Kaitlin Haley began volunteering at the Archives in the summer of 2012. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree at UBC in history and political science in 2010, she worked as a flight attendant, taking a break from school and deciding on a graduate studies program. An interest in archives and libraries lead her to us. Like many of our other volunteers, Kaitlin has given of her time generously elsewhere including lifeguarding for the World Police and Firefighter Games, running activities at the Musqueam Reading Club and facilitating and helping to organize events for the Beauty Night Society.

Kaitlin at UBC holding her B.A.

After being accepted to several archival and library schools across Canada, Kaitlin chose the program farthest from this coast, Halifax. She will be earning a Master of Library and Information Studies at Dalhousie starting in 2014. Her choice to defer for a year will allow her to continue working for the UN as a flight attendant. Between stints in Africa, which she is currently visiting, we hope Kaitlin will find some down time to visit us before she goes jetting off again!

Our former glass plate negative storage cabinets. Photo by Cindy Mclellan.

Along with Kristine and some other wonderful volunteers, Kaitlin spent many hours rehousing our glass plate negatives. This was a big job, the second step of an even bigger job.

Glass plate negatives come in all shapes and sizes; everything from cute little 5 x 5 cm ones to 21 x 27 cm and many sizes in between. The Archives even has some gigantic glass panorama negatives that require custom boxes.

Three standard box sizes and some examples of glass negatives with their four-flap enclosures open.

In Major Matthews’ time, these negatives had been housed as a jumble of different sizes of glass plates which leaned dangerously against each other and were housed in acidic envelopes. Many years ago, we rehoused them in special 4-flap envelopes for glass negatives and supported them upright, on edge, with negatives of similar size in cushioned file cabinet drawers. The 4-flap design allows the item to be laid flat while the envelope is opened, rather than being tipped or pulled out of an envelope. While this was an improvement, the negatives were still at risk should there be damage to a single cabinet (for example, in an earthquake) and the cabinets were so heavy it was impossible to move them, should the need arise.

In this second step, more than 8000 negatives have been rehoused in special boxes that stand the plates on edge and allow a cushion of air around each group of plates. In addition to rehousing, this project required careful updating of a tracking spreadsheet.

The inside of a glass negative box for standard-sized negatives. Photograph by Cindy Mclellan.

Depending on the thickness and style of the plate, between 20 and 25 fit in each box making the boxes easy to lift and safely move. Soon we hope to extend the shelving to create more storage space and use all that air space that was wasted above the filing cabinets.

The Archives purchased three standard sizes of box which worked for most, but we had to alter a few boxes to accommodate some of the sizes. This was done by adding foam to the bottom of the box or making extra dividers to prevent the plates from being loose. While supporting the plates snugly, the boxes must allow enough room that they can be easily removed without getting damaged.

Cute little glass plate negative that is too small to properly store in the standard boxes. Photograph by Cindy Mclellan.

Glass negatives stored neatly in their special modified box. Photo by Cindy McLellan.

Digitization is the best way to give access to these breakable materials. Thanks to the spreadsheet created by the volunteers, we have a list of those glass negatives that have not yet been digitized.

Boxes of glass plate negatives stored neatly on shelves.

We gave Kaitlin a break from working with the glass plates to work on another project. This was also with special formats: maps, architectural plans and technical drawings all produced by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Game (VANOC). As the buildings that these records show are still standing and in use, access to these plans will be restricted for quite a few years. The work Kaitlin did to record, dates, titles, measurements, exact locations and other basic metadata will help the Archives make these materials available with ease in the future.

Thank you Kaitlin for your dedication to the Archives! We wish you all the best in your travels and studies at Dalhousie.

Gerard Foley
Thursday, April 4, 2013 – 17:43

On 8 April 1933, a referendum was held on the issue of Western Australia seceding from the Commonwealth of Australia. Two questions were posed; the first asking whether the voter was in favour “the State of Western Australia withdrawing from the Federal Commonwealth”, and the second asking voters if they were in favour of a Federal Convention of all the Australian States to propose alterations to the Australian constitution to allow for WA’s secession from the Commonwealth.

Held on the same day as the State election, the first referendum question received a two to one majority vote in favour of WA’s secession from the Commonwealth; the second question failing to gain the approval of voters. Ironically this vote for WA’s secession occurred on the same day Western Australians threw out the government of Sir James Mitchell (also removing Mitchell from his own parliamentary seat), which sponsored the referendum and campaigned for the secessionist cause. A State Labor Government was elected, led by Philip Collier who had actively opposed secession during the election and referendum campaigns.

Given the resounding nature of the vote, Philip Collier’s government, though not in favour, still pursued the referendum outcome. State Archives reveal the State government’s moves to prepare and present the case for WA’s secession from the rest of Australia, to the UK Parliament at Westminster, detailed in a Premier’s Department file titled “Secession – Preparation of Case for submission to the Imperial Parliament”, and also the appointment of the delegation that was sent to London to pursue the case and present the secession petition in a file titled “Secession – App’t of delegation to submit case to the Imperial authorities”.

Eventually the case for secession was rejected by the UK Parliament and the Western Australian secession movement died away, certainly overtaken by the events of World War 2. But since the 1933 referendum murmurings about Western Australian secession occur from time to time, especially when there are perceptions that WA may be getting a ‘raw deal’ from the Federal government in Canberra.

Historians investigate and debate the reasons for the resounding vote in favour of secession in 1933, citing, in the main, economic factors, most obviously the Great Depression. But State Archives held by the SRO, reveal a great deal of detail about the blooming secession movement during the 1920s and 1930s, and also government and community responses to the results of the 1933 referendum. A search of the SRO’s online catalogue AEON, using the term ‘secession’, reveals 40 archived files. Some of these are files of press clippings of Western Australian and British newspapers, outlining the development of the secession movement from the 1920s (e.g. Consignment 1496, item 1926/0017).

One particular file (Consignment 1496, item 1933/0129) is about the visit of a Federal delegation, headed by the then Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, campaignining against secession. It contains a report on a “riotous meeting” at Perth’s Theatre Royal, where the Prime Minister and his delegation was shouted down by the crowd with chants of “Poor Old Joe”, coins also being tossed onto the stage, with one hitting the PM’s wife, who withdrew from the meeting. 10 years later Mrs (later Dame) Enid Lyons became the first woman elected to the Australian House of Representatives.

Another set of files are those compiled by the Agent General, Sir Hal Colebatch, who was heavily involved in presenting the case for WA’s Secession in London. These include a ‘confidential’ file (Consignment 1150, item 2313.1) with correspondence from the chief secessionist group, the Dominion League of WA, to the UK Prime Minister lobbying for secession as late as 1938.

A particular file full of lively secessionist promotional material is Consignment 1496, item 1931/0102. Containing much correspondence it also includes photographs, pamphlets, posters and the program of the Dominion League of WA’s “Grand Victory Festival” held in Perth on 10 May 1933, to celebrate their success in the Referendum.

This program includes a Toast List, a poem by “Dryblower” Murphy, and the lyrics for a victory song – the first stanza being:

Demonstrating the magic of the soft focus photograph.

From the cover of Genii magazine, August 1940:

We will be closed for the four-day Easter weekend. See you again in April!

A Happy Easter! Front view. Reference code: AM1052-: AM1052 P-878

This little gem was sent to Elsie from her husband Ted sometime between 1914 and 1918. This embroidered postcard belongs to a type known as “silks,” which were made in France and bought by Allied soldiers during the First World War.

A Happy Easter! Back view. Reference code: AM1052-: AM1052 P-878

This week we were delighted to receive a fantastic new addition to our Norman McLaren Archive. The material consists of a set of 64 letters, letter-cards and postcards sent by McLaren to his friend (and fellow filmmaker) Helen Biggar in 1936 and 1937. McLaren met Biggar when studying at the Glasgow School of Art and in 1936 they made the anti-war film Hell Unltd (which had a recent screening at the GFT). McLaren’s letters to Biggar detail the film’s planning, editing, promotion and distribution. A letter written on 21 April 1936 captures McLaren’s excitement at a moment of creative inspiration:

“Oh Helen – it happened at 7 o’clock tonight – it burst forth like a torrent – a perfect welter and wealth of hot ideas and arrangement and everything – in fact the complete film just gushed from my subconscious mind in great detail – gee its marvelous – our new film…”

Examples of the letters and postcards sent by Norman McLaren to Helen Biggar.

The film McLaren and Helen Biggar made was a stinging attack on the re-armament of Europe and consequent rush towards conflict. The film was as experimental as it was political mixing various styles and techniques – animation, archive footage, graphs and titles, and acted scenes – culminating in a rallying call for the audience to take direct action and demonstrate against the war. The film made a great impact in the febrile political climate of the time and was widely screened (McLaren’s letters detailing their arrangements with Kino Films, a left-wing film distributor).

A still from Hell Unltd made by Norman McLaren and Helen Biggar in 1936.

 The letters cover a key point in the development of McLaren’s filmmaking career. In the autumn of 1936 McLaren took up his first post as a professional filmmaker joining the team of young talent that John Grierson assembled at the GPO Film Unit. McLaren writes about his work at the GPO, comparing the methods and techniques to those he had previously employed in his amateur work. He still however had ambitions to make his own films outside the GPO Film Unit and discusses various planned project with Helen Biggar. McLaren also writes about his visit to Spain in November 1936 to shoot footage for the film The Defense of Madrid, which documented the resistance of the Republican forces fighting Franco’s Nationalist army.

Norman McLaren and Helen Biggar playing croquet at McLaren’s home in Stirling c 1936.

Following their collaboration on Hell Unltd McLaren and Biggar’s career paths diverged. In 1939 McLaren moved to New York and in 1941 he took up an invitation from John Grierson to join the newly established National Film Board of Canada. Helen Biggar became a stage designer for the Glasgow Worker’s Theatre Group and the Glasgow Unity Theatre, while continuing her work as a sculptor. In 1945 she moved to London, later becoming wardrobe mistress and costume designer for Ballet Rambert.

My name is Colin Behrens, a freshman here at FSU.  I am a work study student working for Eddie Woodward in Heritage Protocol, a part of Special Collections and Archives. The reason why I pursued this job is because of my love for historical research: more experience in an archival setting can only help me in my ambition to become a historical scholar.

Today, I have met the first milestone in my goal to be a historian. Strozier Library hosted the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, a symposium dedicated to undergraduates at FSU who are pursuing either independent research or are aiding faculty members in their own research. I am, in addition to being an assistant at the Heritage Protocol, the research assistant to Dr. Jennifer Koslow in the History Department. Dr. Koslow is working on reconstructing data from the lost community of Smokey Hollow, located here in Tallahassee.

Smokey Hollow was an African-American Community located in what is now Cascades Park. It was founded in 1893 and was eventually wiped off the map in the 1960s. During the 1960s, a movement called ‘urban renewal’, which aimed to replace poorer areas of urban settings with more affluent commercial and residential zones, spread to cities all across the country. This movement spread to Tallahassee and led to the death of Smokey Hollow.

We do know some things about life in Smokey Hollow. The federal government has recognized Smokey Hollow as a historical heritage site due to its unique architecture. One of the most famous residents of Smokey Hollow was “Famous” Amos, of Famous Amos cookies. In addition, we know that the community valued education and that it was an extremely tight-knit community. Everyone was either related to each other or was at least treated as family if no blood-ties between two members actually existed. One of the more prevalent stories tells of how if a poor member of the community was jailed, whether rightfully or wrongly, an affluent member of Smokey Hollow would bail that poorer member out, no questions asked. This kind of loyalty was prevalent throughout the community and was one of its signature qualities.

Despite this knowledge, there’s quite a lot that is unknown about Smokey Hollow. We don’t have numbers on things like employment, education level, and ages. In order to solve this problem, Dr. Koslow aims to use the 1940 census to gain the data and then use statistics to glean insights into Smokey Hollow’s demographic makeup. My role in the project is first to transcribe the census records into Excel spreadsheets and then to begin the statistical analysis of the census data. It should be noted that white people lived in Smokey Hollow’s boundaries and are therefore included in the census, but because Smokey Hollow is by definition an African-American community, they will not be included in the study.

I have not yet finished transcription; it will be completed this weekend. I have, however, been able to eyeball the data available to us and make some general observations. Despite the fact that, in 1940, the Great Depression still plagued the country and that Smokey Hollow was an African-American community (which typically have lower employment than comparable white neighborhoods), employment was high. This can be ascribed to a myriad of factors.  First is the fact that there was a coal plant nearby, which would have hired the workers (and indeed, did). Secondly are New Deal programs, such as the PWA, the WPA, and the CCC, that employed a significant number of workers (though not near a majority by any means). Finally are the bonds of kinship and solidarity that the community held dear to their hearts. With such a vibrant community, with every member loyal to the others, it can easily be seen how the community would pull together in order to help everyone keep themselves employed in order to keep food on the table.

As a freshman at FSU, it is an odd thing for me to involved in a project of such high caliber. The reason why I am involved at all is due to my luck at being accepted into the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), which is in its pilot run this year. UROP aims to teach undergraduates how to perform academic research, and part of that process is assigning each and every student to a research assistantship, so that we may learn from successful members of our fields. That’s how I met Dr. Koslow and how I got the chance to work on such a wonderful project.

It’s important to note that research is one of the fundamental goals of FSU, and one that Special Collections fulfills very well. While my assistantship has not required the use of Special Collections, I have frequently seen my friend John Handel in the Special Collections room, performing research on his own. It is my hope that other undergraduates will follow our examples and participate in FSU’s undergraduate research community, as well as using Special Collections to the maximum benefit.

The broadcast above comes from a rare shellac radio transcription disc dated March 26, 1933. The program, The News Parade, consists of several news stories, including the one above dramatizing the Nazi persecution of Jews. It’s particularly notable since Adolph Hitler had only become German Chancellor on January 30th, less than two months earlier. 

Although news trickled slowly out of tightly-censored Germany, the Nazi attack on Jews  was already well in motion: indeed, the boycott of Jewish businesses (the first official nationwide action of the anti-Semitic campaign) would begin five days after this broadcast, on April 1 of that year.  WNYC covered an early anti-Nazi rally from Battery Park on May 10th. A little over two years later, the Nuremberg ‘race laws’ would be instituted.

The News Parade, like The March of Time and The News in Review, was a ‘radio newsreel‘ production that dramatized the week’s leading news stories, Hollywood gossip and crimes of passion. The original newsreel genre was created in 1908 for movie theaters and it included real film footage of people and events. But for radio these were the days before portable recording equipment would allow news reporters to easily use sound bytes or actualities to illustrate their work. Thus, for a good portion of the 1930s dramatists and actors were the ones interpreting current events for radio listeners, with the addition of commentators like H.V. Kaltenborn, Gabriel Heatter and Raymond Gram Swing. The aesthetics may sound dated and the facts were not always precise, but in their day radio newsreels were popular.

Because this transcription disc is a pressing rather than an original cutting, we know that multiple copies of the program were made and distributed to radio stations for broadcast.  We know The News Parade was broadcast by independent stations WMCA in New York and KUOA of Fayetteville, Arkansas, but others in the syndication chain remain a mystery. We welcome any information regarding the series and its producer, The Marben Advertising Company.

Special thanks to James Knee and Elayne Flamm.

Don’t believe us when we say that Bach is still an influential figure? Well, at least he still was in the ’80s — the 1980s, that is. WQXR’s This is My Music, hosted by Lloyd Moss, featured at least 20 famous folks (from politicians to fashion models) who included a Bach piece in their all time top 4 musical pieces.

(Drum roll, please…) and those enlightened celebrities are:

• Dick van Dyke
• William F. Buckley
• Jacques d’Amboise
• Robert Moog
• Cheryl Tiegs
• Benny Goodman
• Rudolph Giuliani
• Garrison Keillor
• Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan
• Richard Adler
• Lucy Irvine
• Dick Francis
• Judith Jamison
• Rosemary Harris
• George Rose
• Father Andrew Greeley
• Robert McNeil
• Uta Hagen
• Maxine Marx

If you’re looking for bibliophilic events this week, Thursday is all set. Russell DeSimone will be offering a talk on his years of collecting broadsides, with lots of illustrations from his own extensive collection.

The event will take place at the John Carter Brown Library, starting at 5:30 PM. Refreshments will be provided.

Visit www.facebook.com/bartlettsociety/events for more information.

If you think digitization is an easy process, check out the latest post at Brown University’s Curio blog, which discusses the procedure they undertook to digitize our very unusual medieval hieroglyphic bible.

The question of whether Lord Jeffery Amherst (1717-1797) is an appropriate mascot for Amherst College is currently a topic of great interest for many students, alumni, and faculty. I have been invited to give a presentation on the history of our mascot at a forum hosted by the Association of Amherst Students on Monday, April 1, at 7:30 in the Cole Assembly Room (the Red Room) in Converse Hall. I thought it would be useful to lay out some of the basic facts regarding the history of Lord Jeff as the mascot of Amherst College in this blog in advance of this meeting.

There is plenty of information available about the actual Lord Amherst and his military career in North America during the eighteenth century. This article is one that I find particularly useful since it specifically addresses the question of smallpox-infected blankets: “The British, the Indians, and Smallpox: What Actually Happened at Fort Pitt in 1763?” by Philip Ranlet in volume 67, number 3, summer 2000 of Pennsylvania History, which is available through JSTOR. But that’s not the point of this post. 

I want to explore how Lord Jeffery Amherst, one time Governor-General of British North America, became “Lord Jeff,” the mascot of a small liberal arts college in bucolic Western Mass. The story begins with this guy, James Shelley Hamilton:

James Shelley Hamilton (AC 1906)

Hamilton was an active member of the Amherst College Glee Club and wrote several songs for the group to sing including “Good Days,” “High Upon Her Living Throne,” and “In This Blessed World.” He also wrote the song “Lord Jeffery Amherst” — or, as it was originally titled “Lord Geoffrey Amherst” — the original manuscript of which is held in the Archives.

“Lord Geoffrey Amherst” manuscript

In addition to the original manuscript from 1905, we also hold a letter from 1934 in which Hamilton explains how he wrote the song. He wanted to write something the Glee Club could sing to open their concerts, “…rather vaguely I wanted something a bit gay, like “Here’s to Johnny Harvard” and the song about Eph Williams “who founded a school in Billville”. No such thing existed for Amherst. Lord Amherst wasn’t a particularly familiar figure to us then except as a picture we saw every day in chapel; we certainly didn’t make light of his name by calling him “Lord Jeffery”.” You can read the full text of Hamilton’s letter here: Hamilton Letter.

Hamilton explains that his information and inspiration about Lord Amherst came from some verses published in the Amherst Literary Monthly in February 1903. This issue also includes a short biographical sketch of Lord Amherst that begins by asking “How many of us, for instance, ever stopped to inquire about the portrait of Lord Amherst which hangs before our eyes every morning that we attend chapel? Who was Lord Amherst, anyway? How did this fair college town ever receive his name? And where did this portrait come from?” (277).  The portrait, now part of the collections of the Mead Art Museum, was presented to the college by Herbert B. Adams (AC 1872):

“Lord Jeffery Amherst” Didier, Charles Peale; Reynolds, Joshua, after American (19th century); British (1723-1792)

The rest of the article gives a very brief account of Lord Amherst’s military career and includes a long quotation from The Gentleman’s Magazine (September 1797) that describes him thus: “He was a firm disciplinarian, but he was the soldier’s friend, a man of strict economy, always sober, and ready at all times to hear and redress the complaints of the army in general. No ostentation of heroism marked any of his actions; but the whole of his conduct evinced the firm simplicity of a brave mind, animated by the consciousness of what was due to himself and his country.” The only mention of Lord Amherst and Native Americans in this piece is a single paragraph about his actions in Pontiac’s War (1763): “Sir Jeffrey Amherst being unaccustomed to Indian warfare was not successful.” (279)

Hamilton himself was not particularly pleased with the song he wrote, but his classmates liked it and helped finish the last couple of lines. Hamilton says “The whole thing had been frivolously conceived and carelessly done, without any reference to historical justification or fact and even with Jeffery’s name mis-spelled. But it went well enough, though without causing any noticeable enthusiasm and was kept on the Glee Club programs.”

Amherst College Songs (1906)

The song was first published in 1906 in the anthology Amherst College Songs, which includes a total of 14 songs either composed or arranged by J. H. Hamilton. Lord Amherst’s name is mis-spelled in this edition, as it was when the sheet music was published in 1907.

“Lord Geoffrey Amherst” (1907)

In 1926 Hamilton generously donated copyright in the song to Amherst College, and it has been reprinted many times since. One mark of its rising status at the college is that it is the first song in the 1926 edition of Amherst College Songs (it was on page 82 in the first edition). Also notable is that someone took the time to correct the spelling of Lord Amherst’s name. A new edition of the sheet music was also published in 1926:

“Lord Jeffery Amherst” (1926)

But the song is not the only way in which the college embraced Lord Jeffery Amherst in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1913 alumni made an attempt to erect an equestrian statue of Lord Amherst on campus, going so far as to commission a model from famed sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt.

Model for Lord Jeffery Amherst statue. Bela Lyon Pratt ca.1913.

Although the sculpture was never completed, it is telling that the process got as far as creating a model.

The good feelings between England and the United States that developed during the course of the first World War resulted in a wave of anglophilia in popular culture in the 1920s. Hamilton’s song grew in popularity throughout the 1920s, and Lord Jeffery Amherst’s name was borrowed for both a college magazine and a college inn.

“Lord Jeff” June 1920

The first issue of the student humor magazine Lord Jeff appeared in June 1920 to coincide with college Commencement. While Amherst College had many student publications come and go over the years, Lord Jeff was the first to take full advantage of color printing and the ability to publish photographs. It also had the same size and shape as many popular magazines in America at the time, and its bold graphic design made it stand out from all previous literary efforts on campus.

“Lord Jeff” February 1921

More of the beautiful covers of Lord Jeff can be viewed in our Filckr site. Unlike Hamilton, the editors of the Lord Jeff had no qualms about being casual with Lord Amherst’s name, even shortening it to the now familiar “Lord Jeff.” But there may be another angle to this nickname.

“Lord Jeff” May 1921

This cover from May 1921 portrays Lord Jeffery Amherst as a laughable character with a very Betty Boop-ish prom date, not as a noble, sober soldier for the King. For a comic historian such as myself, this image immediately reminded me of another cartoon character with a moustache who also happens to be named Jeff:

Mutt & Jeff

“Mutt & Jeff” was one of the first daily newspaper comic strips, created by “Bud” Fisher in 1907. Once you see the 1920s “Lord Jeff” next to his namesake, it’s difficult to deny the similarity. Although he did not appear on the cover of every issue of Lord Jeff, he appears inside most issues and makes regular cover appearances:

“Lord Jeff” June 1923

“Lord Jeff” February 1925

I could go on and on about the contents of this magazine and its place within the wider context of college humor during the 1920s (including the crossword puzzle craze of 1924-25), but I’ll save that for another time. I will also save a little space by simply linking back to a previous post on this blog about the history of the Lord Jeffery Inn, which opened for business in 1926 — the same year Hamilton’s song was given such a prominent position in the new edition of Amherst College Songs. Exactly why the Lord Jeff ceased publication in 1935 would take a bit more research than I have time for right now, but the history of this magazine within the context of changing youth culture in the 1920s would make a fine research project.

While there is clearly much more to be said about the history of this mascot, I will wrap up this post with a stop in the 1940s. During the second World War, publication of The Amherst Student was suspended. In its place came a temporary replacement that abbreviated Lord Amherst’s name even further: The Jeff

The Jeff (June 1944)

The Jeff was a far cry from the humor magazine of the 1920s. This 4-page paper was the result of war time shortages of both paper and manpower. It was meant to maintain some college spirit in a rather dark time in history. The Jeff ceased publication after the war ended and The Amherst Student resumed.

The cartoonish Lord Jeff of the magazine seems to disappear completely after the magazine stopped publishing, but the figure of Lord Jeffery remains a constant presence.  Another source of portrayals of Lord Jeff throughout college history is programs from athletic events, such as this one from 1946:

Amherst vs. Williams 1946

As with the Lord Jeff magazine, many athletics programs feature a caricature of Lord Jeff but the majority of them do not. A wide range of graphic styles and themes can be found on our programs, another potential source of data for anyone interested in quantifying the frequency of our mascot’s appearances.

Many questions about Lord Jeff as the Amherst College mascot remain. Who made the giant head and when? Who was the first student to dress up like Lord Jeff for a sporting event? A survey of back issues of The Olio might help answer that question, as would a careful study of back issues of The Amherst Student. All of these materials and more are available for research in the Archives & Special Collections on the A-Level of Frost Library.

It appears that people have always taken photos of their cats to share; it’s not just a Web obsession. Here are a few that made their way into the Archives–feel free to download the images and superimpose your own captions.

This is a formal studio portrait of a three-year-old boy. Perhaps the cat helped to calm him and keep him still, although at this early date the child might have been tied to the chair or held in a clamp.

George Allan Velton and cat, July 29, 1867. Reference code AM336-S3-2-: CVA 677-292

Noel Robinson arrived in Vancouver in 1908 and worked as a journalist for several daily newspapers. Here he is in military uniform, with friends.

Noel Robinson and Bill Reed with cats, 1915. Reference code CVA 677-423

One of a group of photographs taken by local pharmacist Erwin Gordon, these might be his children. And his cat.

Man with baby, girl and cat, 1921. Reference code AM336-S3-1-: CVA 677-1061

Jack Lindsay worked in Vancouver as a news photographer, photojournalist and commercial photographer. He took this for the Vancouver News-Herald.

Cat on a desk, ca. 1940 Jack Lindsay, Photographer. Reference code AM1184-S3-: CVA 1184-1084

He also took this image of a child in a ship’s wheelhouse.

Girl holding cat in wheelhouse, 1942 Jack Lindsay, Photographer. Reference code AM1184-S3-: CVA 1184-1488

Former City Alderman John Bennett relaxes with his cat, in the same year he was awarded the Freedom of the City.

John Bennett with his cat, 1947. Reference code AM54-S4-: Port P1812.3

Frederick Seymour was Governor of the Colony of British Columbia from 1864-1869. Mount Seymour, and Seymour Street are named for him. The photographer, Frederick Dally, arrived in Victoria in 1862 and was known for his photographs of British Columbia. He returned to England in 1870 to work as a dental surgeon.

Governor Seymour and cat, 186-? Reference code AM54-S4-1-: A-6-111

Sergeant James Sperring and others of the 121st Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force are in a training camp in Vernon, B.C.

Members of the 121st Battalion with cat, 1916. Reference code AM54-S4-2-: CVA 371-245

William Sumner was a member of the Home Guard in Winnipeg, men who patrolled the streets every night to be on the alert for attack during the North-West Rebellion. He worked as a bricklayer after he moved to Vancouver, laying the first brick in the old Hotel Vancouver.  A singer, he reportedly grew a beard at doctor’s advice in order to protect his throat. He died in 1947 at age 95.

William Sumner and cat, Nov. 29, 1946. Reference code AM54-S4-2-: CVA 371-1838

The members and staff of the Public Interest Declassification Board attended and participated in many events last week to commemorate Sunshine Week.  We would like to thank the representatives from agencies, civil society and open government advocacy groups, the Congress, the public and all the attendees who participated in these panels and events.  The Board wishes to thank Elizabeth Goitein and the Brennan Center for Justice for hosting a forum at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace titled, Secrecy & Security: The Future of Classification Reform.  I enjoyed participating in this lively discussion.  In case you missed it, you can view the forum here.  The discussions and comments from these events highlight the importance of an open and transparent government.  They reinforced our belief that citizens are interested in engaging with Government and they value the importance of democratic discourse.  We heard repeatedly of a deep desire for citizens to participate actively in policy deliberation to be able to hold Government accountable for policy decisions.  The ideals espoused by James Madison are very much present.

We heard about the need to reform the secrecy system:  too much information is needlessly classified and classified information remains inaccessible for too long.  We heard that the classification system is too old, too complicated and is not suited for the post-Cold War information age. We heard that the era of “Big Data” threatens to overwhelm the system and that the current declassification processes will not work in an age of petabytes of information creation.

The panelists’ comments underscored the challenges of the cultural perspectives ingrained in system users and reinforced the Board’s view that only leadership from the White House will drive real reform.  This is precisely why the Board’s first recommendation in our report calls for establishing a Steering Committee accountable to the President to energize and direct agencies to work together to reform the classification system.

The Secrecy & Security forum sparked a serious conversation about the limits of secrecy and offered perspectives on how to transform the security classification system to one that meets the demands of all users in the digital age.  As part of my remarks, I emphasized the need for the President to establish a Steering Committee.  It is essential that membership includes officials with expertise in technology, records and information management, and officials who can drive reform and change existing policies.  Cultural bias in favor of secrecy is perhaps the largest impediment to true reform across Government, a sentiment echoed by fellow panelists and attendees at events throughout the week.  Only through strong leadership will attitudes and opinions about secrecy and openness change.

At the conclusion of Sunshine Week, we reaffirm our commitment to an Open Government.  We invite you to continue the discussion about open government and freedom of information by commenting on our recommendations on our blog.

Cue the pipe organ.

The brothers Georg and Johann were engravers working in London in the late 18th and early 19 centuries. A little research could probably determine which of the two is depicted here, so if you have any guesses, please leave them in the comments.

In a recent op-ed piece by Sean Pidgeon, he defines research rapture:

“A state of enthusiasm or exaltation arising from the exhaustive study of a topic or period of history; the delightful but dangerous condition of becoming repeatedly sidetracked in following intriguing threads of information, or constantly searching for one more elusive fact.”

Pidgeon’s column triggered many rapture memories from my days as a research librarian. The opportunity and challenge of engaging in the research of faculty and students over the years has been one of the joys of my professional life. Some of my favorites: the archaeologist tracing the history of turpentine from the Middle East to Europe by analysis of Renaissance painting paint fragments; an Abigail Adams quote from a letter to her husband inscribed on the fireplace mantle in the East Room of the White House; details of Pablo Neruda’s life; details of a Congolese form of voodoo practices in Cuba; and, who said “We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities,” Yogi Berra or Pogo?

In each case, except the last, the search for an answer resulted in lots of sidetracks and lots of new related information—some for the researcher, but all for me!

Central Research Room, April 5, 1938. Records of the National Archives (RG 64). The Central Research Room is located on the 2nd floor of

… [ Read all ]

In March, 1972, reporter Eleanor Fischer interviewed Congresswoman Bella Abzug as she was fighting to hold on to her congressional district in Manhattan encompassing, in part, the Battery, the Lower East Side, Little Italy, Chinatown, Greenwich Village and Chelsea. Representative Abzug talks about this effort to marginalize her. She also calls for pulling U.S. troops out of Vietnam, endorses Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s campaign for the Presidency and (there may be some debate over it) lays claim to starting the honorific “Ms.”

Eleanor S. Fischer’s original lead into the interview:

“Redistricting political zones has become an almost yearly ritual with the New York State Legislature. As the City of New York loses population to the suburbs, congressional lines are redrawn to take account of the population movement. Since the legislature is controlled by Republicans, redistricters have an almost uncanny way of making certain that if anyone is to lose a seat, it’s a Democrat. The latest representative to fall victim to Albany’s geographical whims is Congresswoman Bella Abzug. And anyone who has followed Bella’s fledgling career in Washington knows that the lady is not going to take the situation lying down. On the contrary, she’s been standing up screaming her head off, perhaps sufficiently so to embarrass the line drawers into saving the district.  I held an informal conversation with Congresswoman Abzug in her New York office the other day. The purpose? To find out how secure she believes her political future to be. But as always, when one talks to Bella, the conversation starts out in a women’s lib vein as it did with us when I stumbled over the word “congresswoman” and asked whether she might not prefer being called M.S. or Ms., the feminist designation for women married or unmarried.”

The bid to eliminate Bella’s Abzug’s 19th congressional district through redistricting was successful and she chose to run against William Fitts Ryan, who also represented part of the West Side, in the Democratic primary. Although seriously ill, Ryan defeated Abzug. However, Ryan died before the general election and Abzug defeated his widow, Priscilla, in a party convention to choose the new Democratic nominee. In the general election Priscilla Ryan challenged Abzug on the Liberal Party line but was unsuccessful.   In the general election of 1974, Abzug was easily reelected. For more on Bella Abzug’s extraordinary career listen to Sara Fishko’s 2008 profile, Bella.

Special thanks to Elizabeth Starkey.

From Ruby Diamond Family Papers, 2007-037, Box 1, Folder 11.

Ruby Diamond was born in Tallahassee on September 1, 1886. She was one of thirteen members of the Florida State College’s 1905 graduating class and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry. Ms. Diamond preferred that her wealth help those in need, and she contributed to many charities in Tallahassee and across Florida and was a generous donor to more than thirty-seven organizations.

Ms. Diamond was also a political activist and fought for lower taxes and racial equality. She and  her brother Sydney, along  with other members of the Jewish community, founded Temple Israel in 1937.

Ms. Diamond and her collection of snuff bottles. Ruby Diamond Family Papers, 2007-037, Box 1, Folder 11.

 
 
Ms. Diamond was a generous benefactor to Florida State University and established two scholarships for disadvantaged scholars. She supported the Alumni Association and the Department of Educational Research, Development, and Foundations.

In 1970, for her contributions to the university, Florida State University expressed its appreciation to Ms. Diamond by naming its largest auditorium, located inside the Westcott Building, in her honor. In 1971, she donated property in Tallahassee worth $100,000 to the university, and at age 95 in 1981, she donated downtown property assessed at more than $100,000 to partially fund an endowed chair of  “national excellence” in the College of Education. In 2010,  the Ruby Diamond Concert Hall was reopened after a $38 million renovation.

Ms. Diamond was 93 when this picture was taken. From Ruby Diamond Family Papers, 2007-037, Box 1, Folder 14.

The Ruby Diamond Family Papers in our collection include  family photographs, correspondence between Ms. Diamond and her friends and cousins, genealogical materials, news clippings about the Diamond family, and her eulogy. The materials in the collection also contain information about the history of Tallahassee and Florida State University.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, here’s the cover of a piece of sheet music intended for use in a St. Patrick’s Day parade:

I have a feeling a few people might look a bit like these two on the day after the parade.

(This item can be found in our Williams & Potter Collection on Irish Culture, in case you’d like to celebrate the holiday in a primary-source kind of way.)

In the previous post on the latest issue of Occasional Nuggets I neglected to mention (and thank), the team of top-notch book-sewing experts who donate their time to sew copies by hand:

So special thanks to Susan Newkirk, Alice Beckwith, Phoebe Bean and Louise Moulton. (And thanks as well to Nancy Christy, who isn’t pictured here.)

Here’s something you don’t get to see every day, even if you work with rare books:

(Note: if your device or browser doesn’t display the video, view it directly at http://www.flickr.com/photos/amherst_college_archives/8548671802/ )

The practice of decorating the fore-edge of a book with a hidden painting was “popularised in the 18th [century] by John Brindley and (in particular) Edwards of Halifax, whereby the fore-edge of the book, very slightly fanned out and then held fast, is decorated with painted views or conversation pieces.¹ The edges are then squared up and gilded in the ordinary way, so that the painting remains concealed (and protected) while the book is closed; fan out the edges and it reappears.”²

The Archives and Special Collections holds eight examples of hidden fore-edge paintings. Below are pictures of three of them, showing the edge both closed and fanned.

Pleasures of Imagination by Mark Akenside (London : Cadell and Davies, 1796) – A handwritten note inside the book identifies the scene as “Belsay Castle, Northumberland.” [PR3312.P5 1796]

The Poetical Works of George Herbert (London : James Nisbet and Co., 1856) – The gilt edges are also “gauffered” in a fleur-de-lis pattern. The landscape looks like the Tower of London on the Thames. [PR3507.A1 1856]

Poems by Samuel Rogers (London : Cadell, 1834) – all three images are of the same book: this one has a double fore-edge painting, one visible when fanned front-to-back, and a second when fanned back-to-front! [PR5234.A1 1834 c.3]

Our last two examples are multi-volume works. When closed, the edges are plain gilt, just like Poems above, so I have left that out and show only the fanned images:

The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell (London : Henry Colburn, 1828) – in two volumes, each with a hunting scene. [PR4410.A2 1828]

The Works of Lord Byron (London : Murray, 1819) – in three volumes, with scenes of the Eurotas river in Greece, Chillon Castle in Switzerland, and a view of Mont Blanc and the Chamonix valley. [PR4350.E19]

If you want to learn more about this astonishing form of book decoration, I highly recommend the following:

• this great online resource from the Boston Public Library includes background articles and many videos and images of the 200+ examples of fore-edge paintings in their collection
• a blog post from the Folger Shakespeare Library on the subject
• an online exhibit from the Lilly Library
• an online exhibit including an extensive bibliography from Marist College Archives and Special Collections

¹ You can see pictures of how the book is clamped in position, without damage, on this page from Johns Hopkins University.

² Carter, John, and Nicolas Barker, ABC for Book Collectors (New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press, 2006), 8th ed., corr., 108.

Sunshine Week is an annual initiative, which coincides with national Freedom of Information Day and James Madison’s birthday (March 16), designed to raise awareness of the importance of citizen access to Government records.

As we commemorate Sunshine Week, we reaffirm the principle of an Open Government.  The Public Interest Declassification Board believes that our democratic principles require an appropriate balance between public access and limited secrecy.  In November, we issued our report to the President on the need to transform the current security classification system.  Our report provided fourteen core recommendations on how best to modernize classification and declassification to meet the needs of all users in the digital age, including both our citizens and those entrusted to keep us safe.

We believe the current classification and declassification systems are outdated and incapable of dealing adequately with the large volumes of classified information generated in an era of digital communications and information systems.  The Government’s management of classified information must change to match the realities and demands of the 21st century.  A transformed classification system must be able to better manage the exponential growth of electronic records agencies are creating across Government.

Currently, classification and declassification policies remain mired in a Cold War culture of caution and risk avoidance and these outdated policies do not facilitate rapid and agile information sharing required to fully sup­port today’s national security mission.  The classification system exists to protect national security, but its outdated design and implementation often hinders that mission.  The system is compromised by over-classification and, not coincidentally, by increasing instances of unau­thorized disclosures.  This undermines the credibility of the classification system, blurs the focus on what truly requires protection, and fails to serve the public interest.  Put simply, the current system is outmoded and unsustainable; transformation is not simply advisable but imperative.

Declassification performs a service crucial to open government, informing citizens and promoting responsible dialogue between the public and Government.  There are also significant policy benefits from declassification that can aid national security decisions and diplomacy.  It is a valuable information sharing tool, particularly when information holders must work with stakeholders outside the intelligence and defense communities.  Information access may be the newest and most important policy tool of the modern era; nonetheless, often declassification review is perceived by agen­cies as an historical exercise with very limited relevance to today’s national security mission.  As a result, declassifica­tion is a significantly under-resourced and under-appreci­ated function.

Democratic values are very much part of national security.  The new realities of the digital age require agencies modernize information management and declassification practices.  Our first recommendation – that the President appoint a high level steering committee to review our recommendations – is an important first step.  Appointees must recognize that the existing system is collapsing and is unable to handle both the volume of information being generated and support the needs of users.  Transforming the system will undoubtedly be difficult as new policies are needed to overcome sixty years of Cold War culture and think anew about how best to protect our nation’s security in the Information Age.  We invite you to continue the discussion about open government and freedom of information by commenting on our recommendations on our blog.

Gloria Jahoda, an author and Florida historian, was born on October 6, 1926, in Chicago, Illinois. She earned a B.A. in English in 1948 and an M.A. in Anthropology in 1950, both from Northwestern University. She retired in 1957 to write full time after teaching anthropology at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.  In 1963, she and her husband Gerald moved to Tallahassee when he accepted a teaching position at Florida State University’s School of Library Training and Service. Her non-fiction works include the The Other Florida (1967), a social and natural history of the West Florida Panhandle; Trail of Tears (1976), an account of the uprooting of Indians in the Southeast; The Road to Samarkand: Frederick Delius and His Music (1969); and The River of the Golden Ibis (1973), about the Hillsborough River. This book was named by the Society of Midland Authors as the “Best History Book” of 1973.

From Florida Collection, F316.2 J3

In honor of  Women’s History Month, I wanted to feature this author since The Other Florida, is a favorite book of mine. I read it before I lived in North Florida but read it again after I moved here, which made it all the more interesting. We have books written by her in our Florida Collection, and we also have  manuscript collections that have been either donated by her or by her husband. Included in the manuscript collections are biographical information, family and personal papers, correspondence, writings, photographs, galley proofs, and original book jacket designs.

Earlier book jacket design, Gloria Jahoda Papers, Box 317

Ms. Jahoda was president of the Tallahassee Historical Society and was elected as a registrar of the Creek Indian nation. In 1973, the Florida Senate passed a resolution honoring her for her works depicting the history and culture of Florida. In 1975, she was presented with the D.B. McKay Award by the Tampa Historical Society for her contributions to Florida history.

The last paragraph of The Other Florida ends with this: “The Other Florida’s pines will survive too, I think. Often among them I remember the person I was before I came to them and what I thought was important then, and the landscapes I have since known, and the history I have since learned, and the friends I have since made. Whatever the fates may take me in the years to come, I shall not be the same again”.

The most recent issue of the international Records Management Journal included an article titled Preserving Records in the Cloud written by Jan Askhoj, Shigeo Sugimoto and Mitsuharu Nagamori. The paper, “examines the characteristics of managing records in a cloud computing environment and compares these with existing archiving models, exemplified by the open archival information system (OAIS) reference model.” The paper concludes, “that there are a number of areas where OAIS does not integrate well with cloud computing systems. Based on the findings, a new layered model for a cloud archiving system is defined using the concepts and information types from the OAIS reference model. The proposed model allows the sharing of functionality and information objects by making them available as services to higher layers. The model covers the entire document lifecycle, making archive functionality such as preservation planning possible at an early stage and helping to simplify records transfer.”

Preserving records in the cloud

The latest Occasional Nugget was recently mailed to subscribers:

(Subscriptions start at $15 / year, and you can even subscribe online, so there’s no excuse not to. Find out more here.)

The second essay in the issue focuses on the Greely expedition, an ill-fated (cannibalism is involved, so it doesn’t get much worse-fated) arctic expedition in the 1880s. When a relief party finally arrived to rescue the survivors, one of the members of the relief party (aboard the ship Thetis) kept a journal of the events, and he transcribed the journal of Roderick Schneider, one of the Greely expedition members who died as they awaited rescue. The original of Schneider’s journal was lost, so the PPL copy is now the best record of his ordeal.

As it turns out, the release of this issue was well-timed to coincide with the addition of some arctic logbooks at the terrific OldWeather.org website. The images now available on the site include the logbooks of the ships involved in the Greely rescue, the Thetis, Bear and Alert. This page, for instance, includes the official record of the relief party’s discovery of the Greely survivors.

This week we transferred the first of the Stirling District Asylum case books which have been cleaned and catalogued by our project team to the archives store. Another element of the project to prepare the archives of the Asylum for public use is the creation of a database of patients who were admitted to the hospital. The asylum’s patient registers record details of the admission and discharge of those treated in the hospital and this information is being carefully recorded and transcribed by our project team.

The registers provide fascinating information relating to the lives of the patients recording their age, marital status, previous occupation and place of abode. Medical details such as bodily condition, form of mental disorder and ‘supposed cause of insanity’ are also recorded. Alongside the standard medical reasons given some of the more unusual ‘supposed causes’ noted in the hospital’s first register, beginning in 1869, include ‘loneliness and religious contemplation’, ‘excessive use of ardent spirits’, ‘disappointment in love’ and ‘severe blow on temple from a golf ball.’ Another reason given is ‘Sunstroke’ – this however, was for a former soldier who suffered it while stationed in India. The registers also note if patients were previously admitted to the hospital and/or transferred to other institutions, which provides valuable information when trying to trace the movement of patients through the network of Scottish asylums. 

The patient registers are a source of detailed social and medical information.

The creation of this database of asylum patients will be of great benefit in a number of ways. It will provide a quick and efficient way of searching the records for individuals, assisting us in responding to genealogical enquiries. It will also reduce the actual handling of these old and damaged volumes, contributing to their long-term preservation. And for academic researchers it also allows the possibility of re-using the large amount of tabular / statistical information recorded in their research allowing, for example, breakdowns of the patient population by occupation or ‘place of abode.’

One hundred years ago, on March 7, 1913, Emily Pauline Johnson died in Vancouver. She retired here in 1909 as a celebrated poet, author and performer and, although Johnson lived a brief four years in Vancouver, she left a lasting legacy in the city.

Portrait of E. Pauline Johnson, undated. George T. Wadds, photographer. Reference code AM54-S4-: Port P637

Born in 1861 on the Six Nations Reserve, outside Brantford, Canada West (Ontario), Pauline Johnson was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and an English mother. Her Mohawk name was Tekahionwake. She published her first poem in 1884. In 1892 she began to read her poems to audiences, honing her skill as a dramatic performer as she performed on tours across Canada, in the United States and in England over the next 17 years. Her first book of poems, The White Wampum, was published in 1895.

Pauline Johnson visited the West Coast often during her tours. In 1906 she met Squamish Chief Joseph Capilano (Su-á-pu-luck) in London and began a friendship with him. In August 1909, already suffering from breast cancer, Pauling Johnson retired from touring and moved to Vancouver.

By 1911 Pauline Johnson was ill and living with modest means in the West End. She worked with Chief Capilano, retelling his stories in Legends of Vancouver, a book she published in 1911 with the help of her Vancouver friends. Johnson included the stories of Stanley Park landmarks Siwash Rock and Deadman’s Island and of The Lions (Two Sisters), a Vancouver icon. Her poem Lost Lagoon immortalized the name of the inlet now cut off from the sea by the causeway to Stanley Park.

First edition of Legends of Vancouver privately printed in Vancouver in 1911. Photo by Jeffery Chong.

From the Bute Street Hospital where she last lived in Vancouver, Pauline Johnson wrote to a Mr. Fleming to ask that copies of Legends of Vancouver be delivered to her. This is one of the autographed documents by Pauline Johnson in the holdings of the City of Vancouver Archives.

Page 1 of letter written by Pauline Johnson to Mr. Fleming, December 8, 1912. Reference code AM650-: LEG427.1.1

Page 2 of letter written by Pauline Johnson to Mr. Fleming, December 8, 1912. Reference code AM650-: LEG427.1.2

In 1912, again with the assistance of friends, a collected edition of her poems, Flint and Feather was published. This volume, according to her entry in Wikipedia, “has been reprinted many times and is one of the best-selling titles of Canadian poetry.”

On March 10, 1913, Vancouver mourned the death of Pauline Johnson by declaring the day a civic holiday. A procession started at the Bute Street Hospital, where she had died, and ended at Christ Church Cathedral where the service was held. Thousands of Vancouver residents witnessed the procession along Georgia Street including many local First Nations people. Her casket was followed by Chief Matthias, son of Chief Joe Capilano. Four days later a small ceremony was held in Stanley Park, near the site of her present memorial, to bury her ashes.

Pauline Johnson’s coffin and flowers in the room in which she died at the Bute Street Hospital, March 7, 1912. Reference Code AM1102-S3-: LEG427.7

Funeral procession for Pauline Johnson, on Georgia Street near Granville Street, Vancouver, March 10, 1913. Reference code AM54-S4-: Port P1422

Shortly after her death, the Women’s Canadian Club of Vancouver began to organize a monument to commemorate Pauline Johnson. Charles Marega proposed an elaborate design but it would have been costly to make and difficult to raise funds during the First World War and so work on a monument was delayed.

Design by Charles Marega for a memorial to Pauline Johnson in Stanley Park, n.d. Reference code AM54-S4-: MON.P.82

After the war the Women’s Canadian Club of Vancouver settled on a more modest design by architect James Anderson Benzie, perhaps best known for his design of the Japanese-Canadian War Memorial erected in Stanley Park in 1920. The stone monument and fountain are located between The Teahouse and Third Beach, just off the side of Stanley Park Drive.

In 2012 a blueprint design of the Benzie-designed memorial was discovered and donated to the City Archives by J.B. Newall Memorials.

Design for memorial to Pauline Johnson, Stanley Park by James A. Benzie, March 1922. Item No.: 2012-009.1

Ceremony at the memorial to Pauline Johnson, Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C., 1922. Reference code AM1535-: CVA 99-1328

Artifacts and archival records relating to E. Pauline Johnson are held in a number of institutions. The principal repository is the E. Pauline Johnson fonds at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The records include much correspondence received by Pauline Johnson during her residence in Vancouver, 1909-1912. We have a number of photographs, copies of her publications and a very few letters.

The Museum of Vancouver has quite a number of artifacts associated with Pauline Johnson, many left to them in her will, including the native costume she performed in. One of the most poignant objects in their collection is her death mask, created by Pauline Johnson’s friend and sculptor Charles Marega.

Death mask of E. Pauline Johnson by Charles Marega, 1913. Reference code AM1102-S3-: LEG427.5

In March 2013 Herstory Café has planned two events to honour the 100^th anniversary of Pauline Johnson’s death in Vancouver, featuring Janet Rogers, a Mohawk spoken word, performance and media poet. The event on March 10, 2013 will take place at the Pauline Johnson memorial in Stanley Park.

Almost from its inception, there had been a military and cadet component at West Florida Seminary (1851-1901), predecessor to Florida State University. With the commencement of the Civil War in 1861, this aspect of the school’s curriculum increased in importance, so much so that the State Legislature proposed changing the name of the institution to the Florida Collegiate and Military Institute. Throughout the War, the students served as something of a home guard, occasionally guarding Union prisoners of war and always on call in the event of a Federal threat to the capitol. In early March 1865, that threat was realized when word came that a Union fleet had landed troops on the Gulf coast at the St. Marks lighthouse with the probable intention of capturing the capitol in Tallahassee.

West Florida Seminary Cadet Corps, circa 1880s

The invading forces, commanded by Brigadier General John Newton, moved northward from the coast, hoping to cross the St. Marks River at Newport and attack St. Marks from the rear. Local militia was called out to delay the Union advance, and among those were cadets from West Florida Seminary. At noon on March 5, the cadet corps assembled at the school and marched to the state capitol where they were enlisted and sworn into Confederate service. The cadet’s principal, Captain Valentine M. Johnson then led them to the Tallahassee train station for their journey southward to meet the invaders. Johnson was a veteran and had served honorably in the Confederate Army until 1863 when he was forced to resign for health reasons. It is nearly impossible to accurately determine the number of cadets that participated in the campaign. However, reasonable estimates put the number at around twenty-five, with their known ages ranging from eleven to eighteen. At the train station, Johnson filtered out those cadets, mostly the youngest of the corps, that would not participate. Others were left behind to continue their home guard duties and to man fortifications as a last line of the capitol’s defense.

VMI Cadet Photograph of Valentine Mason Johnson, circa 1860

The cadets and other Confederate troops boarded a train in Tallahassee which carried them south to Wakulla Station on the St. Marks Railroad. From there, they marched six miles to the small village of Newport. There, in the late afternoon on March 5, they joined forces with a portion of Lieutenant Colonel George Washington Scott’s 5th Florida Cavalry Battalion and a small contingent of Confederate marines and militia. Scott’s men had skirmished with the Federal troops the previous day, gradually falling back from the East River Bridge toward Newport. It was at that bridge that the Union forces hoped to cross the St. Marks River, enabling them to move against St. Marks and perhaps Tallahassee. At Newport, the cadets occupied a line of breastworks running parallel to the river along its west bank. From there, they commanded the approaches to the East River Bridge, which Scott’s men had partially burned. Federal troops on the opposite side of the river still hoped to force their way across and a skirmish soon developed. By nightfall, the firing diminished, and everyone waited in their positions to see if the Federals would resume the conflict the next morning. It was in those trenches on the banks of the St. Marks River that the young cadets from the West Florida Seminary received their baptism of fire.

Map of Natural Bridge from the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion (State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/143922)

Newton, frustrated in his efforts to cross the St. Marks River at Newport, learned of another crossing upriver at Natural Bridge. At that location, the St. Marks River ran underground for a short distance, creating a natural crossing point. In anticipation of such a move, the Confederate General William Miller positioned Scott’s cavalry at Natural Bridge with orders to delay a crossing until reinforcements could arrive. At dawn on March 6, a battle erupted with the Federal forces unable to force their way across the span. The cadets were soon ordered out of their entrenchments at the East River Bridge and marched along the Old Plank Road to reinforce Scott’s men at Natural Bridge. One mile from the battlefield, two cadets peeled off to aid the wounded at a field hospital. The rest continued on, all the while the sounds of cannon and musket fire growing louder.

When they reached the battlefield, the cadets were positioned near the center of the Confederate line, a giant crescent enveloping the Natural Bridge. There they immediately dug trenches to protect them from enemy fire and were instructed not to fire unless a charge was made on an adjoining Confederate battery. In these early stages, the battle was primarily an artillery engagement and the cadets could do little more than wait it out with the rest of the defenders. All attempts by the Federal troops to cross at Natural Bridge were stymied with heavy losses. The worst fighting occurred in front of the Confederate line in a dense hammock that covered the crossing. The cadets were not heavily involved in this action but remained under constant artillery and musket fire. Cadet Lieutenant Byrd Coles credits the Seminary’s teachers on the battlefield with the safety of the cadets: “no doubt many of the cadets would have been struck if our teachers had not watched us constantly and made us keep behind cover.”

With the arrival of reinforcements, the Confederate troops counterattacked, charging across the bridge and driving the Federal troops a short distance. At this instance, the Union General Newton, realizing that Natural Bridge, like the East River Bridge at Newport, was too heavily defended to cross, ordered a retreat back to the St. Marks lighthouse and the protection of the Federal fleet. The cadets were then ordered to return to Newport to guard against another attempted crossing there. However, the Federal forces had had enough, and the cadets’ active duty had come to an end.

Confederate General William Miller (State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/28524)

The Confederate victory against the Federal invasion was complete. Confederate casualties numbered three killed and twenty-three wounded (three mortally), with Federal losses totaling 148. The cadets from West Florida Seminary suffered no casualties. With the battle won, some of the cadets returned to Tallahassee, while others remained at Newport where they guarded two Confederate deserters that had crossed over to the Federal army and had been captured during the campaign. After the cadets witnessed their trial and execution, they escorted a group of around twenty-five Federal prisoners of war back to Tallahassee. On their return to Tallahassee, the cadets were welcomed as conquering heroes. A ceremony was held in the State House of Representatives chamber of the state capitol, where the cadets were presented with a company flag. Cadet Hunter Pope accepted the flag in the name of his comrades. It is uncertain what became of the flag, and it is thought that it returned with the cadets to the Seminary and was probably taken by Federal troops when they occupied Tallahassee after the War.

The Confederate victory at the Battle of Natural Bridge had no effect on the outcome of the War, and in less than a month, Robert E. Lee would surrender the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The terms of Joseph E. Johnston’s surrender of the Army of Tennessee seventeen days later, included the surrender of Confederate troops in Florida as well. On May 10, Federal troops under the command of Brigadier General Edward McCook took possession of Tallahassee. The Federal army captured and paroled approximately 8,000 Confederate soldiers, including twenty-four cadets. It is thought that some of the cadets simply returned home after the surrender and before being formally paroled.

Natural Bridge Battlefield State Monument (State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/29939)

Tallahasseeans fondly remembered the service provided by the West Florida Seminary cadets. Beginning in 1885, the state of Florida granted pensions to Confederate veterans, and two years later, they were also extended to home guard units, which included the cadets. Sixteen former cadets applied for pensions, while several others endorsed the applications of their comrades. The Tallahassee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy issued Southern Crosses of Honor to the former cadets who applied for the award, and they received tributes as “The Youngest of the Young Who Wore the Gray.” That phrase, forever associated with their participation in the battle, is inscribed on a monument at Natural Bridge Battlefield, which is today a state park.

As a result of the cadet/students participation in the engagement, on February 28, 1957, the FSU Army and Air Force ROTC units were officially presented with battle streamers by Governor LeRoy Collins in a ceremony at Doak Campbell stadium. Today the Florida State University Reserve Officers’ Training Corps detachment is permitted to fly a battle streamer as a result of the School’s participation in the action at Natural Bridge. It is one of only three colleges and universities in the United States which is permitted to do so. In the 1990s, the campus ROTC Building was renamed the Harper-Johnson Building in honor of Captain Valentine M. Johnson and a twentieth century Air Force ROTC graduate who rose to the rank of general.

For a fuller account of the battle, see David J. Coles,  “Florida’s Seed Corn: The History of the West Florida Seminary During the Civil War,” Florida Historical Quarterly 77, no. 3 (Winter 1999): 283-319.