This Week @ MHS

By Dan Hinchen

It is a short and fairly quiet week here at the MHS with just a couple of items on tap.

Please note that the Society is closed on Monday, 26 May, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 27 May.

On Wednesday, 28 May, join us for a Brown Bag talk titled “Circulating Counterfeits: Making Money and Its Meaning in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic,” presented by Katherine Smoak of Johns Hopkins University. Counterfeiting was a ubiquitous problem in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic, encouraged by the unstandardized and various nature of eighteenth-century currency. Counterfeiters formed regional and trans-Atlantic networks to produce and circulate debased and forged coin, both British and foreign, and faked reproductions of newly available paper notes.  Reconstructing these networks, I argue that counterfeiters shaped imperial economies in unexpected ways, impacting everything from daily economic practices to the course of economic development, and prompted complex discussions about value, worth and trust in an expanding commercial empire. This talk begins at noon and is free and open to the public.

Come back to the Society on Wednesday evening, 28 May, for “The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942,” an author talk presented by Nigel Hamilton. Based on years of archival research and interviews with the last surviving aides and Roosevelt family members, Nigel Hamilton offers a definitive account of FDR’s masterful—and under-appreciated—command of the Allied war effort. Hamilton takes readers inside FDR’s White House Oval Study—his personal command center—and into the meetings where he battled with Churchill about strategy and tactics and overrode the near mutinies of his own generals and secretary of war. Nigel Hamilton is a bestselling and award-winning biographer of President John F. Kennedy, General Bernard “Monty” Montgomery, and President Bill Clinton, among other subjects. He is a Senior Fellow in the McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts-Boston, and first president of the Biographers International Organization (BIO). There is a pre-talk reception beginning at 5:30PM with the talk starting at 6:00PM. Registration is required for this event at a cost of $10 (no fee for Fellows and Members). Click here to register online, or call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560.

Finally, on Saturday, 31 May, stop by for a tour of the Society’s public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

 

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Travel Woes in 1814: JQA and Zandelin’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure

By Nancy Heywood, Collection Services

Do you remember some of the people you’ve met while traveling?  Maybe your flight got delayed (a real possibility these days!) or you had a long layover during one stage of your trip and you struck up a conversation with someone in a waiting room.  Years later will you remember anything about them or your conversation?

Thanks to John Quincy Adams’ (JQA’s) diary entries from May 1814, a man named Zandelin comes vibrantly to life. This is a man JQA met while traveling between Reval, Russia (present-day Tallinn, Estonia) and Sweden.  JQA had previously been serving as minister plenipotentiary to Russia and living in St. Petersburg, but in early 1814 he was appointed head of a commission to negotiate an Anglo-American peace treaty (and end the War of 1812). JQA was told the negotiations would take place in Gothenburg (although later he learned that the location was changed to Ghent, Belgium), but as of the spring of 1814 his destination was Sweden.

By May 1814, JQA had reached Reval, a port on the Gulf of Finland, and he arranged passage across the Baltic Sea on the ship Ulysses.  Mr. Zandelin, a Swedish merchant, was another passenger on the vessel.  Although Zandelin could be seen as an unimportant figure in history, his presence on the same ship as JQA and on the pages of JQA’s diaries, means that we have a more detailed and colorful picture of an 11-day stretch within JQA’s much longer journey to the site of the peace negotiations.

When JQA made arrangements with Captain Brinkmann (of the Ulysses) on May 3, he was told that the ship would leave a few days later.  However, several factors including tricky sailing conditions (unfavorable winds and the fact that there was still a significant amount of ice in the harbor) delayed the departure of the ship.  It wasn’t until the evening of May 15 that JQA was asked to board the ship.

When JQA arrived on board the Ulysses he found Mr. Zandelin surrounded by about a dozen men wishing him (Zandelin) farewell.  These men departed the Ulysses via the same boat that shuttled JQA from shore out to the ship. 

I immediately finished the packing of my Clothes, books and Papers, and came on board the Vessel– The Ulysses, Captain Brinkman– It was between 9 and 10 in the Evening. Mr Ross with ten or twelve other Gentlemen were on board; to take leave of Mr Sandolin, a Swedish Merchant, who freights the Vessel, and is also going in her as a Passenger– They returned on shore in the Boat, in which I had come on Board–

Despite favorable winds at 4 AM on the morning of May 16, 1814, the ship couldn’t depart because the officer of the guard ship didn’t arrive with the vessel’s pass and JQA’s passport until around 8:00 AM. The interactions with the guard took some time, and by the middle of the day, when the ship was cleared for departure, the winds had died down.  A light breeze started in the evening, and despite the captain’s apprehension regarding the “floating masses of ice” he did attempt to set sail partly in response to the urgings of JQA and Mr. Zandelin. However, the unfavorable winds and ice prompted the captain to turn the ship around early on the following morning (May 17) and return to Reval.

Once the ship, crew and passengers were back where they started from—Reval’s harbor—a couple of Mr. Zandelin’s friends returned to the ship to visit with him, “In the afternoon, two Gentlemen of Mr Zandelin’s friends came on board, and spent an hour with him–“.

The temperatures were so cold that JQA had trouble holding his pen.  However he continued to write diary entries every day of his journey, and they indicate that he spent a great deal of time reading.  He was travelling with many books including a multi-volume memoir of the Duke of Sully entitled Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune: Duke of Sully, Prime Minister to Henry the Great.  Each published volume was divided into numerous “books,” and when he boarded the Ulysses JQA was reading book 12, and by the time he departed the ship he was reading book 30.

JQA’s diary notes that the wind conditions on the morning of May 18, 1814 were favorable, but the ship remained in the harbor.  The captain had gone onshore for the day and didn’t return until the evening.  Then on May 19 the ship couldn’t depart because the winds were once again unfavorable.  JQA didn’t mention the level of his own frustration, but he wrote about Mr. Zandelin’s dwindling patience:

After a Night totally calm, there was again a light breeze this Morning. West by North– It was impossible to move. The breeze continued freshening all day long; and by 5 in the afternoon, the time of the New-Moon, had risen to a brisk Gale. It blew hard, the whole Evening; with some Rain. My fellow passenger Zandelin, for fear of losing his good humour, took to his bed, and slept, the greatest part of the day– 

Despite Zandelin’s preemptive measures not to lose his good humor, it was all gone by May 20.  JQA’s brief words clearly describes the situation:

At 6 this Morning the Wind was at North-North-East; and Mr Zandelin was in a flame to get immediately under weigh– The Captain was reluctant, and fearful; because none of the other vessels laying in the harbour shewed any signals of sailing– 

Captain Brinkman overcame his reluctance, and the Ulysses did indeed set sail (again) on May 20.  Difficult wind conditions and “ice islands” prevented it from making significant progress during the next two days (May 21-22, 1814), but the vessel did slowly move along the shore of Finland.  On May 23 Mr. Zandelin had reached his limit, but was thrilled to find more favorable traveling conditions the next day.  Zandelin’s low and high are both described by JQA: 

The Night was nearly calm. My fellow passenger Zandelin had exhausted his Patience, and told me last Evening that if the wind continued as it was it would kill him– About 5 this Morning he came down from deck, in an extasy of joy, and said, Sir, I do not know whether I dare to tell you…We have the fairest wind in the world–just this moment sprung up– I answered that he needed not to have told me: for I had seen it in his face, the moment he opened the cabin door– This wind continued fair, the whole day; a light breeze, and scarcely a cloud to be seen–

The Ulysses reached Sweden on the following morning (May 25, 1814) and by the end of the day had navigated through the tricky channels and anchored in the harbor of Stockholm.  During this final part of their journey on the Ulysses, Mr. Zandelin gave JQA information about why some of the channels were almost impassable.  This is the last time JQA mentioned Zandelin in his diary.  In the evening, JQA disembarked and found lodging at the English Tavern.

JQA’s diaries contain a lot of information, but the diaries don’t (and can’t) include everything.  Although it would be interesting to know how frustrated JQA was with the slow pace of the journey from Reval to Sweden, we don’t know.  Although it would be interesting to know if JQA was bemused or irked by Mr. Zandelin, we don’t know. We don’t really know what JQA’s and Mr. Zandelin’s interactions were like during the long voyage, although it is tempting to picture every interaction as a stark juxtaposition of a gregarious and emotive fellow with a composed and non-flappable man.

However, we do get to see references to Mr. Zandelin on the pages of JQA’s diaries, written by JQA in his steady and readable handwriting.  Thanks to JQA, we do have glimpses of Mr. Zandelin from 200 years ago.

 

The quotes above are from pages 104-107 of John Quincy Adams diary 29, 1813-1816, from the Adams Family Papers.  These pages, as well as all of JQA’s diaries (51 volumes comprised of more than 14,000 pages), are available online at the Massachusetts Historical Society’s website.

 

MHS has been tweeting JQA‘s line-a-day diary entries 200 years after the day he describes.

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Coming Soon to MHS: Four New Teacher Fellows!

By Kathleen Barker, Education Department

As we all know, teachers look forward to summer vacation just as much (if not more!) than most students. Each year the Society helps teachers relax and recharge their batteries through our workshop offerings and fellowship opportunities. The Society has awarded more than sixty-five fellowships to K-12 teachers over the past fourteen years, and this summer we will welcome four more very talented educators to the MHS. Our fellows are a diverse lot, coming from public and private schools across Massachusetts and the United States. Over the years they have explored topics such as eighteenth-century medicine, John Brown’s abolitionist network, Massachusetts and the Anti-Imperialist League, and Massachusetts women in World War I. This summer’s fellows have chosen equally intriguing topics, and we look forward to learning more about how they will use MHS collections related to these subjects in their classroom. 

    • Kass Fellow Sara Belk is the Lead Enrichment Teacher and Drama Specialist at the Park Street School in Boston. She will explore different periods in American history, including King Philip’s War and John Eliot and the Praying Indians, as well as the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. She will ultimately write a series of history plays for classroom use based on her research at MHS.

    • Swensrud Fellow Kelly Benestad teaches U.S. and World History at St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. She will investigate the rise of the American party (also known as the Know-Nothing Party) in Massachusetts, considering both the local and the national social and political conditions that led to the Party’s popularity in the antebellum era.

    • Swensrud Fellow Emmitt Glynn, III, teaches history to high school students at the Port Hudson Career Academy in Zachary, Louisiana. He will examine resources related to the Civil War, in particular letters and diaries that reveal the war experience in the South. Many Massachusetts soldiers served in Louisiana and participated in the 1863 Battle of Port Hudson!

    • Swensrud Fellow Michelle Hubenschmidt teaches at Mulberry High School in Polk County, Florida. She will analyze ten to twelve significant land and sea battles from the War of 1812. Her students will then make connections between propaganda from this era and the emerging sense of nationalism that occurred during and after the war.

Although each teacher creates a different type of project based on his or her needs, our teacher fellows ultimately help to make interesting materials from the Society’s collection available to teachers and students who could not necessarily visit the Library themselves. In their own classrooms, schools, school districts and beyond, our teacher fellows are wonderful ambassadors for the MHS. If you would like to become part of this esteemed group of educators, visit our education page to learn more about how the fellowship program works, or contact the education department for more information. 

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This Week @ MHS

By Dan Hinchen

It is a shortened and quiet week here at the Society. It is also your last opportunity to view our current exhibition “Tell It with Pride: The Massachusetts 54th Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial,”  which officially closes on Friday, 23 May. Come in to see it any day this week, Monday-Friday, 10:00AM-4:00PM before it closes for good!

Here is what else is on tap in the penultimate week of May. 

On Wednesday, 21 May, join us at noon for a Brown Bag talk given by Bryan Rosenblithe of Columbia University. His talk, “Securing the Spanish Main: British Subjecthood and the Peace of 1763” examines the ways that political, economic, and military contests in the Floridas and Honduras during the era of the Seven Years War shaped imperial notuions of British Subjecthood. It also explores how questions related to who counted as a subject influenced British strategic thinking during a time of widely perceived Bourbon revanchism. This talk is free and open to the public. 

And on Friday, 23 May, is another lunch time talk, this time presented by HdG, Dna. Maria St. Catherine McConnell. Bring your lunch and join us as we celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the 1924 U.S. Foreign Service Act (“The Rogers Act”), which created the US Foreign Service. We will explore the role of Massachusetts statesmen and diplomats in establishing the U.S. Foreign Service and in pioneering America’s diplomatic history and tradition. “Celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the U.S. Foreign Service” begins at noon and is free and open to the public. 

Finally please note that the Society is closed Saturday-Monday, 24-26 May, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal hours resume on Tuesday, 27 May. Enjoy the holiday weekend!

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Symbiosis at the Society: Fellows and Librarians Learn Together

By Dan Hinchen

A few weeks ago the Beehive featured an item about the 2014-2015 Fellowship recipients and their research projects for the coming year. This great opportunity for scholars to come and do funded research also is an opportunity for the MHS librarians to expose ourselves to subjects and collections that we otherwise do not interact with.

Each year, the reference librarians here look at the projects to be undertaken by the incoming research fellows and divide them up so that we can serve as individual liaisons for the various fellows. We choose which fellows to liaise with based on our own interest and background knowledge of the projects. This benefits the fellows by providing a specific person to contact if they have trouble navigating our collections or just need someone to bounce ideas off.  

Over the next year, I will be liaising with at least eleven different fellows to help them utilize the resources here at the MHS. The projects cover a wide range of subjects, including alcohol production, throat epidemics, Revolutionary War campaigns, antislavery texts, and religious reform. They also cover a long span of time, from the earliest days of the English colonies to the dawn of the Civil War.

This presents two challenges for me: to help fellows access materials they already identified using our catalog and to help them discover additional material in our collection that they missed. Perhaps I am familiar with a collection that they did not find in their search; maybe I can show them resources that are not available via our online catalog; in some cases, I can suggest another institution whose collections complement the Society’s.

Again, this exchange benefits both the fellows and the MHS staff. I know already from reading through some project descriptions that I will be exposed to topics that are completely new to me or that the fellow is looking at in a new way. And with some relevant materials already identified by the research fellow, I will learn more about the collections we have here. As I scour our catalog to find more resources for the fellow, I learn more about our holdings and about strategically searching our collections, information that will certainly come in useful down the road.

Back in January I wrote a piece for the Beehive about using the Researcher as Resource. Working with our research fellows each year is another way for our librarians to expand their knowledge and to learn even more about the collections here at the MHS. 

 

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This Week @ MHS

By Dan Hinchen

Kicking off this week on Monday, 12 May, is a Brown Bag talk from short-term research fellow Katie Booth, University of Pittsburgh. Alexander Graham Bell believed that his most important contribution was not the telephone, but his work to liberate the deaf by destroying their community. He came to Boston in 1871 to teach deaf children through oralism, a method that forbade the use of Sign Language and instead taught deaf children to speak. He quickly became an international leader of the oralist movement, but for the deaf who believed he was robbing them of their language, he became the culture’s greatest enemy. “The Performance of Miracles: Alexander Graham Bell’s Mission to Save the Deaf” begins at noon and is free and open to the public. 

After a couple quiet days, on Thursday, 15 May, is a special talk given by Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and the first woman to serve in that role. In her talk, titled “An Historical Look at the Goodridge Same Sex Marriage Decision,” Chief Justice Marshall will talk about the landmark decision reached in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which stated that it was unconstitutional to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry. As a result of the ruling same-sex marriage in Massachusetts began on 17 May 2004. A pre-talk reception begins at 5:30PM followed by the program which begins at 6:00PM. Registration is required and there is a $10 fee (no charge for Fellows and Members).  Click here to register online, or call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560.

Then, on Friday, 16 May, there is another Brown Bag talk at 12:00PM. “Louisa Catherine Adams: One Woman, Many Voices,” is a panel discussion about what we can learn about Louisa by listening to her different voices that emerged in letters, diaries, poetry, and memoirs. The panelists Judith Graham and Margaret Hogan are editors who have prepared Louisa’s work for publication, and David Michelmore is a biographer who has used it. The discussion will be moderated by Beth Luey. This event is free and open to the public.

On Saturday, 17 May, is the MHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS. This 90-minute docent-led tour explores the public spaces of the Society’s home at 1154 Boylston Street and touches on the art, architecture, history, and collections of the MHS. The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Finally, a reminder that time is running out to view our current exhbition, “Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial” which officially ends on Friday, 23 May. The exhibit is free and open to the public Monday-Saturday, 10:00AM-4:00PM.

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Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch Diary, Post 32

By Elaine Heavey, Reader Service

The following excerpt is from the diary of Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch.

Monday, May 9th, 1864

The great campaign has begun; & according to recent news, with a victory which promises still better success. God grant it!

Wednesday, May 18th 1864

The last two weeks have been ‘prodigal of blood.’ We have apparent advantage, but not decisive. Today there was a wicked hoax, a pretended proclamation of the President, ordering a fast, & calling for 400,000 more men.

 

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Love Birds: Ducks, Doves, and Darlings

By Elaine Grublin

Each month I have the pleasure of delving into our rich Civil War era collections seeking just one document to showcase in our “Massachusetts Finds Her Voice” web feature.  It is one of my great pleasures, sitting in the reading room working through page after page of correspondence and diaries, written exactly 150 years ago, that capture the essence of how people from Massachusetts experienced the war.  Each time I sit down I hope to find a document that represents the particular aspect of the war experience I hope to highlight in a coming month. 

Typically, I limit myself to searching the collections of persons from Massachusetts, as the scope of the project only allows for featuring documents authored by men and women from Massachusetts. But earlier this spring, I found myself reading the Lafayette S. Foster Papers. Foster was a lifelong resident of Connecticut. He represented that state in the US Senate from 1855-1867. I turned to this collection hoping Foster may have received letters from members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation. I dreamed of finding something referencing the ongoing debate surrounding the 13th Amendment. I struck out along that line, but a letter Foster had written to his wife grabbed my attention.

I knew that this letter could not be used in the Civil War feature, but as my eyes fell on the final line of the first page, where Foster states “you are a bird, and a duck, and a dove, and a darling,” I simply could not resist reading the letter in its entirety. 

Writing to his “dearest Wife” from the Senate Chamber on Tuesday, 31 May 1864, Foster opens the letter with the lament:

I generally fail to get any letter from you on Tuesday morning – it sometimes reaches me on Tuesday night – It shows me how great is the loss – for it so falls out, that what we have we prize not to the worth, while we enjoy it – but being lost, why then we rack the value – You are a bird, and a duck, and a dove, and a darling, and when your letters fail to come I find how much I lose.

The letter continues on to discuss the progress on a tax bill (slow), the progress of the war (unpredictable), and the prospects for the Republican nominating convention in Baltimore the following month (Lincoln all the way!). 

Being a true reference librarian, I simply had to see what I could discover about the woman who inspired such Audubonian comparison.  Referred to as both Mittie and Mattie in Foster’s letters, Martha Lyman was Foster’s second wife.  His first wife, Joanna, died in 1859 after 22 years of marriage.  Foster and Lyman wed in October 1860, and made their home in Norwich, Connecticut. But it thrilled me to learn that there was a genuine Massachusetts connection in the letters.  Martha Lyman – the bird, duck, and dove, of Foster’s musings – had been born in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1823.  Perhaps I shall go back to the Foster collection and examine Martha’s letters, to determine if any of those missives, written by a Massachusetts native, make a likely candidate to be featured in Massachusetts Finds Her Voice in a future month.   

 

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This Week @ MHS

By Dan Hinchen

It is time once again to run through the events on tap for the week ahead. With five days of programs coming there are plenty of reasons to stop by the Society and get a dose of history. Before we jump into the events, though, please note that the library of the MHS closes early at 2:30PM on Wednesday, 7 May, in preparation for the evening’s event. 

First up on Tuesday, 6 May, is an Early American History seminar presented lead by Hari Vishwanadha of Santa Monica College. “Through Novanglus’s Eyes: Forms of Empire in India” looks at how Yankee merchants in the India trade successfully negotiated the competing claims of Indian society and the British Raj. As the empire flourished, the merchants prospered. The experiences of two prominent men, Henry Lee and Charles Eliot Norton, are representative of the rich and complex relationship among the tree peoples and their cultures and served as a template for subsequent merchants engaged in the India trade during the nineteenth century. Eliga H. Gould of the University of New Hampshire will provide comment for this seminar that begins at 5:15PM. Be sure to RSVP for this program by emailing seminars@masshist.org or phoning 617-646-0568.

Next, on Wednesday, 7 May, swing by at noon for a Brown Bag talk with short-term research fellow Chris Florio of Princeton University. In the mid-nineteenth century, American and British observers struggled to distinguish the poor from the slave. Tracing a key shift in the moral imagination, this dissertation explores how the boundaries of poverty and slavery blurred during the so-called “age of emancipation.” Florio asks the question: how did poverty and slavery, as political categories and social conditions, entangle with one another in locations spanning the United States and the British Empire? “The Poor Always with You: Poverty in an Age of Emancipation, 1833-1879” is free and open to the public and begins at 12:00PM. 

On Wednesday evening there is a special Member Event, the John F. Kennedy Medal Presentation. The John F. Kennedy medal is awarded by the Massachusetts Historical Society to persons who have rendered distinguished service to the cause of history. It is not limited to any field of history or to any particular kind of service to history. MHS Fellows and Members are invited to attend this presentation of the Kennedy Medal to David McCullough. Reception begins at 5:30PM, presentation of the medal and remarks by Mr. McCullough begins at 6:00PM. This event is sold out. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please call 617-646-0552.

Join us on Thursday evening, 8 May, for the public program “The Adams Portraits & Other Treats: 18th-Century Artist Benjamin Blyth.” Blyth, the Salem artist of the Society’s iconic portraits of John and Abigail Adams, also left a large, delightful number of other portraits of local families, merchants, and participants in the American Revolution. His brother Samuel, a jack-of-all-trades in the construction and home-decorating businesses, was far more successful. But because of Benjamin’s flight from Salem to Virginia in 1782, he and his brother seemed to swap careers, and therein lies the tale. This talk is presented by retired museum professional, Bettina A. Norton and begins at 6:00PM with a pre-talk reception at 5:30PM. Registration required at no cost. Click here to register online, or call the MHS reservations line at 617-646-0560.

“Classroom Currents: Childhood Education Reforms in Nineteenth-Century Boston and Buenos Aires” is a project which traces the origins and evolution of nineteenth-century public educational theories and their significance to nation-building processes within the Americas. Focusing on the Atlantic seaboard cities of Boston in the United States and Buenos Aires in Argentina as case studies, it analyzes how educational ideas traveled and were reshaped by local conditions. The similarities in the nature and scope – and ultimately, the differences in the implementation – of educational policies in each city supports a larger analysis on the transformation of politics and the shaping of distinct national identities in the nineteenth-century Americas. This free program is presented by Carolina Zumaglini of Florida International University and takes place Friday, 9 May, at noon.

And finally, on Saturday, 10 May, there is not one but two tours taking place. The History and Collections of the MHS is a 90-minute docent-led tour of the public spaces in the Society’s building at 1154 Boylston Street. The tour touches on the art, architecture, collections, and history of the MHS and is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org. Tour begins at 10:00AM.

Also on Saturday is “Created Equal: Walking Tour of Boston Black Heritage Trail.” This tour is offered in conjunction with the Created Equal Film & Discussion Series and is presented by our partner organization, Boston African American National Historic Site. The tour is scheduled to begin at 10:00AM and last for approximately two hours. For more information, please calle 617-646-0557 or e-mail education@masshist.org. 

Posted in This Week @MHS

“A disposition to do my duty”: Three Generations of Ministers to Great Britain

By Amanda A. Mathews, Adams Papers

Charles Francis Adams recorded Tuesday, April 30, 1861 as a “soft, springlike day” in Boston in his diary. Nevertheless, as serene as the weather may have been, the political world was far less so. Not yet had three full weeks gone by since the Battle at Fort Sumter—the opening salvos of what would be a long and painfully bloody Civil War. The turbulent present and still unknown future did not solely occupy his thoughts on this day however. Rather, it was to the past that he looked. He could not help but be acutely aware of the knowledge that he was following in the footsteps of both his father, John Quincy Adams in 1815, and grandfather, John Adams in 1785; as he prepared to embark as the third generation of his family to serve as the United States Minister to Great Britain.

As he was to depart Boston the next day, Charles went to take his leave from the Governor of Massachusetts, John Albion Andrew, who surprised him by making a speech before the state’s public officials. Charles recorded the meeting in his Diary:

Soon after ten o’clock Governor Andrew was announced but instead of coming as I supposed with only his immediate Aids and Secretary, there filed in all the heads of bureaus of the Commonwealth…. The Governor rose and made me an address, alluding to the peculiar position which I occupied, to the departure of John Adams eighty four years ago, to the responsibility of my present mission, and closing with the expression of the entire confidence of the State in whose name he spoke as well as his own in my capacity and fidelity in the performance of my duty. For such a speech I was entirely unprepared and yet I saw that a reply was demanded…. I expressed my thanks for this most distinguished honor, my regard for him as the head of the Commonwealth not less than as a man, alluded to the painful circumstance in which I should leave the Country, but took consolation from the fact that as my father and grandfather had both of them left in moments of the greatest national distress, so I might like them return to the hour of restoration of its prosperity.

Nearly 44 years before, a ten-year-old Charles had crossed the Atlantic travelling home with his parents and siblings at the conclusion of his father’s mission to England—now he would be returning to that country with his own wife and children and a very different mission. For his father and grandfather, the threat to the survival of the United States had come from across that ocean; now, the threat lay at home. But like the generations before him, he would ably perform his duty as his country’s minister and would return home in 1868 to a booming and prosperous but still deeply scarred nation.

Posted in From Our Collections