Clements Library Preserves Revolutionary Trove, Smith Maritime Collection
|
||||||||||
| Printer Friendly Story View |
William L. Clements estate, Garra Tighe, at Center and Park avenues in Bay City in the 1920s.
Gen. Sir Eyre Coote was a junior officer with British forces in the American Revolution.
One of the foremost collections of American historical materials, that began in Bay City in the early part of the last century, continues to grow in importance.
%im%
%cp%
In the next ten years, more than 100 scholars are expected to use the newest acquisition of the William Clements Library in Ann Arbor, the papers of British Gen. Sir Eyre Coote, according to Director John C. Dann.%cp%
That scholarship will produce new insights into the conflict with Great Britain that resulted in the formation of the United States of America, he said.
The Eyre-Coote Papers, documenting the 35-year military career of a British officer in the American Revolution and in other world conflicts, have been kept intact by the Clements in an improbable series of events leading to the acquisition.
%im%
%cp%
It took 15 years for the Clements to finally close its purchase of the Eyre-Coote Papers, about 300 pounds of precious documents that, because of internet auctions, are worth more sold separately than they are as an intact collection, said Mr. Dann.%cp%
"Had we not intervened and purchased the collection, it and all the personal history it represents unquestionably would have been irreparably fragmented," said Mr. Dann. "That would have been a terrible loss to scholars everywhere."
As the Clements embarks on a capital fundraising campaign, the library is recognizing the contributions of its founder, William Clements, founder of Bay City's Industrial Works, and one of the foremost collectors of antiquities in American history.
Also recalled is the legacy of Hubert Stacy Smith, (1888-1946) one of five sons of Henry B. Smith, early Bay City industrialist, whose collection of historical maritime materials is being bolstered by the library.
"The Clements home was the most exciting center for new revelations about the American Revolution anywhere in the late twenties and early thirties, and one of the few people who enjoyed access to this rarified historical environment was Mr. Smith," said Mr. Dann. "He was 25years Clement's junior, a wealthy and a refined M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) graduate. His passions were yachting and the lore of ships and the sea."The Hubert S. Smith Collection "includes spectacular atlases and copies of books onexploration, naval tactics, shipbuilding, pirates, sea disasters and, particularly, the life and career of Admiral Lord Nelson" said Mr. Dann. "The collection of manuscripts and books on maritime and naval history is exceptional, not for its vast quantity but for the quality and importance of its parts."
Mr. Smith was the neighbor and friend of Mr. Clements, whose mansion on Center and Park avenues originally housed some of the most important documents in American Revolutionary history.
Early Clements' acquisitions included the papers of British prime ministers Charles Townshend and Lord Shelburne and military leaders Jeffery Amherst, Thomas Gage, Henry Clinton, George Germain. The collection also includes the papers of U.S. generals Nathanael Greene, Anthony Wayne and naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry.
In 1923, Mr. Clements donated the Clements Library on the University of Michigan campus and stocked it with his collection compiled in Bay City over several decades. Mr. Clements was a long-serving regent of the U-M.
Additions have been made to the collection over the years through private donations, including a gift of $1.2 million from Ruth Waldron, of Philadelphia, a University of Michigan graduate in the 1920s, that kept the acquisitions program going during tough financial times, according to Mr. Dann. Funds from the Ruth Waldron gift were used for the Eyre-Coote acquisition, he said.
Although the Clements acquired the Eyre-Coote Papers in 1990 for about $90,000, they were placed on temporary export bar by the British government. Any British firm that could have raised the estimated value of 350,000 pounds, about $680,000, could have obtained the papers. However, no offer to purchase was made and the British Arts Minister issued an export license in February.
In all the collection contains 77 Revolutionary War order books, including commissions signed by King George III, manuscript maps, 35 letter books, 15 diaries and more than 2,000 letters and papers. They document the career of the Irish born Gen. Sir Eyre Coote, who was a junior officer in the 37th Regiment in the American Revolution. The papers also involve Gen. Coote's career in India, against the French on the Continent, in Egypt and the West Indies.
A University of Michigan news release states: "An interesting footnote to the Coote record is the suggestion that Gen. Colin Powell, recently retired U.S. Secretary of State and former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, may be a descendant of the British general. Gen. Powell has indicated in his autobiography that his mother was descended froma child of the governor of Jamaica and a black servant. Eyre Coote was governor of the island from 1805-1808."
Mr. Dann said that such liaisons were commonplace in that era in Jamaica but are not easily documented, although the collection includes receipts for payments made to unnamed black servants in the governor's household. (Please see http://www.umich.edu/news or http://www.clements.umich.edu )
| Printer Friendly Story View |
|
|
Dave Rogers |
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Story View
0200 Nd: 04-14-2024 d 4 cpr 0
12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm
SPONSORED LINKS
12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm