The uartoISSUED FOR THE CLEMEI'TS LIBRARY ASSO CI ATES

'Dear Clements Library Associates:

X HE CLEMENTS LIBRARY is presently embarkedu po n a $200 ,000 fu nd -ra ising proj ect to bette radapt wo rk space to present uses, increase theshelv ing area, re fu rbi sh furnishings , and maximizebuild ing security. The library str uc tu re is sixty ­years-old thi s spring .

As bu ilding proj ects go, ou r effort is a mod estone , but th e accomplishments will he substant ialand of pressing im po rtance to us an d to Libra ryusers. Anew , comb ine d bo ok and map readingroom, a tot ally secure vault for OUf exce ptionallyrare atlases, and a repair room will be created fromexist ing space on the gro u nd floor. An office on thefirst floo r will he transforme d into an a tt rac tiveseminar room, aw ay from the bustle of regularLibrary business, for classes and small gro ups visit­ing the Lib rary. A secure, closed-stack storage areawill be created on the second floor for manuscr ipts.Stac k space will be signi fica nt ly enla rged by re­arranging existing shelving -providing five to tenyears of room until we must meet the next challengeof building expansion. In addition, the Lib rarybadly needs a m icrofilm reader, two photoduplica­tion mach ines , and fu nds to pu rchase a co mputerterminal for cataloging purposes.

A committee is now work ing to secu re su ppo rt,and they will be contacting many of you on an indi­vidual basis. T he com m itte e includes Keith D .jensen, Chairman, and Robert P. Briggs, C. E.Frazer C la rk, J r ., Roy M . Tolleson, Jr. , M rs. H ar­riet U pton, and john D. W heeler. If you have aninterest in ass isting us at this crucial j unct ure, orhave suggestions as to sou rces of support, com­mittee members or the Library d irector would wel­co me the opp or tunity to speak with you. W ith yourassistance , the Clements Libra ry of the 1980's willbe even better able to cont inue the tradition ofservice for wh ich , as well as the unique collections,the Libra ry is kn own throug ho ut the world of his­torical schola rship.

Since rely you rs ,J ohn C . DannD irecto r, Clements Libra ry

NU M BER 137, J UNE, 1983

I nterview with Dr. Franklin

TH E NEWEST COLLECTION on the Manuscript D ivi­sion shelves, purchased in April by the C leme ntsLibra ry Assoc iates, is the Fenno-Hoffm an archive,over 400 pieces spann ing three gene rations of amost gifted family of the early na tional pe riod. Thefou nd er of the family is j ohn Fen no , who edited theGazette of the United States at New York and laterPhiladelphia from 1789 until his unt im ely de ath b yyellow feve r in 1798 at the age of for ty-seven . Apaper fosterin g Federalist politi cs, the Gazette wasbefriended by Alexander H amilton , who not onlywro te for it b ut more than once personally bailed itou t of bankruptcy .

In the spring of 1789, J oh n Fe n no left his fam ilyin Boston and went to New Yor k to set up hi s news­paper . Purchase of type necessita ted further travelto Phi ladelphia and wh ile he wa s there he "wa itedupon the vene ra ble Dr. Franklin ." H e desc ribed anin timate interv iew wit h the eighty-three-year-oldsta tesman in a letter to his wife, Polly, dated M arch8, 1789 (a year before Fra nklin's dea th):

"I found him reading -there were two orthree of his gra ndc hildren in the room, wh oappeared to be very fond of him & very playful& happy in his compa ny . . . . O wing to the di s­order wit h which he has been long afflicted, thestone, he is obliged to kee p hou se- thi s con­finement ha s taken off the florid ity of hi sCountenance-but otherwise , he is fleshy &his venerable grey locks adorn as fine a Cou n­tenance as eighty years ever wore. I washo noured with about an hou r's conversa tionupon several subjects and , excepting a certainuneasiness which indicated some bo dily pain ,he ap peared to possess himself, his judgment ,his recollect ion, hearin g & see ing fu lly, and asto his memory it wa s su rprizing. Certain inci­de nts, that the cou rse of events in hi s life hadhad no tendency to fix in hi s m ind, tho' of avery remote da te , were called u p with a won­derful faci lity , and it appears to me , that washe as free from the sto ne , as he is from every

THE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSOCIATESof The University of Michigan

BOARD O F GOVERNO RS

Appointed by the R egents of the University

Mrs. John Alexander, Ann Arbor

Mrs. Noyes L. Avery, Jr. , Grand RapidsRobert P . Briggs, Elk RapidsMrs. Margaret B. Cameron, Ann Arbor

C. E. Frazer Clark , Jr. , Bloomfield H illsBly Corning, Flint

Thom as N . Cross, Ann Arbor

Duane N . Diedrich, Muncie, Ind.,V IC E C HA I R M AN

Harlan H . H atcher, A nn ArborWalter Hayes, Ann Arbor

Peter N . Heydon, A nn A rbor

Dr. Thomas C . Kingsley, Atlanta, Ga.James M . Klan cnik , ChicagoJames S. Schoff, N ew YorkRo y M . Tolleson , J r,, Detroit

Mrs. David F. Upton , St. J oseph, C HAI R M AN

Lee D . van Antwerp , Northbrook, Ill .J ohn D . Wh eeler, Bay CityJohn C . Dann , Director of the Library ,

SEC RETARY

other complaint, he might live & enjoy himselffor twenty ye ars to come.

"He informed me that he had worn spec­tacles fifty years - he had th em on , & as theyappeared to be d ifferently cons tru cted fromany I had seen , th e circu ms ta nce led to someenquiry-each Eye appeared to be formed oftwo pie ces of glas s divided horizontally - he

___~_.,,;i~formed m e th a t he h~d always worn such -

low er to read with. He ne ver was near sig htedor had weak eyes - the defect in his vision wasblending & confusin g the ra ys of ligh t so as to

obscu re th e object. . . . The Doctr sa ys he ob­served spots in his Eyes when very young­notwith standing all th is, h is Eyes do not yetfail him ."

A uthor, A uthor

TUE C LEMENTS M ANUSCRIPT DIVISIONhas catalogedtwo letters written by 19th·century literary figures .Both we re gifts from Board m ember DuaneNorman Diedrich, and have been added to theDied rich Collection of m anuscripts concerning thearts, ed uca tion, and social histo ry.

The fir st of these lett ers is from C ha rles an dC atherine Dickens, d ated at H artford, Connecti­cut, February 10, 1842. It is a thank-you note, inD ickens' hand but sig ned by both, expressingappreciation to one J. H . Ad ams "fo r the exq uisitepleasure we rec eived last ni ght . . . your most beauti­ful serenade . If you knew how much delight itafforded us , and how many thoughts of home an dth ose wh o make it dearest, your cha rm ing perfor­mance awakened; you would feel how inadequateth is acknow ledgement is, almost as stro ngly as wedo. " The note was written at the beginning ofDickens' famed American tour , and documents thefact that although the a uthor went home to En glanddi sen chanted with America in general , there werefavorable moments alon g the way.

The other letter was written on January 23,1898, by Theodore Dreiser to a fr ien d. In it , hemakes a very private remark th at correc ts an erro rgenerally held as tru th . Dreiser writes:

"Pau l [Dreiser's brothe r , Paul Dresser] isbe in g newly ble ssed . H e has another song suc ­cess entitled 'O n th e Banks of th e Wabash .' Itis being sung like Just T ell Them That YouSaw Me' was, all over th e coun try . He willprobably clear $10,000 more on it.

"['II tell you somet hing, bu t you mu sn 'r tell itto anyone . I wrote the words, and gave th emto him out r ight , in sisti ng that he shou ld takeall the credit, as song writing is hi s field, notmine . I smile some tim es to think . It seemsstrange to hear people singing the words every­wh ere . I wr ote the words in an hour andalthou gh no one will ever know, it ' is arediculous [sic] tou ch of sa tisfac tion I get ou t ofhearing it."

All t h i nu~ r-ome tn those who wa it . Mr. Dreiser.

Spirit World

THE LIBRARY'S EXHIBIT from June 13 to August 1 is"Spirits Among Us : America and the Supernatural."A 400-year time span is covered, from a 1584volume published in England by Reginald Scott,The Discouerie of Witcluraft, to sheet music dated1894-J. Cheever Goodwin's comic song about amagician, "The Only Simon Pure." Galen Wil son ,manuscript curator, prepared the display .

The exhibit is designed to reflect America's inter­action with the spirit world, specifically that parttypified by devils rather than angels . Topicsexamined are the theological basis for belief inspirits , representations of Satan in American artand literature, popular belief in witchcraft, theSalem witchcraft trials of 1692, ghosts, belief in thepower of certain numbers , 19th-century spir itu al­ism , fortune-telling, mesmerism, and magic .

Is the spirit world real? This answer by C . S.Lewis is offered in the exhibit's title case: "There aretwo equal and opposite errors into which our racecan fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve intheir existence . The other is to believe, and to feelan excessive and unhealthy interest in them . Theythemselves are equally pleased by both errors, andhail a materialist or a magician with the samedelight."

The Peacemaking: 1782-3

JOHN ADAMS, with his characteristic sense of histori­cal drama, described the peace negotiations whichestablished the United States as an independentnation as "one of the most important political eventsthat ever happened on this globe ." Looking backover the tortuous months that preceded the signingof the preliminary peace on November 30 , 1782,Adams reflected on his own role and what it mightmean for posterity:

"However feebly I may have acted my Part. . . yetthe Situations I have been in between angry Na­tions and more angry Factions, have been some ofthe most singular and interesting that ever hap­pened to any Man. The Fury of Ennemies as wellas of Elements, the Subtilty and Arrogance ofAllies , and what has been worse than all , the Jeal­ousy, Envy, and little Pranks of Friends and Co­Patriots, would form one of the most instructiveLessons in Morals and Politicks, that ever was com­mitted to Paper." Adams had begun this diary entryfor December 4, 1782, with the hope that someday,someone would collect all the information relatingto the peace negotiations so that the story could befully told .

The Clements Library, from its founding, hasplayed an important role in the fulfillment of John

Adams' wish. The first manuscript collection pur­chased by William Clements was that of WilliamPetty, second earl of Shelburne, the ministerresponsible for conducting the British side of thenegotiations from the summer of 1782 until hisresignation in April, 1783, one month after anangry House of Commons had rejected his PeacePreliminaries. Subsequently, the Library acquiredimportant papers of other key figures in the ne goti­ations - David Hartley, Richard Oswald, GeorgeMontagu, 4th duke of Manchester, and ThomasTownshend, 1st viscount Sydney .

Randolph G. Adams, the Library's fir st director,made the peace negotiations the subject of his ownpersonal research. At a time in the mid-twentieswhen little scholarly attention had been given theseevents, Adams began the difficult task of locatingand copying material in foreign archives andprivate hands relating to the peacemaking.Although Adams did not live to see his history ofthe peace negotiations written, he left an invaluablerecord for scholars-notes, memoranda, photostats,and meticulous annotations of our manuscripts.

The Library will celebrate the bicentennial of thepeacemaking with two events. The fall RandolphG. Adams lecture will be given by Prof. BradfordPerkins of the University of Michigan HistoryDepartment, on "The Peace of Paris 1783: Per­sonalities and Possibilities. " An exhibition, "Peace­making: 1782-83," focusing on the British side ofthe negotiations, will be mounted in August andrun until the end of September.

A Cartographic Gift

THE LIBRARY was recently presented with a truelandmark of 18th-century American mapping: aperfect set of the maps which resulted from thefamous survey by Charles Mason and JeremiahDixon .

The two English astronomers spent several yearsresolving the boundary dispute between Pennsyl­vania and Maryland . They combined remarkablyaccurate scientific calculations with finely detailedtopographic features to produce a beautiful andimpressive representation of what became known asthe Mason-Dixon Line.

The maps were published in four strips on twosheets (Philadelphia, 1768). This extraordinarilygenerous gift was made by the Chew family ofPhiladelphia.

The Clements possesses one of the greatest collec­tions of early maps printed in America. The stan­dard reference source, Maps and Charts Published inAmerica before 1800: A Bibliography, was compiled bytwo former map curators at the Library, JamesClements Wheat and Christian F . Brun.

Seventeenth-century Rarity

"AMERICA N I NC U NA BULA ," printed items issued inthe colonies betwee n 1640 and 1699, always haveheld a special place in the hearts of A m erica na col­lector s. Ap proximately 1,000 imprin ts are know n,the vast majority printed from New Engla nd.

The Clements Library possesses one of the bettercollections of the se scarce relics of our ea rl ies t set tle­ments, our copies being especially notable in termsof cond ition . O n the average, we add one or two toth e collection in a year. As is true of ou r collectinggenerally , we pu t a premium on textual importance.

The sermon was the pre-eminent literary form of17th-centu ry Ameri ca to make its way into print,but besides a scattering of po litical sta teme nts, afew scientific piece s, a nd practical publica tions suchas al manacs, statutes , a nd governmental proclama­tions, there we re but ele ven titles which can be clas­sified as true hi storical narratives describing eventsin the colonies themselves. Along wi th the Bay Psalm

Book ( 1640), which we lack, and the Eliot IndianBihles (1663, 1685), which we have, these deserveto be conside red the most im portant of the 17th­century im prin ts in terms of primary histo ricalcontent .

Of the ele ven, three are general hi stories of NewEngla nd's settle ment: Nathaniel Morton's NlW Eng­land M emorial (1669) , Joshua Sconow's M assachusetts( 1696) , and C otton M a th er' s Decennium Luctosum(1699), which was reprinted in his Magnatia ChristiA mericana (London, 1702). Three were histories ofK ing Phillip's War -two by In crease Mather(1676), and William H ubbard's Narrative ( 1677),which has the added attraction of conta in ing thefirs t map prin ted in America. There we re a lso twohi stories of the witchcraft "delusion ," by C ottonMather and Deoda t Lawson.

Of the remainin g three, Ni cholas Bayard's a ndCharles Lodowick's A Narrative ofan Attempt M ath bythe French of Canada (1693) was printed in NewYork, and Jona th an Dickin son's God's ProtectingProvidence (1699) in Ph iladelphia . Of the se ten , theLibrary owns four in fir st American editions a ndfour in co nte mporary London editions.

The Library had the good for tune recently to

acquire th e one other 17th-century American his­torical na rra tive , A Jo urnalof the Proceedings of the LateExpedition to Port Royal (Boston, 1690). Recentlyfound in a M assachusett s attic, it is a n apparentlyunique copy in America, the only ot her one knownbeing at th e British Public Record Office .

The pamphlet is readable and important , theprim ary record of a n expeditionary military force inthe first of our world wars, King William's (1690-97).Fourteen vessels set out from Boston ha rbor on

April 23 , 1690 under com m a nd of the Massachu­setts governor, Sir William Phipps. Before theirreturn on May 30, th ey succeeded in di sruptingFrench se ttle ments at C astine a nd M ach ias, M a ine ,a nd Passamaquoddy Ba y, ca ptured Port R oyal(now A nnapo lis Royal) , a nd established a satelliteMassach usetts government over largely uninhab­ited Nova Scoti a . Di stance a nd European di ­plomacy at the Peace of R yswick (1697) wouldreturn the territory to France, but the memory ofthe expedition would remain as one of the relativelyfew mi litary successes of Amer ican for ces in thecolonial period .

Advicef or Divot Diggers

THE A SCIENT G AME OF Goi.r e- gouff, gowff, goff­was once di scouraged by th e British P arliament asinterfering with a rchery practice , a n infinitely moreuse ful skill than "chas ing a quinine pi ll around aforty-acre lot. " But go lf has come to stay, soSpalding's A thletic Library Official Golf Guide for 1898assures its readers . The number of courses in theUnited States has reach ed 700. This populari ty iseasily ex plai ne d . The beau ty of golf as a sport isthat it can be played by "the weak, the halt and them aim ed , the octogenarian and the boy, the ric h a ndthe poor, and bes t of all , the lad ies can play it , andplay it right well. "

N o one w ho has played golf o r lived with a go lferwill di spute Spalding's ass er tion tha t "T he re is nogame like it. " Generall y, these se ntime nts havemore to do with two-foot putts that slither past thehole than Spa lding's in siste nc e that no other ga mecan "g ive full play to muscle s, test the accu racy ofthe eye or th e even ness of the te mpe r."

The Official Golf Guide is a most useful book .Interspersed with advertisements for Spalding'sLong Spoons, Baffy , Brassie Niblics , Bu lgerDrivers, Cleeks and M ashi es (a ll with the finestwhite hickory shafts), and hi s Silvertown ball s(m olded from th e best gu tta pe rcha) a re the cons ti­tut ion , by-law s a nd rules of the U nited States G olfAssociation . For beginners, th ere are succinctinstructions: "T he obj ec t of the gam e is to put asmall ball into a series of hol es in the least numberof strokes."

N ow that th e Clements Libra ry has added TheSpalding Official Golf Guide for 1898 to its fine hold­ings on spo r ts, golfing Associates who need theproper word ca n consult its gloss a ry for usefulterms, like sclaff -"when th e club head str ikes theground behind the ball , and follows with aricochet. "