I SSU E D Q UART ER LY FOR T H E C LE MEN TS LIB RAR Y ASSOCIATES

uarto:,\u \rHER lOi , DEC.. 1974

Audi torium and were open to h istory stude n ts,[acuity, an d the genera l publi c.

T he progr am was pl an n ed by a join t com mit­tee consisting of re presentatives [rom th e Library,and th e dep ar tments of H isto ry, Geography. an dEngli sh. Expenses were taken from the grantmade by th e l\Iellon Founda tion to promote thehi story of discovery. A h istory sem ina r is beingoffer ed in th e field by Prof. Charl es Gibson, andthree fellowships have been awarded to gra d ua testudents"

The speakers were Miss Ei la Campbell of th eUniversity of London, on th e relationship be­tween geographical d iscover ies and Renaissancetech nol ogy; Prof. Thomas Go ldstein of th e Cit yUn iversity of New York, on the role of Itali anmerchan ts in ex ploration; Prof. Cha r les Boxer ofM issou ri Un iversity. on Portugu ese exp ansion ;Prof. Am y G . Gordon of Deni son Un iversi ty,on the effect of d iscoveries on French though t ;Prof. .J. H. Parry of H arvard University, on th eillusion of Asia in th e 'Vest ; Prof. Edwin VanKley of Calvin College, on th e influence of di s­coveri es on Du tch popul ar cu lture; and Prof.David B. Quinn of th e Univer sit y of Liverpool,on English contributions to overseas d iscovery.There was a commen ta tor for each session .

The con fere nce was an u nusua l undertakin gfor the Li brary, but th e amount of interestaroused in the period, in which we are strong

with b oo"-' an d maps, was gra tiiy ing . Dougla sM arshall , our cura tor of maps, took care of th edeta ils of arrangemen ts to everyone's sat isfac tion .

T he Society for th e History of Discoveri es he ldits annual meeting h ere in conjunction with th econferen ce. T he mem bers stayed on an extra dayand held their own meeting in the Lib rary,

which was their host. Our books of discovery andexplora t ion wer e brought out on exh ib ition by.:\ fr. Marshal l. H e was elected to the council ofth e Society.

The

Discovery Conference

DlSTl~GUlSHED SPEAKERS GRACED th e confer encespo nsored by the Library at the end of Octoberon "T he New Worlds and the Old : ReciprocalIn fluences in th e Age of Di scover ies." It was heldin con junction with the annual meeting of theSociety for th e H istory of Discover ies a t theLibrary" The lectures were given in Rackh am

" ak ers, Et c.

.\ LARGE AUDIE" CE at th e Fall Assembly, Septem­ber 19, was delighted by J ames Lowry Cogar'sill ustrated lecture on the res tora tion and devel­opmen t of Shaker town at Pleasan t H ill , Ken­tuc ky. .Mr. Cogar directed th at work. The oc~a·

sian also opened our exhibition on the Sh akersect, this year bein g the 200th anniver sary of theland ing in America of Mother Ann Lee and herfollowers.

The Board of Governors me t in the afternoonand mad e several im portan t purchases for theLibrary wh ich are described in o ther columnsof this issue. They esta blished a new class ofmem bership for th ose person s con tr ib uti ng $25to $99, called "Favorer s." T he word is ta ken fro mthe rit lcpage of our most famous book, H aric t' sVirgin ia (London 15R8), wh ich was "di rected tothe Adven turer s, Favourers, an d Welwill crs" ofth e colon izing effort. \ Ve hesitated to use eithe rof the other two terms, bu t " Favorer" has apleasant antiquarian flavor.

The Library director participated in th eSh aker conference held in Cleveland October11-12 by the W estern R eserve H istori cal Societ y.He then wen t on across New York and Vermont,ca lli ng on ra re book dealers. and attended th eann ual meeting of th e American An tiquar ianSociety in W orcester, M ass. Prof. J ohn Shy of theLib rary's Committee of Management was electedto mC1l1hcn;h l. \l \n the SOC\l.:'.t"j " Yr ",ncr C\'a.TK o~

the Board of Governors is already a member.

T HE CLElIlENTS LIBRARY ASSOCI AT ESof The Un iversity of Michigan

B O ARD O F G O VE RN ORS

[App oin ted by the Regents of the Uni ver sity)

;III's. Noyes 1.. Aver y, J r. , Gm nd R ap idsCarl \ V. Bonb-ight , FlintEd ward \\r. Bowen , Btly CityRobert P. Br i ~gs. Elk R apids..CHAIR~IAXC. E. Frazer Clark, J r., Bloomfield H ill sHI)' Ccruiug. FlintT homas N. Cros s, A n n Arbm"\V illi am C. Finkenstaedt, Det roitH arl an II. H at chel', A nn A rb ,)!"Davi d \Y. Ken dall , De/m it.lam es ~I. Klancnik , Chicago.lam es S. Scho ff, New Y urkRoy lIl. Tolleson, J r., DetvoitJIll'S. David F. Upton, St. JosephLee D. van Antwerp, North brook .. I ll.Howard II. Peckh am , Di rector of th e

Library, SFC k ET AKY

An Unrepent ant R ogu e

Th e Life of Joh n Southack: W ritt en by H imself(Charlesto wn? Mass. , 1809, is a rare item on anearly Am er ican rogue. Southack specia l ized ininsura nce fra ud but became involved in a variet yof other cr imes, in cludi ng forgery and em bezzle­men t. H e finally landed in jail in 1803 for ar­ra ngi ng the sinking of the brigantine H annah ,wh ich was heavily in sured. The second parr: ofthe book, on th e Char lestown pri son . is based onhis own exper ien ces th ere and also in cludes theJaws an d regu lations governing that in st itution.At the en d of the book Southack pays lip serviceto the idea of livin g a virtuo us life, but hi s con­version sounds un convincing. The tone of mos tof the Look is on e of comp lete enjoyment of hi sown rogu ery. It was one of the titles chose n byth e Associa tes for purchase at th eir recentmeeting.

M ary land's Troubles

ALTHOUGH LORD BALTIMORE had been gr;m""land in Am erica as a refuge [or Catho lics, henot exclude Protestan ts. From 1631 on, Mat)was sett led by both groups of Christ ians.re lig ious freedom prevailed und er th e pttar)' go vernmen t. In 1649 some Pur it an s ingin ia, objecting to th e established An grch urch th ere. were exiled to Maryland, w

they shou ld h ave been happy. But they 0

suspic io us of the Catholics, largely becauseFren ch th ey feared were also Ca tholics,liberal views of th e Calvert family propriprevailed until 1689. In th at year Parliaousted J ames II and in stalled \ ViJliam and ~r

as mona rchs. as assert ion of Parli amen tary sri orit y.

1n Maryland J ohn Coode led a mili ta nt Prores­tant assoc ia t ion that fomented oppositi onCa tholic to lerat ion. In the confused peri od cEcha ng ing kings. they seized control of the l\r~

lan d governmen t. To just ify such in sur rccrica,the Protestants issued a Declaration of thR easons and iU ot jves [or the Present Ap!)ea rin~

in A rms of Their Majesties Protestant Sl1 bj~ctJ

in the Province of M arylan d, first printed illMarylan d (alt hough no copy is known) and theareprinted in London also in 1689 (six location,bu t on ly four copies in the U.S.).

Their grievan ces were focused on Lord Bal ti­more's "popish" government and such non sernas a consp iracy between Catho lics and Indi an;aga ins t th e Protestants. \Villiam and Mar y. neeto th eir cred it, either beli eved th e Declarat ionor used it to de pr ive Balt imore o f his propr ietor­ship. Marylan d becam e a royal colon y. its go\·er­nor appoin ted by the mon archs. \ Ve have otherbooks on ear ly Maryland, and the Associatesbou ght thi s rare seven teen th-cen tury imprin t forus.

till Am ericlln With Co ok

THE A SSOCIATES P UR CHASED a long sou gh t accountlackin g in our collect ion of voyages: A Journal OfCap tain Cook's La st Voyage to the Pacific Oceall ,fI1Ht I II Qu est of a N orth-west Passage by J ohnLed yard (Han ford , 1783). T he a uthor was anad ven turous and luckless ad venturer born inCo nnecticut, who went to England to en list as aBr iti sh sailor. H e signed on as a marin e cor­poral ,...ith Cook, and was with hi s sh ip when th eCapta in was killed by the Islanders in 1779.

his return in 1780, Ledyard was internedBritish for refusing to fight his fellow

Aooo<rlcaUS. He escaped aud after the peace , hi sencouraged him to write this report, th e

book. on the Northwest Coast by an Am cri­author, and th e on ly one on Cook's voyages~ #-\merican.

Ledyard d id not cont in ue writing as a career,em barked on a series of hazardous attem pts

open up trade with China via the Northwestt but was thwarted by th e Russians. He met

unt imely death at the age of 38 in Cairo ente to an expedition to th e interior of Afri ca ,

"other Anthology

~ #-\ODlTION To the ab ove, the Associ ates auth­aized a compatible purchase : A New GeneralCollatio" of Voyages compiled by J. G reenLondon, 1745--47) in 4 volumes sometimes re­

ittTed to as th e Astl ey collec t ion after th e pub.Iisher . This ex tens ive comp ilation reprints nar­rarives of travel to Asia and Africa as far back as1246, and later to th e W est Indies and Sou th.America. Descripti on s of th e coun tr ies visi ted in­corporate observat ions on the inhabitants andrepor ts of important historical events. There are227 maps and plates in our h andsomely boundset. The volumes add to our sources for discov­ery hi story.

Th e Way West

A FTER THE DISCOVERY of gold in California in1848, there was a great demand for gu j~e book sto th e gold regions; but until 1849 mo st of thehook s describing th e trails west went onl y as faras th e Sierras. One of th e first to outline th ecomplete route was J oseph \Vare's The Emi­!r"atl!'s Guide to Caliiomia (St. Louis, 1849),and for years it was cons ide red th e best gu idebook ava ilab le. At th e time he wrote it , \Varehad not made the trip himself but reli ed onFrem ont's reports an d on oral interviews in St.Louis. The guide includes a map compiled fromgover nmen t surveys and engraved by the au thor.Three years after its publication, Ware finallymade the western trip himself but died en routeto Ca liforn ia" The gift of this title by th e Asso­cites provides an important add ition to th e Li­brn ry's co llection of overland journeys to th ePa cific.

}'ankees us. Pennsylvan iau s

ELIPIIALET DYER, a Connecticut law yer and judgeand member of th e Continental Congress, was

also a prime mover in the Susquehannah Com­pany which purchased territory in northeasternPennsylvania in 1754 from th e Indians for Con­necticut expansion. A bitter str uggle ensued re­sult ing in blood-shed with Pennsylvania , a nat­ura l claimant. Dyer as a com pa ny ag en t wentto London in 1764 to present the Connecticutclaims without success, A pamphlet war waswaged . too, between the rival sta tes. and a scarcetitle ju st acqu ired by the Associates showed therewas also internal dissension. In this pamphlet ,Remarks Otl Dr. Gale's Leiter to [ .W. (Hartford,1769), Dyer answered an attack hy BenjaminGale, a member of the Connecticut Assemblywho had voted against the Susquchannah Com­pany.

Eventually in 1782 the land was a warded toPennsylvania in the settlement of sta te landcla ims a fte r th e R evolution. Connecti cut did notlose out en tire ly, however, as Pennsylvania final ­ly allowed the Yankee emigrants to transfer theirland titles, and the state was permitted to retainits claim to ano the r vast gran t of land. "T heWestern R eserve" in northern Ohio.

Civ il Wa r Newspap er

THY. A SSO C1AT l'.S Dm not overlo ok newspapers inadding to the Library'S holdings. An oppor·tunity to pick up two years of th e Daily MissouriRepublican (St. Louis) was seized because theywere war years - 1862--63. Middle western papersare often harder to find th an ea ster n on es, andsince the fighting was hot in Missouri this is anappropri at e source to have.

Manuscripts, T oo

IN SPITE OF SOARING pri ces on th e letters ofNathan ael Greene, the Associates obta ined forus on e of war date, 1779. a t a very reasonableprice. Green e wrote of th e raid on Connecticutby Gen . Tryon , which so shocked New England.

In addition , th e Associat es acq uired for us adozen letter s during the Revolution written toSir George J ackson, undersecr et ary of the Navy.Nine wer e from Adm. Sir Samuel Hood duringhis tour of duty in the West Indies, fightin g theFrench. He engaged De Grasse ill Feb ru ary 1782.The other three letters wer e from Hood's son .a lso in th e Navy.

First Carolinians

LEA'S Map of Sou th Carolina (London 1690) wasbased on a survey made eight years earlier by

Joel Gascoyne. The Gascoyne map was includedin the famous Blathwayt atlas, made up in onecopy, for British colonial administration. Botheditions of the map identify the owners of 33plantations. In the Lea edition the coastline hasbeen revised and re-oriented, with north at thetop. No other map of South Carolina as accur­ate was to appear until later in the 18th century.It has special importance for demographers, andthe Associates insured that we got it.

A rnerican Poetry

THE FIRST ANTHOLOGY of American verse, A Col­lection of Poems. By Several Hands (Boston,1744) was compiled by friends of Mather Byles.one of the most distinguished pulpit orators ofhis day. His poetry was not well known, however,and the anthology was an attempt to enhance hisreputation in that medium. Although the poemsappeared anonymously, ten of them have beenidentified as written by Byles, and the authorshipof some of the others has also been established .The topics are subjects of current interest, suchas the death of King George I and Admiral Ver­non's capture of Carthagena. The Associates havejust added this important title in the history ofAmerican literature to the Library.

Attention) Michigan. Members

By A NEW ACT of the state legislature, contribu­tions to the University of Michigan that are usedexclusively for its benefit and under the controlof the Regents (as OUf Board of Governors is)can receive state income tax credit.

Previously such designated funds as Associates'contributions were not recognized as benefitingthe University; they could be credited onlyagainst federal income tax. Now, for Michiganresidents a credit against the state income taxmay be entered also. We are much pleased bythis good news.

Hawthorne Exhibition

SOME CHOICE WORKS of Nathaniel Hawthorneare on exhibition at the Library. No, they arenot ours. This is a loan exhibition, which wevery rarely have, but the generosity of C. E.Frazer Clark, Jr. of Bloomfield Hills. who hasbeen collecting' Hawthorne for years, made pos~

sible this splendid display. We embraced theopportunjjy to show some of his treasures to theacademic community. In addition, Mr. Clark

has made available a descriptive leaflet forers. Consequently we will not attempt l£.l­

highlights here.

Civil War Buffs

MEMBERS OF THE Detroit Civil War Rtable were guests of the Library on theof November 21, to hear about the _ ...Civil \Var Collection and see some of its ~.

manuscript pieces. John Dann , our curates­manuscripts, spoke to the group and rcviour holdings. It was a pleasure to have suminformed audience, persons who were fawith the events of that war and thereforemediately grasped the significance of thements presented.

Despite the distance and the weather, a70 enthusiasts showed up. Staff memberscider and doughnut holes after the lecture-

A nother Book on the Revolution

THE SECOND STUD):' of the American Revolu .undertaken by the Library on a grant fromEndowment, has been completed and delivto the publisher. It is entitled The Sinews ojdependence, Monthly Strength Reports Of I

Continental Army, compiled by Dr. CharLesser, who was appointed researcher forpurpose. The book will consist largely ofand notes showing not only the size of the~ments and brigades each month during dJrRevolution, but also their commanders, COOl­

position, and location.- It should be publi~haI

next fall .

The study was initiated because of the presencein this Library of a huge manuscript folio volumedetailing this kind of information from mid-Ii;on as kept by the adjutant general. But therewere a few gaps and the records for the first threeyears of the war had to be found elsewhere andwere not so neatly kept. We trust we have locatedeverything available, and the result is that Dr.Lesser knows more about the size of Washing­ton's army than Washington knew.

The charts have been meticulously typed andproof read, and will be reproduced by photo­offset. The book is designed for reference andwill be used by historians in various ways. Twomore volumes will be compiled from a secondLilly Endowment grant. As publications ofsource material, they are appropriate for theLibrary to sponsor and demonstrate a researchfunction.