Book of Ages (67 page)

  
1.
  For more on the ring, see
appendix A
.

  
2.
  A list of books described as “Donated by Sally Flagg,” dated July 20, 1881, and a second list, described as “Rev. A. P. Marvin from the bequest of Miss Sally Flagg,” dated April 27, 1882, both appear in
Lancaster’s library: Accession Catalogue, 1311-22591, Special Collections, Thayer. Sally Flagg’s bequests are also marked by the presence of a bookplate on the endpapers of books from her bequest. Not all of the books she donated remain in the library.

  
3.
  That these portraits were a gift from Sally Flagg is noted on a slip of paper stapled
to the back of the frame of the portrait of Josiah Flagg. The sitters have, before now, been misidentified as Sally and Samuel Flagg.

  
4.
  Sally Flagg, stitched sampler, embroidered silk on linen, 1802, Thayer. The verse is not original and was common. The very same lines appear on other samplers, including one owned by the Huntington Library and another (stitched ca. 1791 in Providence, Rhode Island, by Rebekah S. Munro, age eleven) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For a reproduction of a sampler with these lines, stitched by Anne Kimball of Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1803, see Betsy Krieg Salm,
Women’s Painted Furniture, 1790–1830: American Schoolgirl Art
(Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2010), 200.

  
1.
  Quoted in Leo Braudy,
Narrative Form in History and Fiction: Hume, Fielding & Gibbon
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), 13.

  
2.
  BF,
Autobiography,
18.

  
3.
  JFM to BF, June 17, 1782.

  
4.
  Published collections of Franklin’s writings referred to in
Appendix D
are Sparks’s
Familiar Letters,
Sparks’s
Works,
Duane’s
Letters,
Duane’s
Works,
and
The Writings of Benjamin Franklin,
ed. Albert Henry Smyth, 10 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1905).

  
5.
  BF to Edward Mecom and JFM, Philadelphia, November 30, 1752.

  
6.
  Sparks,
Familiar Letters,
27. Van Doren wrote, “All of Benjamin Mecom’s letters to his mother and to his uncle are missing, without much doubt deliberately destroyed” (
Letters,
10).

  
7.
  Mather Byles to BF, Boston, 1765–66.

  
8.
  Sparks, Diary 1829–31, December 1830, Sparks Papers, MS Sparks 141g, part 1, p. 236.

  
9.
  Grace Harris Williams to BF, Boston, December 13, 1771, and BF to Grace Harris Williams, London, March 5, 1771.

10.
  Van Doren,
Letters,
vii.

11.
  On how Van Doren fell down this rabbit hole, see the pages about the Lorings in his research notebooks, in Box 11, Folder 11, Van Doren Papers, Princeton University.

12.
  Jared Sparks to Franklin Bache, August 6, 1833.

13.
  Franklin Bache to Jared Sparks, August 14, 1833, Jared Sparks Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard, MS Sparks 153.

14.
  Oliver Wendell Holmes,
John Lothrop Motley: A Memoir
(Boston: Houghton, Osgood, 1879). See also
John Lothrop Motley and His Family,
ed. Susan and Herbert St. John Mildmay (London, 1910). This volume contains a series of letters written by Elizabeth (“Lily”) Motley, including some of her correspondence with Holmes.

15.
  George William Curtis, ed.,
The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley
(London: John Murray, 1889), 1:26.

16.
  Thomas Motley to Jared Sparks, January 24, 1833, Sparks Papers, MS Sparks 153.

17.
  
John Lothrop Motley to Jared Sparks, Boston, October 29, 1837, Sparks Papers, MS 153.

18.
  “[Review of]
The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History by John Lothrop Motley,
”
North American Review
83 (1856): 186.

19.
  “Lady Harcourt,”
Boston Evening Transcript,
October 24, 1896.

20.
  Holmes corresponded with Lady Harcourt. See Holmes,
John Lothrop Motley,
83–84.

21.
  Van Doren conducted his research under the auspices of the
American Philosophical Society. He served on the society’s Library Committee, beginning in 1946, and was named a library research associate and provided with a stipend and an assistant, both for an edition of Franklin’s letters to Richard Jackson and for his edition of the Mecom-Franklin correspondence. For Van Doren’s involvement with the APS concerning the purchase of Frankliniana and the preparation of an edition of the Mecom-Franklin papers, see Van Doren Papers, Box 37, Folder 4; Box 11, Folder 13; and Box 14, Folder 3.

22.
  Minutes, APS, Committee on Library, December 19, 1946, Box 37, Folder 7, Van Doren Papers.

23.
  Frederic R. Kirkland and Jane Franklin Mecom, “Three Mecom-Franklin Letters,”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
72 (1948): 264–72.

24.
  Roelker,
BF and CG,
v.

25.
  C. Dixon,
Benjamin Franklin,
miniature, 1774, gift of Dr. Franklin G.
Balch, November 10, 1943, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession no. 43.1318. “Acquisitions, April 16 through December 9, 1943,”
Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts
42 (1944): 22. Franklin G. Balch to W. G. Constable, October 19, 1943. Franklin G. Balch to G. Harold Edgell, November 13, 1943 (this is the letter I have quoted). G. Harold Edgell to Franklin G. Balch, November 29, 1943. Constable was the curator of paintings. Edgell was the director of the museum. Carbon copies of these letters, along with all correspondence cited here relating to the miniature and the ring, are housed in the accession files of the Decorative Arts Department, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

26.
  “DIED. Last Saturday, Mr. Josiah Williams, AE 25, eldest Son to JONATHAN WILLIAMS, Esq., of this Town, Merchant. By his Sentimental Conversation and amiable Disposition, he render’d himself an instructive as well as a pleasing Companion. He was remarkably fond of Musick, and tho’ Blind from his Infancy, promised to excel in that Science. All who
knew
him,
lov’d
him.”
Boston Gazette,
August 17, 1772.

27.
  Franklin G. Balch to W. G. Constable, October 19, 1943.

28.
  W. G. Constable to Franklin G. Balch, October 20, 1943.

29.
  In his 1943 letter concerning the ring and the Mecom letters, Balch also mentioned a daguerreotype. The museum suggested that he give all of these items to the MHS. The society accepted the daguerreotype in 1949. See
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society
69 (1949): 469. It would not have been unusual for the society to decline these letters. Tracy Potter, the society’s reference librarian, e-mail to the author, January 13, 2012.

30.
  R. Baldwin, Memorandum for G. Harold Edgell, Re: Estate of Katherine T. Balch,
October 28, 1946. “Perhaps your records at the Museum will show whether any of the
Balch family has had a particular interest in any of our departments,” Baldwin urged.

31.
  Mourning ring, 1772, accession no. 49.60, gift of Dr. Franklin G. Balch, February 10, 1949, MFA. “Accessions, November 19, 1948 through March 23, 1949,”
Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts
47 (1949): 34. “Traditionally owned by Benjamin Franklin” appeared on the item’s card in the museum’s card catalog and, in January 2012, in the provenance field of the item’s listing in the online catalog. A letter from the museum acknowledges the gift as simply an “eighteenth century American mourning ring.” C. Harold Edgell to Franklin Greene Balch, February 11, 1949.

32.
  Charles Coleman Sellers,
Exhibition of Portraits Marking the 250th Anniversary of the Birth of the Society’s Founder, Benjamin Franklin
(Philadelphia, 1956). Charles Coleman Sellers, “Jane Mecom’s Little Picture,”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
99 (1955): 433–35. In Mrs. Haven Parker to Charles Coleman Sellers, August 5, 1955, Parker mentions that she intends to send an offprint of the article to Balch. Parker was the museum’s assistant in American Paintings. Balch, a physician, lived in Jamaica Plain and had retired from his private practice, which had been taken over by his son, Dr. Franklin Balch III. The family summered in Chocorua, New Hampshire. Parker summered in Chocorua as well.

33.
  Franklin G. Balch, to Mrs. Haven Parker, August 9, 1955.

34.
  Ibid.

35.
  The letters were JFM to Sarah Franklin Bache, May 23, 1787, and JFM to Sarah Franklin Bache, October 20, 1790. Notes on the acquisition can be found in the Card Catalogue, Editorial Offices of the Benjamin Franklin Papers, Yale University.

36.
  All of these elements are conventional. On
mourning rings, see Robin Jaffee Frank,
Love and Loss: American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures
(New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 2000).

37.
  William E. Lingelbach, “Notable Letters and Papers: Relating to (1) Early American Diplomacy and Winning the Peace, (2) Darwinism and the Great Revolution in Science, (3) A New Franklin Letter to Jane Mecom and (4) Dr. Rush to Patrick Henry,”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
95 (1951), 218–19.

38.
  Helen Cripe and Diane Campbell,
American Manuscripts, 1763–1815: An Index to Documents Described in Auction Records and Dealers’ Catalogues
(Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1977); the Mecom items are listed on p. 603.

39.
  
Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana: Including the Library of Lindley Eberstadt
([New York?]: Sotheby’s, 1985), lots 12, 13, and 14. Lot 12 was purchased by John Fleming of the
Rosenbach Company. Lot 13, BF to JFM, November 4, 1787, was sold for $7,500 to a dealer named Joe Rubinfine. He sold it to Donald Platten of New York, then the chairman of Chemical Bank. Platten died in 1991, and I don’t know what became of the letter. (William Reese, e-mail to the author, January 18, 2012.) I have been unable to discover who purchased lot 14.

40.
  James N. Green, “Other Gifts: A Very Good Year,”
Annual Report of the Library Company of Philadelphia
(2006), 34–35. And “Copies of Letters of Dr. Franklin,” 1825, LCP.

41.
  
George Washington, [Proposed Address to Congress?, April? 1789], in
The Writings of George Washington,
ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931–44), 30: 296–97n81.

  
1.
  Jane Mecom Collas, Josiah Flagg, JFM, and Jane Mecom to BF’s Executors, Boston, July 2, 1790, can be found in the larger of two bound volumes housed in a box called Benjamin Franklin Estate Papers, at the APS.

  
2.
  JFM to Henry Hill, August 6, 1791. Authorization from the father of Franklin and Sarah Greene for an arrangement whereby Jane Collas would receive and disburse their portions, came in a deposition. “I Elihu Greene of Warwick … Guardian to my Children Franklin Greene & Sarah Greene hereby authorize & empower Jane Collas of Boston … To collect & receive for me & in my Acct as Guardian as aforesaid all such Legacies.” Elihu Greene, Warwick, July 2, 1790. Franklin Estate Papers, Folder 3, APS. The reply, from Henry Hill, is copied into the estate papers and is dated October 31, 1791, complying with the request.

  
3.
  An entry on the back page of the larger of the two bound volumes boxed with BF’s Estate Papers at the APS is dated August 12, 1790, and reads as follows:

  
4.
  Benjamin Franklin Estate Papers, B/F85h, Folder 2, APS.

  
5.
  “The Estate of Dr. Franklin,” B/F85h.3, Folder 2, Franklin Papers, APS. The bequests from the estate to the family of Benjamin Mecom’s daughters Sarah Smith and Elizabeth Britt can be traced in a small bound volume kept by Henry Hill and stored in a box at the APS called “Benjamin Franklin’s Estate Papers.”

  
1.
  Sparks’s heavy hand as a magazine editor is abundantly illustrated by his correspondence with the historian
George Bancroft, which is transcribed in “Correspondence of George Bancroft and Jared Sparks, 1823–1832,” ed. John Spencer Bassett,
Smith College Studies in History
2 (1917): 67–143. For instance, Sparks all but dictated to Bancroft what he could and could not say in a book review, as when he wrote, “I should like to have the author dealt gently with, although not extravagantly praised. I think you can let some parts of the book speak well for themselves; You can make a sort of analysis of things, and throw in such reflections as occur” (Sparks to Bancroft, March 31, 1824, p. 77).

  
2.
  Bancroft to Sparks, July 10, 1824, p. 80.

  
3.
  Bancroft to Sparks, July 12, 1824, pp. 80–81.

  
4.
  Bancroft to Sparks, June 31 [
sic
], 1824, p. 78.

  
5.
  Sparks to Bancroft, June 21, 1824, p. 79. Asking Bancroft to review a
Journal of a Tour in Italy by an American,
Sparks urged, “Take it in hand and do it justice; but do not get into any tantrums talking about Italian arts, scenery, and associations. Tell us of plain, entertaining, and good things” (Sparks to Bancroft, September 16, 1824, p. 86). This irritated Bancroft, who wrote back, “There must be no mind at work but my own” (Bancroft to Sparks, November 13, 1824, p. 87). In 1826, Bancroft was so exasperated with what Sparks had done to his writing that he threatened legal action, telling him, “I cannot as a man of honor, take part in this or permit it, without forfeiting my claim to self-respect.” Sparks replied that he wondered at Bancroft’s “strange notions of an editor’s task.” This exchange concerned Bancroft’s unfavorable review of John Pickering’s
Vocabulary;
see pp. 113–27.

  
6.
  Joseph Story to Jared Sparks, October 19, 1833, in Adams,
Life of Sparks,
2:283–84. Twentieth-century standards for modernizing prose can be found in Samuel Eliot Morison, “Care and Editing of Manuscripts,” in
The Harvard Guide to American History
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 31–33.

  
7.
  Benjamin Waterhouse to Jared Sparks, June 6, 1833, in Baxter,
Life of Sparks,
2:339.