The Library's 50th Year

NUMBE R 103, DEC EMBER. 1973

On October II examples of our illustrated Amer­ican shee t music were fram ed and hung in th eUn iversi ty Art M use um. T he opening was a ga laaffair honor ing M r. and Mrs. Bly Corning ofFlin t, donors of our rem arka ble collection of19th cen tury American sheet music. N an cy R .Davison , who had prepared the descripti veprinted guide, poin ted out the highlights of theexh ibition. Fran ces Scott pl ayed some of th e n urn­bers on a pian o, a nd refreshmen ts were offered.Guests included mem bers of th e Friends of theArt 1\fu seum as well as Associates. T h e printedguide. one of our bulle tins, has been mailed toa ll Associates. It a lso served us a vehicle for an­nouncing th e existence of this collection of n ewsource material for American socia l history. T heexhi bition continued through most of November.

Meanwhile, a t the Librar y it self a display ofexa mples of some ear ly American newspaperswas arranged for the ann ual mee ting of theMichigan Press Clu b and journalism students.The oldes t item was a copy of T he Boston N euis­L ett er in 1717, which contrasted in size and scopewi th T he Na tional Anti-Slavery Standard of1841. It was arra nged by Cura tor DouglasMarshall.

In middle Decem ber the Librar y opened a newexh ibition commemora ting the 200th ann iversaryof th e Boston T ea Party of December 16, 1773.T he ma n uscript. prin ted. and ill ustra tive docu­me nts we have on this curta in ra iser of theRevol ution are im pressive. T hey are described inan acco mpanying bulletin, prepared by ArleneKleeb, assistan t curator of ma n uscripts, whichnarrates the incidents leading lip to the dumping

of the tea in Boston harbor an d th e political con­seq uen ces. The bulletin will be mailed to all~ssoci ates about the time th is issue goes out. ItIS Our first publication in the Bicentennial seriesof publica tions the Library will issue. The exhi­bi tion will remain on view for three months.

uartoThe

-T E D Q UARTERLY FOR THE CLEME NTS LI BRARY ASSOCIATE S

Three Exh ibit ions

FOR. ~~E FIRST time the Library opened aneXlllbItlOll of its ma terial in another building.

rd of Govern ors

T H E ASSOCIATES' BOARD of Governors met onI L T hey heard with regret of the death of

IS. Will iam L. Cleme n ts a t Ba y City on Sept. 5,at age ninety-two. She lef t to the Libra ry ab \"ori te pictu re of Mr. CJeme n ts'- the captureof Major' John Andre in 1780 as rendered by anineteen th-cen tury ar tist. Al ways in terested inthe Lib rary, Mrs. Cleme nts had been a regu larvisitor until rece n t years.

The effor ts of the women 's committee under~lrs. Ph ilip Wernette were app lauded . As a resultof several morning coffee hours held a t theLibrary la te last spring, 21 new members hadbeen obtained for the Associates.

Robert P. Br iggs ·was re-elected chairma n .J ohn Dykema of Detroi t asked not to be re­appoin ted to the Board, and h is request washonored, along wit h th an ks exten ded for hispast services. Two Associa tes were recommendedto the Regen ts for appointment to the Board :Mrs. Noyes L. Avery, Jr., of Grand Rap ids, andMr. Roy M. Tolleson, Jr., of Detroi t. Bot h havebeen familiar with the Li brary for years.

T he Board was deeply di sappointed that thebook on 1\1r. Clements as a collec tor , promised inS.epte mber: had not yet arrived from th e pub­Iisher. It IS n ow due in December.

fn a healthy financial position, the Boardproceeded to examine various items assembledby the secretary for possi ble purchase. At th e con­c!usion of their discussion , they agreed to buySIX books, one ma p, and one manuscript lett erof Gen. Natha nael Greene, for a total of $7,9 15.T hese sign ificant additions to the Library aredescri oed in other col umns of this issue.

THE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATESof T he Un iversi ty of Mi chi gan

B OARD O F G OVERNORS

(Ap poin ted b y the R egents of the Univers ity)

HO~ORARY GOVER NOR

J ames Shearer II . Chicago

Mrs . Noy es L. Avery. jr., Grand R apidsCarl W . Bonbright, FlintEdward W . Bowen. Bay CityRobert P . Briggs, Elk R apids, CHAIRM AN

C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr. , Bloomfield H illsBly Corning. FlintThomas N . Cross, A nn A rborWilliam C. Finkenstaed t, DetroitHarlan H. Hatcher, Ann A rborDavid W . Kendall. DetroitJames M. Klancnik, Chicago.Iames S. Schoff. New YorkRoy M. Tolleson. Jr.• DetroitMrs. David F. Upton. St . JosephLee D. van Antwerp, North brook, Il l.Howard II . Peckham. Director of the

Library, SECRETARY

---- James Sh earer II - - - ­THE BOARD OF GOVERNOR S, at its Oct. 11 meeting,heard a request from James Shearer II ofChicago not to be renominated . He had suf­fered a minor stroke and had removed to Cali ­fornia to be nearer his only relat ives. The Boardunanimously refused to consider jim's requestand instead by accl ima tion voted to name himthe Board's first Honorary Governor, thus testi­fying to their affection and respect for thi s lon g­time benefactor of the Library and on e of thefounders of the Associates. He heard of thishonor with some pleasure. and the masthead ofthis issue carries that distinction for the first­and last time. J im died on October 29, two weeksshor t of hi s 89th birthday.

James Shearer II was born in Bay City on

November 9, 1884. H e attended the Uniof M ichigan where he was a member of Psi l"Ion fraternity, and grad uated in 1908bachelor of science degree in chemical en giin g. He served in the Corps of EngineersWorld War I and worked for l\lr. CIIndustrial \Vorks . Later he went with the f.Dodge Corp. in Chicago. Although .I imat the end of 1961, he continued to live al

University Club in Chi cago and did volwork at a local hospital. He was also the trof his church. After a successful cancer 0 "--'.::.1

years ago. Jim enjoyed rem arkably goodA loyal a lum n us, he established wi th the

of a few relatives in 1952 the J ames ShMemorial Fund at this Library in honor ofgrandfather, who was on ce a Regent of the Uversity. Two years later he started anoth er ement fund in his own name, the incom e tospent mainly on early western books . From ­to time he gave special book s to the Library.1947 he had helped to organ ize the A,,· ;ocia!and served on the Board of Governors from '­onward. He also contributed eight articles toM ichigan Quarterly R eview and publishedother essays. More recently. to honor hisgrandfather. Justice Isaac Marston , a gradof our Law School, Jim set up a fund at theLibrary . In 1967 he received a Sesquiccntenmedallion from the University for his serviTwo years later he was awarded the di stin gu ialumni certificate from the College of Engining. He was. of course, a member of the Pdents Club and during the recent go lden aJllWo'versary campaign he tripl ed his endowment fundat the Clements Library.

A genia l, generous, and witty individual , Jimhad many fri ends who treasured him as muchas he valued them. He appeared in Ann Arborfor the last time at the Lihrary's 50th anniversarvdinner last May and was introduced as the oldestAssociate. His remains were cremated and in­terred in Bay City. A memorial service was sched­ul ed in Chicago.

Bruce Catton

THE BOARD OF REGENTS has appointed BruceCatton to the Library's Committee of Manage­ment. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in hi story andthe National Book Award in 1954. he is notedfor his studies of the Ci vil War. H e was al soeditor of A merican H eritage magazin e. T he Com­mittee welcomes him.

America's Most Prominent Composer

UBRARY ACQUIRED through the Associates.xable addition to our growing tune-book

'on: The Singing Master's Assistant by'-!J.aJn Billings (Boston, 1778). Billings was a

by trade, but became the most famousthe first generation of New England singing­

I masters and composers. A self-taughtician, Billings ignored his nonmusical trade

favor of his consuming musical avocation.The Singing Master's Assistant is popularly

"''0 as "Billings' Best" and is his second pub­tion. The Library also holds his first work,e New England Psalm Singe>' (Boston, 1770).

Billings' Best" is especially noteworthy for itsusion of the tune "Chester" fitted with new

rriotic words, written by Billings himself. Itme a veritable battle hymn of the Revolu­

tionary War.OUf new copy of the work is unique because

of. a number of appended pieces of music byBillings. The Bird and The l.ark are both knownto exist in only one"other copy. There is alsoAn Anthem Psalm 127 which has not been locatedin any other copy. In addition to these printeditems, there are thirteen leaves of manuscriptwhich present various tunes, mostly by Billings,in a contemporary hand.

The Windward Passage

A PRIME RESEARCH piece for study of the English.Spanish trade rivalry in · the West Indies wasincluded in purchases by the Associates. A Des­cription of the Windward Passage (London,1739) gives explicit navigational instructions,along with a chart, for sailing in the watersbetween Florida and the Bahama Islands. Thewriter emphasizes the importance of the sea pas­sage for raiding Spanish ports and trade routes,and advises that the South Sea Company be givena grant to carry out the raids. The South SeaCompany had been established in 1711 as amonopoly for English trade. Later it figured inthe notorious South Sea Bubble.

This second edition, published the same yearas the first, has a postscript not in the first, aseven-page Leiter on the Present State of theSpanish West Indies, signed only with the initialsJ. N. describing ports, ships and shipping prac­tices with first hand knowledge.

Secrets Revealed

AN UNUSUAL ITEM, The Mormon Endowment}connected with the Strangite branch of theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints wasacquired by the Associates. In 1850 .James Strangled a schismatic group from Voree, Wisconsin to

Beaver Island, Michigan which had been reovealed to him as a place of settlement. Amonghis adherents were Mar-ia and Increase McGeeVan Dusen, former members of the main churchunder Brigham Young in Nauvoo, Illinois. Fol­lowing their initiation there, they had publishedThe Mormon Endowment (Syracuse, N.Y., 1847)a detailed expose of the secret ceremony in theNauvoo Temple. It describes seven degrees takenby the participants, continues with sharp criti­cism of Brigham Young, and finally sets forththe claims of Strang for the leadership of thechurch . Our copy is one of the two known copiesof the Syracuse edition, considered to be therare first edition. The Library already ownedstrong funs of the Voree Herald, the importantStrangite newspaper, and the Book of the Lawof the Lord, "printed by Command of the Kingat the Royal Press, St. James, 18.,6."

Van Dusen, moving to New York, began topublish his own revelations as well as thousandso[ copies o[ this book, at least 22 e<litions in a\l,each more sensational than the last. Strang, besetby internal squabbles and resentful outsiders,was murdered by an apostate in 1856.

French Revolutionary War Mat)

ONE OF THE FEW French maps of the Revolu­tionary War which we do not already own wasacquired by the Clements Associates for us.

The large French map probably never enjoyeda good sale, and is something of a rarity as aresult. While the background of the map remainsa mystery, it represents the divergent types oimaps that were being published in this period­and passed off to the public as being accurate.

The cartographer is designated as J. B. Eliot,supposedly a member of the engineering corpsof the American army; but there was no officerof this name in the engineering brigade underMajor General Louis Duportail. Neither wasthere any French engineer named Eliot.

The map was published in Paris by the firmof Mondare. Although located on the Rue St.Jacques with other map sellers, this publisher isnot known for other books or maps and is not

listed in any of the standard bi bli ograph ies. Con­sidering the curious cartography of th is map , itis no t surprising that h is busin ess d id not prosper.The proj ect ion is an unusual trapezoidal patternand the en tire northern orie n ta t ion of th e mapit out of posi tion.

Chinese A rch it ecture

THE V ISITOR T ODAY to Kew Gardens in En glan dis st ruck by th e Chi nese Pagod a and other exo ticand or namen ta l features of the fam ous garde ns.The initial ba sis for all this development is foundin Plans, Elevations} Sections, an d Perspect iveViews of th e Gardens and Buildings of Kew inSurrey (London, 1763) ,

T he author. Sir W ill iam Chambers (1726­1796) had, as a young man, visited Ch ina severa ltimes wh ile in th e em ploy of th e Swed ish EastInd ia Co mpa ny. H e studied arch itectu re in Par is,and later became the official architect for thePrincess Dowager of W al es. H is severa l Chinesedesign books were th e firs t au the nt ic ones inEnglan d, much more accu rate th an the fan ci fu lChino iser ie of Ch ippenda le and others. Preced ingthe 43 vie,..-s and plans are 10 prin ted pages.

Thomas J efferson , who was keenly interestedin architecture and a designer h imse lf, ownedthis hook in an edi tion of th e same year with onlysix pages of in troductory material. This latestaddit ion to our arch itec tural boo ks is a gift ofthe Clements Lib rary Associa tes.

Daoeiss v. Jefferson

THROUGH A Gl FT from the Associates, th e Libraryhas been able to add an ex tre mely importan tp amphlet to its collect ion of over twenty ti tl eson the Burr consp iracy. J oseph Daveiss' Viewof the Presiden t's Conduct (Frankfor t. Ky., \ 807)is considered one of th e ra res t item s concern ingth e Burr case.

Daveiss, a bother-in-l aw of Chief Justi ceMarshall, was a Federalist who had heen ap­poin ted U.S. d istrict attorney of Kentucky hyPresident Adams in 1800 . \Vhen Aaron Hurl'made the first of two visit s to the wes tern countryearl y in 1806, Daveiss became suspicious th at theappea ra nce was part of an effort to revive th erumored Spanish conspi racy to separate the west­ern terri tori ties from th e res t of th e coun try. H econveyed his mi sgivings to President J effersonbut failed to arouse hi s in teres t. Then , when

Burr made a seco nd visit later that sameDa vei ss twice attem p ted and failed to """"'• .••indictment agains t him by a gra nd jury. Beth en removed from office by J efferson andqucntly wrote hi s hi ghl y partisan criti .the Presiden t, which h as been seen as anto di scred it J efferson and build up a Ffollowing in the 'Vest. In this Davciss alsoa nd hi s popular it y rapidl y dwi ndl ed intu cky, even a fter hi s susp icions of Burrto have been justifi ed .

W it chery

Tilt R EV. JOHN HALE of Salem was an intobserver of th e infamous wit chcraft trialsa t th at place in 1692 . Not only did he alltr ia ls; he actua lly test ified against some 01a lleged wit ches. When his own wife ",-as;

Bounced as a wit ch , however, he did atu rn about. In his A M odest Enq uiry intoN at ure of W itchcraft , (Boston. 1702) litviewed the h istory of the trial s and pointedthe necessity of cer ta in legal safeguards toth e ri ghts of those accused. \ Ve were pIacq uire th rough th e Associa tes this firstof what has been described as "one of theof the books relating to th e New Englandcraft delusion."

N. Greene, Creditor

Tnz POPULARITY OF a recent tongue-inexpose of George W ashington's ex pe nse aobscures the real sacrifices of public ser vice inR evolutionary era.

Nathanael Greene bears ample witness tofact in a su perb manuscr ipt letter which th ecia tes have purchased for th e Library. \\'ri .to his cousin, Governor \V illiam Greene of RhIsland in April, 1782. he notes th at " I haveccivcd no pay for four yean past !" Displayingstoicis m worthy of an American Revolutionhero, he adds that " if I have but justice ' t is aDI can claim, but I have done business enoughand gone through hardships sufficient, to en titleme to an ample for tune to smooth the down biBof life. ] sha ll leave tbe Sta te to do by me as th"!tb in k proper."

Greene provid es a graph ic summary of thedesolation of war-ravaged South Carolina andGeorgia as th e American noose tightened aroundremaining British forces at Cha rl eston andSavann ah.