Welcome home, Willie!

“…if I do get home alive I shall expect to see you in Hartford to see us when we land & when I come out to Manchester on the cars I shall expect to see you standing on the platform at Buckland with a little note for me with some little love message in it…”

Cpl. William L. Norton letter to Jennie E. Annis, March 25, 1863, MS 100767. Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut.

Corporal William L. “Willie” Norton, Company B, 10th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, missed his sweetheart. Jennie E. Annis was home in Buckland (Manchester), Connecticut.  Willie was fighting in the South with the Union Army. Recently CHS acquired two letters written by Willie to Jennie. The first was written in March 1863 from Island St. Helena, South Carolina,  and the second was written from Seabrook Island, South Carolina in July 1863.

In March Willie wrote about the snakes and lizards living on the island, as well as an alligator that was recently shot. He missed Jennie, and having lost her photograph, requested a new one.  As indicated by the excerpt above, Willie longed for his homecoming. Additionally, Willie reminds Jennie to send him the results of the gubernatorial election.

When Willie wrote on July 6, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg had ended three days earlier. “We have heard,” he wrote, “that [the Confederate troops] are within 15 miles of Philadelphia & that when the rebs advanced on Harrisburg the militia run without firing a gun! Shame on them.” He was obviously unaware of the entire story. He still missed Jennie, and continued to lament the loss of her photograph.

We do not know if Jennie was waiting at the Buckland platform, but Willie did return home to her. They married, and are listed on the 1880 census in Northampton, Massachusetts. When the letters returned to Connecticut last month they joined another item in the CHS collection, a history of Company B, 10th Regiment written by William L. Norton (MS 88894). Penned in 1884, the history contains extracts of letters from the Civil War years, including the two letters just acquired.

William L. Norton and Jennie E. Annis Norton are both buried at West Cemetery in Manchester, Connecticut. She died in 1885 at age 44. Willie lived until 1921, dying at age 79.

Learning from the Collections: UN Day Poster

Many times a collection will come into the archives with duplicate materials. While we would like to keep everything, that is not always possible or practical. Most of the time we will keep a couple examples of the item, and discard the remainder. To be more specific, if a collection comes in with 50 copies of the same poster, we will keep two or three. This allows us to study and learn from the piece, but also to conserve space.

Earlier this year I cataloged the records of the Greater Hartford Chapter of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (MS 86607, 2.5 linear feet).  Incorporated in 1950, the papers reflect activity until 1965.  The collection contains papers and records compiled by the UNESCO officers, including the chapter’s treasurers, secretaries, and chairmen. Other items include membership lists, UN Day program material, a variety of UN/UNESCO publications, account books, and copies of the by-laws.

Since 1948 the United Nations has celebrated UN Day each year on October 24 (you may visit the UN’s web site to learn more about this year’s activities).  Posters were printed for one of the celebrations in the early 1950s. The Greater Hartford group had many left over, and they had been kept among the records over the past 50+ years.  As I alluded above, I kept a few of the posters, and discarded the rest. I also kept one for the bulletin board in my office.

UN Day Poster

The poster is very representative of life in the United States during the 1950s. World War II had brought patriotism to a peak. The flag in front of the family was something to be proud of. The men who had gone off to protect our country, were now back at home protecting their families. It was a time when everyone was thought to be the same. Families, such as the one in the poster, were buying houses in the suburbs and consumer products to fill the houses. Sadly, this was also a time of segregation. If a poster were printed today, promoting freedom, peace, and security of the United States, it is very likely the poster would feature the ethnic diversity of our nation. Obviously, the 1950s poster did not.

Are there any school children reading this? Here is a trivia question for you. How do we know, just by looking at the poster, that it was printed before 1959? Post your answer as a comment to this blog! Need a hint? Think about where President Barack Obama grew up, and where Sarah Palin was governor.

What are you working on?

This is a question I am asked routinely by family, friends, and co-workers. Admittedly, I often struggle to come up with something more profound than, “Uh…um…you know, stuff.” I encounter great material every  day, and it is so hard to remember all of it! The larger collections are usually easier to recollect, simply because they can be discussed more broadly. Many times, though, some of the most original pieces are found in the smaller collections.

Such was the case today as I started working on the Solomon Porter papers (MS 62050, 0.25 linear foot, 1 box). Solomon Porter was born in Windsor in 1753. He later moved to Hartford where, in 1782, he married Rebecca Dodd. The earliest papers date from 1783, when Porter was working as a merchant with his father, Nathaniel Porter. I found three pieces that were different than I have seen before.

A traveler, perhaps one of the Porters, journeyed to Boston and made several stops along the way. This piece demonstrates that not only did the traveler make multiple stops along the way, but he chose to stop at different places on the way home from Boston than on the way there.

The Porters sold a variety of goods, including musical instruments. Who knew that instructions for German flutes were so popular. The list suggests they had 48 copies! Most often I read of merchants selling staples such as wheat and sugar. Not too many are selling bassoons!

My favorite for the day is a 1792 order for a backgammon table, clothes, and “print of an angel descending with a child.” The buyer wants to make sure the coat binding they receive will match their clothes, and has therefore attached five samples to the letter, with wax.  There are so many things about this piece I enjoy, and if I were teaching, I think this piece could provide young students with so many lessons. Among other things, I would love to show the wax seals and refer to it as 18th century Scotch tape.

September in the Archives

In September 2008 CHS embarked on a two year, NHPRC grant funded, project to catalog a backlog of 900 manuscripts and account books. Today, 13 months into the project, we have been able to create and add more than 600 catalog records to our online catalog.

Some of the highlights from the past month include the Morgan-Geer-Gallup papers, the Thomas Knowlton account book, New Haven Woman Suffrage Association record books, and the Gennaro Capobianco papers.

The Morgans, Geers, and Gallups were families in the Norwich and New London areas of Connecticut. There was much intermarriage, and tracing the family lines became increasingly confusing! One interesting piece is a notebook filled with dance instructions. (Ms. No. 17964)

Captain Thomas Knowlton is considered the United States’ first intelligence professional. He was the namesake for Knowlton’s Rangers, a unit which made a significant contribution to intelligence gathering during the early Revolutionary War. This account book details information about the men serving with Knowlton. One young man sent half his pay home to his mother. (Account Book collection)

There are, in my opinion, far too few woman suffrage collections available. The New Haven Woman Suffrage Association records include the group’s constitution, membership lists, meeting minutes, and press clippings. (Ms. No. 55712)

Gennaro Capobianco was a newspaper editor, funeral home director, security guard, and advocate for all things Italian.  His papers are organized into eight series: Personal Papers, Family Papers, Italian-American Societies & Organizations, Connecticut/Hartford General Organizations, Historical Documents, Italian-American Culture, “Our Roots” Project, and Research Material.  This collection was processed over the summer by one of our fabulous volunteers, Robert. Robert volunteered at CHS for a year after graduating from college and before heading to Simmons College’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. (Ms. No. 100476)

All of these collections are open to research.

Looking for something to do on Saturday October 3? Come to CHS for a Civil War reenactment!