Hessian Journals and Cultures of Print

Two recent publications by MHS researchers:

- An annotated translation of the journal of Hessian 2nd Lt. Friedrich von Keudell appears in the 2009 volume of The Hessians: Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association. Keudell's journal, which covers the period 14 November 1783 - 14 April 1784, contains notes on the departure of the Hessen-Cassel grenadier battalion von Lowenstein from American soil and the transatlantic passage back to Bremerhaven, Germany. The journal was translated by Henry J. Retzer and annotated by Lt. Col. Donald M. Londahl-Schmidt. Keudell's journal appears in the same volume as the Wilhelm Freyenhagen journal, which covers the period from 1776 through 1778. An annotated translation of Freyenhagen's journal will appear in a later edition of The Hessians.

- MHS short-term researcher fellow (1999-2000) Jonathan Beecher Field has published Errands into the Metropolis: New England Dissidents in Revolutionary London (Dartmouth University Press, 2009). The publisher's description notes: "Through chapters focusing on John Cotton, Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, John Clarke, and the Quaker martyrs, Field traces an evolving discourse on the past, present, and future of colonial New England that revises the canon of colonial New England literature and the contours of New England history. In the broader field of early American studies, Field’s work demonstrates the benefits of an Atlantic perspective on the material cultures of print. In the context of religious freedom, Errands into the Metropolis shows Rhode Island’s famous culture of toleration emerging as a pragmatic response to the conditions of colonial life, rather than as an idealistic principle. Errands into the Metropolis offers new understanding of familiar texts and events from colonial New England, and reveals the significance of less familiar texts and events."

A Productive Bunch!

Conrad Wright, our Director of Research, recently contacted past MHS research fellows and encouraged them to submit the titles of any books or articles they'd published which were based primarily on their research here at the MHS. The results are pretty impressive, I think. From 1985 through 2008, the Society has sponsored at least 145 research fellowships, and those fellows report some 292 publications (everything from books to journal articles to documentary editions). You can view the full list in PDF form here.

Abigail Adams, Investor

Historian (and 2003-04 MHS research fellow) Woody Holton had an essay in Sunday's Washington Post, "On Money, a Founding Mother Knows Best." He writes "If you were to hire Abigail Adams as your financial adviser, here's the advice that the Massachusetts matriarch would offer," and provides ten pieces of financial wisdom drawn from Adams' experiences and correspondence. I think my favorite might be the eighth, which Holton describes as "Prevent your spouse from keeping a close eye on you. One of Abigail's favorite techniques was the cover letter. Since John had no compunction about opening his wife's incoming mail but considered letters received by Abigail Junior to be sacrosanct, Abigail sometimes asked her correspondents to enclose their messages for her inside letters to her daughter."

Holton is the author of "Abigail Adams, Bond Speculator" in the October 2007 William & Mary Quarterly, and his biography of Abigail Adams (Abigail Adams: A Life) will be published by Free Press in November 2009.

Martinko on Historic Preservation

University of Virginia doctoral candidate and 2009-10 MHS short-term research fellow Whitney Martinko's article "Progress and Preservation: Representing History in Boston's Landscape of Urban Reform, 1820-1860" has been published in the June issue of The New England Quarterly. Martinko's article is a fascinating re-evaluation of the roots of historical preservation in America: she argues that while preservation in the modern sense of retaining historic structures as such did not come into fashion until after the Civil War, antebellum Bostonians found other ways to "preserve the historic fabric of their city even as they directed its transformation into a modern metropolis."

Working with MHS Curator of Art Anne Bentley, Martinko examined artifact data sheets relating to several pieces in the Society's collections: an exterior pediment from the Foster-Hutchinson mansion, donated to the MHS for use as a pedestal; an early daguerrotype of the Old Feather Store; a round wooden box made from the remnants of a seventeenth-century house on Tremont Street, and several other items. Martinko suggests that these artifacts, along with other materials such as historical guidebooks and popular literature which drew on the historical culture of the city, reveal that Bostonians of the early 19th century "preserved the historic landscape in two ways: by recognizing buildings as historic while appropriating them for contemporary use, and by representing them [in artwork, photographs, prose, &c.]."