The William L. Clements Library recently acquired an extraordinary archive of 192 original sermons written between 1765 and 1780 by Rev. Joseph Bowman. Held in a private collection, the existence of the papers were previously unknown. The 2,000 page hand-written collection forms a significant corpus of religious writing that coincides with the final years of the First Great Awakening and continues through the American Revolution.
This was a unique opportunity for the Clements Library to add to its already strong collection of Revolutionary War holdings. Randolph G. Adams Director Paul Erickson was contacted by a Massachusetts-based dealer in rare books and manuscripts this past April. The Clements was the first institution he offered the Bowman Collection to. “After conferring with Curator of Manuscripts Cheney Schopieray about its fit with our extraordinary holdings related to the Revolutionary era, we jumped at the chance to acquire it.”
Born in 1734, Bowman was a Harvard-trained Congregationalist who served in Oxford, Massachusetts, and was a military chaplain in the Patriot cause. Bowman remained the Minister of First Congregational Church in Oxford throughout the duration of the Revolutionary War. Curator of Manuscripts Cheney Schopieray explains, “The Joseph Bowman sermons provide an unpublished wealth of information about the spiritual and temporal guidance given by a small town Massachusetts minister over the course of multiple decades in the 18th century.”
“It’s very unusual to have the chance to acquire an intact collection of this size from the Colonial era–collections often get broken up and dispersed over time,” adds Erickson. “It’s even more rare to have an opportunity to find a collection from a Revolutionary War chaplain.”
But, he says, “What is most exciting is the presence of sermons that were delivered to Continental soldiers during the siege of Boston.” Among the many compelling items in the archive are sermons that Bowman delivered to the army in July 1775 and February 1776, during the early stages of the War for Independence. These extraordinary examples of sermons to Continental troops, along with a 1777 address for men departing “into ye service of ye Country,” offer vivid insight into the moral, spiritual, and political world of Revolutionary-era New England.
The acquisition of the Bowman sermons will have an important impact on the scholarly research that occurs at the Clements Library. In addition to bolstering the library’s collections, the sermons will help researchers examine the relationship between religion and revolution in what would become the United States. “Scholars have debated for years the influence of religion on the American Revolution. The opportunity to see how one minister connected the war effort to questions of faith in the earliest months of the fighting is absolutely remarkable,” Erickson explains.
Schopieray concurs, stating, “They will offer scholars a unique window through which to view social, religious, and ideological changes over time in the decade leading up to and during the American Revolution.” While in the midst of our nation’s semiquincentennial,, there is a renewed national interest in the United States’ founding history. These sermons offer a new perspective on the lead up to the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the start of the Revolutionary War.
The Clements Library is embarking on a crowdfunding campaign to raise $40,000 for the collection’s acquisition. The Clements Library Board of Governors have generously offered a 1:1 match, doubling the impact of each donation to the campaign. When rare historic materials are up for sale, the decision to purchase the item must happen before the money can be raised. Under the care of Clements staff, the Bowman Archive will be conserved and made accessible to researchers who wish to learn about and from Bowman’s works.