From: Melody Spencer
Question: Where can I locate
more information on Mary (Robinson) Spencer and the Merritt
women who were founders of the Salem Anti-Slavery Society
in 1834 in MA?
I'm also looking for information on Thomas Spencer (Mary's
husband) and William Dodge who founded the Salem Men's
Anti-Slavery Society with Grosvenor as President, Dodge
as Vice-President, and Thomas Spencer as head of Board
of Counselors.
So little seems to be written about these people who worked
decades in the Anti-Slavery movement. Thomas Spencer organized
an apprentice & work program for black youths. Dodge,
a schoolmaster founded a school for Blacks in the 1820's.
I would like to do a historical write-up on these families,
but I'm not having much luck with my research. Can you
give me additional direction in my search for more data?
Answer: Dear Mrs. Spencer,
I don't think that you have any choice but to throw
yourself on the mercy of the reference staff of the
Phillips Library in Salem, Mass. This Library includes
the collections of what was once known as the "Essex
Institute," an institution with wonderful materials
on Salem and the other parts of Essex County.
Here's the URL for the Phillips Library Webpage that
gives you information on how to get help from them:
http://www.pem.org/museum/lib_research.php
Good luck with your research.
From:
Richard Sloan
Question: NY 's Seventh regiment was given a
rousing send-off down Broadway in April, 1861, on the
first leg of their trip to D.C. to become the first
regiment to answer Lincoln's call for troops (and to
defend the Capitol). An eyewitness wrote that Broadway
was: "a sea of banners that day," with "the
national colors floating from windows and housetops."
"Men cheered as never before men cheered."
Where can I find that eyewitness quote? Perhaps it's
in Emmons Clark's "History of the Seventh Regiment,"
but I can't locate a copy right now. I am hoping that
my library will come up with it, but if it's not there,
I don't know where else it might appear. I know I read
it in a book about a year ago, but forgot to note where.
Hope you can help!
Answer: Dear
Mr. Sloan,
I’m glad to learn that I’m not the only
one who relies on a once-serviceable brain (rather than
note-taking) to recall the source of a lively quote.
I can suggest some additional books you might want to
check for the quote on the 7th Regiment N. Y. State
Militia Infantry. This is the best website on the NY
7th Regiment (Militia), and the books cited there seem
to be an authoritative list.
http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/ 7thInfNYSM/7thInfNYSMMain.htm
William Roehrenback’s The Regiment That Saved
the Capital is clearly your best bet in secondary
sources.
From: Jennifer
Grimes
Question: Can
you possibly tell me how the early Americans celebrated
New Years Eve/Day. I am having cabbage and corned beef
on New Years Day as tradition, I know why, but who came
up with it?
Answer: Dear
Jennifer,
No one seems to have written much about the history of
New Year’s customs in the United States over the
centuries. At first, of course, people followed whatever
customs they’d known in the countries they came
from – England or Scotland or Ireland or France
or Germany or …. Well, you get the idea.
These websites give some background on New Year’s
customs around the world:
http://wilstar.com/holidays/newyear.htm
http://www.annieshomepage.com/newyearshistory.html
http://www.123newyear.com/newyear-traditions/
I suspect you’re most interested in your family’s
own traditions -- including corned beef and cabbage
for New Year’s. As you’ll see, this seems
to be a combination of several traditions. Using cabbage
or some other green leafy vegetable is a widespread
practice, I found. The combination of corned beef and
cabbage, I was surprised to find, is fairly new –
probably dates from the late 19th century. It wasn’t
a widespread tradition in Ireland because Irish peasants
were too poor to buy much meat. The traditional dish
there was cabbage and bacon, which was relatively inexpensive
and wasn’t used in great quantities to flavor
the cabbage. It seems that cooks of Irish background
learned the virtues of corned beef from Jewish neighbors
in places like New York’s Lower East Side. Corned
beef (which was far more traditional on the Continent
than in the British Isles) was cheaper in their new
American neighborhoods than bacon, so they just introduced
a new cured meat to the cabbage and invented a new tradition.
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/holidays/newyears/ny.html
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/stpatricksday/?page=history7
Where did your family live when they began using corned
beef and cabbage for New Year’s? And what part
of the world did they come from? This has turned into
a fascinating piece of culinary-cultural history.
Follow-up:
Mary-Jo,
My mothers family (English descent) is from Arkansas,
although I remember she used to put coins in the bottom
of the pot when she boiled the cabbage. She passed away
5 years ago I wished I had asked her many things. My father
on the other hand is still alive and he remembers having
boiled cabbage every year on New Years Day for good luck
and prosperity. His family is from Kentucky and Pennsylvania
(mostly Irish and English descent). I've always had cabbage
and corned beef every year on New Years Day -I was always
afraid I would end up homeless or broke if I hadn't.
Jennifer
From:
Sherri Duncan
Question: I am a History major at the University
of Central Oklahoma. I am looking for the papers of
John Weeks, a Union soldier of the 36th Illinois. I
am needing primary source information regarding the
Battle of Pea Ridge. I am hoping you can help guide
me to this information. I am looking for any accounts
of the battle in letters, and an account of the death
of Brigadier General Ben McCulloch.
Answer: I have plenty of material
for you, but I also have a question. You say that you're
"looking for the papers of John Weeks a Union soldier
of the 36th Illinois ". Do you know that Weeks's papers
survive? If so, what is your reference for this? I can't
find any of Weeks's papers listed in online guides to
manuscript collections, but you may have seen something
to which I don't have access. Let me know your reason
for asking about Weeks's papers, and I may be able to
help.
I assume that you're an undergraduate, but I don't know
whether you're working on a term paper or an honors
thesis. I'm sure I've given you more citations that
you'll want, but I won't apologize for that. Let's get
going:
Not much on the Web for you. The Parks Service administers
the Pea Ridge Battle site: http://www.nps.gov/peri/.
This, site, quite frankly, is better in terms of giving
your some original documentation: http://www.civilwarhome.com/pearidge.htm.
Now the serious stuff. I searched "America: History
and Life" for articles and disssertaions; "ArchivesUSA"
for manuscript collections; and "WorldCat"
for darned near everything. You'll find some items listed
in more than one set of search results, but that's better
than not finding them there at all. In "America:
History and Life," a database that provides access
to entries for journal articles, doctoral dissertations
and books reviews. I've attached the results from that.
Ask a librarian at the Chambers Library for help in
getting any journal articles that sound interesting
and that aren't available to you there. Interlibrary
loan of photocopies of such articles is very easy to
do.
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