The uartoI 'S UED FOR THE CLE:\.-IENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATES

Late Spring Meeting

T HE EXTRE.M.ES O F the curren t win ter makes on ewonder if spring will ever arrive in 1982. T o be0 11 th e safe side . we have pushed th e Associatesmeeting back a li t tle. Mak e a note on your ca len­da r for the eve n ing of ~I ay 11 at 8 P.~r.

Professor Kenneth Lockr idge of the U n iver­sity's hi story depar tm en t delivered the Good manLectures at the University of W ester n O ntarioi ll 1980, pu blished thi s year by Ca mbridge Un i­versity Press as Settleme nt and Unsettlemen t inEarly A m erica. Syn thes izing recent scholarshipand drawing upon hi s own extensive research.he presents a fascinat ing hypoth esis descr ibin ga certain inherent. an t i-authoritarian tende ncybuilt i.nto th e America n character long beforethe R evolution .

The book is d rawin g re al in tere st a mongcolon ia l h istorian s, and Professor Loc kridge hasgenerously consen ted to spea k to us in :'\la y. ,\rewill promise our usu al fine refreshments a fter­wards and will mak e every effo rt to secure ear lyMa y weather a t i ts best!

Fire!

IN "rID-DECEMBER of last year th c lib rary plannedan exh ibi t to ope n early the following month ," Fire figh t ing in Early America ." \ \' e had no id eahow omi nously timely it was. O n Ch ri stm as eve,the 125-year-old Economics Buildin g 'wen t u p inflames on th e cen tral cam pus.

T he exh ibit traced th e wa ys in whi ch Ameri­cans tried to prevent and the n to fight fires whichde vas ta ted th ei r cities fro m colo ni al ti mes until1900. O n displ a y were ser mons ex horting citizensto forestall God 's fiery wrath b y sin ning no more,as well as pri nts and letters ill ustrating manyterrible con flagra tions wh ich d id occur.

One of th ese, a horrendous fire in San Fran­cisco on :'\ray 3, IRSI (the \ "-0 1'51, in fact , beforeth e fire caused by the 1906 earthq ua ke), was

:,\lJ M UER 133. MARCH, EJ82

descri bed by A. Parker Crittenden in a lett er tohis wife a week la ter. Crittenden, a long wi th afee..· others, t ried to sa ve th e huild ing in whi chhe was then working . T hey dou sed blankets withwat er and hung them at the windows. "We wereenve loped in flame," he wrote. " It was a perfectsea of fire roaring a nd r ushi ng around us with asound louder th an the br eaking of the waves 011

the shore . ..."T he wind ow sash the n too k fire-the glass

cra cked and fell out-the hot scorch ing air andden se smoke poured in, brin ging wit h it clo udsof ci nders a nd bl azing coa ls, For a ti me it was adesperate struggle , Hu t by the carefu l usc of theli ttle wa ter we had , by dipping clo th s into th atwh ich had run down on the floor and using themto smother the Hames wh erever th ey broke ou t,we still resisted wit h success. T he b urning coa lswhic h were roll ing and dr ift ing about th e roomswe tr od out wit h our boo ts. The wa n t of airwas our great d ifficu lt y-and th e heat was in­to ler able . . ..

"At th e mo st cri tical time the steps lea d ingfrom the first to th e second sto ry began to smokeand then to blaze. \ Ve had not a qu ar t of wa ter.If we could not stop th e fire he re the hou se wasgon e and th e last ex ped ien t must be tried. For20 min utes it seemed hopeless. \Ve had no wat erto drink- were complet el y exh austed and read yto faint. W e mad e preparation for th e worst - cu tu p blan ke ts an d tied them togethe r so as to bea ble to start fro m any window a t whi ch th e hea twas least. Bu t we were determined to come outtriumphan t. \Ve fou nd a bottle or two of bran dyand severa l boxes of claret. Im agine how gratefU la re l ief. It gave us new stre ng th. We saved thesta irwa y. The heat grad ua lly abat ed . Dan gerwas at an end."

The Crittenden letter was loaned to the l ibraryby Assoc ia tes' Board mem ber Dr. Thomas Kings­ley. The wri ter surv ived th e fire, only to begun ned down by a beaut iful , jealous mist resssom e years la ter. But we will have much more onthe Crit tende ns in the J une Quart o!

T HE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATESof The Univers ity of Michigan

BOARD OF G OVERNO RS

Appoin ted by the Regents of the University

Mrs. J oh n Alexa nder, A n n A rborMrs. Noyes L. Avery, J r ., Gran d RapidsCarl W. Bon br igh t, FlintEdward W . Bowen , Bay CityR obert P . Briggs, Elk RapidsXlrs. .Margaret B. Cameron. Ann ArborC. E. Fr azer Clark , J r. , Bloomfield HillsBly Corni ng , Flin tThomas N. Cross, A n n A rborDuane N. Die drich, M un cie, Irul .,

VICE CHAI R:\IAN

Harl an H . Hat cher, Ann ArborPeter i':. Heydon, A nn A rborDr. Thomas C. Kin gsley, A tlanta, Ga.J ames 1\1. Klancnik, ChicagoJ am es S. Sch off, New YorkRoy ~r. T oll eson, J r. , DetroitMrs. David F. Upto n. St. Joseph , CH AI RM AN

Lee D. van Antwerp, Nort hbrook, Ill .John D. W heeler, Bay CityJohn C. Dann, Director of the

Li brary, SECRET ARY

Douglas M arshallTHE LIBRARY'S l\o[A P C URATOR sin ce 1970, DouglasMarsh all has taken a position with the adver­tising firm of Ca m pbel l-Ewa ld . Mr. Marshallreceiv ed his d octorate in h istory from th e univer­sity and is the author, with Howard H . Peckham,of Campaigns of th e A merican R ev olut ion: AnA tlas of M an uscript Ma ps. I n 1972 he editedth e library's Research Catalog of Maps ofA m erica to 1860.

He has been very active in the Michi gan MapSociet y and served as editor of Terrae lncogn itaethe past two years. The sta ff of th e library willm iss Mr. Marshall's wi t and helpfulness andwishes him success in h is new field.

Fire Aga in!ON D ECE1\fBER 9, 1747, the court house in Bostonburned to the ground for the second time inthe cen tury. Such "remarkable Judgements ofGOD upon the Land" were not permitted topass unnoticed by our New England for ebears.a nd a day was set apart on January 28, 1747, forfasting and prayer.

Nathanael Appleton . pastor of the first churchin Cambridge. undertook the usual piously criti­ca l look a t Massachusetts to figure out wh y Godsho uld be pun ishi ng , or at least warning. h iscoun try me n . In hi s fast sermons, recently pickedup by the library. he selected monetary inflationas the crying oppression of th e moment.

" Is there not th e Cry of Coll eges, and Schools,and ot her Societies, that depend upon the In ­comes of public Monies for their Support, thatthe Fun ds lai d by their pious and generousBen efactors are sun k af ter su ch a Manner , thatth ey are not able to suppor t their Officers, no rdefra y th eir necessar y Cha rges?"

Ap ple ton gave a specific exa m ple of a widowwhose husband died a t the beginn in g of thecen tury " who had Th ree Pounds a year settledu pon her. in stead of her Dower." At the time.th is would buy two cords of wood , four bushelsof I ndian corn , one bushel each of rye and malt ,fifty pounds of pork and sixty pounds of beef.By 1748 her in vest ment had lost 75'70 of itspurchasing power.

Infla tion, a prevailing problem of our era ,was eq ua lly worrisome in the eigh teenth cen ­tu ry. But our atti tudes about it have dearlychanged . In Pastor Appleton 's eyes, th e poorwidow had literall y been robhed of her inheri t­an ce by an irresponsible government whi ch hadissued too m uch ins ufficien tly-backed papercu n eney.

A modern cri tic would, most likely, point thefinger of b lame at th e widow herself or heradvisors for no t ad a pting investme n ts to aninflationary environment. We cer ta in ly do notattribute our natural or human disa sters to themonetary judgments of our elected officials. Pre­su ma bly, our a tti tude does represent progress,but on e wonders toda y if there isn 't st ill a moralelemen t involved in inflation, particularl y whenit conce rns person s of limi ted , fixed incomes.

T he recen t Christmas Eve burning of theEcono mics Ruilding at the un iversity wou ld no thave gon e unnoticed ill th e New England pulpitsof 1748. One wonders wh at th e fast day sermonmessage would ha ve been .

IVint er Bequ est

'Tn z CLEMENTS LI BRARY recei ved on e of th e mosttimely. and complete ly unexpect ed gif ts in itshistory in 1976, in the form of a 50,000 beq ue stfrom 1\.[r5. John Garrett W inter of Ann Arbor.

At th e time, the library was negotiating forth e purchase of the papers of Charles T ownshe nd(1725-1767), whose name is primarily associ atedwith the "T ownshend Acts," which irritated th ecolonis ts, and whose papers are exception allyimpor tant in understandin g th is difficult periodof A nglo-America n polit ics. It was probably themost important man uscript acq uis it ion in severa ldecades, and it was made possible only by th eW inter bequest.

T he librar y's Comm ittee of Man agementpl aced th e remain in g funds in an expendabletrust accou n t, wh ich would draw interest, hutwh ich also co uld he d rawn u pon whe n significan tpurch asin g o pportu n it ies a rose. T he fund ha sbeen used in th is manner, and 1I0W, eigh t yearslat er has been ex ha us ted .

In retrospect, what d id we ge t for our money,a nd ill what wa ys has the colle ction been en­r iched as a re su lt o f a $50,000 g ift ? In add it ionto the Townshen d Paper s, the \\' inter Fundall ow ed us to acq uire three siza ble manu scriptco llections: the Reuben Tower Family Papers,an ex te nsive ea rly n ineteenth-cen tu ry Nevv· Yor kSta te co llec tion r ich in busin ess and ed ucati onalhi story; the paper s o f Gid eon Lee, Jacksoni anera mayor of New York C it y; the papers o fNatha niel Stac y. a p ioneering mi ssionary of theU ni vers al ist denominati on in western New Yo rk

and Mich igan.

W e acq u ir ed an ex cit ing' m anuscript di ary ofa Mexican \Var so ld ier de scribing the march ofA mer ican troops from Vera Cruz to Me xi co C itya nd a manuscr ipt co lon ia l tunc hook with "f rak­tur" style pen manship.

T he be quest prov ided the o ppor tun ity forsome rema rkable map acq uisi tions: two bea u ti­full y d raw n maps of a to wn and fort on th eSouthern Indian fron tier da ted 1792 ; what isprobabl y th e only con te mporary ma n uscriptmap of a small \Val' o f 1812 mili tary engagementa t St. Regis on th e St. Lawren ce ; a fine manu­scri p t map of Mackina ck Island , ca. 1820 's, show­ing ground cover, p roper ty lines, and the outlineof every structure a nd for ti fication . S3,OOO fro mth e \ Vin ter Fund was applied toward, and in -

str ume n ta l in enabling us to bid on the HackAtlas. In the area of printed maps, we secureda previously unknown 1794 coas tal atlas b yLaurie &: Whittle; Amos Dool ittle 's in triguingand scarce map of New H aven ; a large pro­motional map of Prar ie de Chien (183i).

One grea t prize brought to us by the Win terFund was bought without our comp rehend ingits unique importance. In the late li60's, twosepa ra tely-p ubl ishe d sheets, co n ta in ing str ipmaps of th e Mason &: Di xon Line, were publishedin Phi ladelphia. T hey are a mong th e scarcestAm er ican colonial maps. \Ve lacked ho th parts,and were delighted to acq uire wha t we tho ugh twas the Pennsylvan ia j Maryland portion in anuncu t sheet. Two years after ,,,'Cowne d it andcata loge d it, close cxa mina tion shows it to be n ot

prin ted , but beau ti ful y execu ted pen and ink­most certa in ly th e o riginal used by the engravcrto et ch th e copper pla te!

Amon g severa l dozen pr inted titles securedwith the Winter Fu nd were seven teen th-cen tu ryand Benjamin Fra nk lin imprin ts, the com pl etefile of II scarce deist ical peri odical containingAm erica 's first science fiction " novel:' a boundvolu me co n ta in ing uniq ue booksell ers' cata logs,

and severa l import a nt pamphlets o n th e G reatAwak ening and the terrible yellow feve r cpi­demics of the 1790 's. T he Vain Prodegal U te(1680), inciden ta lly the first separa te pamph letto descr ibe an A meri ca n murder, is a h ighl yimportan t sta tement concern ing the obscuretopic of inden tured serv itude in seven teenth­centur y Virgini a .

If we were to assemble a th oroughl y detachedpa nel of ra re book a nd man uscr ipt dealers. the ymost lik el y would turn green wi th envy andestimate that we had enr iche d th e library's co l­lecti on s by three or fo ur times th e amou n t ofthe original bequest. Every item is rare, th emajor it y of them unique, a nd th ey have and willcon tin ue to d raw scho lars to th e lib rary fromarou nd the co unt ry a m i enha nce th e opportu ni­ties for historical stu dy at th e U ni versity.

Thc great benefi t o f an u nrestrict ed gi ft o rbeq uest for acquisitions is that it gives th e librar yth e price less o pportu n it y to no t merel y wai t for.bu t search for great oppor tun it ies, to jump im ­

medi at el y when th ey present th emsel ves, and to

drive th e best ba rgai n, cash in hand. T he l ib ra r ywi ll forever be a co ns idera h ly greater p lace,than ks to be th ough tfulness a nti generosity of"'I rs. tvinter.

A Civ il IVar Prize

" IT \V ASl\Jy great good fortune to succeed tothe command of th e Grand Army that wasgrouped about Chattanooga . in the Spri ng of1864, when a ll its members had become mou ldedinto good and ve tera n so ld iers. .. . Ho w wellI remem ber tha t beautiful mornin g in Ma y,when over th e wi res came the order to move.and the co lu mns poured out by every road andpath way, a ll pointing stra igh t at an enem yentrenched a t Da lton ."

Gener al \ Villi am T ecumseh Sherman had ara pt audience as he heg-..m his talk to U nionve tera n s on th e eve n ing of November 2S. 1870,in Cleveland. "Fr-om Chattanooga to At lanta,O ne Hu nd red Days under Fire: ' Sherman 's t it lefor his st irr ing speech. is now in the Clemen tsL ibrary-an ex tra ord inary twel ve-page d ra ft inSherman's hand. J ames S. Schoff hou gh t theman uscript at auction in New York la te last yearand presen ted it for in clusi on in th e Sch off Ci vi l\Var Collectio n at the Clements.

It took Sherma n over two months to reachA tl anta, ni ppi ng a t the heels of General J oeJ ohnsto n 's rebel ar my every inch along th e way ." \Vh ile yO ll of th e Army of the Cumberland werecla m be ri ng the precipices of Rock y Face andacting as though we intended to forc e a passagethrough th e Bu zzard Roost gap, I kn ew wh atyou did not, that anothe r Brave and well ap­poi nt ed army under Mcf'herson was break ingits wa y th ro ugh Sna ke Creek ga p leading toResaca.. .. I thought that Joe J ohnston wasour vic tim the n, hu t he was too sma rt . He S; l\\T

h is danger and wi thout hesitation let go theworks he had so ca refu lly prepared for us atDalton a nd regai ned his ra ilroad com muni ca tionat Resaca , no t a n hour too soon fo r the sa fetyof hi s ar my. An d then he re treated along theLine of th e ra ilroad as far as Cassville, where Iknow from hi s own lips sinc e the war tha t hein tended to give us ba t tle."

T hrough out the campaign Sherman followeda strateg y of turni ng movements, and on Ma y25th this res u lte d in the hattie at New H o peChurch , " tha t Hell-hole so well named . whosetrees I warrant still hear the ma rks of thetcrrible str uggle. The hardest figh ting of thecampa ign was duri ng the few days we confron ted.J ohns to n at tha t p lace: th ere was 110 clearground, it was a ll a dense thicket a nd none ofus wi ll soon fo rge t th e boom of ca n no n, an d thecrack of the ri fles durin g th ose bl oody d ays. W e

pressed to our left and reached th e railroad. Theheavy rains then set in . The ro ads became almostim passable and the \",'agon tra ins usel ess. Thesold iers became so besp attered with mud th atwe cou ld scarce ly di stinguish fri en d fro m foea nd in th at order we came to Kenesaw : '

Sherma n 's assa u lt here was no t successfu l andwhen .J oh ns to n re treat ed across th e C ha tta­hoochee R iver, Sherman resu med hi s e nvelop­men t tactics. Then Sherman received some in ­teresti ng news. "O ne hot July day when I wasunder the shade of a persimmon tree one of ourspi es was brou ght to me who h ad been insideAtl anta as a cattle trader or drover, and whobrough t me a newspaper of the day before con­taining the order re lieving J ohnston and placi ngHood in co mmand of the R ebel army. It beca mea matter of vital importance that I sho uld kn o wwha t manner of man was Hood, and I consulte dwit h Schofield and McPherson , Lot h of whomknew him a t 'Vest Poin t. An d the co ncl us ionwe ca rne to WCiS th at th e ch ange meant {lghfiTlg."

Bu t wi th in th e month She n na n had hau ledHood up in Atlan ta and on Sep te mber 1st th erebels evac ua ted the cit y. Sherman wo uld meet.Johnston ,lga in when th e armies treated forpeace a nd the two crnsty so ldiers wo uld hecomefri ends. But in the fall of ISo'! Shennan amI hisso ld iers still had work to do. In November th eywere on th e march and heading to th e sea .

Bei ng Remembered

R O UERT D. BURNHA~I S of Frederi cksburg, Vir­ginia, ha d been a gradua te st udent a t the un i­versity for two week s in 1940 when th e ar my cu tsho rt hi s resea rch . In tha t b r ief An n Arborsojo urn he managed to . find a t the C leme nts"a fine co llection and helpfu l sta ll:' Forty-oneyears lat er he wrote to offer us the gift of h isimpressive map collection .

W hen th e maps arrived a t th e library wewer e st ruck with their beautiful cond it ion (mostof the m are ha nd-colored ) and thei r range, from1545 to 1779. O r telius, Munster, Merca tor andBlaeu are some of the di st inguished map makersrepresen ted. There are two magn ificen t ca r lyIbth-ccn tu ry Ita lian town plans incl uded, onea ppro pria te ly of Na ples. where Mr. Burnhamspurch ased th em in 1943.

\Ve arc del ighted to add th ese th irt y two ma psto o ur co llec tion. Mr. Bu rn ha ms' re me mbranceis deepl y appreciated.