he Grasse. Gros Islet Bay provided the papers of British General John had become aware ofonly one other white convenient shelter for British warships Vaughan, Lieutenant Forre st's superior prisoner in the area , "one Conradt as well as a commanding windward officer as commander of British troops Wagoner or Wagaman, a soldier taken at position within sight of the French base in the Leeward Islands, 1780-178 1. Presque Isle, when Lieutenant Christie at Port Royal, Martinique. Forrest's As historians have long known, and was obliged to surrender the post." Just drawings reveal Pigeon Island at the the producers and viewers of television another day at the office for Sir William mouth of the bay, crow ned by a lookout document aries are now aware, there is Johnson, but an invaluable, previous ly station and armed to the teeth to protect preciou s little contemporary art extant unknown bit of evidence for scholars of the British anchorage. The lieutenant for any theater of operation in the Nat ive American history. was then aboard the frigate Lizard, American Revolution .

PAG E 6 T HE QUARTO • Johnson 's nephew and successor as three vollies which was returned by the In 1767, Governor Sharpe of Maryland British Indian Commissioner. left his war party and after shaking hands with tried to enlist the assistance of Sir headquarters at Fort Niagara to visit the the chiefs , ' , left them a keg of liquor, , ,," \Villiam Johnson to convince the new Delaware, Onondaga, and Seneca The diary provides unique descriptions of Nanticoke and Snow Hill Indians on the Indian settlements at Kadaragaras the settlements, meetings and conversa­ Eastern Shore to resettle with other Cree k, west of present-day Buffalo, New tions with various Indian chiefs. It lists members of the tribe who had already York, He kept a detailed jo urnal of the the number of scalps and names of moved to the upper Susquehanna Valley. trip, which provides a fascinating, prisoners brought in, mostly taken in John son sent agents all the way from his behind-the-scenes view of a staging area Penn sylvania. Two of the prisoners and headquarters on the two scalps were kept by Mohawk to meet with the the Delaware, with the Indians remaining on intention of exchanging several thousand acres them at Fort Pitt and along the Nanticoke River. thereby gaining military Maryland, in 1704, had intelligence about the legally reserved the tract post whic h they planned for the Indian s as long as to attac k later. they cared to remain. Among the prisoners Chief Choptank delivered up to Johnson treated the visitors with the by the Seneca were four greatest courtesy. but members of the Plumm er respectfully declined their family- a father, son, offers in a lengthy "talk" and two sisters. Most which he sent back to likely the mother and John son: "You see we are perhaps other children not rich. but we have some had been killed and were tenants [presumabl y white represented by one or people], who pay us for the more of the twelve scalps use ofour lands; these also given to the Indian lands you desire us to sell, agent. Thi s family had and go with you, but we been forced to march can't tell that this would be hundreds of miles from so well. as we live comfort­ their home. Their release ably upon the rents ofour on the morn ing of June lands. but if we part with 10 must have been a our lands and go with you. moment of great joy­ we shall have nobod y to unfortunately a bit work for us, as our tenants premature. One of do, and our old people Johnson 's primary cannot hunt nor make com, missions for his trip and we are fearfu I that had been to secure the these old people would release of a Miss Moore, starve if they go into a who had been adopted by strange land." an old Seneca woman who refu sed to part with Commission signed hy Sir William Johnson, British Superintendant of • Indian Affair s, appointing Thomas McKee his Assistant Deputy, authorized her. Much pressure was By the summer of 1781, to "hold conferences. send messages, and Treat with the Indians" of "Ohio exerted on the Seneca the American Revolution and Country ofthe Western Indians," dated August 16,1762. woman to change her had been in progress for mind. On the afternoon five years. The frontiers the Plummer family was of western New York and Penn sylvania for war parties attacki ng the Pennsylva­ turned over to Johnson. "the prisoners all had witnessed co ntinual and particularly nia frontier. It also documents an were paraded for the old woman to take brutal warfare. and much of the country increasingly impoverished. dissatisfied, her choice of one of them for Miss had been rendered uninh abitable, Just a, and barely controllable people, deeply Moore. when she made choice of Sarah white settlers in outlying areas had frustrated becau se the Briti sh did not Plumm er," Imagine the horro r felt by the retreated eastward to settlements of seem to possess the will to fight an all­ Plummer family and the young hostage, sufficient strength to fend otTattacks by out war. who could only watch helplessly, One British and Indian raiding parties, the On June 8 John son's party reached wonders what fate befell this nine-year­ native population had moved westward. the main settlement: "was received in a old girll out of the range of combat. very polite manner by 140 warriors On June I, Guy Johnson, William painted. with colours flying, who fired •

T HEQ U A RTO PAGE 7 The American Revolution ended in Detroit where our Forefathers did . .. we retained by former officehold ers became 1783. The Indian tribes nf New York see your intention, you are drawing close private property after accounts had been and Pennsylvania either allied them­ to us, and so near our bedsides that we settled with the government. In the selves with the United States or moved can almost hear the noise of your axes nineteenth century, the New York State toward Oswego, Fort Niagara, or into fellin g our.trees and settling our country. Library acqui red several large groups of Canada, under Briti sh protection. For According to the lines settled by our John son Papers by gift and purchase. the tribes of Ohio-a-the Shawnee, forefathers, the boundary is the Ohio Fortunately, this particular bundle of Mingoes, and remnants of eastern tribes River, but you are coming upon the papers was not among them, because that which had moved westward during the ground given to us by the Great Spirit ... collection was to a considerable degree conflict, abandonment by the Briti sh but it is now clear to us your design is to lost in a disastrou s fire at the tum of the seemed almo st incomprehensible. On century. March 20, 1785, the "Shawe nise and The monumental importance ofthe Mingoes,' writing from the Shawenise collection for Native American studies Towns, sent a desperate letter to the cannot be exaggerated. The Clements British at Fort Niagara: "You know the Library, having already commi tted itself Windotts and Delawares went to Council to the other items described in this issue at Beaver Creek, where they met with a of The Quarto, had no money to spend, man appointed by the American Con­ but these items simply had to be saved. gress to speak to them (he said) who told The Library alerted, and worked with them he was glad to see them . .. that several other institutions to insure that what was in his breast he would disclose most of the important documents in the to them directly, saying, what lands do first sale would be permanently preserved you claim in this part? I ask you for a and available to scholars. This library piece of ground, take pity on me and successfully bid on 52 letters and grant it. Ifyou say you will, I shall give documents, going particularly for items you a great man y thousand s ofdollars, known to exist in no other copy. Fortu­ and not only that , but shall give your nately, the National Archives of Canada children what they may want and will was able to purchase the entire collection always continue giving them. The offered at the second sale, much of which Delawares agreed to their proposals and Hendrick, the great Mohawk chief, killed in related to present-day Canada. gave them a tract of land .. . the 1755 while fighting as a British ally at the The letters partially described and Windotts gave them from Little Beaver battle of Lake George, is shown with a quoted above are representative of the Creek the whole Shawenise Country... . painted face, wearing European dress and quality and importance of the documents You now see Trouble is coming upon us brandishing a European-made hatchet. acquired by the Clements. Among the fast, we think it nigh at hand. The rest is a minute book of apreviously Virginian s are settling our country and unknown Comm ittee of Indian Affairs building cabbins in every place. We take our country from us. We remind in Albany, 1753-1755 which gives a hope you will take Compassion upon us, you that you will find all the people of marvelous picture of the effects of acquaint our younger brethem the Lake our colour in this island strong , unani­ growing Anglo-French hostility in the Indians and the Six Nations of our mous, and determined to act as one man Ohio Valley on the Iroquois Confed­ situation, that the American s intend to in defense of it. Therefore be strong and eracy- full of captivities, spy reports, and pay us a visit early this Spring, when the keep your people within bounds, or we even a visit by "Mr. Franklin" at the time grass is four inches high." shall take up a rod and whip them back of the Albany Conference. There are to your side ofthe Ohio. It is now three letters by the very unlovable, two­ --e--- incumbent on you to restrain your peopl e faced Lieutenant Benjamin Roberts, When the dreaded meeting with the and listen to us, otherwise the conse­ 1766-68 , including his full account ofthe Americans took place at Wakilimika, quences of what may happen hereafter trial of Robert Rogers. There is a Ohio, on May 18, 1785, the Shawnee will be your fault." fascinating, almost mystical letter of John and Mingoes, along with representatives Butler urgin g the Indians to smuggle the of portions of the Delaware and Chero­ • Council House and the sacred tree of the kee tribes attempted to hide their fears In June and July 1997, approximately Iroquois Confederacy out of contested by taking a defiant stance. Captain 300 previously unknown letters and territory and re-establish it and the sacred Johnny, of the Shawnee, delivered a docum ents came up for sale in Montreal. fire in western New York. And there are a remarkable speech, which fortunately They orig inally were part of the corre­ variety of "talks" by Indian leaders, letters was written down for transmittal to spondence files of the British Indian of Indian agents, minutes of Indian Detroit by Simon Girty. After ridiculing Department, headed first by Sir William councils, and treaties which shed a great the previous Indian councils and the John son (from 1755 to 1774), then by deal of new light on Native American treaties ofFort Stan wix and Fort Guy Johnson (1774-1782) and thereafter history in a particularly crucial period . McIntosh, Captain Johnny said that by Sir John Johnson (1782-1830). As It is very important that the Library the natives will not attend any further was commonplace in the eighteenth secure these letters as a permanent part of conferences unless they "kindle it at century, archival records of this sort the collection.

PAGE 8 T HE Q1JARTO LI FE ON THE O H IO AND WEST VIRGINIA FRONTI ER 1775-1822

fter the Revolutionary War. the Captain Josiah :md Colonel Thomas Van spec ulators, and the Van Swearingens and A Ohio Valley became host to an Swearingen and Major General Henry Bedin gers were both. By the late 1780s, intense wave ofemigration by veterans Bedinger, later to be their brother-in-law. the families had established them selves as and their famili es, exacerbating the Like many early settlers in the Oh io significant force s in the region politically, already tenuous relations with the Valley, the Van Swearingens and militarily, and economically. Indians in the area. Among the earliest Bedingers were as much involved in land The Van Swearingen-Bedinger white settlers in the panhandle region of spec ulation as they were in settlement. collection contains an unusually large West Virginia were three Revolutionary It see ms, at times, that every settler was body of legal papers, receipts. and letters, veterans from Virginia, the brothers either a speculator or an agent for from the period of the Revolut ion rhrough . the turn of the nineteenth century, documenting the early stages of Ameri­ can migration into the Ohio Valley. Lene rs from the Ohio- West Virginia frontier are exceptionally scarce, more so when they incl ude correspondents as literate and widely experienced as the Van Swearingens and Bedin gers. At first glance the collection appe ars to consist mainly of small scraps and receipts; in aggregate, these "scraps" provide detailed information on the frontier economy, information that is otherwi se extremely elusive. The letters that have survived often contain extraord inary passages that help flesh out the lives of early settlers . Those written by Henry Bedinger while a soldier in the 5th Virginia Regiment and while a prisoner of war on Long Island are of particular historical impor­ tance. Equally significan t are his letters relating to Indian- white tensions on the Ohio frontier. In one, he enclosed a hastily dra wn map showing the battlefield where an American force, regulars and militia, under General Arthur St. Clair was routed by Indians of the"Maumee and Wabash Rivers, on November 4, 1791, a disastro us defeat for the fledging United States Army. Together with the Clements' collections of the papers of Josiah Hannar, Anthony Wayne. the Forman family, Horace Holley, and the Woods family (a rece nt donation to the Library), the Van Swearingen-Bedinger Papers will help to consolidate the reputation of the Clements Library as one of the preemi­ nent centers in the nation for study ofthis critical period in the Early Republic.

Major General Bedinger drew this eye­ witness map showing Genera/ Arthur St. Clair's fo rces collapsing under the attack by Indians ofthe Maumee and Wabash Rivers, on November 4,1791.

T HE Q1JARTO PAGE 9 JOHN EATON : the south, editing a "radical" Unionist Of equal interest and historical newspaper, the Memphis Post, and under importance are the papers of his wife's CIVIL WAR the school law of 1867 won election as family, also present in significan t state superintendent of education. quantity. On September 29, 1864, Eaton VETERAN Although his ed ucational policies were married Alice Eugenia Shirley, the FREEDMAN'S steadfastly opposed in Tennessee, his daughter of James Shirley, a native of support for President Grant, as edi tor, New Hamp shire and graduate of ADMIN l STRATOR, ed ucator, and political organizer, earned Dartm outh , who settled in Mississippi. EDUCATOR him a series of governmental appoint­ He became a lawyer and pros pero us ments. Eaton proved to be a parti cularly planter in Vicksburg. Altho ugh a slave fter grad uating from Dartm outh effec tive lobbyist for public educ ation. holder, he had been an ardent Whi g and A College in 1854, John Eaton avidly His experience and politica l savvy are was a Union sympathizer during the war. pursued a career in education . As credited with salvaging the floundering As fate would have it, his plantation, "the principal of the War School in Cleveland, Burea u of Education from congressional Shirley House," was at the center of the Ohio, and superintendent of schools in cutbacks, and he personally oversaw the Vicksburg battlefield . It survived because Toledo (1856- 1859), Eaton earned a development of the Bureau 's departm ent Mrs. Shirley refused to leave, even when reputation as an able and efficient of statistics. He remained at his post shells were occasionall y hittin g the roof. administrator. Yet, despite all his success until ill health forced his resignation in The papers include letters and diaries and his love for written in the home teaching, he abruptly during the battle, even shifted career course samples of the wallpaper in 1859 to prepare for which hung in the parl or the mini stry at at the time of the siege. Andover Seminary. Knowing the sympathies Ordained in 1861, of the occupants, Union Eaton volunteered as gunners avoided aiming chaplain of the 27th at the house, and it was Ohio Infantry, but in later restored and is the November of the headquarters of the following year he was National Park Service removed from that there today. position by Ulysses John Eaton, a Grant, who found that reform er in the mid­ Eato n's administrative nineteenth- century experience made him mold, left his mark on an invaluable choice American public for supervisor of the education, race relations, "contra band" camps in journ alism, and the Freedmen pose infront ofa plantation house.Photographfrom the John Eaton Papers. the Mississippi Valley. military. His papers, Over the next three augmented by over 200 years, Eaton organized and oversaw the 1886, but he never left educ ation behind. photographs of family members and Civil burgeoning numbers of former slaves Later in life he served as president of War comrades, were preserved in a New who had escaped into Union lines, and Marietta College in Ohio and Sheldon England attic for more than a century his juri sdiction, which eventually Jackson College in Salt Lake City. before they were consigned to a local encompassed the entire Department of Durin g the milit ary occupation of Puerto Vennont auction in 1996, and sold as the Tennessee and Arkansas, included Rico in 1899, he helped organize the several dozen "lots." A dear friend of the responsibilities as diverse as maintaining island's public school syste m. Clements, book dealer Ken Leach, alerted the peace, setting up schools, and The Eaton collection provides rich the Library to the upcomin g sale. We felt managing plantations, paving the way for coverage of his activities durin g the Civil it would be a tragedy if we didn't try to the creation of the Bureau of Refugees, War years, includi ng an important body reassemble as much of the collection as Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. In of correspondence relating to the possible. We were able to secure 80% of 1864 he was rewar ded for his efforts with recruitment of the 63rd U.S. Colored the collection at the sale, and an addi­ a colonel's commission in the 63rd U.S. Infantry, a nearly complete run of tional 10% was tracked down to other Colored Infantry, raised near Vicksburg, locally-printed orders issued on behalf of purchasers and acquired later. Ken Leach and was brevetted brigadier general in Freed men's relief, and important deserves a medal, and so will the donors March 1865. In that sarne month , he documentation on the esta blishment and to the Clements Library's 75th Campaign acce pted a position with the Freedmen's early operation of the Freedman's if we successfully save this uniquely Bureau as Assistant Commissioner in Bureau. The collection also contains a important manuscript collection. Thi s is charge of Maryland, the District of sizable group of letters from John the type of rescue the Clements has Columb ia, and part of Virginia. Eaton's brother, Lucien, who was an frequentl y performed. From 1866-67, Eaton rema ined in officer in the 65th Ohio Infantry.

PAGE 10 Til E OjJARTO the growth of slavery in the Carolinas and Jamaica, relations wit h Spanish SOUTH CARO LINA DURING THE Florida and the French , the governance ofJamaica. and the wave of Scotch Irish FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR immi grants moving south from Virginia THE LETT ERBOO KS OF and North Carolina into the back country. Th e volumes are expensive, but GOVERNOR WILLIAM HENRY LYTTELTON, 1756-1759 it is one of those purchases which simply has to be made. It brings together the illiam Henry Lyttelton became embroiled in conflict with the Jamaica two halves of an exceedingly important W gove rnor of the colony of South Council and Assembly, and throughout historical record. Carolina during one of the most turbu­ his governors hip he had his hands full lent periods of the eighteenth century. with conflict. polit ical spats, Spanish and Only three months after he assumed French aggression abroad. and slave AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE rebellion s at hom e. In October 1766, he office in June 1756, officia l notification A MEMORABLE GIFT arrived in Charleston that war had been accepted an appointment as ambassador declared on France, providing the to Portugal, ending for good his Ameri­ official stamp of approval for the can sojourn. Later in life, Lyttelton You may choose one of these exci ting acquisitions hosti lities that had torn at the co lony's wrote several historical works on the to make a contribution to the Clements Lib rary's borders for years. By all accounts, West Indies and pub lished a book of 75t h Anniversary Celebration in your own name 01 Lytte lton dealt admirab ly well with uninspired verse. He was eventually that of someone yo u wish to honor. Your generostr preparing the Carolinian defenses created baro n in both the Irish and will be ackn owledged with a hand some nameplate aga inst fore ign attack, and he was Eng lish peerages. Library Director John Dann would welcome the equally adept at managing the flood tide In the I950s, the Clements pur­ opportunity to discuss any of these gift options of Acadian refugees arriving in Charles­ chased the bulk of the Lyttelton Papers, with you . ton harbor. largely his incom ing corres pondence. $500: A co mplete volume of Frank Leslie's The great test of Lyttelton's from an heir. Unfortunately, the owner lllustrataed Newspaper. gove rnorship, however, came in his later sold Governor Lyttelton 's dealings with the powerful Cherokee letterbooks- the retained copies of his One shorter British Indian Department Documents. Indians. Here he fared considerably less outgo ing co rrespondence-and the well. After rejecting an offer of peace volumes were acq uired as an investment $1,000: One of 16 more exte nsive British Indian from the Cherokee in 1759, Lyttelton by the British Rail Pension Fund . Departmen t Docu ment s. rashly ordered a punitive expe dition into Wishin g to divest them selves of this $1,500: One of Jive particularly significant British the back country, over the strong protests property, Rai lpen offered the three Indian Department Documents. of his more experienced subordinates, weighty volumes to the Library. and broke off rela tions, detaining a Th e importance of the Lyttelt on $2,000: One of Lieutenant Charles Forrest's View: Cherokee delegation as hostages. letterbooks can hardly be overe mpha­ of Lt. Lucia during the American Revolution. Simultaneously, his army was ravaged sized. Reunited with the manuscripts by smallpox, leaving him unable to that have been in the Clements since $2,500: Guy Johnson 's Diary, June 1-13. 1781. deli ver the force necessary to imp lement 1954, the Lyttelton Papers are the single An extremely important document by the Secretary his plans and precipitating a brutal, most important man uscript resource for to Sir William John son giving a history of the bloody, and costly war. South Carolina in the I750s, containing Indian Department and its arch ives Fortunately for Lyttelton, he was a wealth of information on the Cherokee, called to the governorship of Jamaica in Creek, Choctaw, and Catawba Indians, $5,000: The Record Book of the Commissioners April 1760, a post considered one of the the French and Indian War in the south, of Indian Affairs, at Albany, New York , June 175 3­ plum appointments in the April, 1755. colonial service.Here, Th ree 1766 letters by Lieutenant Benj amin Robert too, his career was and his Diary of a trip fro m Michilimackinac. marked by a mixture of through Det roit, to Montreal to atten d Robert great ability and stunning Rogers' trial. incompetence. Almost immediately upon his $10,000: One ofTh omas Smith's 14 exqui site arriva l in Kingston, views of America in the I820s. Lyttelton became $30,000: The Van Swearingen-Bedinger Collection.

William Jlenry l.yttetton 's $50 ,000: The Eaton-Shirley Papers. letterbooks are shown with his commission from $75,000: Gove rnor William Henry Lytte lton's George II app ointing him South Carolina Letterbooks, 1756-1759. Royal Governor ofSouth Carolina in 1756.

Til E QlJARTO PAGE 11 CALENDAR OF EVENTS ONE HUN DRED AND ONE TREASURE S FROM THE October -December 20, Applications L. CO LLECT IONS OF THE WI LLIAM CLEMENTS LI BRA RY accepted for the 1998 Price Visiting The Clements Library, in conjunction with its 75th Anniversary Ce lebration, is Research Fellowships. Awards to be pleased to announce the publication of One Hundred and One Treasures from announced in Janu ary 1998. the Collections ofthe William L. Clements Library (Ann Arbor, 1998). The book is aimed at meeting a long-perceived need for a publi cation Nove m ber- December, Exhibit, Solving which presents a sampling of the collections, telli ng a story about each item the Mystery ofHMS Bounty in the while giving the reader a sense of the importance, the purpo se, and the nature Context oJThree Centu ries ofPacific of the Clement s Library. We would hope that it is just as interesting to Exp lorat ion. someone bei ng introduced to the institution as it is amu sing and instructive to our long-term friends . J anuary 12 • February 27, Exhibit, It is a substantial volume , heavily illustrated and 180 pages in length. One Changing Perceptions ofthe American Hundred and One Treasures was elegantly des igned and printed by Stinehour Landscape, present ed in conjunction Press, and its publication mad e possible by a generous gran t from The Mosaic with the College of Literatu re. Scie nce, Found ation of Peter and Rita Heydon of Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the interest and the Arts environmental theme of supporting the Library's 75th Anniversary Campaign. Copies will be semester. selec tively distributed free ofcost to institutions. Otherwise. it will be available in January J998excl usively to contributors of $100 or more to the January 19, Program , War, Race. and Clements Library 75th Anni versary Campaign. Citizenship. A showing of the 1989 film "Glory" followed by a panel discu ssion, a Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposinm Event, co-sponsored by the Department of History and the Clements Library. Angelillall, Auditorium A, I pm.

March 15 - M ay 31, Exhibit, Manu­ script Treasures ofthe Clements Lib rary. presented in conjunction with The Manuscript Society's meeting on May 22. celebrating its first meeting fifty years ago at the Clements Library.

March 11, 1998, Lectu"';, Thinking with Na ture: Wolf Disney and the Nat ural World, by Professor Richard White, University of Washin gton, in conjunction with the College of Litera­ ture, Science, and the Arts environmen­ tal theme semester. Clement s Library, 4 pm.

June 1 ·Augu st 28, Exhibit, The Lay of the Land: Topographical Drawings in America. /700-/850.

JUNE 19

SAVE THIS DATE FOR THE Clements Library Associates' 75th Anniversary Celebration Banquet at the Michigan League!

Program details and ticket reservation information will be fo rthco m ing early 199 8 .

PA GE 12 THE Q!)ARTO