Author: Greg Parker

This gallery consists of photographs from various primary sources including a letter, newspaper articles, and a commencement speech.

These photographs exhibit Henry Harman’s letter to his father in which he discusses academics and his enjoyment of Dickinson’s academic benefits. (Photographer- Greg Parker, at the Dickinson College Archives)

The above photograph displays an article in the Carlisle Herald and Expositor. This article examines the reflections of the Southern students at Dickinson after it became known that the police arrested a professor, John McClintock, for participation in the 1847 slave riot. (Photographer- Greg Parker, at the Waidner Spahr Library)

This photograph of an article in the Carlisle Herald and Expositor reveals continuation in the efforts to create a treaty to end the Mexican-American War. (Photographer- Greg Parker, at the Waidner Spahr Library)

This screenshot of a portion of John Andrew Jackson Creswell’s 1848 commencement speech demonstrates his knowledge of international politics. (Photographer- Greg Parker, on the Dickinson College Archives online website)

The eighteen forties were a tumultuous time for the United States. Different events affected the Union. These events ranged from James Polk’s inauguration, to the Mormons’ conflict in Illinois, to Texas’ admittance into the Union, to the Mexican-American War, to slave riots. Did these issues have any affect on college students from that era, specifically students at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania? To answer that question, this post examines the Mexican-American War through a wide lens, while analyzing slave riots through the zoomed in lens of an 1847 slave riot in Carlisle.
This post contains various interactive links to examine the affects of those events. Special features of this post include:

• Discussion of perspective with relevance to how and why historians “zoom” and the possibility of student ignorance to national events
• Comparative timeline with national events side by side with Dickinson events
• Photo gallery of various primary sources used in this project

The ability to zoom in and out of different historical topics to understand their effects seems to convincingly argue that the political climate of 1845-1848 had an effect on Dickinson students of that era.  However, not every student was interested in the politics of the United States.  Henry Harman penned a letter to his father less than a month after Texas sent its constitution to the United States Congress.  In this letter, he discusses his successes in the classroom in his first semester at Dickinson.  He continues to discuss his enjoyment of reading the vast array of books in the library, including the Koran and pieces of literature by Hume.  He concludes with a request that his father send him his compass and scales from home (Harman, 1846).  Seemingly far from his mind is the state of the Union, especially the trials and tribulations of Texas’ quest for statehood.

Furthermore, the 90 students from the South who gave their approval and support to Professor McClintock in the midst of his run in with the law, created an interesting news story.  These students, most of whom presumably came from slaveholding households, were faced with a predicament in McClintock.  Immediately following news of his arrest, there was a false report (made false by the Carlisle Herald and Expositor) of Southern students creating demands directed towards the college and Professor McClintock (“The Slave Riot,” 2;3-4).  These 90 students wanted to set the record straight and demonstrate their affection of Professor McClintock.

Thus, it appears that national issues only affected Dickinson students if they had personal stake in the topic.  Henry Harman presumably did not have any personal stake over the admittance of Texas into the Union.  However, the 90 students who expressed their support to Professor McClintock wanted to exhibit their thoughts of him and their support of the greater Dickinson community.

Bibliography:

Harman, Henry Martyn, to Andrew Harman, Carlisle, 3 January, 1846, Edwards Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

“The Slave Riot.” Carlisle Herald and Expositor, June 16, 1847, 2;3-4.

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1wdacjweX6V-729RYzY_yNODLgMigafePYf50AxrZ790&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650’%20width=’100%’%20height=’650’%20frameborder=’0

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1dTXexFRikfq8Oab2jwKPoK-xZE0zdXzLKQvXjVLH0Z4&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650’%20width=’100%’%20height=’650’%20frameborder=’0

I set out on this annotated bibliography with two ideas of a final project in mind.  First, I want to examine the United States Postal Service in the 19^th Century and early 20^th Century because I have two Postmaster Generals in my designated Dickinson College class of 1848.  They are John Andrew Jackson Creswell and James William Marshall, and served consecutively in President Grant’s Cabinet.  Second, I want to research James Bernard Hank, another graduate from 1848 who was a surgeon for the Russian Army during the Crimean War.  Hank died in 1859, three years after the war ended, and it was possible that he died of one of the many illnesses that plagued the armies involved in that war.  Unfortunately, it is too early to finalize my decision as to which topic I will write about for my final project, so this annotated bibliography has sources for both sources.

Articles:

Dvoichenko-Markov, Eufrosina. “Americans in the Crimean War” The Russian Review. 13, 2 (1954): 137-145. [JSTOR]

This article examined the antebellum amicability between Russia and the United States, and the possibility of an alliance during the Crimean War had the United States revoked its neutrality.  However, the article also analyzed the American surgeons who served in the Russian Army, most of whom eventually died from diseases like cholera and smallpox.  The author, was a scholar of American-Russian relations.  Her bias, as a Russian living in the United States during the Cold War might have been to show that various Americans, alluding to the surgeons in the Crimean War, have supported Russia even when the US government unofficially supports Russia’s adversary, or remains neutral.

House, Albert V. Jr. “President Hayes’ Selection of David M. Key for Postmaster General” The Journal of Southern History. 4, 1 (1938): 87-93. [JSTOR]

This article examined the process surrounding Rutherford B. Hayes’ nomination of David Key to Postmaster General.  The article dug deeper into the reasons why having a Southern Democrat, from Tennessee, would be fruitful to show unity between the North and South after the Civil War.  This source might be very bias towards the South.  I had the impression, after reading, that this celebrated the fact that a Southern Democrat was nominated to the cabinet of a Republican President.

Miller, Byron S. “Parties. Judicial Control over Executive. Postmaster General as Indispensable Party in Suit Against Local Postmaster” The University of Chicago Law Review. 4, 2 (1937): 342-343. [JSTOR]

This article reviewed the legal aspect of postal fraud.  Specifically, it examined the inconsistencies and lack of communication between the Postmaster General and local regional postmasters.  Byron S. Miller was the editor in chief for the law review from 1936-1937, so I put him as the author, because I could not determine who out of the other authors of the law review wrote this specific article.  The University of Chicago Law School was a prestigious law school (and still is), so I trust this law review’s interpretation of such high profile cases involving federal government employees and institutions.  I could not see any bias in the article.

Osborne, John M., and Christine Bombaro. “Forgotten Abolitionist: John A.J. Creswell of Maryland” House Divided Project at Dickinson College. (2015): 1-69. [United States History Commons]

This article was an examination of John Creswell’s life.  The portion of the article I was most concerned with was his time serving as Postmaster General, where the authors discussed his abolition of inefficiency in the United States Postal Service.  Osborne and Bombaro were employees at Dickinson College, with Osborne being an associate professor and co-founder of the House Divided Project and Bombaro serving as a librarian.  Their bias might be over-praise for John Creswell and his achievements, since he graduated from the authors’ institution of employment.

Pearce, Robert L. “War and Medicine in the Nineteenth Century” Australian Defense Force Health. 3, (2002), 88-92. [Department of Defense]

The Crimean War section of this article examined the British and French disregard towards that war, as well as health issues for soldiers and personnel in those armies.  Lieutenant Colonel Robert Pearce appeared to be very educated in the field of battlefield medicine and battle tactics.  In addition to his military rank, he was a plastic surgeon.  It would be easy to assume his bias towards the British army, especially since Australia was a former colony of Great Britain, but after reading the article, Lt. Colonel Pearce attacked the British and French armies for their unpreparedness and inability to avoid illnesses during the Crimean War.

Books:

Gallagher, Winifred. How the Post Office Created America: A History. New York: Penguin Press, 2016. [Google Books]

This book explained the importance of the Post Office in the United States’ national identity.  The book chronologically examined the evolution of the Post Office and how it became the largest bureaucratic organization during the 19^th century.  This book did not have any bias, instead it was a level-headed analysis of the United States Postal Service.

John, Richard R. Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. [Harvard University Press]

This book also showed the evolution of the Post Office and its importance as a bureaucratic agency.  However, in addition, John explained how the Post Office was a unifying force in such a diverse country.  I did not notice any bias in this book.

McCallum, Jack E. Military Medicine from Ancient Times to 21^st Century. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2008. [Google Books]

This book examined the evolution of battlefield medical practices up to the present day.  Where the book discussed about the Crimean War, McCallum analyzed the deadliness of the infections endured by soldiers and the lack of communication within the armies to properly treat those infections.  I did not notice any bias in the book, rather a detailed overview of every era of history to examine its usefulness of military medicine.

Nightingale, Florence “I Have Done My Duty” Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War 1854-1856. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987. [Google Books]

This book examined Nightingale’s service in the Crimean War.  It gave some insight of battlefield medical practices in the Crimean War from one of the most well-known nurses from the war.  I did notice a little positive bias in this book directed at the British and French alliance.

Greg Parker

While researching members of the class of 1848 I stumbled across an interesting item related to Dr. Henry Martyn Harman.  On the Dickinson College Archives website (“archives website”) I found a letter written by Dr. Harman to his father, Andrew Harman under the search results for Henry Harman.  This letter gave an eye opening glimpse into college life in the 19^th century.  In the same file as Dr. Harman’s letter, I found a letter written by Richard N. Edwards to Gilbert Malcolm at Dickinson.  This letter explained the reason that Mr. Edwards possessed and sent Dr. Harman’s letter to Dickinson.

My original item was an obituary of Mrs. Anna M. Thomas, wife of Reverend Thomas Snowden Thomas (class of 1848).  The obituary, found in the January 29, 1885 issue of The Christian Advocate was interesting in that I learned about her life.  Mrs. Thomas was a devoted Methodist who actively tried to work throughout the week in order to rest on the Sabbath.  With her husband, she taught her children Christian values even on her death bed.

I lacked interest in this obituary because Mrs. Thomas was not a member of the class of 1848.  I decided to research a different item from the archives.  That was when I remembered that while researching Dr. Harman, I found a letter that he wrote to his father while at Dickinson in 1846.  This was more interesting because Dr. Harman graduated in 1848, and students still write home (actually maybe today we just call and text home).

I decided to transcribe Dr. Harman’s Letter to his father.  Even though there was already a transcription in the archives, I thought that it would be good practice for me to transcribe this document.  Furthermore, I wanted to compare my transcription with the transcription already in the archives.  The sections that are transcribed in bold are transcriptions where I relied on help from the original transcription.  The sections that are transcribed in italics are transcriptions where I believe that my transcription was correct and the original transcription was incorrect.

I went farther and transcribed the envelope that carried the letter from Dr. Harman to his father.  However, this proved a little more difficult as there appeared to be scribbling that I could not read and scribbling that did not make much sense.

This is a picture of the envelope that held Dr. Harman’s letter. (Archives, photographer-Greg Parker)

The contents of Dr. Harman’s letter were an interesting glimpse into the affairs of a student in the 19^th century.  Dr. Harman described his academic successes in his freshman year (supposedly the first semester of the 1845-1846 school year).  In his freshman year, he took Algebra and Greek.  The 1845-1846 college catalogue confirmed that freshman took Algebra and Geometry as part of their Mathematics requirement.  The catalogue also confirmed that freshman took Greek and read Xenophon and Homer in that class.

This photo from the 1845-1846 catalogue shows the course load for freshman. (Archives, photographer-Greg Parker)

Interestingly, on the catalogue’s roster of freshman, I found no other names from the 1905 Alumni Record’s roster.  That could be because Dr. Harman graduated from Dickinson in three years because he was a freshman in the fall semester of 1845 and a sophomore in the spring semester of 1846.  When I looked at the 1847-1848 catalogue, I found many familiar names on the senior roster including John Andrew Jackson Creswell, William Ing, and John Ogden Winner.

This page from the 1847-1848 catalogue lists the senior class at Dickinson. (Archives, photographer-Greg Parker)

Dr. Harman’s letter was not in great shape.  There were strands of tape criss-crossing the page.  However, both the letter and the envelope were in protective sheets to preserve them.  The letter and envelope were not faded, yet the handwriting was hard to read.  Both contents also were complete.

When looking through the file containing Dr. Harman’s letter in the archives, I also found a letter written by Richard N. Edwards, dated 1946.  Although dated a century after Dr. Harman’s letter and ninety-eight years after Dr. Harman graduated, this letter was relevant to Dr. Harman’s letter.  Mr. Edwards sent this letter with Dr. Harman’s letter to Dickinson in April 1946.  In the letter, Mr. Edwards explained the provenance of Dr. Harman’s letter.  There was no transcription of Mr. Edwards’ letter at the archives.  I took it upon myself to transcribe the letter.

This is the front of the letter that Mr. Edwards sent with Dr. Harman’s letter to Mr. Malcolm. (Archives, photographer-Greg Parker)

Mr. Edwards’ letter was in much better shape than Dr. Harman’s.  Maybe it was in better shape because it was a century younger than Dr. Harman’s letter.  It was not fragile and it was legible and a little more readable than Dr. Harman’s letter.

Dr. Harman’s letter passed many hands.  Dr. Harman’s father kept the letter in his family.  Then someone in the Harman family gave the letter to a Presbyterian Minister who had a close relationship with the Harmans.  That same minister gave the letter to Mr. Edwards, one of Dr. Harman’s Bible students, with the “thought that [Mr. Edwards] would value it more than he,” and Mr. Edwards claimed that he valued it greatly.

It appeared that Mr. Edwards’ brother, John, also went to Dickinson.  After some time researching on the archives website, I found that Mr. Edwards was a member of the class of 1897.  I also found that a John Edwards graduated in 1897 too, which contradicted the letter that said John “[was] among [Dr. Harman’s] graduates [in 1896]”.  I do not know which source is correct, the archives website or Mr. Edwards’ letter.  I hope that the archives website would have correct information about Dickinson alums; likewise, I hope that Mr. Edwards knows the year that his brother graduated.

I could not assume that John and Richard were twins, so I checked Ancestry.com (“ancestry”).  The most promising record of John and Richard being related showed Richard Edwards’ birth in England (possible and plausible).  It also showed Richard’s birth taking place in 1874, and John’s in 1871.  This did not give me all that much confidence that Richard and John Edwards were brothers; however, it proved to be the only Richard Nicholas Edwards result on ancestry that showed a birth in the 1870s with a brother John.  Based on this result, Richard was John’s younger brother.

Mr. Richard Edwards’ letter talked about one Bishop Richardson.  He said that Bishop Richardson was supposed to come to Dickinson for the commencement in 1946.  Based on the archives website, Bishop Ernest Richardson (class of 1896) returned to Dickinson for a thirty-year reunion in 1926, and gave a matriculation sermon in 1927.  If Bishop Richardson was at the 1946 commencement, he did not speak at it, otherwise the archives website would say that he delivered a commencement speech in 1946.

I found this archives project very interesting.  I learned a lot about college life in the middle of the 19^th century.  Beyond that, I also learned how to research in the archives and how to transcribe letters that are multiple decades and centuries old.

Bibliography of Archive Items: 

Todd, R.W. “Mrs. Anna M. Thomas” in January 29, 1885 issue of The Christian Advocate, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Harman, Henry Martyn, to Andrew Harman, Carlisle, 3 January, 1846, Edwards Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Edwards, Richard Nicholas, to Gilbert Malcolm, Baltimore, 24 April, 1946, Edwards Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Greg Parker