Society news in Hartford and Springfield

The Connecticut Historical Society is pleased to announce the recent launch of a new resource available through its web page. They are scanned images of the pages of 52 scrapbooks kept by Mary F. Morris, the wife of an insurance executive in Hartford. Although many of these articles (ones from the Hartford Courant) are available online, here they are gathered in roughly chronological order and more importantly they were selected by a woman who was probably invited to many of the events she documented and knew many of the participants.

Selecting one image would be next to impossible, so here are a few tidbits to whet your curiosity. In volume 2, on page 3, you can find an article about the 21st birthday party given to Caldwell L. Colt my his mother, Mrs. Samuel Colt. The article reports that 1,000-1,500 invitations were sent to New York, Boston, Newport and numerous other locales. In the same volume on page 5 are two articles about Golden Wedding anniversary celebrations for Mrs. and Mrs. Samuel Hamilton and Mr. and Mrs. Julius Gilman.

The selections are eclectic. In volume 7, which covers the years 1895-1896, is a series of articles about John Armstrong Chaloner/Chalner who was declared sane by a court order, but only in the states of New York, North Carolina and Virginia. He fought for 20 years to be declared sane so he could have his share of the Astor fortune. What an incentive!

These snippets are just a small sample of the wonderfully colorful stories you will find in the pages available online. We invite you to read and enjoy these scrapbooks that document social life in Hartford and Springfield in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Changes coming

As an institution, we are examining our use of social media to make sure we are reaching the widest possible audience. In the next few months you should see some changes. The title of the blog may become “History Nut” and the style of the blog will definitely change to be more in keeping with our History Nut theme and our web page design and color scheme at www.chs.org.

We will also be more inclusive, adding posts about items in the museum collection and library in addition to manuscripts. Our collections are so diverse, we could keep blogging about old favorites and newly acquired items for years and years. You can get a glimpse of our collections by checking out our online catalog for library and manuscript materials at http://chs.kohalibrary.com and our museum collections at http://emuseum.chs.org:8080/emuseum.

The blog will continue to provide additional information about collection items and often tie them to outside events or other things in our holdings that people might not know about. An object or document is only as interesting as the story it tells, which we will strive to do.

So stay tuned for some exciting changes!

One of several remarkable log books in the manuscript collection at CHS. Ms 75734.

A Horse Guard helmet in the military costume collection at CHS.

 

George Washington’s Slave

Every once in a while I get a reference question that reinforces just how important our manuscript collections are. A woman from Vernon asked if we had the letter to Oliver Wolcott, Jr.  in which George Washington mentioned a runaway slave.  After a bit of searching, and using the finding aid to help guide me, I found it. I had no idea that this letter existed, although it has been published numerous times.

In the letter, dated 1 September [1796], Washington asked Wolcott to make some inquiries about a young slave girl who ran away from Philadelphia and was last seen in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The slave girl was the personal servant to Mrs. Washington, and he stated that they had raised her like a daughter and hence could not understand why she would want to run away. A transcription of the entire letter (3 pages) can be found in the book George Washington and Slavery: A Documentary Portrayal, available online through Google Books.

Washington wrote to his Secretary of the Treasury, Connecticut resident Oliver Wolcott, saying he was sending a description of a runaway slave girl. Ms Wolcott, Oliver Jr.

Wolcott’s letters were at one time pasted to slips of paper that were then bound into a book-like form. The strip is very visible here.

Wolcott’s papers arrived at CHS in 54 bound volumes plus several boxes of material, much of it gathered by a grandson of his, George Gibbs. On the first page of the letter illustrated above you can see a volume and item number written in the upper left corner. That mark was made when the volumes of correspondence were dis-bound, thus preserving the”original” organization.

Wolcott served as Secretary of The Treasury in 1795 and was later elected Governor of Connecticut. As I saw in once article I read about Wolcott, what the Adams family is to Massachusetts,the Wolcott family is to Connecticut. The Oliver Wolcott Jr. Papers is an extensive collection and shows just how important Connecticut was to the formation of the United States in the years just after the Revolution. Ask for the Oliver Wolcott Jr. Papers finding aid in the Research Center if you would like to begin exploring Connecticut’s early Federal period history.

Equipment for soldiers

We recently acquired the Connecticut Adjutant General’s records of clothing provided to soldiers serving in the Connecticut Volunteers during the Civil War. The Regiments are 1st Cavalry, 1st Heavy Artillery, 2nd Heavy Artillery, 7th Infantry, 8th Infantry, 10th Infantry, 11th Infantry, 15th Infantry and the 16th Infantry. Not all companies in each regiment are covered in these volumes. The records include the name of each soldier; the cost of and the date the clothing was issued; his signature or mark; notes about discharge, desertion, being taken prisoner and being mustered out; and any amount due the government at the end of the war or when the account was settled.

William Wilson 2nd, who enlisted in the 7th Infantry in Bridgeport, deserted the service, as indicated in the clothing book. Ms 101722.

Several volumes include detailed records of equipment issued to the men, such as haversacks, canteens, and rubber blankets, as seen at the end of the entry below. The men slept on the ground, and the rubber blankets were put down to keep them dry.

Only a few of the volumes we have, like this one for the 7th Infantry, provide detail about the equipment issued to soldiers. This example includes socks, shoes, shirts, pants, and a rubber blanket. Ms 101722

Our manuscript holdings on the Civil War include numerous letters and diaries from soldiers, muster rolls, and some government records. Many of our collections(those we had up to about 1990) can be seen at the Civil War Manuscript Project page on the CHS website, http://www.chs.org/finding_aides/kcwmp/index.htm.

Lace patterns from England

We recently acquired a small leather-bound book of graph paper in which William Blore of Nottingham, England, drew patterns for the lace he manufactured. In many cases he affixed a sample of the lace for reference.

William Blore proudly wrote his name inside his book of lace patterns. Ms 101711

A sample page from William Blore’s lace pattern book, showing the sample in the upper right corner. Ms 101711

In 1910, Bernard Blore (relationship still unknown) moved to America and by 1930 he was vice president of Connecticut Lace Works in Norwalk, Connecticut. Some time between 1910 and 1930, an unknown person sent the lace pattern book to Bernard from England. The book was accompanied by a note and on the verso was another pattern that the writer had critiqued. Connecticut Lace Works was formerly known as Dresden Lace Works, but in 1918 they were sold by an “alien property custodian”–German-sounding companies were associated with their country during World War I and were considered dangerous.

I find the book fascinating for several reasons. The patterns, while they make no sense to me from a technical standpoint are visually stunning. The samples may make it possible to identify Connecticut Lace Works lace on some of our costumes. And here we have a story that again illustrates our distrust of “the others.”

We have several books in our collection about lace and lace-making, but this is the first manuscript on the topic. Please ask for Ms 101711 when you come to the Research Center to take a look at this fascinating little book. And if you can make the connection between William and Bernard Blore, we would be most appreciative. It is frustrating to leave questions unanswered!

Give us back our cows!

I recently came across four letters in our catch-all “Miscellaneous Manuscripts” boxes that provided a real aha moment. The letters were written by Amos Laurence of Brookline, Massachusetts, to Abby Smith of Glastonbury, Connecticut. Abby is one of the Smith sisters whose claim to fame is that they refused to pay their town taxes because as single women they had no representation in town government. The town took their cows in lieu of payment. News of their plight evidently made it all the way to Boston. Laurence seems to be rather progressive–on January 14, 1874, he wrote:

The account of y[ou]r hardships is interesting and y[ou]r action will be highly beneficial in bringing the subject to public notice, and in leading to the correction of a great injustice. The taxation of the property of women without allowing them an representation even in Town affairs is to unfair that it seems only necessary to bring it to public view to make it odious and to bring about a change. Therefore you deserve the greater honor not only because you have suffered in agood cause, but because you have set an example that will be followed and that will lead to happy results.

A letter of support from Amos Laurence to Abby Smith for refusing to pay her taxes to the town of Glastonbury. Ms 38267

He continues with some examples:

In the town where this is written [i.e. Brookline] a widow pays into the town treasury $7830 a year, while 600 men, a number  equal to half the whole number of voters pay $1200 in all. . . . That is, each one of 600 men who have no property, who pay only a poll tax, and many of whom cannot read or write, has the power of voting away the property of town, while the female owners have no power at all.

In an earlier letter Amos wrote about excess spending by various levels of government. Yet another example of how, no matter the amount of time that has passed, nothing changes.

If you take the New York papers you will have seen recently the results of “manhood” suffrage without qualifications, in the annual addresses of the Governors of States. What a piling up of state and municipal indebtedness! Has there ever been seen in the history of governments such a reckless expenditure of money, the greatest part of w[hic]h has been borrowed.

I wonder what he would think of the current threat of the “fiscal cliff”?

In his third letter he celebrates that there was a movement in town to buy back the Smith sisters’ cows and present them to their rightful owners, which is exactly what happened. The Smith sisters are folk heroes in Glastonbury, and here at CHS we have their mother’s diary (see the earlier blog entry about Hannah Hadassah Hickock), Julia’s translation of the Bible and her diaries (Ms Smith, Julia), published books about the sisters, and a portrait of their house, which is still standing in Glastonbury.

The homestead of Abby and Julia Smith in Glastonbury, Connecticut. 1979.63.263.

“The Others”

Prejudice is a very difficult topic to discuss without someone getting his or her feelings hurt or emotions stirred. However, that is exactly one reason we recently acquired two rather disturbing (to most modern sensibilities) documents–to tell “the other” side of the story.

In 1899 Margaret L. Shepherd advertised four lectures she would give at Unity Hall in Hartford on October 5 and 6. Two of the lectures were exclusively for women. Her topic? Convent Life Exposed. The threat of the Catholic Church to America in general and Protestantism and women in particular. Her lecture titles were:

• The Priest and the Woman in the Confessional. Reasons why Protestants Should not Marry Catholics.
• Does Secret Confession to the Priest and Parochial School Education make Good American Citizens?
• The Nuns who are the Brides of Christ, and Private Life in the Nunnery
• Purgatory, Indulgences and Relics. Sacrilegious Frauds for Obtaining Money and Building up Religious Industries.

Shepherd claimed she had been a nun before leaving the order and through these lectures she sought to expose the evils of the Catholic Church. I found numerous newspaper articles claiming that she was a fraud. Two of the four pages of this advertisement are filled with testimonials to her character and veracity. She also published a book on the same subject. Who was the real Margaret L. Shepherd? Was she part of the wave of xenophobia that swept the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because “too many” foreigners (including Catholics and Eastern Europeans) were immigrating to the United States? Was she, or was she not, a fake?

Margaret L. Shepherd advertises her lectures on the evils of the Catholic Church. Broadsides Medium 1899 C733

The second document came in a frame along with a photograph of a Ku Klux Klan rally in Stamford and three pamphlets expounding the principles and beliefs of the Klan. I assume from the juxtaposition that this list of men were members of the Klan in New Haven. As a whole, the assemblage is quite frightening by today’s standards. Racism is a word thrown around a lot recently, given that we have an African-American as president, but these items and this list put names and faces on prejudice. These would be great starting points for a discussion of racism and the Civil Rights movement.

First of two pages of a “census” that presumably lists members of the Ku Klux Klan in Connecticut. Ms 10173

These provocative documents and a few more items about the Ku Klux Klan can be seen in our Research center.

Thanksgiving Festival and Family Gathering

Just when I thought the backlog of manuscripts was nearly gone, something “new” turns up. And I apologize for being one week late with this! I was quite surprised and pleased to find this document in among “Miscellaneous” documents [ask me sometime about the word miscellaneous]. The Battell family of Norfolk, Connecticut, documented their family gathering and Thanksgiving festival on December 7, 1865.

The cover of the booklet reads “Thanksgiving Festival & Family Gathering of the Battell Family — Thanksgiving Week 1865. Ms 54547.

Every family member in attendance was asked to sign his or her name. The entertainment was held at the Joseph Battell House and the pastor’s residence in Norfolk. The first order of the day was attending public worship. Ms 54547

The Battell’s celebration was part of a larger National Day of Thanksgiving for Peace after the long and hard-fought Civil War. In the Battell family tradition the meal, served at 2:00 at the minister’s house, consisted of:

The turkey presented his roasted sides to the carver at one end of the table, while in no less tempting condition though [?] boiled appearance his mate reared her drumstick heavenward at the other. Chickens that had never known a digestive pang graced the center of the board, while a brace of partridges, their “wanderings over” quietly folded their wings and brooded in [?] gravy.

There were vegetables too numerous to mention, a dish of chicken pie, followed by pies of various kinds. The dessert consisted of apples, oranges, raisins and other fruit.  The meal lasted four hours. There was a hymn and prayer, and then the family enjoyed games, plays, songs and stories. The entire event concluded on December 9, 1865.

Reading accounts like this make the past come so alive. The chronicler of this event had a very droll sense of humor which makes deciphering the crabbed handwriting well worth it. This record can be seen by coming to the Research Center and asking for Ms 54547. Searching our online catalog using Battell as an author search retrieves ten records for items we have that relate to the Battell and Battelle families.

P.S. Did you know that the Norfolk Music Festival was funded primarily by this same Battell family?

How do you want me to alphabetize this?

Elihu Geer is best known in Connecticut as a printer and publisher, in particular of various city directories. He evidently employed individuals to help extract or transcribe data and then alphabetize the names. Evidently there was a difference of opinion about how one alphabetized names when they were transcribed.

Charles W. Bradley of New Haven (former Secretary of the State for Connecticut) wrote to Geer in November 1848:

What does Col. Geer mean by the term “alphabetical order”? The law requires that the returns should be made to you in that manner; and so far as the single initial letter is concerned (and so far only), they are so made.–Now I am not certain whether, in your estimation and purpose, this simple initial-letter arrangement is sufficient. If it be, –and I see no great reason why it will not answer, — it will not take more than one-third the time which would be required for such an entire alphabetic arrangement as would be looked for in a dictionary, and as you have pursued in your “Directory.” I, however, exercised my judgement in the matter, and commenced copying returns in the same initial-letter order with the original papers, so that Crane, Clark, Curtiss, Book, Cady, Cook, Clark, Curtis, Canfield, etc. perhaps appears in the consecutive series. This is certainly inconvenient in looking for any given name in the copy; but if you have occasion to test the correctness of that copy by the original, it will then be of advantage, since they will be found to agree in locality, page for page and line for line.

How I wish we had Geer’s response. In my experience, some early town or city directories have names arranged by the initial letter only, not in what we today (and librarians especially) consider alphabetical order. The more basic question is, what was being transcribed, and for what purpose? We always seem to get more questions than answers.

 

C.W. Bradley asks printer and publisher Elihu Geer exactly what he meant by “alphabetize” in this 1848 letter. Ms 101710

Bradley also asks in the letter if there is a strict deadline for the work he is doing because he has been offered a short stint that pays more than Geer can. Ms 101710

 

If you do a search in our online catalog for Elihu Geer as an author, there are 27 items listed. These items are documents or books he either published or created himself, including letters like this one. Please visit the Research Center to learn more about Elihu Geer. You may also find more of his papers at Yale, described in the finding aid at http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=mssa:ms.1405&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes

Dear diary

At CHS we have an extensive and constantly growing collection of diaries because of the detail they provide about  daily life of ordinary people, the ones who do not usually appear in the history books. The contrasts between diaries can be striking, as it is between the two that we recently added to the collection.

While a bit sparse, the first diary illustrates the life of a woman in the upper middle class in either Danbury or New Fairfield, Connecticut. Her husband’s  name was Ralph and they had a son Billy, whom she walked to Wooster School. I found that there is a private school in Danbury by that name. There are also frequent visits to Ball’s Pond in New Fairfield, hence the question as to their actual home.

What is notable is the number of times she recorded going to New York City to see a show or two, or going to “The Club”. She also attended performances of the Empress Stock Company, which is probably a Danbury venue.  In the page illustrated below, she (no name has yet been identified with the writer) attended a show at the Palace theater and later attended “Show Boat” on Friday. On Saturday they went to see Ed Winn in “Manhattan Mary”, but not until after her shampoo, wave and manicure

A woman from Danbury attended several shows in New York City over the course of two days. She also had a shampoo, wave and manicure. Ms 101709.

Laura Dodge wrote her diary in the midst of the Great Depression when her husband evidently was not employed and earning a wage. Ms 101708.

Contrast this diary with the one kept by Laura Dodge of Woodstock, Connecticut. On Monday, March 8, 1937, her husband Leon was a bearer at the funeral of Mrs. Howard who was only 74 years old. The next day Leon was out chopping wood. Another person is reported as dying. Leon continued to chop wood on Wednesday and Thursday. I began to think, why isn’t Leon working? Well, the year was 1937 and people were out of work during what we call The Great Depression. In fact, Leon does eventually get paid in the spring and summer for working on the roads. At the end of this year, Laura remarked that several W.P.A. men had come to work on the roads as well so maybe that is how Leon was getting paid.

Diaries make those topics we read about in history, like the Great Depression, come to life by making it personal. You are invited to come to the Research Center and read any of the hundreds of diaries in our collection. They range in date from 1780 to 1980 and were written by men, women and children. What a fun way to make history come alive!

The next question is, what will the new diary look like? Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, web sites? And, more importantly, how will we preserve them?