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Nathan Raab, Curator, www.americashistory.org. The private sector and individual cases of philanthropy have long played a defining role in the public’s access to and preservation of manuscripts. Many of the nation’s great libraries, among them The Rosenbach Museum and Library, The Huntington Library and even the Library of Congress, are built in large part by private contributions. The 21st century brings with it a new breed of philanthropist and a new way for collectors to contribute to the historical legacy of our country – the Internet. With the private collector able to reach a broader audience and tell his or her collection’s story, the web also serves to blur the distinction between public and private collections – collector and institution.
One of the first to take that step is Americashistory.org, created by a collector of American manuscripts. In 2005, he launched the website, which displays a growing portion of his extensive collection and organizes his larger archives into sections that the public, schools, organizations, museums, and other groups can browse. His focus is the history of the American political system—letters written by Presidents, First Ladies, Cabinet Members, Signers of the Declaration, Speakers of the House, Chief Justices, and other prominent players in US history.
The scope of the collection has expanded annually to encompass, in addition to individual letters of great import, large presidential archives and important American primary resources. Many of these, coming directly from the descendents of the recipients themselves, were acquired before they even reached the public marketplace.
As an example, this year, the family of Thomas Jefferson sold a letter that had been in the family for 200 years. This letter, addressed to Martha Randolph and dated February 27 1809, was the last he wrote to his daughter (or any other family member) before leaving Washington and the presidency. In longing for a private life with his family, he discussed his slaves, his retirement and his dream of living off the land.
“I look with infinite joy to the moment when I shall be ultimately moved in the midst of my affections, and free to follow the pursuits of my choice. In retiring to the condition of a private citizen and reducing our establishment to the style of living of a mere private family, I have but a single uneasiness… Ignorant, as I am, in the management of a farm, I shall be obliged to ask the aid of Mr Randolph’s skill and attention, especially for that of Tufson, when it comes to me. It will be my main dependence, and to make it adequate, with my other Albemarle resources, to support all expenses, will require good management.”
Evidence of mounting places this letter on walls of the descendents of Martha Randolph from as early as the middle 19th century. It had been passed from female heir to female heir for many generations.
Another collection documents the life and views of an American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and consists of the entirety of his correspondence with his older and more politically conservative brother Edgar. Like the Jefferson letter, this collection came to Americashistory.org from the family descendents. It contains more than 300 letters, including approximately 180 letters from Ike and the retained copies of Edgar’s letters to him.  | Thomas Jefferson autograph letter signed, adressed to Martha Randolph and dated February 27 1809.
Courtesy of AmericasHistory.org |
The letters span Ike’s days as Chief Allied Commander in World War II through his presidency and well into his retirement years. Often marked “confidential” or “secret,” they contain extraordinary content and reveal a thoughtful, reflective, and selfless public servant. Some were also recently part of an exhibit at the grand opening of the Gettysburg branch of the Eisenhower Institute.
On December 6, 1951 while he was Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and with his name being mentioned as a candidate for president, Ike wrote of his hopes for a life less complicated.
“My personal ambition has remained unchanged for a number of years. It includes a hope that I may withdraw into a more reasonable tempo of daily duties and pressures than I have been confronting during this entire decade. I would like to go to a farm and operating from there I should like occasionally to meet with people whose opinions I respect, to exchange with them views and ideas as to how greater interest can be aroused in the essentials of Americanism and what the individual might do to further such efforts. I should like to remain completely unpartisan and devoted solely to the good of our country. To live this kind of a life with Mamie would, to my mind, constitute about the last word in contentment.”
The correspondence continued well into his presidency, revealing his thoughts on policy issues, such as the balance of the Executive and Legislative branches, the dangers of political extremism, and resistance to amending the Constitution. Interestingly, these are issues that resound today. In one such letter, Eisenhower writes on December 23, 1953:
“I have been ready to agree that no Treaty or Executive Agreement can have any effect if it contravenes the Constitution of the United States. . . . . But I shall never agree to the crippling of the Executive Power to the point that we become helpless in world affairs.”
The letters highlight a stark divide between Ike’s centrist views and his brother’s far more conservative stance. In a two page letter dated April 1, 1953, Ike writes:
"You seem to fear that I am just a poor little soul here who is being confused and misled by a lot of vicious advisers who are trying to draw unacceptable people into government.”
These letters are now available for the public’s enjoyment.
Many primary resources have become part of the collection and as a result made readily available to the public. Among these is the correspondence of Elizabeth Ellet, a 19th century historian who wrote Women of the American Revolution, still the definitive resource on the topic. In the late 1840’s, she set out to document the role of our founding mothers. At that point, only the letters of Abigail Adams and Mercy Warren had been published.
Ellet wrote hundreds of people over the course of several years and supplemented that with interviews and examinations of other manuscripts. The stories were harrowing, thrilling, humorous, interesting and inspirational. She gathered the narratives into her landmark three-volume set of books. There are scores of prominent women discussed, among them Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Sarah Bache (daughter of Benjamin Franklin), Dorothy Hancock (wife of John Hancock), and Rebecca Franks (anecdotes for whom were supplied in a letter from Rebecca Gratz, renowned Jewish philanthropist).
She received over 200 letters from more than 120 people on this subject, and retained these letters. From these letters she took entire chapters, though in some cases the letters contain material never published in her books, while in others the stories told are of the experience of families and not just the women. Ellet’s work was commendable not simply for its topic and scope but because it was an extremely early historical narrative (primary resource) drawn from first-hand accounts. She was more editor than author.
A selection of quotations offers a keen sense of the importance of the correspondence.
Rebecca Gratz is well known as an early and influential American Jew, and for her efforts as a feminist before that word existed. Her family was active Philadelphia’s first synagogue and she received a standard Jewish upbringing. She was also the first Jewish woman in the U.S. to go to college. She presided over many philanthropic causes and was said to be the model for Rebecca, the heroine of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. Her letters are rare. She is one of Ellet’s correspondents, offering us a glimpse of her heritage and details about her family and Rebecca Franks.
In part:
“[Rebecca Franks] was the daughter of David Franks, an Israelite merchant who must have emigrated to this country about a century ago...My father was recommended to his notice in the year 1759, as a youth coming to seek his fortune in the new world... Rebecca Franks was one of the belles of the Mishiansa, an entertainment given by English officers to Lord Howe on his leaving the army, an account of which you will find in the Annual Register for 1778...My brother was entertained at her house in Bath in 1810, where she was living in good style, exercising hospitalities and the social virtues with characteristic grace. He describes her person as of the middle height... fine eyes, frank and cheerful manners, and apparently living very happily...”
One stirring account comes from Lucy Knox Thatcher, daughter of Henry Knox, whose memories from her mother’s stories are an important primary historical resource crucial to an understanding of the Washingtons at Mount Vernon during the Revolution.
“During the last decisive action of the war, the siege of Yorktown, my mother remained with Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon...Often have I heard her describe the agitated life they then led - the alternations of hope & fear, the trembling that seized them on the arrival of the daily express...Mrs. Washington...was called upon to...mourn the loss of her beloved & only son who died with fever during the siege of Yorktown...”
Many men wrote as well, telling of their mothers and grandmothers. Some were well known, others less so. John C. Calhoun wrote:
“...My mother was high-spirited and patriotic, and was exposed to many of the dangers and subject to many of the sufferings incident to the most trying scenes of the Revolution...Of her four brothers, the eldest, Major John Caldwell, was hacked to pieces by the Tories in his own yard and in the presence of his family, followed by burning his house and outbuildings. Her next eldest, William, was interned for 9 months in the dungeon of St. Augustine without once seeing the light of day. The next, James Caldwell, a stripling, fell covered with wounds at Tarleton’s defeat at the Cowpens...”
George Washington Greene, historian, grandson of Major-General Nathanael Greene, wrote describing his grandmother:
“My grandmother, like the good country ladies of her time, knit stockings and mended her husband’s clothes, did the work in her own kitchen and by way of variety rode to meeting on horseback. My father says too that she understood to perfection the use of the rod and was decidedly of Solomon’s opinion about the application of it. As for myself I was too much of a child at the time of her death to have derived but a kind of second hand advantage from these lessons. I am very glad that you are going to do justice to admirable country women of the revolution; a period which will never be appreciated as it ought until the women find someone to tell the story of their sacrifices and their self denials.”
Milton A. Haynes, future commander in chief of Tennessee artillery in the Civil War, wrote about his relative Tennessee pioneer Sarah Buchanan:
“About 800 Indians surrounded a blockhouse in which her husband..., her brother, her sons & two other men, being about a dozen, herself the 13th, occupied...and were roused from their sleep by savage rifles, yells etc. about midnight. The fight lasted several hours, the Indians attempting to cut the doors down with their hatchets, & putting the muzzles of their rifles through the portholes in order to reach the inmates. During this time the bullets of the defenders of the blockhouse gave out, but Mrs. B. was already molding her spoons & plate into bullets, of which she made not less than 300 during the fight.”
Still others were historians and literarians commenting on Ellet’s project. Washington Irving wrote Ellet:
“I have read with lively and unflagging interest your domestic history of our revolution. It...carries us into the bosoms of families, and as it were, into the hearts of individuals throughout the land during that great and glorious struggle, showing how truly it was a revolution of principle and feeling, springing from the noblest instincts and impulses of our nature. The pictures it presents of devoted patriotism and self-sacrifice in both sexes and in all ranks and conditions in life, while they hold up examples for our imitation, are calculated to make us prize more dearly the blessings secured at such cost...”
Jared Sparks, Washington’s biographer and well known historian, wrote Ellet discussing her work through the historian’s lens:
“The work exhibits striking evidence of your diligence in collecting facts and skill and good judgments in weaving them together. It presents a picture of revolutionary times, which must be attractive to all readers and it especially furnishes instructions well adapted to the young… You have brought to light many new proofs of the patriotism and devotedness to the cause, which prevailed. In short, the zeal with which you have labored to procure new materials and to construct your work upon a plan suited to all classes of readers, may justly claim the thanks of the public.”
Ellet’s work stands today as the most significant primary resource on the subject.
This and other collections now become a public asset on Americashistory.org. This means not only a safe home for an American treasure but public access online. In 2008 and 2009, many of the collections will be brought to life in greater detail on the website, which itself will expand. This means the arrangement of a private collection as a museum, with online and themed “wings,” and scans of many of the most important pieces. There are currently more than 1,000 American historical manuscripts digitized on Americashistory.org, more than 99% of all museums nationwide. Here, it is significant that this is a private collection, entirely owned by one collector.
In addition to housing and digitizing many of these pieces, this private collection is acting as a public institution in other ways. Last year, Americashistory.org accepted a request from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia to loan five documents, including letters of George Washington and John Adams. Organizations and universities have contacted us to request access for research to our archives. School groups have invited us to supplement their textual analysis by bringing in documents.
The Internet has changed the face of the manuscript, quite literally. You no longer have to visit an institution or order an illustrated history book to see one. The opportunities for research are endless and the walls between American history and the Americans are greatly diminished. Though many of our nation’s treasures are in museums, many remain in the hands of private collectors. With the 21st century, the line between these two is blurred, and Americashistory.org is leading the way.
Nathan Raab, Curator, www.americashistory.org. From the Manuscript Society's journal, Manuscripts, Vol. LX, pp. 5-14.
Published by permission from the author and the Society.
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Autograph Article 
