Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 16: Part One

by Miriam Liebman, Adams Papers

The newest Adams Papers publication is here! Adams Family Correspondence, volume 16, follows the Adams family from the end of 1804 through the middle of 1809 as John and Abigail Adams spent time at Peacefield and guided their growing family through challenges, big and small. Several of the volume’s main themes will be explored over the course of three blog posts, including family, the Miranda Expedition and its repercussions, and the deteriorating politics between the United States and Great Britain.

Part One: The Adams Family at Home

At the center of volume 16 of Adams Family Correspondence is the growing Adams family at their home, Peacefield. The 236 letters in this volume highlight the bustle of almost every family member crossing paths with John and Abigail, including some of the first letters to their older grandchildren. Settled into their retirement, Abigail oversaw the household, cared for grandchildren, and even looked at houses to rent in Cambridge for John Quincy and his family, while John took care of his farm and educated the grandchildren. Daughter Nabby and all three of her children briefly lived at Peacefield to escape her husband William Stephens Smith’s financial and political troubles before they moved to a new homestead in upstate New York. John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams spent Senate recesses in Boston, and briefly moved to the area during John Quincy’s short tenure as a professor at Harvard. They also welcomed son Charles Francis Adams. Thomas Boylston Adams tried the family business of politics but settled instead into his career as a lawyer. He lived at Peacefield with his new wife Ann Harrod Adams, where two daughters were born to the youngest Adams couple.

Handwritten document that reads: "Abigail Smith Adams born July 29th 1806–was carried to meeting and christened by Mr Whitney when she was five weeks old. The day she was eight months old her first tooth came through–she spoke several words distinctly at eleven months and walked alone when she was a year and a fortnight old. She was inoculated for the Kine Pox when she was sixteen months old by Dr. Waterhouse. the sixth day she began to look pale and heavy–and for the three succeeding days her fever continued to increase her arms were very sore but no eruption appeared on any part of her body.”
Ann Harrod Adams retained a journal recording her children’s growth, illnesses, and milestones.
Family Record, by Ann Harrod Adams, 1806–1825. Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Even with all their family events, Abigail and John remained apprised of and involved with political happenings. Abigail questioned John Quincy’s Senate votes and his attendance at a Democratic-Republican caucus writing that it was “inconsistant both with Your principles, and your judgment, to have countananced such a meeting by Your presence.” John began to write about his political life for the newspaper Boston Patriot in the endeavor to pursue “Truth and Justice” in shaping his legacy. From their home, they worried as domestic scandals and international tensions challenged the new nation.

The Adams Papers editorial project at the Massachusetts Historical Society gratefully acknowledges support for this volume from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Packard Humanities Institute.

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Clara E. Currier’s Diary, July 1925

by Hannah Elder, Associate Reference Librarian for Rights & Reproductions

Today we return to the transcription of Clara E. Currier’s 1925 diary. Currier was a working-class woman who lived in or near Haverhill, MA. Her diary records her daily activities—from fiber arts to paid employment to observations of the natural world—providing insight into daily life a century ago. You can find entries for January, February, March, April, May, and June in past blog posts.

July is another hot month, punctuated with occasional rain showers. Haverhill plays host to two national figures: President Calvin Coolidge and the rigid airship USS Shenandoah. The community also suffers a loss in the passing of Berenice (or Bernice) Marsh, a little over a month after she had given birth to a baby boy in June. Clara attends her funeral, noting it was “very sad.” Alongside this sadness, the rhythms of the summer continue, with an abundance of berries, parties to attend, and a trip to the coastal communities of southern Maine.

July 1, Wed. Fair, and hot, cooked.

July 2, Thurs. $19 Fair, Blanche came over.

July 3, Fri. Fair, went up home, saw the [dirigible] Shenandoah.

USS Shenandoah flies over the Boston Customs House tower in a black and white photograph.
MHS Photo. 10.20 USS Shenandoah above Boston Customs House, ca 1925

July 4, Sat. Dull with showers, picked peas, strawberries and washed, started an English Broadcloth dress. Bernice Greeley has a baby boy.

July 5, Sun. Fair and hot, rained early, picked strawberries, came home.

July 6, Mon. Fair with showers, sewed.

July 7, Tues. Fair and showers, went to Salisbury Beach after meeting at Grange.

July 8, Wed. Fair, sewed and cooked, Blanche sick with diptheria. [sic]

July 9, Thurs $17.10 Fair, went up town.

July 10, Fri. Fair, went up to Etta’s, picked cherries and blueberries.

July 11, Sat. Fair, Pres. Coolidge was in town guest of Mr. Bauer at Pond Hills, went to Haverhill to see Mr. + Mrs. P.

July 12, Sun. Fair, went to church + S.S, read.

July 13, Mon. Fair, went up town.

July 14, Tues. Fair, finished my dress.

July 15, Wed. Fair, cleaned my kitchen. Shower a.m early

July 16, Thurs. [$]19 shower a.m early  Fair, cleaned out funnel. Went up town.

July 17, Fri. Fair, swept and dusted.

July 18, Sat. Fair, went to Haverhill and over home went blueberrying and picked 7 or 8 qts. Canned 8 ½ pts.

July 19, Sun. Fair, picked a few raspberries and blueberries, shampooed my hair.

July 20, Mon. Fair, went up town, cooked.

July 21, Tues. Showers and partly clear, William brought me peas and blueberries. Berenice Marsh died at 11 P.M.

July 22, Wed. Fair with shower at night.

July 23, Thurs. [$]18.62 Fair, went up town.

July 24, Fri. Fair, went up to Berenice’s funeral, very sad, had Rebekah service, called on Mrs. Pickering and Mrs. Quimby, came back and went over to see Sizzie, Grace and her husband.

July 25, Sat. Fair, went to Porpoise Beach, Beachwood, Me with Corner Class guests of Mrs. Willis Cummings had a fine time, went by auto by the way of Portsmouth, York Beach, Ogunquit, ^Wells, Kennebunkport and Cape Porpoise. 31 in all in the party. Crosses the new Memorial bridge between Me. + MH.

July 26, Sun Fair, wrote letters, went down to see Cody and they took me up to Uncle Will’s and home again.

July 27, Mon. Rainy, thunder shower A.M, cooked.

July 28, Tues Dull and cleared, went up home blueberrying with Mr. Dennis, Sizzie went, shower.

July 29, Wed. Fair, came down with Mr. Dennis. out of work the rest of the week.

July 30, Thurs. [$]15.58 Fair, washed and ironed, went up town, Sizzie and I went up home with Mr. Dennis. Went to lawn party up to Alice Marden’s.

July 31, Fri. Fair, went blueberrying, picked around a half bushel. July 31, Fri. Fair, went blueberrying, picked around a half bushel.

If you are interested in viewing the diary in person in our library or have other questions about the collection, please visit the library or contact a member of the library staff.

*Please note that this diary transcription is a rough-and-ready version, not an authoritative transcript. Researchers wishing to use the diary in the course of their own work should verify the version found here with the manuscript original.

This line-a-day blog series is inspired by and in honor of MHS reference librarian Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook (1981–2023), whose entertaining and enlightening line-a-day blog series ran from 2015 to 2019. Her generous, humane, and creative approach to both history and librarianship continues to influence the work of the MHS library.

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Lucius Cary’s Summer Reading List

by Betsy Klima, MHS-NEH Long-Term Research Fellow, Spring 2025

I’ve spent the last few months in residence at the MHS as a long-term research fellow. I’m working on a book on author Susanna Rowson and the story of her novel Charlotte Temple. Charlotte Temple tells the story of an English teenager who falls in love with a British soldier. They sail to New York, where he marries another woman and leaves the pregnant, unmarried Charlotte to a tragic death. My book, Guilty Pleasure: The Story of America’s First Romance Novel, explores Charlotte Temple’s unique popularity with American readers—and shows how it paved the way for today’s romance novels.

Charlotte got good reviews when it was first published in London in 1791. After it debuted in Philadelphia in 1794, Charlotte became a sensation. America’s first best seller, Charlotte Temple would remain in the public consciousness for over a century. Charlotte Temple’s name was inscribed onto an actual gravestone, given to children, and bestowed on a race horse. Her wax body captivated curious throngs. Her image circulated in pocket-sized books with tiny type.

Charlotte Temple was so popular for so long that it’s easy to find copies from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in libraries, often inscribed with their owners’ names. But I am looking for more than names. I want to understand how the novel found its early readers.

One day over lunch at MHS, a fellow researcher suggested that the Cary family papers might help me paint a picture of Boston in the 1790s and early 1800s when Susanna Rowson lived in town. So one June day, I sat in the Reading Room, a gray box full of manila folders on the table before me.

The Carys were Bostonians whose sugar plantation on the island of Grenada made them a small fortune. In 1791, patriarch Samuel Cary moved his growing family to a farm in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where they hoped to live out their days in comfort funded by the labor of enslaved people on an island far away. But slave rebellions in 1795 and 1796 destroyed their plantation. By 1797, their finances faltering, the Carys pulled their son Lucius out of school and sent him to work with his brother Sam in Philadelphia.

Handwritten letter
One of Lucius Cary’s letters to his mother, Sarah Cary

Lucius was not happy. His beautiful penmanship makes his feelings clear, even centuries later.  On January 23, 1797, Lucius wrote to his mother, Sarah Cary, “Now I call this a very lonesome life. I have not a single acquaintance…. You know I said in my last letter that I was going to the play. I did and was much pleased. I have found no circulating library yet. I have been quite wretched since I left you for want of society but I have exerted all my philosophy and have almost conquered it.”

The letter stops me in my tracks—the unmistakable voice of a 14-year-old boy negotiating an unfamiliar and challenging situation. He has been wretched and homesick, but, he reassures his mother, he has “almost conquered it.” He misses his ten younger siblings and sends his love to each of them by name.

Lucius Cary sends his love to his ten younger siblings

Lucius wrote often to his mother about everyday life in 1797 Philadelphia. On March 10, he wrote, “I have been to Rickett’s once and twice to see the Play. I have also had the pleasure of seeing General Washington, Mrs. W, and family, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw this long wished for sight.” Ricketts’ was a popular equestrian circus. Lucius saw the Washingtons at the New Theatre, where Susanna Rowson performed from 1794-1796.

I could feel myself getting closer. And then I found Charlotte.

Lucius must have joined a circulating library. On July 1, he informed his mother, “The books that I have read are principally Lives, Voyages, Magazines, Travels, Histories, Letters, and some Novels…Novels Montalbert, Charles Townley or Bastile, Charlotte or tale of Truth, and a few others.”

Lucius Cary’s reading list

Charlotte is there, part of a lonely 14-year-old boy’s reading list. Did the story of teenaged Charlotte, friendless and alone in New York resonate with Lucius? Did it keep him company? Make him laugh? Make him cry? We’ll never know. But the evidence that he read Charlotte keeps me going on my quest to understand why it resonated with so many Americans—and why it’s been forgotten.

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John Boit logbooks return to the MHS

The MHS has held a collection of ships’ logs kept by John Boit, Jr. since his descendant, John Boit Apthorp, donated them in 1919. Three volumes kept by Boit on trading voyages from 1790 to 1802, including a log of the Columbia, document voyages to the Northwest Coast to trade for fur before sailing on to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) and to China in the early years of the newly-opened China Trade. Boit served as a captain’s mate on the Columbia and other vessels before taking command of the Union.

Two volumes covering the Union’s voyage from Newport, R.I., to China via the Northwest Coast had reportedly disappeared when the collection was sent offsite to be microfilmed, probably in the 1960s or 1970s. Until now.

Rusty Farrin of Farrin’s Country Auctions in Randolph, Maine, recently contacted the MHS to report the recovery of two of Boit’s logbooks that were discovered in a storage locker. Farrin’s research revealed that the volumes had been part of the Society’s collection and he generously returned them, as he said, “back where they belong.”

open log book with handwriting across columns
John Boit logbooks

The voyage of the Union spans the two volumes and includes stops in the Falkland Islands, Nootka Sound and other locations in British Columbia, Macao, Canton, and Mauritius from August of 1794 to July of 1796. One volume also documents a voyage from Boston to Charleston, S.C., Dublin, Ireland, and back on the ship Eliza, 1793-1794, and the second includes a voyage from Newport to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies and back on the Mount Hope, 1801-1802. Both volumes include long narrative passages that describe the locations where they anchored, including encounters with indigenous people, as well as watercolor drawings of the vessels and land formations seen along the way.

We are enormously grateful to Mr. Farrin for ensuring these volumes made their way back to the MHS.

open log book with handwriting on the left page and an illustration of a ship with words "Journal From Newport to Batavia by John Boit" on right side
John Boit logbook
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Reflections of an Education Intern

By Heather Baxter, Education Intern

Over the last six months I have had the incredible opportunity of working with the Massachusetts Historical Society education department as a Northeastern University co-op student intern. In my time here I have been able to help out with National History Day, Professional Development teacher workshops, class visits, and creating digital education materials. I’ve learned so much and gained so much new experience in my time here, and will be forever grateful to the incredible people I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

The Education team puts so much hard work into organizing National History Day and making it a truly special experience for the students that participate. It was so amazing interacting with students and watching them light up as they spoke about their project topics that they had so thoroughly researched. Although I helped out with a bit of everything, during the State contest my personal responsibility was creating and running a Kahoot contest for students. Kahoot is a game-based learning platform popular in schools. I sent out a form to students in advance where they could submit Kahoot questions related to their project topics, and by the time of the contest we had received over 90 responses. I was so impressed with the thoughtful questions students had submitted and really enjoyed putting together the final Kahoot games.

four screens showing history questions with multiple choice answers
Some of the Massachusetts History Day student-submitted Kahoot questions

On contest day, I ran two Kahoot contests and was amazed as students rushed into the previously empty cafeteria in order to participate. Our second game completely filled up to capacity. It was such a special experience and the students had so much fun battling for Dunkin gift cards and Hershey kisses.

In a large
Students playing Kahoot trivia

My largest long-term project that I worked on throughout my co-op was writing an encyclopedia of abolitionists to be featured on our website. I wrote eight biographies of prominent Black abolitionists Ellen Craft, Charles Lenox Remond, John Van Surley DeGrasse, Joshua Bowen Smith, Philis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Eliza Gardner, George T. Downing, and William Wells Brown. It was so incredible getting to do in-depth research on each of these important figures and include relevant items in our collections into my biographies. It made it all the more special when I was given the opportunity to actually see and handle objects such as a first edition of Phillis Wheatley’s book of poetry or a letter written by Frederick Douglass that I had referenced in his biography. I also really enjoyed learning more about and bringing to light abolitionist figures who might be lesser known in our time but were incredibly influential in their own. I often really struggled to single out quotes to include since there were so many powerful and profound options. I really feel like I learned so much throughout this process and gained a lot of new skills as a writer that will continue to be useful as I return to taking classes at Northeastern.

book open to title page of "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral." On lefthand page is an illustration on Wheatley writing at her desk.
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley

I really couldn’t have asked for a better co-op experience with a better team of people and I will miss the MHS so much. The projects I got to work on in my time here have been an absolute dream for a History and English undergraduate student and I will absolutely be using what I’ve learned here going forward both in my academic and professional careers. Thank you for everything!

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Four Months in the Life of a Traveling Salesman

by Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist 

I’d like to tell you about a small collection at the MHS that includes a truly wild diary. It was written in 1838 by Samuel Leonard of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, as he traveled throughout the Southern United States exhibiting cotton gins to potential buyers.

Color photograph of two manuscript pages covered with writing in black ink. The pages are slightly torn and stained in a few places, and the ink is smeared in the lower right corner. There’s a bulge across the middle of the pages where they were previously folded.
Pages from the diary of Samuel Leonard, 1838

The diary is wild because of all the historical “timelines” Leonard crossed in just a four-month period. He was like a 19th-century Forrest Gump. It was fun to research and catalog because I never knew what was coming next.

The diary is 48 pages long, and the first four pages are missing, but we join Leonard on 3 February 1838 in Washington, D.C. From there, he traveled to multiple Southern states, including South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Here’s the highlight reel:

  • In D.C., he met John Pennington, who had “a moddle and drawing of a machine for flying he is a droll kind of a man but verry good humoured he has to Bear ridicule from all quarters he proposes to give lectures to the citizens of Washington on the possibility of flying by steam power.”
  • He also met Anne Newport Royall, “an editores[s] of a news paper she is a woman that is about looking into every boddys business the Congress men seem to be afraid of her for she finds out all or sufficient of their prank to hold a power over them.”
  • On 24 February, Congressman Jonathan Cilley of Maine was killed in a duel with Congressman William Graves of Kentucky at the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds in Maryland. Leonard wrote, “I saw the carriage that brought in the corps[e], but I had no inclination to see the body.”
  • At a hotel in Charleston one night, Leonard “was awoke by the cry of Murder in the yard.” The cause of the commotion was none other than Junius Brutus Booth, the father of John Wilkes Booth. “Being crazy by liquor,” he had attacked fellow tragedian Tom Flynn with an andiron. Leonard editorialized, “This is what I call a real tradgady.”
  • In Florida, he traveled through the thick of the Second Seminole War, writing about a recent alleged attack on white settlers “six or seven miles from this place.” From old newspapers, I learned he was probably referring to the Purify family near Tallahassee.
  • He witnessed a fire that destroyed a whole city block in downtown Mobile, Alabama.
  • His steamboat nearly capsized into the Mississippi River during “a verry severe tempest […] it was so dark I could not see my hand before me.”
  • Not long after, he was on the steamboat Tuscumbia when a fireman fell into the Cumberland River and drowned.
  • Lastly, he visited “the old General,” a.k.a. Andrew Jackson, at the Hermitage in Tennessee. Leonard found the former president “verry free and sociable but his health was not good.” It should be noted that this time, the Cherokee people were being forcibly removed from their ancestral lands as a result of the Indian Removal Act signed by Jackson eight years earlier.
Black and white illustration of a box-like machine with gears, brushes, and other components. The machine is propped up on its side, and the lid is open to reveal the inside. Text along the bottom reads: “Model of the Cotton Gin.”
Model of the cotton gin, from The Story of the Cotton Gin by Edward Craig Bates (1899)

Leonard encountered enslaved Black people nearly everywhere he went and witnessed auctions of trafficked Africans. In one instance, he carefully noted the price paid for each person. About one “heartrending” auction, he wrote, “it is hard business to separate husband and wives parents and children, brothers, and sisters.” Given that Leonard made his living selling a machine that helped to perpetuate and expand slavery, there’s no indication that he ever reckoned with his own complicity.

Samuel Leonard’s diary is fascinating for so many reasons. To dive even further into his life, the MHS holds another collection of his papers.

Posted in From Our Collections Tagged

Clara E. Currier’s Diary, June 1925

by Hannah Elder, Associate Reference Librarian for Rights & Reproductions

Welcome back to the transcription of Clara E. Currier’s 1925 diary. Currier was a working-class woman who lived in or near Haverhill, MA. Her diary records her daily activities—from fiber arts to paid employment to observations of the natural world—providing insight into daily life a century ago. You can find entries for January, February, March, April, and May in past blog posts.

June is a less eventful month than April and May, which I’m sure is a relief for Clara. She endures hot and changeable weather, recording multiple thunderstorms throughout the month. She also plays donkey (a four-player card game), goes on her usual calls, and works. She also reports on the health of those in her community and works on new hats for herself and for friends.

June 1, Mon. Fair, went uptown.

June 2, Tues. Fair, went to Grange. Showers at 3 a.m.

June 3, Wed. Fair and hot, Blanche came over.

June 4, Thurs. Fair and hot, showers at night. [$]19

June 5, Fri. Fair and hot, went to Newton Grange with Mr. + Mrs. Flanders, Mr. + Mrs. Roy Lane, had a lovely ride, hottest June 5 for 85 years.

Jue 6., Sat. 100° in shade Fair and hot, washed and pressed some dresses.

June 7, Sun. Fair, went to Haverhill to church and to Mary’s, Ivah was there. The wind came out east and it turned cold and the temperature dropped nearly 50° from the day before.

A page of a lined notebook with handwritten entries.
Clara’s diary entries for June 1-7, 1925

June 8, Mon Fair and cooler, went to class meeting, Blanche called.

June 9, Tues. Fair, went over to Blanche’s, finished Annah’s hat.

June 10, Wed. Fair, thunder shower, played donkey downstairs.

June 11, Thurs [$]19 Fair, sewed.

June 12, Fri. Fair, went to W. Newbury grange with the Flander’s, had a fine time.

June 13, Sat. Fair, no work, washed and cleaned my bedroom, went up home.

June 14, Sun. Fair with a little shower, Sizzie and I came back. Bernice March had a boy baby yesterday morning.

June 15, Mon. Fair with a shower at night.

June 16, Tues. Showers in A.M then cleared, went to Grange. Rode home with Earl Currier.

June 17, Wed. Fair with shower at night, sewed.

June 18, Thurs. [$]17.10 Fair, Showers in morning went down to see Cody, saw Uncle Will’s house and Gertie and they brought me home.

June 19, Fri. Fair, sewed.

June 20, Sat. Fair with thunder shower at night. No work, washed and cooked, went to Haverhill and got a new coat $19.50. Sewed.

June 21, Sun. Fair with a little shower at night, went to church and S.S, called on Mrs. F. Jewell and Gertie.

June 22, Mon. Fair, sewed.

June 23, Tues. Fair, went downstairs to play donkey.

June 24, Wed. Fair, trimmed my outing hat.

June 25, Thurs. [$]17.10 Rain, Sizzie and I went up to Etta’s to supper. Mr. Jackson see us home.

June 26, Fri. Fair, went up town.

June 27, Sat. Fair, worked all the forenoon, went up town in evening.

June 28, Sun. Fain, wrote letters and called on Aunt Abbie.

June 29, Mon. Shower early, then cleared and shower at night.

June 30, Tues. Rained early, cleared, went up town and Mary and Charles and Mabel. Sent a card to Bernice Marsh who is very sick.

If you are interested in viewing the diary in person in our library or have other questions about the collection, please visit the library or contact a member of the library staff.

*Please note that this diary transcription is a rough-and-ready version, not an authoritative transcript. Researchers wishing to use the diary in the course of their own work should verify the version found here with the manuscript original.

This line-a-day blog series is inspired by and in honor of MHS reference librarian Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook (1981–2023), whose entertaining and enlightening line-a-day blog series ran from 2015 to 2019. Her generous, humane, and creative approach to both history and librarianship continues to influence the work of the MHS library.

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Announcing the 2025-2026 MHS Research Fellows

by Cassandra Cloutier, Assistant Director of Research

The Research Department is pleased to announce the 2025-2026 cohort of research fellows. Each year, the Massachusetts Historical Society provides financial support for scholars utilizing our unique collections on American history to produce original scholarship.  

The MHS typically offers various short-term fellowships as well as NEH-funded long-term fellowships each award season. Short-term fellowships support four to eight weeks of research while long-term fellowships require a minimum of four months in residence at the MHS. Unfortunately, after the selection of this year’s long-term fellows, the NEH funding for this fellowship program was terminated. Although four scholars were selected for long-term fellowships, the awards will not be distributed.

This year’s awarded projects span the sixteenth century to the present and investigate topics such as the history of commodities, borderlands, and various religious traditions. Others reexamine women in the transcendentalist movement, colonial-era witch trials, and, of course, the American Revolution. Congratulations to the fellows selected to receive this year’s awards! We look forward to welcoming these scholars to the MHS and learning more about the following projects in the coming year.

MHS-NEH Long Term Fellows

  1. Nicole Breault, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at El Paso, “Set the Watch: Policing and Governance in Early America”

  2. Alexander Clayton, Assistant Professor, University of Vermont, “The Living Animal: Menageries and the Nature of Empire”

  3. Leland Jasperse, Humanities Teaching Fellow, The University of Chicago, “Theories and Practices of Intimate Friendship in the 19th-Century New England Literary Scene”

  4. Jonathan Schroeder, Lecturer, Rhode Island School of Design, “Harriet and John Jacobs: Their Worlds and the Worlds They Made”

New England Regional Fellowship Consortium (NERFC)

NERFC Fellows Visiting the MHS

  1. Andrew Abrams, Ph.D. Candidate, College of William & Mary, “Days and Hours: Labor, Technology, and Temporality in Early America”

  2. Robert Colby, Assistant Professor, University of Mississippi, “William and Sarah Jackson’s Civil War”

  3. Amy Finstein, Associate Professor, College of the Holy Cross, “In the Center Yet on the Side: Elisabeth May Herlihy and the Mechanics of American City Planning, 1910-1950”

  4. Ella Hadacek, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Notre Dame, “Going to Rome: British and American Women’s Conversion to Catholicism, 1840-1930”

  5. Claire Lavarreda, Ph.D. Candidate, Northeastern University, “Cultural Transformation in the Process of Text Production: Indigenous Catholicism in New France and New Spain, 1521-1701”

  6. William Morgan, Ph.D. Candidate, Indiana University Bloomington, “A Long Revolution: Emancipation, Black Politics, and Radical Memory in New England”

  7. Tristan New, Ph.D. Candidate, Boston University, “The People, the Courts, and the Contested Revolution in Massachusetts, 1772-88”

  8. Ariel Silver, Assistant Professor, Southern Virginia University, “The Conversationalists”

  9. Evelyn Sterne, Associate Professor, University of Rhode Island, “Faith in Crisis: Religion in Boston During the Great Depression”

  10. Rachel Walker, Associate Professor, University of Hartford, “Free Radicals: Fringe Thinkers and the Fight for Liberty in Nineteenth-Century America”

  11. Tingfeng Yan, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Chicago, Colonial Society Fellow, “Administration and the Making of the Constitutional Order in Founding-era America”

  12. Yuan Yi, Assistant Professor, Concordia University, “Yellow Cotton: Nankeen, Biodiversity, and Material Culture in the Early Transpacific World”

  13. Carolyn Zola, Postdoctoral Fellow, Library Company of Philadelphia, “Public Women: Urban Provisioners and the Rise of American Capitalism”

Fellows Not Visiting the MHS

  1. Anne Bardaglio, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Maine Orono, “Island Time: Cultural Production of Sense of Place in the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy, 1850-1920”

  2. Jacqueline Beatty, Associate Professor, York College of Pennsylvania, “Engendering Orientalism in the Empire of Liberty”

  3. Emily Bingham, Visiting Honors Faculty Fellow, Bellarmine University, “Study Abroad: Youth, Power, Learning, Love”

  4. Kathryn Gindlesparger, Associate Professor, Thomas Jefferson University, “Old Money: The Language of Philanthropy and the Foundation of American Higher Education”

  5. Genevieve Kane, Ph.D. Candidate, Boston University, “Climate Resilient: An Environmental History of Boston’s Waterfront and its Architecture since the Nineteenth Century”

  6. Brian Knoth, Associate Professor, Rhode Island College, “A Creative Research-based Exploration of the Original Songs and Poetry Written on New England Whaling Ships”

  7. Cecilia Márquez, Assistant Professor, Duke University, “Latinos on the Fringe: Latinos and the Right since World War II”

  8. Erica McAvoy, Graduate Student, University of New Hampshire, “’For the Use of Said Parish:’ Black New Englanders, the Congregational Church, and the Intersection of Opportunity and Oppression in the 18th Century”

  9. Arrannè Rispoli, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Los Angeles, “Murder and the Mundane: Capital Punishment and the Architecture of Black Criminality in Early New England”

  10. Christine Sears, Associate Professor, University of Alabama in Huntsville, “Mariners and Labor in the Early American Republic”

  11. MaryKate Smolenski, Ph.D. Candidate, Boston University, “The Loyalist Legacy: Memory and Material Culture of New England Loyalists, 1776 – 1976”

  12. Gretchen Starr-LeBeau, Professor, Principia College, “Between the Law of Divine Love and the Law of the State: The Global Growth of Christian Science to 1950”

  13. Alicia Svenson, Ph.D. Candidate, Northeastern University, “Turning Craft into Technology: Standardization within the U.S. Stone and Brick Industries, 1880-1940”

  14. Peter Twohig, Professor, Saint Mary’s University, “Women’s Activism and the ‘Third Wave’ of Occupational Health, 1970-1985”

  15. Claire Urbanski, Independent Scholar, “Settler State Spiritual Violence and the Human Sciences: from the Anatomy Acts to the Army Medical Museum”

  16. Karen Weingarten, Professor, Queens College, CUNY, “The Birth of the Radical Abortion Rights Movement: A Collective Biography of an Activist, a Journalist, a Doctor, and a Lawyer”

Suzanne and Caleb Loring Fellowship on the Civil War, Its Origins, and Consequences

  1. Robert Colby, Assistant Professor, University of Mississippi, “William and Sarah Jackson’s Civil War”

Short-Term Fellowships

  1. Kathryn Angelica, Visiting Assistant Professor, Purdue University Fort Wayne, “Community Strongholds: Creating, Maintaining, and Defending African American Institutions for the Vulnerable in the United States” (African American Studies Fellowship)

  2. Vincent Calvagno, Undergraduate Student, Adelphi University Honors College, “Aquatic Appropriation: Water and Property in Colonial New England” (W. B. H. Dowse Fellowship)

  3. Kate Culkin, Professor, CUNY–Bronx Community College and Graduate Center, “’One Cannot Do Everything for One’s Self:’ Pragmatic Collaboration and Artistry in the Career of Sarah Freeman Clarke” (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship)

  4. Julie Dobrow, Lecturer, Tufts University, “Mrs. Emerson’s House” (Ruth R. Miller Fellowship)

  5. Xiaoyu Gao, Ph.D. Candidate, The University of Chicago, “Empire of Copper: British and American Global Trade, Chilean Copper, and the Transformation of the Chinese Monetary System (1800-1862)” (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship)

  6. Simon Gilhooley, Associate Professor, Bard College, “The Declaration of Independence as Constitutional Authority in the Long Nineteenth Century” (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship)

  7. Sara Gregg, Associate Professor, Indiana University-Bloomington, “Parallel Lives:  The Making of a Marriage” (Louis Leonard Tucker Alumni Fellowship)

  8. Sarah Gronningsater, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania, “Rejecting the 1778 Massachusetts Constitution: Local Democracy, Race, and the Possible in the Revolutionary Era” (Benjamin F. Stevens Fellowship)

  9. Morgan Hardy, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, “Changes in the Sea: How Nature Shaped Sustainability in the Early American Cod Fisheries” (Mary B. Wright Environmental History Fellowship)

  10. Matthew Karp, Associate Professor, Princeton University, “Millions of Abolitionists: The Republican Party and the Political War against Slavery” (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship)

  11. Chloe Kauffman, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Maryland, College Park, “’If women are curious, women like also to speak’: Unmarried Women, Sexual Knowledge, and Female Mentorship in the Eighteenth-Century Anglo-Atlantic” (Alyson R. Miller Fellowship)

  12. Bianca Laliberté, Ph.D. Candidate, Université du Québec à Montréal, “The American ‘Indian’ in the Eye of the American Revolution: A Critical Inquiry into the American Fabrication of Art History” (Andrew Oliver Fellowship)

  13. Jonathan Lande, Assistant Professor, Purdue University, “The Civil War Battles of Frederick Douglass and His Soldier Sons” (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship)

  14. Lucia McMahon, Professor, William Paterson University, “’All learning and culture is centered in them’:  An Early History of Women and Yoga in America” (C. Conrad & Elizabeth H. Wright Fellowship)

  15. M. Michelle Morris, Associate Professor, University of Missouri – Columbia, “The Devil Comes to Hartford: The Hartford Witchcraft Trials of the 1660s” (W. B. H. Dowse Fellowship)

  16. John Morton, Visiting Assistant Professor, Saint Joseph’s University, “Networks of Faith: Missionaries, Priests, and the Building of the US-Canadian Border” (C. Conrad & Elizabeth Wright Fellowship – Declined)

  17. John Nelson, Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University, “A Renegades’ History of the Revolutionary Borderlands: Contesting Race and Nation in the Early American West” (Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati Fellowship)

  18. Robert O’Sullivan, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Notre Dame, “Revolutionary Nationalism, European Imperialism and Anti-Slavery: Irish-American Global Consciousness in the Era of Emancipation, 1840-1865” (Malcolm and Mildred Freiberg Fellowship)

  19. Steven Pitt, Associate Professor, St. Bonaventure University, “Bloodwood: The Rise of American Capitalism” (Samuel Victor Constant Fellowship from the Society of Colonial Wars in Massachusetts)

  20. Arrannè Rispoli, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Los Angeles, “Murder and the Mundane: Capital Punishment and the Architecture of Black Criminality in Early New England” (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship)

  21. Sophie Rizzieri, Graduate Student, The University of Notre Dame, “Americans Abroad: Bridging Worlds of Law in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic” (Kenneth & Carol Hills Fellowship)

  22. Sarah Rodriguez, Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, “Constitutional Revolutions: The US and Mexico in the Age of Civil Wars, 1855-1870” (Elizabeth Woodman Wright Fellowship)

  23. Andrew Schocket, Professor, Bowling Green State University, “Several Degrees of Persons: How the First Census Made the Nation” (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship)

  24. Michael Schoeppner, Associate Professor, University of Maine-Farmington, “Living Illegally: Free Black Migrants, Border Controls, and Belonging in the Early United States” (Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship)

  25. Madelaine Setiawan, Graduate Student, Texas A&M University, “Our Friends, the Enemies: How Southern Unionist Women were Remembered or Forgotten” (Military Historical Society of Massachusetts Fellowship)

  26. Amy Sopcak-Joseph, Associate Professor, Wilkes University, “’From the Fair, To the Brave’: Gender and the Bunker Hill Monument” (Louis Leonard Tucker Alumni Fellowship)

  27. Ella Starkman-Hynes, Graduate Student, Yale University, “A Different Kind of Mirror: Examining the Role of Alternate History in Civil War Memory” (Louis Leonard Tucker Alumni Fellowship)

  28. R.B. Tiven, Ph.D. Candidate, CUNY Graduate Center, “One Person, One Vote: the Politics of the Nineteenth Amendment” (Abigail Bowen Wright Fellowship)

  29. Rachel Wiedman, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, “Stern and Aggressive, as Befitted the Times: Masculinity, Statesmanship, and the Transformation of Northern Political Culture in the Civil War Era” (Marc Friedlaender Fellowship)

  30. Claire Wolnisty, Associate Professor, Austin College, “‘Commanded by a Woman’: Women and the Nineteenth-Century International Trade in Enslaved People” (Louis Leonard Tucker Alumni Fellowship)

  31. Joseph Wrobleski, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Maine, “Wabanaki Legalities:  Indigenous Sovereignty, Property, and Jurisprudence on the Maritime Peninsula, 1700-Present” (Samuel Victor Constant Fellowship from the Society of Colonial Wars in Massachusetts)
Posted in MHS News, Research fellow Tagged

Exploring “The Mysteries of Udolpho”

By Jolivette Shevitz, Library Resident

I was first introduced to author Ann Radcliffe through rare book collector Rebecca Romney’s book Jane Austen’s Bookshelf. Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) pioneered the genre of Gothic Romance and her books awed and influenced both Rebecca Romney and Jane Austen. In the Massachusetts Historical Society’s catalog, ABIGAIL, I discovered that the MHS owns a 1795 Massachusetts printing of The Mysteries of Udolpho, Radcliffe’s most famous novel, which was originally published in England in 1794. I decided to read the three-volume set and experience the book just as someone would have in the 1790s when the book was originally published.

Three books with apparently leather spines in a stack.
The three volumes of The Mysteries of Udolpho

The MHS copy of The Mysteries of Udolpho was printed by Samuel Etheridge in Boston.  A large number of contributors helped publish this book in a process known as combination. Combination publishing was very common at this time, as it allowed for groups of publishers to publish multi-volume, highly sought books together. This ensured that they all paid the same for the novel and protected against the potential loss of funding when printing a large number of books. The publishers for this copy are J. White, W. Spotswood, Thomas & Andrews, D. West, E. Larkin, W. P. Blake, J. West, and J. W. Folsom. In the very back of the first volume the name Johnson is inscribed, who may have been the original owner of this book. The MHS came into possession of the book in 1935 by an exchange with the American Antiquarian Society.  The MHS also has a copy on microfilm and when I first came upon the book, it was unclear if it was the same printing. After a look at both, I determined that they were published in different years and places, with the physical book being an earlier edition by about 10 years.

Handwritten note on page that reads "Exchange, A.A.S., 9/5/1935"
Note from the exchange with the American Antiquarian Society

The Mysteries of Udolpho is a three-volume book, detailing the adventures of a girl named Emily whose evil uncle whisks her away to Castle Udolpho deep in the mountains. I won’t spoil the suspense of the book for anyone else who wishes to explore it, but every day I’ve read some of the novel it has stayed with me after I left the MHS. I’ve enjoyed imagining what it would have been like to read the novel when it originally was published, as well as discovering how this book became part of the MHS’s collection. I would greatly recommend The Mysteries of Udolpho to anyone, and if you find yourself wanting to do as I did, come visit the MHS library to read this early printing of the famous novel.

Title page that begins "The Mysteries of Udolpho, Romance; Interspersed with some pieces of Poetry"
Title page of volume one

This find would not have been possible without Reference Librarian Hannah Elder, who recommended Rebecca Romney’s book Jane Austen’s Bookshelf to me and then aided me in my research to learn more.

Posted in From Our Collections

Now Available: Records of Boston’s First Baptist Church

by Susan Martin, Senior Processing Archivist

I’m happy to announce that the records of the First Baptist Church of Boston are open for research at the MHS. This fascinating collection consists of about 47 linear feet (over 15 shelves) of records dating all the way back to the founding of the church in 1665!

The First Baptist Church of Boston is one of the oldest Baptist churches in the country. Back in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts, forming a new church “without the approbation of the Magistrates & the said churches” of the colony was illegal. So was Baptist doctrine specifically: anyone known to “openly Condemn or oppose the Baptizing of Infants” could be banished. In establishing their church, the founders of First Baptist were breaking the law, and early congregants were fined, imprisoned, threatened with exile, and otherwise persecuted.

The church started in Charlestown; moved to the North End, downtown Boston, and the South End; and since 1882 has been located in the Back Bay at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street, about a 20-minute walk from the MHS.

Black and white photograph of a stone church with a large steeple surrounded by trees. Text along the bottom reads: “Copyright 1915 E.P. Wells.”
First Baptist Church of Boston, 1915, from the frontispiece of its 250th anniversary booklet (Vol. 151)

Between 1941 and 2019, the First Baptist records were held on deposit at Andover Newton Theological School. (Records on deposit are stored and cared for by an archival repository, but the donor retains ownership.) In 2019, the church deposited the collection at the MHS, but processing was held up by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent backlog.

In one sense, this collection was different than most collections I process because it was already arranged and described. I made some changes and encoded the collection guide for the MHS website, but could mostly work with what I had. The records include minute books, account books, reports, receipts, committee records, pew deeds, pew accounts, correspondence, congregational records, records of the Sunday School and other church groups, marriage record books, and printed material.

To introduce you to the collection, I’d like to showcase the oldest record book in the collection, a vellum-bound volume of meeting minutes dating back to the first meeting of the church on 28 March 1665.

Color photograph of a two pages of a tall, narrow manuscript volume. Text is written in dark brown ink and begins with a short paragraph followed by a list of names. The outside edge of the page is severely deteriorated, stained, and torn, and some of the text is missing.
First page of First Baptist Church of Boston minute book (Vol. 1), 28 March 1665

Although the volume has obviously seen better days, it’s striking to think about what exactly is documented here, the importance of this moment in the religious history of Massachusetts. The people listed on this page, “Gathered togather And Entered into fellowship & Communion each with other, Ingaigeing to walke togather in all the appointments of there Lord & Master,” were taking a real risk to practice their faith.

Another page in the same volume, dated 2 June 1776, refers to the “dispersed Condition” of the congregation and the “melancholy Situation […] occasioned by the Commencement of Hostilities by the British Troops, on the ever memorable 19. of April 1775.”

Close-up color photograph of one page of a manuscript volume. Text is written in dark brown ink and begins with the heading “1776, Lords Day, June 6.” The paper is yellow and stained.
Detail of First Baptist Church of Boston minute book (Vol. 1), 2 June 1776

Unfortunately, many of the over 300 volumes in the First Baptist collection are fragile and/or covered in “red rot”—a sticky, rust-colored residue that comes from decaying leather bindings—so they must be handled with care. Conservation will be ongoing, but we wanted to make this collection available to the public in the meantime. Our expert librarians can assist any interested researchers in the MHS Reading Room.

Posted in From Our Collections Tagged ,