By Jeremy Dibbell

The MHS, including the library, will be closed from 24 December through 3 January; we’ll reopen on Monday, 4 January at 9 a.m.

If you need a Historical Society fix over the holidays, C-SPAN2’s “Book TV” will be airing the launch of Woody Holton’s Abigail Adams, taped here at MHS on 9 November. The first showtime is set for Saturday, 26 December at 7 p.m., with a rebroadcast on Monday, 28 December at 5 a.m. You can find scheduling and other information here (and following the broadcast you will probably be able to watch the show online there, too).

From all of us at MHS, happy holidays, and we hope to see you in 2010!

By Jeremy Dibbell

You may think you’re busy with an endless stream of holiday events and festivities, but if you’ve been following along with John Quincy Adams’ time as the American minister in Russia you’ll know we’ve got it much easier than he did!

As he wrote in his long diary synopsis for the month of November, JQA found the social schedule quite grueling: “We rise seldom earlier than 9. in the morning, often note before ten. Breakfast. Visitors to receive, or visits to make untill three, soon after which the night comes on. At 4 we dine, and pass the Evening either abroad untill very late, or at our lodgings with company untill ten or eleven o’clock. The night parties abroad seldom break up untill 4 or 5 in the morning. It is a life of such irregularity and dissipation, as I cannot, & will not, continue to lead.”

And yet, for the first few weeks of December, he and his family are quite busy with social engagements: dining out or entertaining company almost every day, a ball on 7 December, a “children’s bal masqué” at the French Ambassador’s residence a week later, and then another ball on 17 December (this one something of a surprise to Mr. Adams). In his long diary entry for the day, he writes: “At 5 we went with the Ladies and dined at Mr. P Severin’s – We had been invited only to a dinner, but found it was a Ball. There were about fifty persons at the dinner, which was very splendid, and double the number in the Evening. … We attempted in the course of the Evening to slip away unperceived, but without success. About 2 in the morning we had an elegant supper; after which the Ball, began again. About four in the morning, we finally with much difficulty obtained leave to come home.”

Mr. Adams lamented the next day “I have done nothing for several days,” and on the 19th “sent an excuse” to yet another party (which his family attended, arriving home around 4 a.m.). On the 24th Adams was “obliged” to attend the Empress Mother’s ball. He describes the ball as “splendid”, the supper “magnificent”, and the Empress Mother as “very gracious.” The party broke up with the departure of the imperial family, “around two.” Then the family had a few days of rest, but on the 30th JQA was back at it, out until 1 a.m. playing cards with Mr. Krehmer “and four other gentlemen.”

JQA closes December with this terse summary: “Little different from last month, and no better.” And things wouldn’t get much better in January, either – his line-a-day diary entries (stay tuned for these on Twitter next month) reveal quite a few more late nights for Mr. Adams.

By Jeremy Dibbell

Continuing our series of posts highlighting John Quincy Adams’ reading, now during his residence in St. Petersburg as American minister. Remember that you can follow along with JQA’s trip via his line-a-day entries on Twitter. For previous reading lists, see the August, September and October posts.

Following his arrival in Russia, JQA doesn’t mention his daily reading as often in his line-a-day diary, but occasionally he comments on it in his long diary entries for November and December (start reading his November long entries here). For much of the time during these first months in Russia, however, he is kept quite busy with the pressing needs of finding suitable housing and the social pressures of his post:

11/2/1809: In his long diary entry, JQA reports “Mr. Harris called again and passed a couple of hours with us in the Evening. He sent me also a Russian and French Dictionary and Grammar, from which I began the attempt to learn the characters of the Russian Alphabet. 

11/29/1809: In his long diary entry, JQA writes that he “read a little of General Pfuhl’s pamphlet, and wrote very little.” This is presumbly Russian general von Pfuhl’s Fragmente über die Kriegskunst nach Gesichtspunkten der militäischen Philosophie ([St. Petersburg, Lesznowski, 1809]).

11/30/1809: “Wrote little; and read only part of my German pamphlet.”

In his synopsis for the month of November, JQA records “We rise seldom earlier than 9. in the morning, often note before ten. Breakfast. Visitors to receive, or visits to make untill three, soon after which the night comes on. At 4 we dine, and pass the Evening either abroad untill very late, or at our lodgings with company untill ten or eleven o’clock. The night parties abroad seldom break up untill 4 or 5 in the morning. It is a life of such irregularity and dissipation, as I cannot, & will not, continue to lead.”

12/3/1809: In his long diary entry, JQA notes “I read this day two sermons of Massillon – the Samaritan woman and on alms giving. Both of them excellent. The pretences for neglecting a religious life, and for not distributing charity are victoriously refuted; and the vices of luxurious wealth are chastised with just severity.” See entry for 8/6.

12/10/1809: Two Sermons of Massillon; on Infidelity and Slander. See entry for 8/6.

12/19/1809: In his long diary entry, JQA records that he “sent an excuse” to a ball at the de Bray’s, and “pass’d part of the night in reading and writing.”

12/21/1809: Storch’s Picture of St. Petersburg. This is Heinrich Freidrich von Storch, The Picture of Petersburg (London: Longman and Rees, 1801). Available via Google Books here. In his long diary entry, JQA notes that he finished the book today.

I’ll continue to update this post through December with additional notes on reading as JQA provides them.