Author: daelnorwood

Archival Follies, Our Glorious National Heritage

Antebellum America Salutes the British Empire!

daelnorwood

One Fingered, Naturally

Middle_finger

In April 1841, whilst conducting the East India squadron to Chinese waters to safeguard American merchants against from harm during the First Opium War, Commodore Lawrence Kearny received some interesting supplementary orders:

“Sir,

It is understood that the citizens of the U. States who were made prisoners by the British forces during the late troubles in Canada [e.g. the Rebellion of 1837], and subsequently banished to distant parts of the Globe, are at liberty to return to their native land, but have no means of conveyance – Therefore, should the Constellation or Boston fall in with any of those persons, it is the desire of the department that a free passage to the United States should be offered them.”

~George E. Badger to Lawrence Kearney, Navy Department, 23 April 1841

In other words, Kearny – and any and all other Navy captains – was to give Americans who had been transported to Australia, and similar, as punishment for participation in a rebellion a free ride back to the good old U.S. of A.

Maybe not quite as egregious as if Saudi Arabia started playing taxi for GTMO detainees – but certainly in the same ballpark of diplomatic subtlety.

The early 1840s were not great years for Anglo-American relations, needless to say.

1.) “Squadron” was the somewhat grandiose title the Navy applied to the grouping of the 42-year old frigate Constellation and the sloop-of-war Boston under one command.

Theske Slijkerman, “Irritatie,” Flickr, CC License

Archival Follies

Unacceptable

daelnorwood

Or, They Got the Letter, but not the Spirit

Unacceptable

From the microfilm room of the National Archives, Washington DC branch. It’s a recycling bin, I think.

On a related note: archives are fun, but so are days where you don’t have to empty your pockets and have all your personal effects X-rayed to go get a cup of coffee.

(Also: sorry for the poor image quality, but I didn’t want to use a flash in a dimly-lit microfilm room, and possibly incur the wrath of whatever humorless troll made this sign)

Bonus!

Just a normal phone, no?

BombThreat_small1

Oh but wait there is a helpful danger list! (click to embiggen)

BombThreat_small2

From another (undisclosed) high-risk government office, where they keep moldy papers from 19th-century amateur science clubs. Woot!

Our Glorious National Heritage, The Past is a Foreign...Something

The Engine of American Diplomacy

daelnorwood

Or, Choo-Choo! Goes the Tariff Negotiation

Mariposa

One of the clichés of East-West relations in the early modern era was the attempt to use representations of Western technology – especially maps and model machines – to awe non-Westerners into submission. Perhaps hoping for a repeat of Columbus’s trick with the lunar eclipse, Euro-American statesmen and diplomats apparently thought that the mere suggestion of the advanced state of Western civilization would be enough to persuade proud sovereigns to open ports, lower tariffs, and alienate land for the benefit of the major Atlantic-basin powers.

Needless to say, things rarely went down that way. In developed parts of Asia – and especially in China – these attempts repeatedly failed. The most famous of these faceplants was probably Great Britain’s 1793 embassy to China, led by Lord Macartney. The Chinese emperor declared the fancy clockwork the Brits brought – lugged across the world at great expense, and costing many man-hours to assemble – as “good enough to amuse children.” Bafflingly, the stopped cogs and wheels the Brits brought as gifts failed to make the gates to the Middle Kingdom fly off their hinges.

However, this failure – as in so many other instances of cross-cultural contact – did not impede others from flattering through imitation.
Continue reading “The Engine of American Diplomacy” →

Uncategorized

Kickass Whig Letterhead

daelnorwood

Or, Goodness that looks expensive and full of republican virtue

So, in digging through various (endless) letters about the election of 1840, I’ve come across a couple of examples of extreme dedication to the Whig cause: William Henry Harrison letterhead.

Here’s one of a coin apparently minted in Harrison’s honor (click to embiggen):

WHH_small1

Here’s one with WHH in profile, with a vignette at his famous log cabin, complete with hard cider (click to embiggen):

WHH_small2

How’s that for showing your dedication to the cause, eh? Buying reams of stuff stamped with ‘Ole Tip’s noble schnoz?

Sad thing is, these guys were probably stuck with it well after WHH’s untimely demise. Hopefully they had the tact not to use it …

I don’t know if the Democrats had similar stuff, though I’d expect so (but with, y’know, the Little Magician on it).

Knowledge Droppings, Our Glorious National Heritage

How did knowledge drop in Early America? Part II

daelnorwood

Because I know you were dying to find this out

packing_papers

Further reading in Cushing’s papers gives us some info at least approaching an answer to this query:

Dear Sir

I take an early opportunity to write to you on the subject of the Historical Society, agreeably to your obliging request. It was incorporated by the Legislature of this State, in the year 1809, when Clinton, Tompkins, Brockholst, Livingston, Bishop Moore, & other eminent men of that day, were among its active members. Its corporate name is, “The New York Historical Society.”

The Congressional Journals & Documents are regularly sent to the Society, but there are other publications to which we may be entitled – such as – the American State Papers, Diplomatic Correspondence, Gale & Seaton’s Debates, the Madison Papers, the Catalogue of the Library of Congress & of the State Department, &c.

I need not add, that should it be in your power to procure for our Library copies of any of these or other works published by Congress, you will confer a great obligation upon the Society.

The Library now contains about 12000 volumes, chiefly books of great value in connexion to the history of our country. Since my accession to the laborious office of Librarian, now nearly two years, more than a thousand volumes have been added, of which a great part have been donations; and it is my ambition to render it the most complete collection of books relating to America to be found in our country. …

~George Folsom to Caleb Cushing, New York, 11 Dec 1840, in Caleb Cushing Papers, Mss Division, Library of Congress

So: the New York Historical Society (or, as it affects itself to be now, the “New-York Historical Society“) was considered a “public” library eligible to recieve Congressional documents, though not by any means all government documents (hence the letter to Cushing).

Interesting. So “public” in the sense of being “public spirited” not, say, “open to the rabble,” like the later Carnegie-funded libraries would be. Now the next question is, how deep did this distribution go? Did libraries without the ambition to become the best collection of Americana also get government reports?

(Also: thanks to those who commented; I haven’t gotten a chance to do any secondary reading, but Alan Taylor’s William Cooper’s Town is on my list)

More to come.

Image cite: marsi, “packing papers,” Flickr, CC License