On Jon’s Desk: Scrapbook of Clippings from New York Daily Tribune, a collection of newspaper clippings concerning the Utah War (1850s)

28 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in Recommended Lecture

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Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women's Legacy Archive Lecture, Albert G. Browne, Architectural History, Berkeley, clippings, College of Humanities, Department of History, Dianne Harris, Gould Auditorium, J. Willard Marriott Library, Johnston's Army, Judy Jarrow, National Council on the Humanities, National Humanities Alliance, New York Daily Tribune, President Barack Obama, scrapbook, The University of Utah, University of California, Utah, Utah Humanities Council

“The following letters were written to the Tribune from Camp Scott by Mr. ….. during my absence from the Camp from Jan 5. to May 27. 1858. During that interval I was employed on a journey to the States with despatches from Gen. Johnston to Gen. Scott, and in returning.”
– A. G. B., jr., handwritten note contained in Scrapbook of Clippings from New York Daily Tribune

Title: Scrapbook of Clippings from New York Daily Tribune

Compiled by: Albert G. Browne, Jr.

Printed: New York, 1857-1886

Edition of One (scrapbook)

Call Number: F826 N49

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I would describe the Scrapbook of Clippings from New York Daily Tribune as an outwardly ugly book containing a beautiful wealth of historical information and research value. Any historian who has spent hours searching microfiche will tell you that finding and assembling relevant newspaper articles for research can be brutal. A collection of related articles on a specific subject presented by a contemporary, primary source is, therefore, a veritable treasure trove. This is exactly what this scrapbook of clippings is. As a collection of newspaper article clippings from the New York Daily Tribune primarily from the 1850s on the topic of Johnston’s Army and its expedition to Utah it provides insight into the historical record of that time from an East Coast perspective (albeit resting upon accounts from witnesses present with the Army).

The Library of Congress describes the New York Daily Tribune in this way:

“Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune as a Whig party, penny paper on April 10, 1841, and would continue as its editor for the next thirty years. During Greeley’s tenure the Tribune became one of the more significant newspapers in the United States, and Greeley was known as the outstanding newspaper editor of his time. In 1924 the Tribune merged with the New York Herald to form the New York Herald Tribune, a publication which would remain a major United States daily until its demise.

“Distinguishing features of the early penny press were their inexpensiveness, their appeal to the average reader, their coverage of more and different types of news, and, in some instances, a marked political independence. Penny papers such as the New York Sun and the New York Herald were known for their emphasis on lurid crime reporting and humorous, human interest stories from the police court. The Tribune offered a strong moralistic flavor, however, playing down crime reports and scandals, providing political news, special articles, lectures, book reviews, book excerpts and poetry. As with other penny papers, the Tribune was not averse to building circulation by carrying accounts involving sex and crime, but it was careful to present this material under the guise of cautionary tales.

“Greeley gathered an impressive array of editors and feature writers, among them Henry J. Raymond, Charles A. Dana, Bayard Taylor, George Ripley, Margaret Fuller, and, for a while, Karl Marx served as his London correspondent. Reflecting his puritanical upbringing, Greeley opposed liquor, tobacco, gambling, prostitution, and capital punishment, while actively promoting the anti-slavery cause. His editorial columns urged a variety of educational reforms and favored producer’s cooperatives, but opposed women’s suffrage. He popularized the phrase “Go west, young man; go west!” The Tribune supported Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, but opposed his renomination in 1864.”

Please see the Library of Congress webpage here http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030213/ for more information on the New York Daily Tribune.

Also of interest is the provenance, or history, of the scrapbook, itself. According to stamps in the scrapbook it once belonged to the Catholic University of America. Why they chose to let this treasure go may perhaps always be a mystery. If you are interested in what the Catholic University of America is, please go to these links:

https://www.cua.edu/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_University_of_America

The Scrapbook of Clippings from New York Daily Tribune be just about the ugliest looking book you have ever seen, but it is an amazing historical source that likely has and will continue to save researchers much time and eyesight thanks to the scrapbooking skills of one newspaper clipper, Albert G. Browne, Jr., a century and a half ago.

– Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

Editors note:

We recommend the Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women’s Legacy Archive Lecture:

“Save Everything!: Reflections of a Historian on Archives of the Future”
Dianne Harris, Dean, College of Humanities and Professor of History
Tuesday, March 7 at 7PM
Gould Auditorium, Level 1
J. Willard Marriott Library
The University of Utah

For centuries, historians have been using primary source material preserved in archives — drawings, texts, artifacts of material culture [like this scrapbook!], and more — to shape their narratives of the past. How has the digital turn changed the ways historians now interact with primary sources? How has the availability of vast quantities of digital data shaped the nature of historical research? And what is the future of the archive in the digital era?

Please join Dean Dianne Harris as she discusses this topic from her perspective as an architectural and urban historian.

Dianne Harris is Dean of the College of Humanities at The University of Utah, where she is also a professor in the Department of History. She holds a PhD in Architectural History from the University of California, Berkeley. Dean Harris currently serves on the boards of the National Humanities Alliance, and the Utah Humanities Council. In 2015, she was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the National Council on the Humanities.

For more information contact Judy Jarrow at 801-581-3421 or judy.jarrow@utah.edu

On Jon’s Desk: Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words, without which we wouldn’t be celebrating Thesaurus Day

18 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk

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1854, Aristotle, Barnas Sears, classification schema, First American Edition, Gould and Lincoln, Leibniz, Peter Mark Roget, synonym, thesaurus, Thesaurus Day, Thesaurus of English Words

“Though it is the first work of its kind that has appeared in the history of our language, the completeness of its plan, and its fullness of detail, are such as to leave little to be supplied by others.”

– Barnas Sears (editor), Preface of the American Editor

Title: Thesaurus of English Words, so Classified and Arranged as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition

Author: Peter Mark Roget

Printed: Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1854

First American Edition

Call Number: PE1591 R7 1854

Did you know January 18^th is Thesaurus Day? You may be wondering how one celebrates Thesaurus Day. It’s simple. You just open a thesaurus.

A thesaurus is a reference work that lists the synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. The first thesaurus was created when British doctor and mathematician Peter Mark Roget developed an index of synonyms to aid him in his writing projects. He began collecting synonyms in about 1805 and by 1840 had decided that his index may be of interest to others. He retired from medicine and devoted the remainder of that decade to preparing his indexed collection of synonyms for publication.

Roget’s Thesaurus was released on 29 April, 1852, containing 15,000 words. The second edition was published in 1853. The first American edition followed in 1854. Over the past century and a half, numerous editions have been released and Roget’s Thesaurus has never been out of print. Over 32 million copies have been sold worldwide. Its impact on writing is immeasurable.

In the introduction to the first American edition, Roget explained:

“The present work is intended to supply, with respect to the English language, a desideratum hitherto unsupplied in any language; namely, a collection of the words it contains and of the idiomatic combinations peculiar to it, arranged, not in alphabetical order as they are in a dictionary, but according to the ideas which they express.”

Roget’s Thesaurus is composed of six primary classes. Each class is composed of multiple divisions and then sections. This may be conceptualized as a tree containing over a thousand branches for individual “meaning clusters” or semantically linked words. Although these words are not strictly synonyms, they can be viewed as colors or connotations of a meaning or as a spectrum of a concept. One of the most general words is chosen to typify the spectrum as its headword, which labels the whole group.

Roget’s schema of classes and their subdivisions is based on the philosophical work of Leibniz (symbolic thought), itself following a long tradition of epistemological work starting with Aristotle. Some of Aristotle’s Categories are included in Roget’s first class “abstract relations.”

Although the classification system Roget chose to use in his Thesaurus may seem abstract, without the decision to share his index with the world, writers (and speakers!) across the globe would not have benefited over the past century and a half from this wonderful literary tool. So on this Thesaurus Day let’s open the nearest thesaurus and take a look. Who knows, you may even have a copy of Roget’s Thesaurus on your shelf, long forgotten, but ready to assist you should you need to find just the “right”* word.

*correct, accurate, exact, precise, legitimate

-Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk: Snow and Snow Flowers, poetry for a snowy winter’s day

13 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk

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Canticle Press, Jarmila and Ian Milner, Lorraine Ferra, poetry, Sandra Hoben, Snow, Snow Flowers, The Snow Fort, The Westigan Review, Vladimir Holan

“It’s warm there, you cook yourself something, drink wine
and look out of the window at your friend eternity.”
– Vladimir Holan, Snow

Title: Snow

Author: Vladimir Holan

Printed: Canticle Press, with permission from Penguin Books Ltd., 1971

Edition of 100 copies

Translation: Jarmila and Ian Milner, 1971

Call Number: Z232.5 C3 H65

Title: Snow Flowers

Author: Sandra Hoben

Printed: Canticle Press, for the Westigan Review, 1979

Printer: Lorraine Ferra

Edition of 75; University of Utah’s copy is number 50.

Call Number: Z232.5 C3 H63

“Under the cloud cover,
sky and snow swirl together
without shadow,
I give into the speed.”
– Sandra Hoben, Snow Flowers

“I build a snow fort
under the apple tree,
with bridges and canopies.”
– Sandra Hoben, The Snow Fort

Snow has finally fallen at the University of Utah, kicking off the ’16-17 winter season. With temperatures in the teens and twenties, we need something to warm our hearts. Which is why we went in search of these amazing poems. So grab a blanket and let these poems, beautifully printed by Canticle Press, warm you up while you look out the window as the snow falls.

For more information about Vladimir Holan, visit this page:

http://mypoeticside.com/poets/vladimir-holan-poems#block-gallery-poet

Sandra Hoben’s poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Antioch Review, Estero, Field, How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets, Ironwood, Partisan Review, Quarterly West, Tangled Vines, Three Rivers Poetry Journal, and Western Humanities Review, and in a chapbook, Snow Flowers from Westigan Press. She has taught at World College West, University of Utah, and in California and Utah Poets-in-the-Schools programs. Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, she inherited her wanderlust from her great-grandmother, Mary Murphy, who had traveled from Dublin to New England, but who was never able to make it all the way to Los Angeles.

http://www.speechlessthemagazine.org/take4.htm

Lorraine Ferra was born and raised in Vallejo, California, a seaport on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. At the age of nineteen, Lorraine’s mother died of cancer. This loss left her directionless, overturning her desire to become a newspaper columnist and leading her to the decision to enter the convent. She was a nun for seven years, majoring in theology and education and eventually teaching in Catholic schools. After leaving the convent, she was offered a position as curriculum director in the Salt Lake City Diocese. While living in Salt Lake, she pursued seminars in modern and contemporary poetry and creative writing under the directorship of the poet, Robert Mezey, at the University of Utah. She was accepted to the Utah Arts Council’s Poets-in-the-Schools program and was awarded a Utah Arts Council Award in Literature.

-Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk: Military Unit Histories — Putting a Face to the Historical Contributions of our Armed Forces Service Members

11 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk

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10th Cavalry Regiment, 19th Infantry, 22nd U.S. Infantry, Armed Forces, Captain George J. Godfrey, Colonel David S. Stanley, General S. Jesup, John J. Pershing, Major Edward Glass, Major General J. G. Harbord, Veteran's Day

“The record of the phenomenal growth and expansion of our country is resplendent with the contributory and glorious achievements of its Army. From the pioneer days when our forefathers carved their way into wilds and dangers of the west to the present, the Army has played a most important part in shaping the destiny of this country.”

– General John J. Pershing, 1921, from the Foreword of History of the Tenth Cavalry, 1866-1921

Title: A History and Photographic Record of the 19th Infantry, U.S.A.

Compiled by: [Unknown]

First Edition

Published: [Not identified], 1918

Call Number: UA 29 19th H57 1918

“The officer of the Old Nineteenth who seems to couple the present organization with that of the past is General S. Jesup, who as Major performed gallant service with the regiment at the battles of Chippewa and Niagara. In less than a year after his death, June 10, 1860, there came an imperative demand for troops and the “sleeping forces” were again called into service. Among them, born of the intensest patriotism, came the New Nineteenth Infantry.”

– Introduction, A History and Photographic Record of the 19th Infantry, U.S.A.

Title: History of the Tenth Cavalry, 1866-1921

Compiled and Edited by: Major Edward L. N. Glass, 10^th Cavalry Regiment

First Edition

Published: Tuscon, Arizona: Acme Printing Company, 1921

Pages: 145

Call Number: UA 31 10th G5 1921

“In these days of unrest and uncertainty, inevitable after such a war as nearly wrecked our civilization, the rallying points in our service must be in the study of our military history and the preservation of our ancient traditions. There are few regiments in any service which can point to a half century of better history than can the Tenth United States Cavalry, of which the writer is proud that he was once an officer.”

– Major General J. G. Harbord, 1921, from the Introduction of History of the Tenth Cavalry, 1866-1921

Title: History of the Twenty-second United States Infantry, 1866-1922

Written by: Captain W. H. Wassell & Captain Daniel S. Appleton

Compiled by: Major O. M. Smith

Edited by: Colonel John McA. Palmer & Major William R. Smith

First Edition

Published: [Not identified], 1922

Pages: 162

Call Number: UA 29 22nd H57 1922

“September 21, 1866 in pursuance of the Act of Congress of July 28, 1866, the designation of the Second Battalion, Thirteenth Infantry, was changed to the Twenty-second Regiment of Infantry, which title the regiment has borne to the present day [1922].

The first Colonel of the Twenty-second was David S. Stanley, who commanded the regiment for eighteen years, until he was appointed a Brigadier-General in 1884.”

– History of the Twenty-second United States Infantry, 1866-1922, page 2

“General Orders No. 10

June 4^th, 1900

Headquarters 22^nd U. S. Infantry, Arayat, Luzon, Philippine Islands.

Captain George J. Godfrey, 22^nd U.S. Infantry. Killed in action. Shot through the heart. His military record closed. A brilliant career ended.

Deeds, silent symbols more potent than words proclaimed his Soldier worth. The histories of the 5^th and 8^th Army Corps are his.

Official recommendation but emphasized what all men knew.

Cuban soil saw his valor.

Under a tropical sun, on the morn of June 3^rd, 1900, among the lonely fastnesses of the Bulacan mountains, as victory crowned the combat, he gave “for the flag,” the life he had dedicated to his country.

His mind was trained for the profession of arms.

His heart and impulses were generous.

Conscientious and zealous discharge of duty were his guiding tenets. He sought no preferment through avenues foreign to the service. His first thought was his country’s cause – personal ambition his last.

…

Into the unspeakable grief which moves the hearts of those who dwell in our far distant land, we dare not enter.

In silence and with memory filled with sorrow, the regiment stands and mourns with them – for our brother.

By order of Major Baldwin:

(Sgd) H. C. Hodges,

Captain, 22^nd Infantry,

Adjutant.”

– History of the Twenty-second United States Infantry, 1866-1922, pages 76-77

Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus — a spooky reminder of the price of over-ambition

31 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in Book of the Week, On Jon's Desk

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19th Century Literature, Ambition, Brothers Grimm, Creature, Frankenstein, Frankestein Castle, Galvanism, Germany, Gersheim, Johann Conrad Dippel, Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Monster, Murder, North Pole, Percy Shelley, re-animation, Scientific Discovery, Spooky, Switzerland, Theodor von Holst, Victor Frankenstein

1831 edition illustrations by Theodor von Holst

“The day of my departure at length arrived.”

Title: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus

Author: Mary W. Shelley

The National Library (Third) Edition; First Illustrated Edition

Published: London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831

Pages: 200; Introduction and Preface included.

Call Number: PR5397 F7 1831

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley wrote the majority of Frankenstein during the summer of 1816 while vacationing in Switzerland with friends, her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley among them, and completed the work in 1817. She was twenty years old when the story was first published in 1818. The story received very mixed reviews. Shelley revised it (to make it more conservative) for the third edition. She also included an extended introduction, in which she described how she came to write it:

“In the summer of 1816, we visited Switzerland, and became neighbors of Lord Byron. … But it proved a wet, ungenial summer, and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house. Some volumes of ghost stories, translated from the German into French, fell into our hands. … “We will each write a ghost story,” said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded to.” (Introduction, pages vii – viii)

She went on to describe a conversation between Lord Byron and Percy Shelley concerning galvanism (the contraction of the muscle when stimulated by electric current), during which the question arose as to whether a creature might “be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth” (Introduction, page x) through this process. Her participation in this discussion led to a sleepless night and acted as the catalyst for the creation of her shocking story.

"Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had gone by, before we retired to rest. ... behold the horrid thing stands at his bedside, opening his cutrains, and looking on him wsith yellow, watery, but speculative eyes." - Mary Shelley, Introduction, Pages X & XI

“Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had gone by, before we retired to rest.” – Mary Shelley, Introduction, Page X

One other probable source for the foundation of Mary Shelley’s story exists. Traveling along Germany’s Rhine River in 1814, she stopped at the city of Gersheim. Ten miles from this city was Frankenstein Castle, where two centuries earlier an alchemist had engaged in experiments and allegedly exhumed bodies to use for conducting medical research. It is possible that Mary Shelley had heard the tale told by the Brothers Grimm about the alchemist Johann Conrad Dippel’s accidental creation of a monster when one of the bodies under study re-animated after being struck by lightning. Despite Shelley’s stay in Gersheim, a link between her story and this tale has not conclusively been made.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the story of a young, ambitious scientist, named Victor Frankenstein, who discovers a technique to impart life to non-living matter. Using large body parts, due to the difficulty of manipulating small ones, Victor creates an eight foot tall monster with yellow eyes and skin that barely conceals the blood veins beneath. The young scientist is severely disappointed with his creation’s grotesqueness and abandons it, causing it to suffer torment and ridicule.

After some months the creature finds the scientist in the mountains, where he has fled out of guilt, and begs his creator to take him in. Victor refuses and the creature is subjected to rejection at every turn. The creature swears vengeance on his creator for bringing him into a world that hates him and returns to the Frankenstein family estate, where he murders the scientist’s brother. The creature again confronts the scientist and demands that he return to his research and produce a wife for it. Victor Frankenstein, afraid for the safety of his family and friends, agrees, but after commencing the work becomes increasingly concerned the creature will spawn a new race of monsters if its wish is fulfilled. The scientist reverses his decision and destroys his own work.

Shortly thereafter Victor marries and the creature murders his new wife. Victor chases the creature to the North Pole, where he is found by a crew of explorers. Dying of hypothermia, Victor relates his tragic story to the crew’s Captain. After Victor dies the Captain sees the creature on the ship, mourning the death of his creator. The creature tells the Captain that Victor’s death has not brought him peace, rather it has left him completely alone. The creature then vows to commit suicide so that no one will ever know of its existence. The Captain watches as the creature drifts away on an ice raft, never to be seen again.

In Frankenstein, Victor obsesses over creating life in an unnatural way. He lets his desire to push scientific boundaries cloud his ability to make a responsible decision concerning his work. This ultimately leads to terrible consequences for Victor and his family. As Victor dies from his over-exposure to the harsh environment of the North Pole, he warns the Captain against over-ambition. This warning plays a role in the Captain’s decision to not continue his scientific expedition and possibly saves the lives of him and his crew.

Victor’s ambition and poor decisions concerning his work lead to the murder of multiple people he loves and then finally to his own premature death. The creature commits these crimes as a way to punish Victor, much like a child lacking attention will resort to lashing out in negative ways to force an interaction with a parent. The story evolves from one of scientific discovery to one of horror only after Victor rejects the creature.

Victor’s creation repeatedly reaches out to him and is continuously rejected. The creature understands that it is the ability to form a connection with another that makes one human. He tries to blackmail Victor into creating a wife and, in that way, fulfill this need. Again Victor denies it of the one thing that would make it human, continuing its neglect and alienation. The reader must contemplate how differently the story may have ended if Victor had formed a loving connection with the creature quickly after bringing it to life. It is spooky to consider in what ways our ambition may block the forming of these vital connections. To what level are we Victor and to what level are we the creation?

Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk: A gift from Dr. Ronald Rubin serves as a patriotic reminder

12 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in Book of the Week, On Jon's Desk

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American Revolution, Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, Great Britain, James Madison, patriotism, printers, propaganda, Revolutionary War, S. Woodworth & Co., Star Spangled Banner, The Defense of Fort McHenry, The War. Being a Faithful Record of the Transactions of the War between the United States and their Territories and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United States, War of 1812

The War, Title Page

Title: The War. Being a Faithful Record of the Transactions of the War between the United States of America and their territories and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Volume 1. Issue Numbers 1 -52, dated 27 June 1812 – 15 June 1813

Printed by: S. Woodworth & Co., New York

Pages: 218

The War, Vol. 1, No. 1, Page 1

James Madison has the unfortunate distinguishment of being the first President of the United States to ask Congress to declare war on another nation. In the early nineteenth century the United States struggled as a young nation against more powerful countries for legitimacy. Americans were mostly farmers and, having thrown off the chains of British oppression by winning the Revolutionary War, most returned to their plows. In succeeding in their worthy cause they wounded deeply the pride of the great lion across the Atlantic Ocean. For the British it was a stinging wound not easily forgotten. The American Revolution stopped many infringements in the former colonial states, but Britain continued to teach the traitorous Americans a “lesson” abroad.

In early 1812 the executive leader of the infant nation knew that without further action his country would continue to suffer under economic bondage resulting from Britain’s policies. After diplomatic solutions failed, President James Madison made a report to Congress on the continued abuses laid upon the country by Great Britain and requested the country declare war against the abusers. His request resulted in the War of 1812, a conflict that gave us our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” and ultimately culminated in greater legitimacy as a sovereign nation.

More than slightly ironic, the United States’ federal government itself at the time fought for legitimacy. The state governments were powerful and for most citizens the necessity for war with Great Britain ended with the winning of the Revolution. Public opinion precluded support for a war because if there is one aspect of war that is constant and unchanging it is that war is expensive. No one wanted to pay for a war. How then would the federal government generate the support necessary to successfully defeat another nation with arguably the most powerful navy of the period? The answer: information. People needed to know why it was important to once again challenge Great Britain and be educated on the stakes of not doing so.

Printers played a crucial role in accomplishing this. They printed and sold newspapers, generating support for the federal government’s decision to declare war on Great Britain. Historians refer to this as war propaganda.

Printer’s Advertisement

The word “propaganda” holds many negative connotations, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and perspective matters. The act of uniting the United States would have been impossible without it. In the first issue of The War. Being a Faithful Record of the Transactions of the War between the United States of America and their territories and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland the editor tells the reader that the object, or purpose, of this publication includes: “To diffuse knowledge in the art of war, by communicating improvements calculated to render courage efficient against the enemy” and “To hand down to posterity the names of those heroes of America, who, by patriotism or courage, will signalize themselves in the present contest.”

The first issue of the publication provides the reader with a brief history in regards to the necessity of the American Revolution. The section ends with the conclusion that the United States’ quick recovery from that war led to its ability to economically compete with Great Britain and consequently caused that nation to become envious. The paper then offers two reports given by President Madison on the acts and injustices committed against the United States by Great Britain.

In issue number two the reader is confronted with examples of acts of patriotism and support. One section with the title “PATRIOTISM” offers an open invitation, almost a challenge, to the reader. One entry reads:

A Call for Patriotic Action

Support for the war did come from the nation’s citizenry and ultimately the United States succeeded in proving its sovereignty.

On September 12^th, 1814 Frances Scott Key witnessed an attack on Baltimore, Maryland’s Fort McHenry from aboard a British ship. The next day he wrote a poem he titled “The Defense of Fort McHenry.” It was printed in newspapers. The United States’ victory at Fort McHenry in September 1814 turned the war in its favor. Frances Scott Key’s poem began to be sung set to a popular English tune (“To Anacreon in Heaven”) and in 1931 became our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Without support-generating propaganda such as The War, the United States may not have won the War of 1812 and we might be singing something other than “The Star Spangled Banner” at patriotic events. The War provides a glimpse into what the leaders of a young nation two hundred years ago needed from the country’s citizens in order to become the nation it is today.

Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

Editor’s note: Dr. Ronald Rubin has been a generous supporter of the Rare Books Department for years. For more about his donations see Dr. Rubin.

Thank you, Dr. Rubin!

On Jon’s Desk: Uncle Tom’s Cabin — not just some backwoods book

24 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk

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Abraham Lincoln, American Frontier, Civil War, Clarke & Co., Early Great Britain Edition, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jewett Proctor & Worthington, John P. Jewett & Company, Jon Bingham, slavery, U.S. First Edition, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Title Page, U.S. First Edition, March 1852

Title Page, Early Great Britain Edition, May 1852

Title: Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly (United States) / Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Negro Life in the Slave States of America (Great Britain)

Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe

First Edition (U.S.) / Early Edition (G.B.)

Published: Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1852; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852 (U.S.) / London: Clarke & Co., 1852 (G.B.)

Pages: U.S. edition comprised of two volumes; volume one with 312 pages and volume two with 322 pages. G.B. edition is single volume containing 380 pages. U.S. edition contains six full page illustrations; G.B. edition contains fifty full page illustrations.

Call Number: PS2954 U5 E52a (U.S.) / PS2954 U5 1852 (G.B.)

U.S. First Edition, Illustration, Page 62

Early Great Britain Edition, Illustration, Page 125

When Harriet Beecher Stowe conceived Uncle Tom’s Cabin during the early 1850’s she was living in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the time part of the western frontier. Living in Cincinnati, directly across the Ohio River from the slave state of Kentucky, Stowe was exposed to fugitive slaves and often heard firsthand accounts of the horrors experienced by formerly enslaved people. Sympathetic to their suffering, she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to expose the tragedies she was hearing about and included many aspects of the firsthand accounts she had heard into the story.

In her concluding remarks Stowe assures us the story is based on true events. She wrote,

“The writer has often been inquired of, by correspondents from different parts of the country, whether this narrative is a true one; and to the inquiries she will give one general answer.

The separate incidents that compose the narrative are to a very great extent authentic, occurring, many of them, either under her own observation or that of her personal friends. She or her friends have observed characters and the counterparts of almost all that are here introduced; and many of the sayings are word for word as heard herself, or reported to her.”

Stowe’s story from the backwoods of the western frontier became immediately successful throughout the country and quickly thereafter throughout the Western Hemisphere. Initially released as a weekly serial in a newspaper called The National Era from June 1851 to April 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was then printed by John P. Jewett and released March 20, 1852. It sold 3,000 copies the first day, 10,000 copies in the first week, and in the United States 300,000 copies the first year. In Great Britain 200,000 copies were sold the first year, with sales there reaching 1.5 million copies after only a few years. Many of these were infringing, or pirated, editions, having been printed and sold without permission by the copyright owner.

In today’s terms we would say Uncle Tom’s Cabin went viral overnight. Stowe ignited a spark with her writing that caused flames to rise on multiple continents. Her novel brought compassion to the heated economic debate already centuries old, an emotion many had worked hard to suppress. The pen and paper Stowe put to incredible use in a city on the edge of the American frontier played an unquestionable role in history. Ten years after the novel’s publication, when U.S. President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he remarked, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!”

Stowe’s concluding admonition in the novel’s final comments is a strong rebuke on the nation and, as seen by the popularity of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Great Britain, was found completely fitting for application on the world at the time as a whole. She wrote,

“Not by combining together to protect injustice and cruelty, and making a common capital of sin, is this Union to be saved – but by repentance, justice, and mercy; for not surer is the eternal law by which the millstone sinks in the ocean, than that stronger law by which injustice and cruelty shall bring on nations the wrath of Almighty God!”

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a critique on the most divisive topic of her time more than one hundred and sixty years ago. Holding these historic editions and reading these words helps us to realize that even after all this time there is a great deal left to accomplish in protecting justice and mercy. Little wonder millions of copies of Uncle Tom’s Cabin have been sold; perhaps a few million more need to be.

Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

OPEN BOOK

~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

Author Archives: Jonathan Bingham

On Jon’s Desk: Scrapbook of Clippings from New York Daily Tribune, a collection of newspaper clippings concerning the Utah War (1850s)

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On Jon’s Desk: Uncle Tom’s Cabin — not just some backwoods book

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