Hi Folks,
I hope that your summer is going well and that you’ve had an opportunity to enjoy some interesting history. Below are more upcoming opportunities, plus other tidbits.
1. This is from Paulette Schwarting of the Virginia Historical Society. She is curious as to the potential buyer and price. Certainly out of my range.
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The First and Most Important American Political Cartoon Comes to Auction
Posted: 08 Aug 2011 02:30 AM PDT
by Stephen J. Gertz
By Benjamin Franklin
From the Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754.
On May 9, 1754, the Pennsylvania Gazette, a newspaper published by Benjamin Franklin and the most successful in the American colonies, featured a cartoon by Franklin with accompanying text by him that rallied the American colonies to unite and defend against the French in the looming French and Indian War. It was the first time that the colonies were asked to act as one.
That issue is among the rarest pieces of all early American history, the most ephemeral of ephemera. The only known surviving copy of that issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette lies in the Library of Congress. But another copy has surfaced and will be auctioned at Heritage Auctions Historical Manuscripts Signature® Auction September 12-14, 2011 in Beverly Hills, CA. It is estimated to sell for $100,000 - $200,000. There is no reserve. The estimate may be conservative. This is major, major offering, the only copy to ever come to auction and quite possibly the last.
The cartoon, Join, or Die, would, in 1765, be republished in the September 21st issue (its only issue) of the Constitutional Courant as a clarion-call against the Stamp Act. calling for the unification of the colonies in their struggle for justice from Great Britain. In 1774 Paul Revere altered the cartoon to fit the masthead of the Massachusetts Spy.
"This rare and historic newspaper holds the earliest publication of the first and most celebrated editorial cartoon in American history," says Sandra Palomino, director of historical manuscripts at Heritage Auctions.
In the cartoon, the snake represents the the colonies, eight individual sections labeled with abbreviations for New York, New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, North Carolina and South Carolina. There was, at the time, a long-held superstition (with roots in the legend of Osiris) that held that a snake cut to pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset. Separate, they are inert and impotent. United, they are active, and powerful. Delaware and Georgia were omitted, for reasons that remain unclear.
The image, redrawn, was later co-opted by each side during the American Civil War.
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Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions, with our thanks.
2. This comes from member John Millar of Williamsburg.
I don’t know if you read Early American Life. On p.20 of the October 2011 issue is a double photo of the Barnabas Webb engraved powder horn, carved at and just after the American siege of Boston in March & April 1776, so this is about 14 months before Congress got around to passing a flag resolution describing a flag with stars and stripes. At the far left of one of the views is a small fort flying a flag. The flag has a “canton” that is square and takes up the entire depth of the flag, and the [short] fly is 13 stripes, most likely red, white & blue stripes. The canton is the British union, emblazoned with 13 stars: one on each of the 8 blue triangles, as can be seen in the picture, and the remaining 5 not visible in this picture because of the resolution available to the carver, but they are undoubtedly placed with one in the very middle of the union, and one each in the middle of the four red bands. This (to me, at any rate) is really exciting. I have never before heard of such a flag.
3. Debby Padgett of the Jamestown – Yorktown Foundation sent information about their fall lecture series.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR THEME OF SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER LECTURES
AT YORKTOWN VICTORY CENTER, AMERICAN REVOLUTION MUSEUM
YORKTOWN, Va., July 25, 2011 – Public lectures by historians Jon Kukla, Robert Selig and Edward Ayres at 7 p.m. Saturdays, September 10 and 24 and October 8, will illuminate exhibit and interpretive themes at the Yorktown Victory Center, a museum of the American Revolution. The series leads up to the anniversary of the decisive American victory at Yorktown in 1781, observed with special programs the weekend of October 15-16 and on October 19, the date of the formal British surrender.
The lectures will take place in the Yorktown Victory Center’s Richard S. Reynolds Foundation Theater. Admission is free, and advance reservations are recommended by contacting [log in to unmask] or (757) 253-5185. The lectures are supported with a grant from Dominion Resources.
“John Adams, Patrick Henry, and the Elusive Origins of the Revolution,” presented on September 10 by Jon Kukla, will explore John Adams’ efforts late in life to advance his contention that New England had led the way in the struggle for American independence. Patrick Henry’s bold leadership against Great Britain made a strong impression on Adams when they met at the First Continental Congress in 1774, but Adams grew impatient with Virginia’s ascendancy during the Jeffersonian era and framed events in a manner that supported his views about New England’s pre-eminence.
Dr. Kukla’s recent books include “Mr. Jefferson’s Women” and “A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America.” He received a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and over three decades worked as director of historical research and publishing at the Library of Virginia, curator of collections and director of the Historic New Orleans Collection, and director of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation.
In “From Saratoga to Senegal: How the Capture of General ‘Johnny’ Burgoyne Turned the American Revolution into a World War,” on September 24, Robert A. Selig will describe how the American victory at Saratoga, New York, in 1777 unleashed a flurry of diplomatic activities that turned a colonial rebellion into a worldwide conflict between Britain and its European rivals. Fierce fighting in India, parts of Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean and even parts of Europe between 1778 and 1783 was a backdrop for an agenda in which colonies, rebellious or not, were but projections of European power around the globe, and the independence of some of Britain’s American colonies – assured at Yorktown exactly four years after Saratoga – became ever less important.
Dr. Selig, project historian for the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail, is a historical consultant who received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Würzburg in Germany. A specialist on the role of French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau during the American Revolution, he has published numerous books and more than 100 articles in American and German scholarly and popular history magazines.
In “The French Alliance and the Road to Yorktown,” Edward Ayres will discuss on October 8 how French assistance enabled the United States to eventually win the War for Independence. Even before openly declaring war against Great Britain, the French sent a significant quantity of weapons, gunpowder and uniforms to George Washington’s struggling Continental Army. After the Treaty of Alliance of 1778, France began to send its own soldiers to fight alongside the Americans. The decisive defeat of the British army at Yorktown in 1781 was achieved primarily because of the critical help of French sea power and land forces.
Historian at the Yorktown Victory Center since 1988, Mr. Ayres has been involved in the design and scripting of exhibit galleries and development of the museum’s re-created 1780s farm. He has worked as a historian and interpretive programmer at Colonial Williamsburg and Flowerdew Hundred and as project historian for archaeological surveys conducted by the College of William and Mary. Mr. Ayres completed coursework toward a Ph.D. in Early American History at the University of Virginia.
The Yorktown Victory Center chronicles the American Revolution, from the beginnings of colonial unrest to the formation of the new nation with the adoption of the Constitution, through timeline, gallery exhibits and historical interpretation at re-creations of a Continental Army encampment and 1780s farm. Located on Route 1020 in Yorktown, the museum is open daily year-round. The Yorktown Victory Center is administered by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a Virginia state agency. For more information, visit www.historyisfun.org or call (888) 593-4682 toll-free or (757) 253-4838.
4. Under the category of shameless self promotion, but hopefully of value, are two Revolutionary War tours and a New Jersey conference. Yes, I’m involved with all three. Needless to say, I highly recommend them.
Member Bruce Venter’s America’s History is sponsoring “The Regulars Are Coming” in the Boston area from September 14 – 17. Details are at http://americashistoryllc.com/2011/01/the-regulars-are-coming/#more-101.
Bob Maher’s Civil War Education Association / American History Forum is hosting its Third Annual New Jersey Conference on the American Revolution on November 12, with a next day tour of river war sites of the Philadelphia Campaign. Specifics are at http://cwea.net/2011tours/2011_New_Jersey_AMER_REV_CONF_WEB.htm and http://cwea.net/2011tours/2011_New_Jersey_AMER_REV_CONF_WEB.htm.
5. George and Carole Summers reminded us of the annual Swamp Fox Symposium. I’ve never been able to attend but have heard excellent things about this program.
Patriots, You're invited:
The United States of America may have declared her independence in Philadelphia in 1776, but that freedom was won on the battlefields of South Carolina in 1780-1782.
The 9th Annual Francis Marion Symposium will be held October 14-15, 2011, in Manning. The theme is Explore the Southern Campaign with General Francis Marion and commemorates the 230th anniversary of the vital South Carolina campaigns led by General Francis Marion (“The Swamp Fox”) and other Revolutionary War heroes.
The Swamp Fox Murals Society will host the two-day gathering of Marion enthusiasts. Historical presentations and discussions are on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning & afternoon, plus a Friday evening reception dinner and a Saturday “Evening in History” dinner theater.
Some presentations are Land Genealogy: Colonial Maps & plats along the Santee River; British Intentions Thwarted; Early Colonial & Revolutionary Churches in SC; Marion and Georgetown; Maj. Thomas Young remembers William Dobiein James and Marion at Fort Motte; Marion and Isaac Hayne; Marion and Parker's Ferry; and Joe Stukes as Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and more.
The site for the Symposium is the DuBose Campus, CCT College, US 521, Manning, located just off I-95 (Exit 122) on US 521. Sign-in will be at 2:00 pm on Friday, October 14, and the registration fee includes all lectures and discussions, the reception dinner, coffee and breakfast snacks & lunch on Saturday and the Evening in History dinner finale.
Oct 14-15, 2011 9th Francis Marion/Swamp Fox Symposium “Explore the Rev. War Southern Campaign with Marion” Site: FE DuBose Campus, Central Carolina Technical College, I-95, Exit 122, Manning
See draft agenda at www.francismarionsymposium.com:
(Lectures, reception/dinner, lunch & dinner theater) Price: $ 95 ($175 / couple)
(Early bird $90/$165 by Sept 22) Registration closes 10/3/11
Francis Marion Advocates: Pushing back the frontier of ignorance.
Swamp Fox Murals Trail Society
PO Box 667
Manning, SC 29102
803-478-2645
cells: 919-730-3533, 803-460-7416
www.francismarionsymposium.com Oct 14-15, 2011
www.francismarioncountry.com - Living History Encampment - Feb 25-26, 2011 Best one ever. Next year: Feb. 23-25, 2012
www.clarendonmurals.com www.francismariontrail.com www.swampfoxtrail.com www.swampfoxcountry.com
6. Finally, the next ARRT-Richmond meeting on September 21, will feature Chris Bryce presenting “Prelude to Yorktown: The Battle of Green Spring.” But I’ll remind you again as we get closer.
Thanks to all who sent these various reports. Please keep them coming. And remember to regularly check the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution Calendar at http://www.southerncampaign.org/coe.php for the most comprehensive listing of Revolutionary War events. Again, if you wish to be removed from this list, please send a note to [log in to unmask] And thanks for reading this long post.
Bill Welsch
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