on fellow ous L g ulletinH e Volume 10 No. 1 A Newsletter of the Friends of the Longfellow House and the National Park Service June 2006 Reverend Samuel Longfellow’s Papers CataloguedB and Finding Aid Completed he National Park Service is proud to grand family-tour of Europe in 1868-69, he and Verses, and gathered his journals and cor- Tannounce the publication of the find- took his three nieces on special side trips. respondence written and received. Other ing aid for the papers of the Reverend Sam’s writings provide much insight into nieces and his great-nephew Harry Dana Samuel Longfellow (1819-1892) in the Long- life at the Longfellow House. added materials to the fellow House archives. The finding aid After Henry died in 1882, collection, at times buy- describes and helps researchers navigate the Sam returned to the House to ing them from antiques documents pertaining to Henry Longfel- work on his brother’s biogra- dealers or obtaining pho- low’s youngest brother, a renowned transcen- phy. He stayed on with the tostats of documents. dentalist clergyman, writer of hymns, social poet’s eldest daughter, Alice Margaret Welch, the reformer, and his brother’s biographer. (See Longfellow, and resided in author of this new find- related articles throughout this issue.) the back bedrooms until his ing aid, organized, pre- Samuel Longfellow lived in the House death in 1892. During his last served, and catalogued off and on throughout his adult life begin- decade Sam edited and tran- twelve and a half linear ning in the 1840s when Sam moved in with scribed many selections from feet of journals, corre- newlyweds Henry and Fanny. In the early Henry’s journals and letters, spondence, sermons, and 1860s he resided with the family and was an ultimately publishing three poetry. The archives also attentive uncle to Henry’s children. Sam volumes entitled the Life of hold many of Samuel traveled to Europe with his nephew Ernest, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Samuel Longfellow, 1880 Longfellow’s sketches, remaining in Paris with him while the After Sam’s death, Alice Longfellow pub- watercolors, and travel notebooks with twenty-year-old studied art. While on the lished a selection of her uncle’s works, Hymns pencil drawings of buildings and scenery. New Biography of Samuel Longfellow in Progress hile researching and writ- own walking tour company in Wing a history of the nine- Lisbon, Abdo is now writing a teenth-century Dabney family’s biography of Sam Longfellow. life in the Azores, Joseph Abdo “My research on Samuel became intrigued by the twenty- Longfellow started several years three-year-old tutor for the Dab- ago with Joseph May’s [1894] ney children, Samuel Longfellow. Samuel Longfellow Memoir and Letters, Originally from Boston, the which contains letters to and Dabneys provided three genera- from Sam, and May’s comments,” tions of American consuls to the said Abdo. “I read articles about Azores, nine islands west of Por- Sam by his contemporaries, fol- tugal, and had a number of lowed a comment here and a hint friends in common with the there, and was able to trace Sam Longfellows. After his first year on an interesting trip through at Harvard Divinity School in the major nineteenth-century 1843, Sam was at loose ends and “Port of Horta [Faial] from the Sea Wall,” Samuel Longfellow’s sketchbook, 1843 social and cultural movements.” concerned about his ill health, which was to and “cultivated and hospitable”employers, “Samuel Longfellow is not an easy per- plague him throughout his life. Harvard Sam agreed to accept the position. son to find out about,” Abdo continued. professor John Webster recommended him Author of the recently published Dabney “Most written material about Sam refers to as a tutor for the four children of Consul chronicle called On the Edge of History, an him as Henry’s biographer or the author, Charles Dabney and his wife Frances on the American and naturalized Portuguese citi- along with Samuel Johnson, of the Book of island of Faial. Attracted by the fine climate zen, hospital administrator, and head of his (continued on page 2) 1 - Samuel Longfellow Biography by Joseph Abdo (continued from page 1) Hymns. This was largely because Sam did as a courageous martyr,” Abdo said. not write much about himself, and when Samuel Longfellow achieved fame in the VWX others wrote about the Longfellows, he was Unitarian church for the Book of Hymns for Friends of the Longfellow House hidden in his brother Henry’s shadow.” Public and Private Devotion that he wrote with Board of Directors Though he wrote numerous letters, Sam his soul-mate Samuel Johnson. In 1882 after Heather S. Moulton, President was not conscientious about his journals the death of Johnson and his brother Barclay Henderson, Vice President and could let a year go by without an entry. Henry within five weeks, Sam Longfellow Robert C. Mitchell, Treasurer His last journal ended in 1852, forty years left Germantown and retired from preach- Polly Bryson, Clerk before his death. Nevertheless, he wrote ing. He spent much of the remainder of his Frances Ackerly books, sermons, and words to hymns. His life writing about these two men who had Diana Der-Hovanessian friend Thomas Went- been closest to him, pro- Frances J. Folsom Maura Graham worth Higginson said of ducing the memoirs of Edward Guleserian him that “he was also a Samuel Johnson and a Carol Johnson genuine poet, like his biography of Henry. Sarah B. Jolliffe elder brother.” Always interested in Linda Almgren Kime During his year living progressive causes, Sam Layne Longfellow with the Dabneys in the supported women’s rights Laura Nash Azores, Sam wrote prodi- and spoke at national Lynne Spencer giously to friends and women’s movement con- family. “I wanted to know ventions. He espoused Advisory Board Ruth Butler if there was something the idea that “women LeRoy Cragwell more than improved should have the right to Diana Korzenik health he was seeking in do the same work as men Richard Nylander Faial,” said Abdo. “Con- and receive the same pay Stephen D. Pratt sidering that he wanted to for doing it,” Abdo found Marilyn Richardson know everything that was in his research. Marc Shell going on back in Cam- Sam Longfellow’s Brooklyn residence Abdo also speaks of Charles Sullivan bridge, what really interested him most?” Sam’s interest in science. As a child in Port- Lowell A. Warren Jr. Abdo’s biography will focus on Sam’s land, he attended lectures on the latest Administrator wide range of interests, with religion front advances. With some friends at Harvard, he J.L. Bell and center. Sam regained his health in the formed the Octagon society where they Azores and returned to complete Harvard took turns presenting different scientific Newsletter Committee Divinity School, where most faculty fol- topics. Photography particularly fascinated Glenna Lang, Editor, Writer & Designer lowed Unitarian theology. After graduation Sam. He and his roommate, Edward Everett James M. Shea in 1846, he substituted in a number of Uni- Hale, experimented with the calotype nega- tarian pulpits before accepting a permanent tive, the first practical method of produc- opq pastorate in Fall River, Massachusetts, ing prints on paper from a camera exposure. National Park Service where he was ordained. He left there in 1852 Unfortunately for researchers, Sam kept Myra Harrison, Superintendent to travel to Europe to recover his strength. little of his incoming correspondence, per- James M. Shea, Museum Manager Reverend Longfellow’s other two per- haps because he moved and traveled fre- Nancy Jones, Education and Visitor Services manent pastorates were in Brooklyn, New quently and never owned a home. Only some Paul Blandford, Museum Educator York, and Germantown, Pennsylvania. “I of the letters he wrote to his family came Anita Israel, Archives Specialist had the pleasure of visiting both these back to the House after his death. In a letter David Daly, Collections Manager churches, although they’ve been re-located dated June 29, 1882, Sam told Reverend A.M. Lauren Malcolm, Museum Technician in new buildings since the time Samuel Haskell that he had destroyed twenty-five to C. Sue Rigney, Planning & Communications preached there,” said Abdo. “The former thirty of his diaries (as opposed to his jour- Liza Stearns, Education Specialist had published a book on the history of nals), in which he had recorded his intimate Ed Bacigalupo, Chief of Maintenance Scott Fletcher, Facility Manager Unitarian churches in Brooklyn and men- feelings. Only one remains in the archives. tioned Sam. They had a painting of him, as Printed by Newprint Offset, Waltham, Mass. did the Germantown church.” A combination of health problems and Samuel Longfellow to Henry W. the dissatisfaction of congregation members Longfellow, October 20, 1861: 1234 who disagreed with Sam’s ideas pushed him “[I] can be reconciled to the [Civil] war All images are from the Longfellow National Historic to leave Brooklyn in 1860. Sam was opposed only if it shall bring an end to the nation’s Site collections, unless noted otherwise. to slavery, as was his whole family. “His wrongdoing & Freedom & Clear assur- strong feelings on the abolition of slavery ance of freedom to the Slave.” got him in trouble in Brooklyn because of a sermon in which he supported John Brown - 2 Interview with a Friend…Meet Margaret Welch, NPS Archivist Margaret Welch has worked since 2001 Probably our longest and biggest client has ally live at the mill, where my brother now for the National Park Service as an archivist been Longfellow. lives. It’s been a family home since 1820.