Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving (a day early) to all Rosenblog readers. Since this is a time of giving thanks, let me start by thanking all of you for reading. An extra special thank you goes out to those of you who support the Rosenbach as members, volunteers, or donors. 2009 has been a tough year for all non-profits and I know I am grateful that you have made it possible for us to keep doing what we do.

In the spirit of the holiday I thought I'd feature a book from Plymouth Colony.

Nathaniel Morton, New England's Memoriall. A 669n.

Nathaniel Morton was born in England in 1613 and emigrated to Plymouth with his father in 1623 on the ship Ann. He became secretary of the colony in 1647 and nearly all of the records of Plymouth colony are in his handwriting. His history, New England's Memoriall, was published in 1669 and drew not only on his own experience, but on the manuscripts of his uncle, William Bradford, the first governor of the colony. Among the items in the book is a transcription of the Mayflower Compact, the colony's first governing document, signed on November 11, 1620. it is possible that Morton may have been working from the original document, which is now lost.

Nathaniel Morton, New England's Memoriall. A 669n.

Sadly for those interested in tracing the first Thanksgiving, Morton does not mention anything about the feast, although he does describe the horrors of the first winter in the colony ("That which was sad and lamentable, that in two or three months time half of their Company died, especially in January and February, being the depth of winter). and the settlers' gratitude the following year when they "received in their first harvest and had plenty of food and fish, to their great refreshing."

Nathaniel Morton, New England's Memoriall. A 669n.

If this taste of New England's Memorial has piqued your interest, the entire book (in a later edition) has been digitized by Google from the Harvard libraries; rather fitting given that Morton's book also chronicles the founding of Harvard, America's first college.

One other little tidbit, unrelated to Morton's book. Many folks around the country this weekend will be singing a version of the tune "Old 100th" at their thanksgiving tables or in their churches. The tune is used both for the common doxology 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow" and for a setting of the 100th psalm--"All people that on earth do dwell." If you sing or hear this tune, you might be interested to know that this tune dates back to 1551 and was one of the tunes used for Psalm 100 in the Bay Psalm Book (see last week's post for more on this book).

Here's a recording of an organ version of the Old 100th, although of course the Puritans (and Pilgrims) would not have permitted any instrumental accompaniment to their hymn singing, it was considered too Romish.

Have a wonderful holiday and if you're in town and trying to entertain your relatives, stop by the Rosenbach (we're closed Thursday, but open the rest of the weekend) to see our new Friend or Faux exhibit and all our other great stuff.

Stephen Colbert and the Bay Psalm Book

So what, you may ask is the connection between Stephen Colbert, comedian and political satirist, and our copy of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in the United States. (Ok, if you want to be picky, as Colbert no doubt would, its real title is "The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully TRANSLATED into ENGLISH Metre. Whereunto is prefixed a discourse declaring not only the lawfullnes, but also the necessity of the heavenly Ordinance of singing Scripture Psalmes in the Churches of God"--now you know why we call it the Bay Psalm Book)

It turns out the connection comes through the forger and murderer Mark Hoffman, whom I wrote about in a previous post. Eagle-eyed Patrick Rogers pointed out to me that Stephen Colbert appeared as an actor in the episode of Law & Order based on the Hoffman case. Our Bay Psalm Book is also connected to the Hoffman case--its ink and paper were subjected to micron milliprobe testing to determine their composition, so that a basis could be established against which to compare Hoffman's most famous forgery, the Oath of a Freeman, supposedly printed on the same press. The long and tangled tale of Hoffman, the Oath, and our book is explained in the Friend or Faux exhibit, so perhaps Mr. Colbert would care to stop by sometime?

All That Glitters

Our newest exhibit, Friend or Faux, opens tomorrow and we'll be kicking off our programming for the show this Saturday (11/14) at noon with the first of a series of seminars on authenticity. This inaugural seminar focuses on silver and will presented by David Barquist, Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dr. Barquist will be talking about methods of making and marking silver as well as looking at items that have been repaired or altered over the years. If you're able to join us, please drop a note to rsvp@rosenbach.org. It should be great!

I must confess that silver is one of my favorite media (thanks to studying with Winterthur's curator emeritus Don Fennimore), so I thought I'd share a few tidbits from our collection, to whet your appetite for the treat to come this weekend.

Hester Bateman, egg cruet.1788/9. 1954.1813

This egg cruet is a favorite around here (just ask our curator Judy Guston about it) both because it is a beautifully made and delicate piece of silver and also because it was made by Hester Bateman, a famous female silversmith. Hester married John Bateman, a small time chain maker and silver worker, when she was fifteen and she assisted him with the business. John died in 1760, when Hester was 51 and she took over the business, greatly expanding it into a large family workshop, which she ran with her sons until she retired at the age of 81.

Myer Myers, salver. 1770-1772. 1954.892

Since David Barquist literally wrote the book on Myer Myers, I figured I'd include this handsome salver (which is, in fact, in the book). Myer Myers is notable as a Jewish silversmith; as Barquist explains, Myers "was the first native English Jew in the British Empire to complete a formal apprenticeship and establish himself as a retail silversmith since the founding of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in 1327." He was also an incredibly prolific silversmith and an exceptionally talented one. One aspect of this salver which always fascinates me is that its inscription is in Dutch, even though it was made a hundred years after New York became an English colony.

Peter Krider, tongs. 1850-1860. 1954.1849

This piece is just fun. It is one of the amazingly elaborate and extremely specialized pieces of silverware which delighted the Victorians. It is clearly some form of tongs, possibly a vegetable or asparagus server. It has the added bonus of being a Rosenbach family piece--it was given by Rebecca Polock to her daughter, Mrs. A. S. Wolf.

That's enough for now. I hope you can join us for more silver this weekend and you might also want to mark your calendars for additional seminars on January 9 (paintings); March 6 (manuscripts) and May 8 (books and prints).

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Marianne Moore throwing out first pitch in Yankee Stadium, 1968. Moore XII:17:12a

With game six of the World Series on tonight (go Phils!) I figured we should own up to having some pretty cool Yankees memorabilia, courtesy of Miss Marianne Moore. Moore was, of course, originally a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers and her poem "Hometown Piece for Messrs Alston and Reese" made the front page of the Herald Tribune on the first day of the 1956 Dodgers/Yankees World Series.

But once the Dodgers headed out to L.A. Moore found a soft spot in her heart for the Bronx bombers. Her poem "Baseball and Writing" extols the Yankees--my favorite line is her advice to 'Assign Yogi Berra to Cape Canaveral; he could handle any missile. he is no feather."Strike!. . . Strike two!" The Yankees returned Moore's affection and the collection at the Rosenbach includes not only pictures of her throwing out a first pitch in 1968, but also a Yankees jacket given to her by Michael Burke, president of the Yankees, for her 83d birthday and a baseball signed to her for her 84th birthday by Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio.

2006.2515

2006.3035

Too bad Marianne never lived in Philadelphia--it would be nice to have a poetic paean to our own hometown team. Maybe if she were around today she could find something dramatic to say about Cliff Lee and Chase Utley, even if she was duty bound to root for the opposing team.

What We're Up To

Sorry to be a bit behind on blogging this week, but I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what I and my collections colleagues have been working on. We're preparing to install the new exhibit "Friend or Faux: Imitation and Invention from Innocent to Fraudulent" and so we've been busily patching and painting walls (that's our very own Patrick Rogers demonstrating the use of a roller), changing room configurations, and trying to find storage space for the exhibition furniture that is not being used in the show. We're all dusty and covered with paint splotches, but it looks like things are coming together nicely, which is a good thing, since the show opens two weeks from today.

John Brown's 150th

W. Dewitt, portrait of John Brown. Charles Town W.V., 1859. 1981.7

Trying to define the beginning of the Civil War is a bit tricky. The first shots were fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, but the causes and lead-up to the war can be seen to stretch back decades or more. One key moment, however, in the run-up to the conflict was certainly John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, whose 150th anniversary was this past weekend. John Brown entered Harper's Ferry and captured the armory on October 16, 1859; militia fought back and forced Brown into the engine house on October 17, and then U.S. Marines (who had arrived on the 17th) under the command of Col. Lee and Lt. Israel Greene captured Brown and his men on October 18, 1859.

John Brown Going to Court. Charles Town W.V., 1859. 1981.6

John Brown was then taken to Charles Town and tried for treason against the commonwealth of Virginia. He was convicted and was executed on Dec. 2. Among the Rosenbach's John Brown collections are a number of drawings made during the trial by newspaper correspondents for Frank Leslies Illustrated Weekly. We also have several letters of Brown's, including one written while he was in jail in Charles Town, and the following Proclamation, which warns potential spectators to stay away from the execution.

Proclamation. November 1859. A 859p

The Proclamation's strong stance against a crowd gathering for the execution was, in fact, carried out. Governor Henry Wise ordered 1500 troops to Charlestown to prevent any escape attempts and to prevent civilians from attending the execution. However, Stonewall Jackson, who was present at the hanging with the VMI cadets wrote a detailed account of the proceedings.

For upcoming John Brown goings-on here in Philadelphia, check out the Philadelphia Civil War Consortium's John Brown events listing.

Guest Post: A Rosenbachiana Mystery

This guest post is brought to you by the Rosenbach fall collections intern Jessica Walthew.

When, where and how was this interesting photo taken?

Clue #1: This “photo-multigraph” shows five Dr. Rosenbachs seated around a table. Photo multigraphs are an example of a type of trick photography that was popular at the end of the 19^th century and into the early 20^th century. These trick photographs were made by photographing the sitter from the back while seated at a table. Using two mirrors placed at a 75 degree angle to each other creates a quintuple reflection of the sitter from the point of view of the photographer, an illusion that makes it look like five of the same person are sitting down together. This type of photograph is quite rare, and photo collectors have done some serious digging to try to find out more about the intriguing subjects and set-ups pictured in photos like these.

Clue #2: Though these photo-multigraphs could have been made in many cities around the world and examples from Argentina, Canada, Spain, Austria and New York City have been published, figuring out where our photo was taken is very easy. On the verso, the postcard is labeled “Myers-Cope Co., 1521 & 1635 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ.” Though examples are scare today, many of the surviving examples of photo-multigraphs were made to commemorate trips to Atlantic City’s famous boardwalk. Heinz-Werner Lawo, a German photo collector, has many examples of photo multigraphs catalogued on his blog, including 18 from the Myers-Cope Company. Thanks to Herr Lawo’s blog we can look at some similar examples from the same studio in order to figure out when our photo of Dr. Rosenbach was taken. Of the photos posted to the multigraphs blog, we can see that our postcard looks most similar to the ones from 1910-1920, but are there any other clues that might help us?

Clue #3: Since this picture postcard was never mailed, we have yet another clue to when it might have been taken. The stamp box in the upper right hand corner of these postcards could have been decorated with a few different types of imprints with different designs surrounding where the stamp would be placed and these designs may have changed over time. Some of the known examples of photo-multigraph postcards were indeed mailed, and these have a postmark giving us a date that we can assume is close to when they were taken! Unfortunately, the stamp covers up the stamp box, so we can’t compare these known dates to our mysterious postcard of Dr. Rosenbach. If we can find an example of a similar postcard with a known date, we could narrow down our range even more, but perhaps we’ll have to leave a little bit of mystery remaining for future investigators to explore.

For more on photo-multigraphs see:

(1) Heinz-Werner Lawo’s blog:

(2) Dr. Irwin Reichstein’s talk for the Photographic Historical Society of Canada on the history of the multigraph: