A colorful, informative and intriguing assortment of
documents, photographs and letters are now on display for
viewers in a historic exhibition coordinated by the Sophia
Smith Collection (SSC).
And for this exhibition, viewers
don’t even have to get up from their desks.
“Across the Generations:
Exploring U.S. History Through Family Papers” is a broad,
inclusive online exhibition of papers, pictures and an array
of historic materials in the SSC’s holdings of four
notable American families.
“We chose the Hales, Garrisons,
Dunhams and Bodmans because they are some of our largest and
richest family papers collections,” says Sherrill Redmon,
head of the SSC. “Some [of the collections] are heavily
used but the others merit much more attention from scholars.”
Some of the collections contain
materials pertaining to Smith alumnae, Redmon acknowledges,
but the families were not chosen primarily for that reason.
The exhibition -- which can be viewed at www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/atg/introduction.html
-- focuses on family life, social awareness, arts and leisure,
and work. But in addition to the thematic views of the families,
the exhibition contains specific sections detailing each family’s
history.
“Scholars around the world
know the SSC as one of the must-see destinations for any topic
in the history of women and the causes they have championed,”
says Redmon. “We want them also to know that many historical
topics not pertaining especially to women can be researched
here: the movement to abolish slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction,
the single-tax movement, growth of capitalism, etcetera.”
Redmon says the SSC decided to
produce the exhibition online because “scholars are
increasingly using the Web to shop for research sources. Exhibits
like this also reach high-school students and teachers and
the general public and thus perform an educational function.”
One of the displays, the Bodman
family papers, consists of 24 linear feet of materials, dating
from 1687 to 1980. In the 17th century, the Bodmans settled
in nearby Hatfield, Sophia Smith’s future hometown,
but moved over to Williamsburg a hundred years later. The
family built successful banking and grain merchandising businesses
through the 1800s and thrived into the 20th century.
The Dunham family collection
represents four generations of the extended family, dating
from 1814. During World War I, two Dunham women volunteered
for the American Fund for French Wounded (AFFW), which provided
aid to wounded soldiers and refugees. The Dunhams lived in
New York City and in Maine.
The family of William Lloyd Garrison
(1805–1879) is represented by 150 linear feet of material
rife with primary sources that document the family’s
storied involvement in politics, business, art and its prominent
role in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements
of the mid-1800s. The abundant Garrison collection contains
correspondences with such historic personalities as Susan
B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Booker T. Washington,
Theodore Weld and Henry B. Blackwell, to name a few. The collection
chronicles five generations over three centuries.
The Hale family, anchored by
the Rev. Enoch Hale and his famous brother, the patriot Nathan
Hale, of Westhampton, eventually centered mainly in Boston,
where the extended family moved in well-known circles of politics,
literature and business. Correspondents of the Hales in the
SSC collection include Louisa May Alcott, Alexander Graham
Bell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Law Olmsted and Daniel
Webster. While the collection covers the years from 1787 to
1988, materials related to the activities of Nathan Hale (1784–1863)
thoroughly document the social, political and cultural life
of 19th-century Boston.
A virtual stroll through “Across
the Generations” offers lessons on history, personal
glimpses into the social lives of past eras, and intimate
interactions between some of the country’s most notable
characters.
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