Edward Walsh Watercolor Sketches Now Digitized
The watercolor sketches of Edward Walsh, M.D. are some of the most frequently reproduced materials from the Clements Library. These sketches, done between 1803 and 1806 while Walsh served as a surgeon for the 49th Regiment of Foot at Fort George, Ontario, are vital visual resources for any scholar interested in the history of the Old Northwest. His depictions of Detroit and York (Toronto) are among the best and earliest known views of those settlements. His detailed renderings of Fort George...
Civil War-Era Valentine’s Day Print in the Peter H. Musty Papers
While serving as a drummer with the 61st Ohio Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, Ohio-native Peter Henry "Hank" Musty wrote many a letter to his friends and family back home. Hank was most often in communication with his parents and his brother Francis. He would occasionally send letters and illustrations depicting scenes of camp life. In one such letter to Francis, written sometime between April and May of 1863, Hank confided that he received "a valentine in a letter from 719y...
The Ins and Outs of Cataloguing Atlases
Many years ago, a fellow map librarian said to me, “If you want to study old maps, be ready to do gymnastics.” Those words stuck in my mind as I undertook to help a Dutch colleague by photographing all the maps in a series of Dutch atlases in our collection. As the picture shows, this endeavor is definitely a gymnastic affair. A ladder is required to get sufficient height to take in the sometimes very large maps folded inside the atlas. The sheer weight of some volumes demands muscle tone...
From the Stacks: Battle Estrays
Soldiers’ wartime letters and diaries sometimes contain references to items picked up on the battlefield or seized from enemy property. For example, the Henry Clinton Papers at the Clements Library contain letters and other materials captured or intercepted from Americans during the Revolutionary War. Battlefield artifacts such as bullets and other objects may be found in the realia collections of the Graphics Division. In the Book Division, we have traditionally catalogued books of this kind...
Locating the Gage Trunks
Every manuscript collection in the Clements has its own tale of survival and travels from the time of its creation until safely ensconced on the shelves of the Library. One of the most interesting is that of the papers of Thomas Gage (1719-1787), British commander-in-Chief in America from 1763 to 1775. It was on Gage’s watch that the American colonies exploded into rebellion, and his papers are critical to understanding events of the time.William L. Clements was fortunate to purchase the...
Map Division: Mapping Sugar Production
The hurricane season has once again seized our attention as enormously powerful storms form over the North African desert and move out to sea, drawing up moisture as they drift westward. Concern for family members who have moved to a warmer climate (and for permanent residents as well) draws more public awareness than usual to the waters south of the United States and help remind us that the Clements Library is not just a repository documenting mainland colonial and nineteenth-century...
A Story from Clements Library Lore: “Young Man, Make It Americana”
From its founding, the William L. Clements Library has dedicated its collecting efforts to the subject of American history. While some aspects of the collecting scope have changed over the years, we have generally held firm to the idea that items must be "Americana" in some fashion.Plato. [Platonis Opera omnia latine]. Colophon: Impressum Florentie per Laurentiũ [de Alopa] Venetũ, 1485. Soon after the Library's founding in 1923, our first Director, Randolph G. Adams, discovered the...
Out of the Ordinary Gems & Oddities Trivia Answers REVEALED
Many of you who visited our previous exhibit might have participated in the trivia challenge What Is That Thing? We invited visitors to identify objects in case 16. We can now reveal their names and purposes! Read what the mystery objects were below: First Item: Powder TesterThe first object is an eprouvette or gunpowder tester. To determine the quality of powder a small amount is placed in the tiny vertical barrel, the muzzle of which is covered with a flap connected to the notched...
Celebrating Mother’s Day at the Clements Library
In the late afternoon of October 22nd, 1831, Maria Bradford gave birth to a "plump & fat" little girl whose "good lungs, made a great noise the minute after she was born." "As soon as I heard the child cry," she remembered, "I began to laugh." Maria was admonished by the attending physician to neither laugh nor talk for several days so as not to "disturb [her] whole system," but as we read her letter in the Bradford Family Papers we get a glimpse of the overpowering joy that came upon...
The Robins of Spring
In early 1862, George Driver was serving on board the Highlander as a supply officer and doing his part for the Union cause, making his father enormously proud. The George Driver Family Papers include Stephen Driver's letter to his son dated March 2nd, which weaves together discussions of the Civil War and descriptions of home. Stephen looked to connect with George through mundane things like looking at the same new moon and listening to familiar birds singing. In a brief aside, Stephen notes...