Local Historical Societies Research Articles

The History of the Confederate States Marine Corps , and: Biographical Sketches of the Commissioned Officers of the Confederate States Marine Corps , and: Service Records of Confederate Enlisted Marines (review)

BOOK REVIEWSOV destiny "to overspread and possess" adjacent weak nations. The agents of Manifest Destiny were zealots proclaiming die highest patriotic objectives . Although, says Brown, "the leaders might profess goals of freeing the people of neighboring lands from tyrannical or inept rulers, . . . one and all they sought glory for themselves" (p. 459). Their followers were young adventurers, waterfront rabble, businessmen willing to wager a few dollars for huge stakes, and Southern extremists eager for new slave territory. The story covers the entire nineteendi century, beginning widi a few introductory chapters dealing with private plots from Aaron Burr to the end of die Mexican W7ar, and concluding with a chapter on dwindling dreams of expansion from 1861 to 1900. The heart of the book deals with the efforts of Narciso Lopez to seize power in Spanish Cuba, and William W7alker's various campaigns to conquer Baja California and Sonora from Mexico and later to seize and "liberate" Nicaragua. Brown narrates these episodes in detail, giving the reader a clearer view of the day-today activities dian is available elsewhere. The incessant intrigues and the bloody skirmishes become increasingly gripping and filled with suspense as the tragedy of these two would-be dictators, Lopez and W7alker, unfolds. Considering themselves invincible Messiahs, they made spur-of-die-moment decisions about fund raising, mobilizing recruits, acquisition of ordnance and transport facilities, and about military action in die field. Especially useful are Brown's racy capsule biographies of dieir many collaborators— men like O'Sullivan, Law, Sanders, Doubleday, W7heat, Lockridge, French, Fayssoux, Henningsen, Quitman, Soulé, and many others. Brown treats die diplomatic problems raised by filibustering mainly by showing die difficulties the United States government encountered in trying to enforce neutrality laws at ports where the local populace approved of these private military excursions. The volume rests largely on the printed memoirs of die filibusters. The author gives variant versions when he cannot resolve contradictions . He also has used die major contemporary newspaper accounts, the published diplomatic correspondence, and the large body of secondary material. The bookmaking is first-class, a credit to the publisher. Although die author makes no effort to connect the marauding troops of the 1850s with diose of today, die reader will find himself making comparisons and contrasts between these early filibusters and the guerrillas operating in many parts of the globe in recent years. Philip S. Klein The Pennsylvania State Univ. The History of the Confederate States Marine Corps. By Ralph W7. Donnelly . (Published by the Author, 1976. Pp. xxi, 275.) Biographical Sketches of the Commissioned Officers of the Confeder- 90civil war history ate States Marine Corps. By Ralph W7. Donnelly. (Published by the Author, 1973. Pp. xii, 68.) Service Records of Confederate Enlisted Marines. By Ralph W7. Donnelly . (Published by the Audior, 1979. Pp. xxii, 125. Copies can be ordered from 913 Market Street, Washington, North Carolina 27889.) For nearly a century, students of the Civil W7ar were tantalized by occasional references to Confederate Marines. Now, three volumes by one author have given that obscure Corps a superbly researched, comprehensive , and well-written history. In 1957 and 1959, articles appeared in the Military Collector and Historian and Military Affairs. These articles were entitled "Uniforms and Equipment of Confederate Marines" and "Battle Honors and Service of Confederate Marines." The two articles, written by Ralph W7. Donnelly, contained the most detailed and accurate information that had then been published about Confederate Marines. Not satisfied with an auspicious beginning, Donnelly went on to author the diree-volume history of die C.S.M.C. Before retiring as a United States Marine Corps Reference Historian in 1978, Donnelly had been elected a Fellow of both the Company of Military Historians and the American Military Institute in recognition of his historical research. Most Confederate Marines served near Richmond or at the ports of Mobile and Savannah. Detachments served at Wilmington, Charleston, Pensacola and New Orleans and a few detachments saw service on the high seas. In the destruction and confusion which characterized the last months of the Confederacy, most Marine records seem to have been put to the torch. To gather needed information, Donnelly contacted state and local historical societies. Descriptions of Marine uniforms...

A Primer for Local Historical Societies

chapter 1 Preface: The Second Edition chapter 2 1. Before You Organize: In the Beginning... chapter 3 2. Organizing chapter 4 3. Financing chapter 5 4. Publicity chapter 6 5. Beginning Projects for Limited Budgets chapter 7 6. Oral History chapter 8 7. Site-Marketing chapter 9 8. Tours chapter 10 9. Establishing a Historical Library chapter 11 10. Preservation of Buildings chapter 12 11. Restorations chapter 13 12. Museums chapter 14 13. Volunteers chapter 15 14. Publishing chapter 16 Conclusion: The History Connection chapter 17 Appendix A: Suggested State and Provincial Resources chapter 18 Appendix B: Regional Branches of the National Archives and Records Administration chapter 19 Appendix C: Criteria for Evaluation for the National Register of Historic Places

Teaching with Audiovisual Documents: Resources in the National Archives

THE AUDIOVISUAL Archives Division of the National Archives in Washington, D. C., holds a uniquely comprehensive collection of documents. Unlike the Library of Congress or local historical societies, the National Archives must accept and preserve the records of all government agencies, including both written and audiovisual records. Unlike the Eastman International Museum of Photography or the Museum of Modern Art, which collect only photographs and films, the National Archives houses an incredible variety of images. And unlike private collectors and many museums, the National Archives makes its collections accessible to the general public. These characteristics make the National Archives an important source for historians seeking audiovisual materials to use in the classroom. The Division currently contains 5 million still photographs, 79 million feet of motion picture film on 103,000 reels, 72,000 tape recordings, 1.8 million maps and charts, and 2400 videocassettes of the daily newscasts of CBS since April 1, 1974, and of NBC since June 12, 1976.1 I have worked in this division regularly for the last six years directing

Review: A Primer for Local Historical Societies, by Dorothy Weyer Creigh and Researching, Writing and Publishing Local History, by Thomas E. Felt

Review: <i>A Primer for Local Historical Societies</i>, by Dorothy Weyer Creigh and <i>Researching, Writing and Publishing Local History</i>, by Thomas E. Felt

Bulletin of the Cleveland and Teesside Local History Society.

Bulletin of the Cleveland and Teesside Local History Society.

Oral History for the Local Historical Society. 2nd ed. rev. by Willa K. Baum. (Nashville: American Association of State and Local History, by special arrangement with The Conference of California Historical Societies, 1971, 62 pp. Bibliography, illustrations. Paper. $2.00.)

Previous articleNext article No AccessBooksOral History for the Local Historical Society. 2nd ed. rev. by Willa K. Baum. (Nashville: American Association of State and Local History, by special arrangement with The Conference of California Historical Societies, 1971, 62 pp. Bibliography, illustrations. Paper. $2.00.)PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 15, Number 4January 1972 Published for the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/4004056 Journal History This article was published in the Forest History Newsletter (1957-1974), which was continued by the Journal of Forest History (1974-1989). © 1972 Forest History Society, Inc. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Esko Aaltonen (1893-1966) – a lifetime of local history

Last year was one of celebration, not only of Finland's entry into the European Union but also manifestly of Finnish culture. It was one hundred years since the foundation of the country's first local history society at Lohja. A year before that, on March 9. 1893 a boy who was baptised with the very Finnish name of Esko, was born into the family of a weaving mill worker. Later Esko was to become a major force and pioneer in the local history movement.

Business Records: The Canadian Scene

speaking of historical manuscripts I have used the term to include business records and the private papers of businessmen. Canada has not any great number of business records, though the importance of this type of material was recognized early by archivists. Historians in Canada, especially in the 19th century, were preoccupied with political history. The reason, no doubt, stems from the fact that few business records were available in 19th-century Canada. Not that there weren't businesses, for there were. But Canada's basic large businesses were shipping, shipbuilding, lumbering, milling, distilling, fishing, and banking. These firms were still growing, taking over small fry and in no mood to make public all the details of their business. At the local level were the blacksmith, the miller, the brickmaker, the shoemaker, the country store, the innkeeper. The records of such small trades were generally ignored by the historian and by the local historical society. Not until after the turn of the century was there rapid industrialization, and then it was concentrated in Ontario and Quebec. We get some inkling of an awakened interest in business records from the first report issued by the Bureau of Archives of Ontario for 1903. The Archivist writes :

Sources for Folk Life Studies

AbstractReaders of Folk Life may be interested to learn something of other journals concerned with the subject, in this and other countries. Only those more or less directly concerned with folk life are discussed here, though it is important to remember that many relevant articles also appear in the journals of local history and antiquarian societies, and that it is on these that a fair proportion of the material in the text books of the future will be based.

Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, Part I 1966. Edited by C. M. Lloyd. 9¾ × 7 ¼. Pp. 80 + pls. 2+figs. 10. Published by the Lincolnshire Local History Society, 1966.

Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, Part I 1966. Edited by C. M. Lloyd. 9¾ × 7 ¼. Pp. 80 + pls. 2+figs. 10. Published by the Lincolnshire Local History Society, 1966.

Copies of French Manuscripts for American History in the Library of Congress

Two of the features which distinguished American historical scholarship at the beginning of the twentieth century were a preoccupation with the collection of sources and the reorientation of interest from Europe and the Atlantic seaboard to the American West. Armed with the new weapons of critical methodology and the heady ambition to make history scientific, the first generation of professional historians set out with remarkable determination to gather historical manuscripts. At the same time, the closing of the frontier, and the Turner thesis which reflected it, opened the serious study of the history of the Mississippi Valley. Not surprisingly, these two currents, which merged in the foundation of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, led to programs for exploiting the sources for American history to be found in European libraries and archives. Addressing the Mississippi Valley Historical Association at its first annual meeting Clarence Alvord complained that we have been writing of the French in the Mississippi Valley, and of British policy in the West, without searching in the chief depositories for our material, and proposed the copying of relevant material in Europe.' In the same year, 1908, the Conference of State and Local Historical Societies, aware that copying had already begun in Britain, recommended that French archives, as the richest field of practically unexplored material, be searched as a preliminary to the copying of their American contents.2 In fact,

Suggestions for Organization and Description of Archival Holdings of Local Historical Societies

Suggestions for Organization and Description of Archival Holdings of Local Historical Societies

The Puritans and the Church Courts in the Diocese of York, 1560–1642. By Ronald A. Marchant. Pp. xii + 330. London: Longmans, Green, 1960. 63s. - Post Reformation Catholicism in East Yorkshire, 1558–1790. By Dom Hugh Aveling. (East Yorkshire Local History Series, xi). Pp. 70. York: East Yorkshire Local History Society, 1960. 5s.

The Puritans and the Church Courts in the Diocese of York, 1560–1642. By Ronald A. Marchant. Pp. xii + 330. London: Longmans, Green, 1960. 63s. - Post Reformation Catholicism in East Yorkshire, 1558–1790. By Dom Hugh Aveling. (East Yorkshire Local History Series, xi). Pp. 70. York: East Yorkshire Local History Society, 1960. 5s. - Volume 12 Issue 2

British Mammals: Introductory Note

For many years, in fact since the lamented demise of The Zoologist in 1916, the study of mammals in Great Britain has been greatly handicapped by the lack of a specialist journal. This deficiency it is now hoped to remedy by publishing in Oryx a regular section devoted to the natural history and conservation of British mammals. The twin aims of the section are well illustrated by the two articles in this first issue, one on the field study and identification of British bats, by Michael Blackmore, the other on the case for a close season for deer, by G. K. Whitehead, both among the leading experts in their respective fields. In addition it is hoped to publish regularly short notes on matters of general rather than local interest, to review books on or largely devoted to British mammals, and to abstract from local natural history journals any papers or notes of more than local interest. Editors of local journals, and secretaries of the mammal sections of local natural history societies and field clubs, could help this work greatly by sending me copies of their journals or reprints of any sections of articles relating to mammals. Address: Drifts, Chinnor Hill, Oxford.

Ninety Years Ago

No one, so far as I know, has as yet made any particular study of the many local learned societies that were founded up and down France in the years after the French Revolution, and of their effect upon contemporary thought. These Sociétés d’Émulation differed from the local archaeological and historical societies of England in being more all-embracing ; they included in their scope pure literature, philosophy and science as well as the history and antiquities of the district, and often developed a philanthropic side as well. At the time of their foundation they were often of a free-thinking colour ; but as the balance of French life came to be restored after the Revolution this element was forgotten, and the more learned priests of the neighbourhood were often included among their members.These societies fostered a peculiar polymathic quality among those who regularly attended their frequent meetings. They were to a great extent self-supporting in the provision of papers and communications, and it would have been pure selfishness for any member with any claim to versatility to specialize too deeply. Their standards, too, were not those of the Metropolis, where a new professionalism was bringing higher and more exact criteria into every branch of knowledge and speculation. Rather, we can see in the Sociétés d’Émulation of the nineteenth century the continuance of the amateur spirit that in the eighteenth century had flourished in the aristocratic circles of Court and château : a spirit surviving in a less polished form among the lesser gentry of the provincial towns.

The Court Records of the Delaware Valley

T t HERE is nothing especially striking or original in proclaiming the importance of court records to the historian. That has been done before and is still being done, by precept, as with the missionary work of the Littleton-Griswold Committee, and by example, in recent works of non-judicial history in which effective use is made of judicial records, such as Miss Susie M. Ames' Virginia studies' and Professor Morris' Labor and Government in Early America. Such works are in themselves testimony that in court records we have a large body of historical material which still awaits thorough exploitation by the historians; and that one's interests need not be in legal or judicial history per se in order to profit by the use of these materials. To the genealogist and the antiquarian, court records have long been a familiar source. They have spared no pains to search these materials out, in the vaults of county and state offices and on the shelves of local historical societies. To them belongs much of the credit for publishing such of these records as are now in print. In the middle colonies, as elsewhere, the earlier court records, those of the seventeenth century, are superior in interest to those of the later period. The earlier records are real minute books, in which the whole proceedings of the court, often including detailed evidence in trials, are entered. In the eighteenth century the records come to be merely formal dockets of cases begun and continued and verdicts and judgments upon them. With the growth of population the amount of this material increases greatly, and as its bulk increases its interest,2 at least to the non-legal historian, decreases. For the Delaware River area, most of the extant seventeenth-century

Field-names

Field-Names, the common and convenient term for minor names which have not achieved the status of place-names, often preserve information important to the historian and to the archaeologist. Their value is well recognized by specialists but not always clearly understood by others. Since field-names are generally found in local, as distinct from national, records, local historians are especially qualified to help in the accumulation of a collection of such names. After a few sentences of advice to secure uniformity of method and to ensure co-ordination, the members of any local historical society, acting as a group or even singly, may build up a valuable collection of field-names. Such work, pursued on systematic lines, would be a real contribution to scholarship, and is already in progress in one or two areas. The following notes attempt to illustrate how the study of field-names may contribute to historical knowledge. They do no more than outline the possibilities and they are confessedly written in the hope that more non-professional Societies will add the formation of a field-name collection to the list of their activities.

The Iowa Association of Local Historical Societies

The Iowa Association of Local Historical Societies

Amateurs in Natural History

At the 150th anniversary meeting of the Society it was shown that it regards natural history societies as workers in the same field. Many prominent fellows of the Society are keenly interested in their local natural history societies. Dr. Ramsbottom thinks it would be well if the Society encouraged the idea that election to the Linnean Society of London should be the hall-mark of excellence· in the study of natural history. If this were so the Society would continue to have that leaven of the amateur which is so necessary to the well-being of the Society. Amateurs were in the past the very backbone of British biology: it would be a sad blow to the democracy of science, even to science itself, if the Linnean Society were ever to be regarded as a domain reserved for the professional worker. “As a Society, then, our task during the War is to carry on as normally as possible, and to help others to do the same. In this connexion the Council has agreed to bring forward a motion, similar to one passed during the last War, that refugee biologists should be allowed certain privileges such as permission to attend meetings and to use the library”.

Scottish Wild-Life Preservation

THE Council of the Zoological Society of Scotland recently set up a Scottish Nature Reserve Committee, on which various public bodies are represented, for the purpose of promoting the preservation of Scottish wild-life. The Committee wishes to obtain full and accurate information regarding the existence, numbers, increase or decrease, and generally the most complete statistics, of native species in different parts of the country. The Committee believes that helpful information of this kind could be furnished by local natural history societies and other associations as well as by landowners, gamekeepers and others, and, therefore, it desires the co-operation of anyone who could furnish such information and who would collaborate with the Committee in the work which it hopes to do. Another aspect of the work which the Committee might usefully undertake would be the mapping out of areas in Scotland which might be suitable for Nature reserves or sanctuaries. Anyone who possesses local knowledge of the suitability of land for such a purpose could greatly assist the Committee by communicating such information to it. Communications should be sent to the Director-Secretary, the Zoological Society of Scotland, Zoological Park, Edinburgh, 12.