The uartoT ED QUARTERLY FOR THE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATES NUMBER 123, JAN., 1979

r.nkee Ingenuity

Loxc BEFORE THOMAS EDISON, America wasnown for its inventors. Writers in the early

ni neteen th century emphasized "Yankee inge­nuity." No son of New England possessed thisq uali ty in larger measure than did Rufus Porter,whose first book, A Select Collection at Valuableand Curious Arts (Co ncord , N. R., 1825), we hadth e good fortune to recently acquire.

Porter was born in Massachusetts, and by agethirty had been a shoemaker, soldier, schoolteacher, musician, traveling portrait painter,teacher of dancing, and sai lor on a voyage to thePacific. He liked to tinker, to tryout methodsof making or doing things and improve uponthem . His recent biographer, Jean Lipman, de­scribes him as "a sort of natural sponge for thecurious arts of his time, which he enthusiasticallyabsorbed and then gave back to the public inready-to-use recipes ." The hook contains direc­tions for gilding, for making dyes, inks, andvarnishes, etching, engraving, and casting. Heprovides formulae for such diverse products asvanishing ink, fireworks , laughing gas, galvanicbatteries, and blow torches. Of particular interestto art historians are his directions for landscapepainting on plaster walls. A number of Porter'sown murals survive in New England farmhouses.

Porter went on to more grandiose schemes inlater life. He was the founder of Scientific Ameri­can and the nation's first strong advocate ofairships and transcontinental air travel. He triedto promote an Inventors ' Institute in the late1840's which would encourage poor inventorsand subsidize research needed to patent andproduce new products. Except for a brief flirta­tion with the Miilerites in 1843-1844, Porter wasa rationalist in religion and a pamphleteer in thefield.

For some reason, almost all of his publicationsare exceedingly scarce. 'Ve acquired this with theproceeds of the Frederick S. Upton Fund.

Retirement

AGNES POPE, secretary, receptionist , and hook­keeper at the library for twenty-four years,retired on December 15. She joined the staff inJune, 1954.

Agnes' efforts in behalf of the Clements LibraryAssociates-keeping the accounts and records,answering the phone, provid ing a warm, personalcontact with members, and encouraging potentialmembers and donors-have contributed greatlyto the organization's success.

In the past two years Agnes has undergoneoperations which have been successful, and shewishes to take advantage of her good health toenjoy personal activities severely limited by full­time employment: sewing, cooking, spendingmore time with friends and grandchildren, andperhaps traveling. She is a long-time, active mem­ber of St. Paul's Lutheran Church and a memberof its Board of Education. Her famil y's ga in isour loss, but we wish her many years of happyretirement.

Southern Imprints

THERE vVAS A ~IARKED geographical imbalance inthe printing of colonial America. Massachusetts,Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshireaccounted for well over half of pre-Revolutionaryimprints. New York and Philadelphia accountedfor a significant portion of the remainder. Exceptfor legal forms, session laws, and newpapers, thecolonial printers of New Jersey, Delaware, Mary­land, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia pro­duced relatively few of the pamphlets so commonin New England and very few books.

The disparity is reflected in acquisitions aswell. For every colonial imprint sou th of theMason and Di xon line, we acquire two hundredfrom Philadelphia, New York, New London,Newport, Boston, Nev.... buryport, and Ports­mouth. \Ve were particularly pleased, then, toacquire recently an early Virginia item and anAnnapolis imprint.

THE CLE~[ENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATESof T he U nivers ity of M ichigan

BOARD O F G OVERNORS

(App oin ted by the Regents of th e University)

Mrs. Noyes L. Avery. J r .• Grand Rap idsCarl W . Bonb right. FlintEdward W . Bowen, Bay CityRobert I' . Br iggs. El k Rapids, CHAIRMAN

C. E. Frazer Cla rk. j r .. Bloom field HillsIlly Corning. FlintThomas N. Cross, A nn ArborDu ane N. D ied rich, M uncie, Ind.William C. Finkenstaedt, Detro itHarlan H . I Iatcher, Ann ArborJ ames M. Klancnik, ChicagoJ ames S. Scho ff. New YorhRoy M. Tolleson . j r .. DetroitMrs. David F. Upton. St . JosephLee D. van Anu\·erp.1Vor thbrook, Ill.J ohn C. Dann, Director of th e

Library. SECRET ARY

M obile M ap

THE A SSOCIATES acquired for us a unique manu­script map of th e Spanish attack on the fort at~Iohile in February. 1780. The British had gar·risoned th e old fort with about 300 men underCa pt. Elias D urn ford of the Corps of Engi neers.wh o was serving concurren tly as lieutenantgovernor of the provide nce of \Vest Florida.Engineers did no t normall y comma nd troops inth e field but he insisted tha t since he was th esen ior officer, "the comma nd wiH belon g to mewhe n present." It was said th a t unarm ed. Durn­for d h ad once stared down a tiger , and in th isin stance hi s forcefulness carr ied the argu ment.T he Spa nish army bes ieged the fort on March 1.The fort sustai ned conside ra ble damage and 307Br iti sh prisoners were taken .

The map shows th e pOSItIOn of the S~

Heet a t the ti me of the siege and a Br it ishin the harbor. There are 12 n umbered ref ereece,a nd soundings . Four of the Spanish shipsposit ion ed at the mou th of th e ha rbor 'wherera n agrou nd on the treachero us sa nd bar. ......is th e onl y manuscript map of the battle, eiBritish or Spanish .

Goi ng Nake d

QUAKERS TODAY have an image of disciplirational in tel lectua lism. There is an attraq uali ty to thei r a usterity, a nd even in theirposition to mil itary conflic ts, a cont rolledcation to th ei r beliefs. Meekness is a qua lir­associ a te with such mora l leaders as John \\.ma n . It is easy to forget tha t they bega n in~seven teent h-ce ntury England as a sect remarkablefor its ex ubera nt emo tiona l piet y and U~­

strai ned speech. T he Quakers came largely fromthe Iovv-er middl e classes, not only Puri tansbut the fr inge s of other sects- ra n te rs, shakers,seekers.

Wi ll iam Simpson, a native of Lancashire, ,,-asone of the ea rl iest followers of George Fox 's newsect. Lon g before Fox had esta blished h is syste­matic network of Quaker meetings, Simpson be­ga n preaching the Qua ker doctrine, but wit h hiov..rn spe cia l in novation .

Sim pson began to appea r in the streets of.London a nd rural Eng land naked , with hiface blackened, exhorti ng people to repent. Hewarne d th em that "a day of reckoning is comingupon thee . . . as naked shall you be spiri tuallyas my body hath bee n temporally naked in man~­

places in England, as a sign of the nakednessa nd sha me th at is comi ng upon the Church ofE ngla nd , who liveth in oppression a nd crue lty:'

Sim pson's prea ching was met with whippings.stollings a nd impr isonment. After the Restora ­tio n he became less fanatica l, grad ua lly blendingin to th e more temperate Quaker meetings. In1670 he sailed for Barbados. accompa nied byanother Quaker preacher. J ohn Burneyeat. Ayear la ter he di ed the re fr om a fever.

Recentl y the Clem ents acq u ired a fascina tingpamph let dealing with the life a nd work of\Villiam Simpson. Published in 1671, it containsth e account of hi s death wr itt en by \VilliamForresque. a mem ber of the Barbados Quakercommunity. Appended to this is Simpson's ownfamous tract, " Going Na ked a Signc ."

Publ ications

1974 TH E LIBRARY in auguratcd its Bicentennialies program, made possibl e by a grant fromLilly Endowment and the National Endow-

fit for the Humanities. This month the fourthbl ica tion in th e series appeared. Sou rces ofepende nce, under the gene ra l ed ito rsh ip of

H oward II. Peckham . is an anthology of materialom th e library's manuscript collec t ion focusing

on the Am eri can Revolution. The materi al offers:I previously unpublished body of evidence on theGUiSeS, nature and conseq uences of that con flict._\ wide variety of manuscripts are reprcscnted­lett ers, journals. essays, pamphlets and apolo­gias-ali written between 1765 and 1785 by menon both sides, deeply involved in the struggle .

Volume I hegins with John Shy 's presentationof the privat e correspondence between ViscountBarrington, the British secre tary at war andGeneral Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of allBritish troops in North Ameri ca. Leland Bellot,the biographer of \VilJiam Knox, ha s ed ited a

perceptive essay, "What is Fit to Be Done withAmeri ca?" whi ch was written by the Britishundersecretary in 1763.

Sir Henry Clinton's pamphlet attack on SirPeter Parker, blaming him for the British defeatat Charleston, has been edited by \Villiam B.\Villcox. This volume ends with the "J ournalof the Brunswick Corps in Am eri ca under Gen­eral von Ri edesel. " Edited a nd transla ted byV. C. Hubbs. this a no nymous accoun t is a fasci­nating record of a German mer cenary sold ier ingalong the 51. Lawren ce River.

Volume II contains three interesting sets ofcorrespondence. In the first, ed ited by HughRankin, a young British officer , Ma jor PatrickFerguson, descri bes hi s skirmishes with the enemya nd with hi s own super iors. The letters writtenbetween American gen erals Anthony 'Vayne andNathanael Greene, edi ted by Robert G . Mitchell,tell of conflicts between military and civilianleaders and battles fou ght with too few men a ndsup plies. Arlene Sh y ed ited the letters of JohnHancock's fa ther-in -law. Edmund Quin cy. anin te ll igent. deeply rel igious man, who saw hisown famil y painfull y divided between loyali stand patriot cau ses. The volume concludes withthe proceedings of the controversial trial of loyal­ist Captain Lippincott for hi s summa ry executionof a patriot prisoner. ed ited by L. Kinvin \Vr oth.

Directo r John C. Dann has contributed to apublication sponsored by th e Manuscript Socie ty.A utographs and Man uscrip ts: A Collector's Alan­ua l, ed ited by Edm und Berkeley, Jr. lIis essayI S entitled "Ame r ican Coloni al and Revolution­ary Autographs."

Vocal Cumpanion

THE C OM PLET E VOCA L I S STRUCTOR by Henri­Noel Gilles (Ba ltimore, 1828) is one of theClements Library's most recent acquisiti ons. 'weare aware of the existence of only one other copyof thi s work, wh ich ap pea rs to be one of the firsttreatises on the su bject of melody a nd com posi­tion published in the United States.

Gilles, born in Paris in 1778, ·was an oboist,guitarist , mu sic teacher and composer. H e stud ­ied at the Paris Conserva tory, whi ch awardedhim a prize in 179~, and from 1803 to 1814 wasassociated with th e Italian Opera a t Paris. Hearr ived in New York about 1815, a nd sett led inor around Baltimore about 1818. Little is knownof h is ac tivi t ies a fter th at dat e; hi s death isthought to have occ urred in 1834.

Gill es, who based hi s Vocal In structor on theprincipl es of composition and vocal in structionwhich he had learned at the Paris Conservatory.specifically at tri buted hi s di scussion of th e prin­cip les of melody to Antonin Rei cha, whoseT raitc de AU/odie (1814) Gi lles claimed to be" the first trea t ise on melody, distinct from har­mony ... that has ever been composed : '

Th e Vocal In structor presents the methods ofthe Italian lyric style of sing ing, and was pub­lished three years a fter Span ish-born ManuelGarcia established America 's first It ali an operacompa ny. The purchas e of Th e Vocal Instructorwas made through the Di rector's Fund.

An In vitation

MAN Y OF You, a lthough loyal su ppor ters of thelibrary, have probabl y never had a personal tour.The staff cord ia lly ex tends a n inv itation to allof you to make a n appoin tme nt and let us showoft the collect io ns a nd the building.

Spe cial accommodations on weekends can bemade for out-of-town Associates. Friends andguests arc most welcome. To make arran gements,please ca ll 313-426-8112.

A J lelanch oly N arra tive

EIGHTEF:NTH-CENTURY E NGLISHMEN had a lu stya ppetite for sensationa l stories, which was kep twell sat isfied by an in ventive popu lar press.Cheap broadsides and pamphlets. the eq uivalentof modern tabloids, thrived on accounts of mur­ders, rapes a nd criminal trials. Of all the disastersreported . shipwrecks were a particular favori te.

One story, "The Melanchol y Na rra tive of theDist ressful Voyage and Mi racu lou s Deliveranceof Captain David Harrison" was wid ely circu­lated in 1766. It had all the right ingred ients forinstant success in London bookstalls.

Captai n David Harrison out of New York a ll

the sloo p Peggy, weighed ancho r at the \VestIndia n Island of Faya! on the 5th of Octo ber ,1760. with a cargo of wine and brandy. By Christ­mas the shi p was in desperate stra its. Thestarving crew had been driven to eat the ship'scat. As Captain Harr ison recoun ted. " My vesselhad been for some time leak y, I myself was ema­cia ted wit h sick ness, and had but one sail in theworld to direct her . . . the men were either tooweak, or too much intoxicated to pay a necessarya tt ention to pump .. . [the storm] blew blackDecember and we had no t an in ch of ca nd le, nora morsel of slush to ma ke a ny.

" On the 13th of Jannary following, being sti lltossed abou t a t the d irection of the sea a nd wind.my mate, at the head of all th e people, cam e tome in the cabbi n. half drunk in deed. hut withloo ks so fu ll of horror. as pa rt ly indicated thenatu re of their d read ful purpose. and infor medme, 'that they could hold out no longer . thattheir tobacco was en tirely exhau sted ; that theyhad ea ten up a ll the leather belonging to thepump, and even the buttons off their jackets, thatnow they had 110 cha nce in nature but to castlots. and to sacrifice one of themselves for thepreservation of th e rest, . . .'

"As I had long ex pected some violence to my­self , from th e excesses of thei r in toxicat ion. I had.for some time. taken to m y arms, to prevent asu rprize. Bu t, alas! this was a n idle precau tion,as I was by no means ab le to repel force by force ,. . . I told them the y mi gh t pursue the ir owncourse, but that I wou ld on no acco unt eithergive orders for the death of th e person on whomthe lot might fall, nor partak e. h y any means,of so shocking a repast. . . .

"So sayi ng they left me, and went into thesteerage , hu t in a few mi nu tes came bac k. in­forming me, th a t th ey ha d ea ch taken a chance

for their lives, and that th e lot had falle n on 2!

negro, who was part of my cargo.. . . T hey there­fore d ragged h im into the steerage, where. mless than two minu tes, they sh ot him throuthe head. They su ffered him to lye a very linktime before they ripped him open, intending lO

fr y his entra ils for supper, there being a largefire made for the purpose.. . .

" In this ma n ner ma tters went on, t ill the 28thor 29th of J anuary . . . the mate came to meagai n at the head of the people, saying, th at thenegro had for some days been entirely eaten up_a nd as no vessel had yet appe ared , Co give us themost d istant glimmer of relief. there was a neces­sity for casti ng lo ts again . . , .

"T here were seven of us now lef t ; and the lotswere drawn in the same manner as the tickets aredrawn for a lottery a t Gui ldha ll. T he lot, in deed.did not fall on me, but it fell on one David FlatLa foremastman, the on ly man in the shi p onwhom I could place any certain dependance. Theshock of the de cision was great; an d the prepara­tio ns for execu tion were dread ful. The fire al­read y blazed in th e steerage, and every thi ng "...asprepared for sacrificing th e wretched victim im­med iately....

"T he unhappy victim then begged a sma lltime to preparc hi mself for death ; to whi ch hi scompanio ns vcry chearfull y agreed. and evenseemed at first unwilling to in sist upon his for­feit life. . . . A few draughts of wine, however ,soon su ppressed these dawn in gs of human ity:neve rthe less, to shew their regard, they consentedto let h im li ve ti ll ele ven the nex t morn in g, inhopes th at the Divine goodness would, in themean lime, raise up some other source of re­lief. . . ,

"About eigh t o'clock the next morning. as Iwas ruminati ng in my cahbin . .. a sail to theleeward appea red . She seemed to sta nd for usin as fa ir a direction as we could possibly wish .. .. After continuing for a considerable time,eager ly ob serving the progress of the vessel. andu ndergoing the most tumultuous agita t ion thatcould he created hy so trying a suspense . we hadat last, the happiness to see a boat drop asternand row towards ti S fu ll manned,"

Should you doubt the veracity of the for egoingta le, there is a n affidavit by Captain Harrison.sworn before th e Lord Ma yor of Lo ndon attest­ing to i ts truth. T he lib rary recently acqu ired a1766 ed it ion of this " Mela ncholy N arra tive" withth e Director's F und .