Melvil Dewey

Dewey's biographer, Wayne A. Wiegand, says he can't recall any evidence of Dewey touring in Vermont (but also says he's been away from his Dewey materials for a long time).

Dewey's book Field and Future of Traveling Libraries mentions that the Vermont Free Library Commission issued reports from its headquarters in St. Johnsbury.

Working along our to-do lists ...

I've crawled through ArcCat and the online index for the History Center in Barre, and have e-mailed Gregory Sanford (state archivist), Howard Frank Mosher, and Wayne Wiegand (bibliographer of Melvil Dewey). Fill me in on what you've been up to? BK

Another Possibility?

In Athenaeum archives (ArcCat):

Title:	Stone family papers, 1849-1998.
Description:	3.75 linear ft. (4 boxes)
	The collection is organized into five series: I. Fairbanks/Paddock/Stone family papers, 1849-1915; II. Arthur and Helen Stone papers, 1863-1984 (bulk 1890-1944); III. Laura Stone papers, 1897-1998; IV. Photographs, 1866-1998; V. Publications, 1891-1955.

Possible Resource?

In Athenaeum archives:

Sarah Houston Nelson (Mrs. A.D. Nelson) grew up in Hardwick, VT. She was the mother of Harry M. Nelson. At some point she moved with her son from St. Johnsbury, VT to the Boston area.

Scope & Content:

The scrapbook was apparently kept by Sarah Houston Nelson and contains clippings on local events in St. Johnsbury, Hardwick, and Walden, VT. Materials which were interfiled in the scrapbook were rehoused in folders and include additional clippings, a poem authored by Nelson, and a letter from the Hardwick Gazette. The majority of the clippings are undated. The bound volume serving as the scrapbook originally contained accounting records.

Charles F. King spoke in Athenaeum Hall for a Teacher's Convention November 29, 1895.
The topic was on the method of teaching geography. St. JohnsburyCaledonian.

He was published in the Journal of Geography by The National Council of Geographic Education in 1912.

From Open Library
The picturesque geographical readers

by King, Charles F.
Published in 1890, Lee and Shepard, C.T. Dillingham (Boston, New York)

Published By The National Geographic Society VOL, XV-YEAR 1904

Hubbard Memorial Hall

Washington, D. C.

Elementary Geography. By Charles F. King, Master of the Dearborn School, Boston. Profusely illustrated. Pp. vi + 220. 9 by 10^2 inches. Boston: Lothrop Publishing Co. 1903. $0.65. In plan and in treatment, and especially in illustrations, this elementary geography is a great advance over previous textbooks. It will create a new era in the teaching of geography to young children. The numerous graphic illustrations must appeal to the quick fancies of young people, while the simple, unpretentious language will hold their attention. The author has constantly remembered the words of Herbert Spencer that "a child's restless observation, instead of being ignored or checked, should be diligently administered to and made as accurate and complete as possible ; '' and he has also kept in mind the fact that the power of observation comes to children first and the power of reasoning later. As a result, his book will stimulate the questioning faculty which all young people have in such marked degree, instead of confusing and checking their ideas with elaborate explanations which they are unable to grasp.

A Mother Kangaroo, with a Young Kangaroo in her Pocket

From King's "Elementary Geography." Copyright, 1903, by Lothrop Publishing Co.

The book is divided into four parts: Home Geography by Observation,Geography through Type Forms, The Earth as a Whole, and Journey Journey. All descriptions and explanations are given as a story to the children. Photographs are exclusively used as a basis for the pictures of wild animals. Useful suggestions are given at the end of each chapter. The author is to be especially congratulated on his choice of illustrations. Each picture has some striking fact so vividly presented that the lesson is not forgotten. Some very handsome colored plates are given in the book. The publishers have done their part as well as the author. The work is handsomely printed, the type large, and the pictures clear and elegantly engraved.

Athenaeum Hall Lectures

Possible dates to check the Caledonian for text of speeches:

(These are from Edward Fairbanks' History of St. Johnsbury)

Athenaeum opening 11/27/1871

Japanese visitors (scales) 8/1/1872

Gallery Opening /1873

President Garfield /1880

Henry M. Stanley 12/10/1886

100^th Anniversary of STJ 1887

Death of Horace Fairbanks 3/17/1888

President Harrison /1888

Benjamin Harrison 8/26/1891

New Century 1900

125^th Anniversary of STJ (Pageant) 1912

William Howard Taft 10/9/1912

150^th Anniversary of STJ 1937

Arthur Stone

Collection Summary

Repository

The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum Archives.1171 Main St., St. Johnsbury, VT 05819 802.748.8291

Creator

Stone family..

Title

Stone family papers

Dates [inclusive]

1849-1998

Quantity

3.75 linear ft. (4 boxes)

Shelf location

For current information on the location of these materials, please contact the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum Archives.

Language

English

Abstract

The Stone family papers include correspondence, personal papers, photographs, and publications belonging to several generations of Laura Stone's antecedents. The work of Arthur Stone, in the form of correspondence, notes, speeches, and writings, takes up the bulk of the collection.

Wendell Phillips Stafford

Wendell Phillips Stafford, Speeches (St. Johnsbury, Vermont: Arthur F. Stone 1913)

Theodore Roosevelt, St J Speech, 1912

Exceeds our time span, but just to make sure we have this, here's a site that has the speech: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1945370

Here's the New York Times article on the speech; looks like he spoke from a wagon outside the Courthouse. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9800E1D91630E233A25752C3A96E9C946396D6CF

Military Reunion Gathering, 1877

Proceedings of the Reunion Society of Vermont Officer, The Fourteenth Reunion, Dec 13, 1877 -- met at the St J House during the day, and in the evening assembled there and "marched to Athenaeum Hall, where the annual address was delivered by Lieutenant-Colonel Roswell Farnham." Full text of speech available as a PDF.

Farnham became Vermont's 38th governor (1880-1882). UVM has the Farnham papers: http://cdi.uvm.edu/findingaids/collection/farnhamr.ead.xml

His photo here is from the Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_Farnham

Survey Pins 2: Claire Dunn Johnson, "I See by the Paper" (Vol. 1)

p. 59 "The January 9, 1874, Caledonian reported that the Athenaeum and Art Gallery were thrown open for New Year's evening, and the town invited in. The band was in attendance, and the art gallery was lighted with gas for the first time and made more attractive than ever by the addition of a few choice paintings. This New Year's reception became a feature which continued until Horace Fairbanks' death in 1888."

p. 83 the house "Mayview" on the height of land just east of Arnold Park was the home later of L. D. Hazen (lumber baron) and his son Charles Downer Hazen, "a notable historian-author, who spent summers here, writing." Did Hazen ever lecture at Athenaeum Hall?

 p. 101 Nov 20, 1884, "Music Hall" opened (later the Colonial Theatre, to fire May 29, 1924).

Survey Pins 1: Edward T. Fairbanks St J History (1914), Dates/Names

Personages mentioned:

Public opening of the Athenaeum Nov 27, 1871, with design by architect J. D. Hatch of New York, Lambert Packard as builder, books chosen with advice of W. F. Poole. Opening "preceded by three addresses on successive evenings delivered in the Hall, which was filled to its utmost capacity" (322): Andrew E. Rankin Esq. on the library as a school of learning and culture; Lewis O. Brastow, then pastor of South Church, on dignity and worth of refined literature; third, collquoy by Edward T. Fairbanks. Judge Poland also spoke.

p. 323: popular lectures: Dr. John Lord "gave ten which are now included in his Beacon Lights of History; Prof. John Fiske gave a course on American History; Prof. W. D. Gunning a series on the Life History of our Planet."

p. 324: first book card issued to town clerk P. D. Blodgett; another early one to Henry C. Ide, U.S. Minister to Spain.

p. 324: re guestbook: first entry is Russian merchant Mr. Block of Moscow. ... "Receptions were given in the Art Gallery to Henry M. Stanley shortly after his memorable march thro the Dark Continent, to George Kennan with Siberian shackles in his hand, to Commodore Peary and his arctic dogs. From the east balcony and steps of the Athenaeum, President Harrison in 1891, and President Taft in 1912, addressed the thousands of their fellow citizens who stood fronting the building."

p. 327 The management of Sunset Home originated the literary course at Athenaeum Hall as one of its "devices for replenishing the treasury."

p. 390 Japanese Embassy visit Aug 1, 1972: "Arriving at the Athenaeum they were given a salute by the St. Johnsbury cornet band. At seven o'clock a  banquet was served by Landlord Gilmore at the St. Johnsbury House, 57 items on the menu. Addresses followed by Governor Hendee, Henry D Hyde Esq. of Boston, Hamileton A. Hill, Secretary of the Boston Board of Trade, and local speakers."

p. 495 St Johnsbury Woman's Club: "Among public entertainments provided by the Woman's Club, not to speak of many musical ones, have been addresses or readings by Mrs. General Custer, Julia C. R. Dorr [poet -- BK], Sallie Joy White, Kate Gannett Woods, Alice Freeman Palmer, Mabel Loomis Todd, Katherine Lee Bates, Isobel Strong, Frances Dyer; with now and then an interesting man on the rostrom for variety. When I first read this, I thought the mention of the HQ at the Athenaeum earlier on the page meant these gatherings were at the Athenaeum, but now I'm not as sure -- can we confirm, one way or the other? BK

p. 549:
AFRICA Henry M. Stanley's first visit to this town was December 10,  1886, when he gave his lecture on The Dark Continent. While  sitting that evening in the parlors of Pinehurst a cablegram from  London was handed him containing a call to take command of a  relief expedition for Em in Pasha, in response to which he sailed  for England four days later. On the 14th of February 1890,  having just emerged from Darkest Africa, he wrote from Cairo : —  "I remember the warm reception I received at St. Johnsbury, and  there too I received the summons to enter Africa again. * * *  The end crowns the work, which is now accomplished ; true I am  blanched and white but what matters it ? If any mission of a like  nature presented itself I should still wish to do it." He accepted  the invitation to revisit St. Johnsbury and gave his lecture on  Darkest Africa in Music Hall January 13, 1891, before a crowded  house. Dr. Lamson in presenting him said: "By his energy  this man has given a continent to the world, and the continent  has been more than just in giving this man to the world ; Africa  uncovered, if it did not discover, the man whose genius is the  genius of duty."   The ends of the earth have at different times been well represented on the Y. M. C. A. lecture course in Music Hall by three  distinguished explorers whom we may designate as Stanley  Africanus, Kennan Siliieriensis, Peary Arcticus. At the reception  given to Stanley in the Athenaeum 1886, he was surprised to meet  a man whom he had last seen in Mozambique and to be greeted  by two young persons, natives of Africa, in the Zulu tongue.

Elizabeth Clift Bacon Custer: "Mrs. General Custer"

Wikipedia says that Libbie Custer enjoyed a prosperous widowhood, due to her well-paid lecture tours and her books. There are some great photos of her at this site: http://www.mandanhistory.org/biographiesak/elizabethcuster.html

This site also mentions that her mother's maiden name was Page -- thus linking to the Rutland info. BK

Note on Mrs. General Custer, Connection with Vermont

From a Rutland historical note, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vermont/RutlandTownHist07.html:

Abel PAGE, an early settler, long kept tavern where Nicholas DAVIS now lives on West street; afterwards kept by Alanson DYER. Mr. PAGE was grandfather of Mrs. General CUSTER,

Note on Mark Twain

So far, all the lists I've found of Twain's touring indicate he spent time in Brattleboro and in Bennington, but no further north in Vermont. BK

Another Speakers' Bureau, More Likely for Our Time Period

From a Wisconsin web site, http://www.wlhn.org/fond_du_lac/towns/alto/biography/alto-biog.htm :

JAMES B. POND
Born in 1838, James Burton Pond was one of the oldest of the 11 children of Willard and Eurana. His father, an ardent abolitionist, had raised his sons with an iron hand, inspiring fear as much as attention to proper conduct. [The Ponds lived on a farm in section 4 of the town of Alto, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, 1 mile south of the village of Fairwater.] At the age of eighteen, James followed his conscience and left home to join John Brown in the antislavery struggle in Kansas, and he fought with the man he considered to be a noble Christian for almost a year. After Brown's defeat at Osawatomie, James wandered to St. Louis, where he worked as a call boy at a theater and as a printer at a religious newspaper, before ending up in Janesville and a position on the staff of a newspaper. Not being one to remain anywhere for too long, James joined a gold mining expedition to Colorado in the spring of 1859, ending up with a party of miners at Clear Creek that included George M. Pullman and H.S. Curtis, son of General Samuel Curtis. When Pond's western adventure panned out in October, he returned "to the States" and his family home in Wisconsin. 

As a staunch anti-slavery Republican, Pond joined a Wide Awake club in 1860, and he and his brothers were quick to volunteer for service at the onset of the Civil War. Arriving too late to find a berth in the 1st Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, Pond attempted to enlist again after Bull Run, receiving a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in Co. G, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry, a company that included two of his younger brothers as well. The 3rd Cavalry served in Kansas and Missouri throughout the war, engaged in some of the nastiest guerrilla warfare. The 3rd Cavalry Regiment and 2nd Kansas (Colored) Infantry were victims of a brutal surprise attack and massacre by William Quantrill's irregulars in October, 1863, during which Pond distinguished himself for his courage in single-handedly manning a howitzer and repelling the raiders. Despite his efforts, Quantrill's men killed Maj. H.S. Curtis and 65 Federals at Baxter Springs, and many more at the camp Pond defended, many of whom were executed after they had surrendered. Pond and both his brothers came through unscathed, a fact they attributed to the prayers of their devoutly religious mother. Pond was later promoted to Captain. 

After the war, Pond traveled throughout the country, ending up in Salt Lake City in the early 1870s. In about 1874, an opportunity presented itself for Pond to make some money, when Anna Eliza Young, 19th wife Brigham Young, "apostasized" from her Mormon faith and was enticed to embark on a speaking tour in the east. Pond, in the right place at the right time, secured a position as booking agent for what became a highly lucrative tour, and subsequently branched out in conjunction with the Redpath Lyceum Bureau into managing other speaking tours throughout the U.S. and Canada. He left Redpath to begin his own lecture bureau in New York City in 1879, and over the next twenty years, became the nation's premier lecture agent. Pond promised his solidly middle-class audience "concerts, lectures and all descriptions of musical, lyceum and literary entertainments," and delivered such luminaries as Henry Stanley, George Kennan, Bill Nye, James Whitcomb Riley, Thomas Nast, Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, P.T. Barnum, George Washington Cable, Ellen Terry, Joseph Jefferson, and Henry Ward Beecher. 

Pond wrote numerous magazine articles, autobiographies and stories, as well as at least four books based on his experiences as a tour promoter and manager. His books included Overland with Mark Twain (Elmira, N.Y., 1992), A Summer in England with Henry Ward Beecher (N.Y., 1887), and Henry Ward Beecher (Brooklyn, 1897), and Eccentricities of Genius (N.Y., 1900). [The James B. Pond Papers, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, http://www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/NP/Pond.html]

James Pond was awarded the medal of honor 30 March 1898. Citation: While in command of 2 companies of Cavalry, was surprised and attacked by several times his own number of guerrillas, but gallantly rallied his men, and after a severe struggle drove the enemy outside the fortifications. 1st Lt. Pond then went outside the works and, alone and unaided, fired a howitzer 3 times, throwing the enemy into confusion and causing him to retire. Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company C, 3d Wisconsin Cavalry. Place and date: At Baxter Springs, Kans., 6 October 1863. Entered service at: Janesville, Rock County, Wis. Birth: Allegany, N.Y. Pond is buried in Bronx, N.Y. [http://members.tripod.com/~wisconsin2/honorlist.htm]

An American Tradition: The Lecture Circuit

While reading the final pages of Russell Conwell's autobiography today, I realized he had "representation" for his touring (which included giving his famous "Acres of Diamonds" speech at Athenaeum Hall): Conwell entered James Redpath's Lyceum Lecture Bureau. Here's a passage on Redpath and the wider phenomenon, drawn from a contemporary "speakers' bureau" web site owned by PDA Entertainment Group, http://www.speakerspca.com/about-us.html:

An American Tradition
		Even back in the 1800’s the lecture and entertainment circuit was alive in America. In churches and halls from the Alleghenies to the Rockies, people hungry for information paid its dimes and dollars for an evening’s entertainment. Often the society into which they grouped themselves was called a "lyceum". In 1831 the American Lyceum Association, now called the International Platform Association, was founded to institute a chain of societies for weekly lectures and debates. The system flourished for years and the original lyceum format established the groundwork for our present day circuit. Daniel Webster was the country’s leading speaker in the 1830’s and was the founder and first president of the American Lyceum Association. The first lecture bureau and entertainment agency was started in 1867 when James Redpath heard Charles Dickens discuss the hardships of lecturing in America. He decided to do something about the novelist's complaint and founded Redpath's Lyceum Bureau, which not only made life easier for itinerant lecturers and entertainers, but also organized programs for winter entertainment in all the larger cities. From the beginning, James Redpath's lyceum bureau was a success and he represented such people as Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Dickens.
		In 1906, Keith Vawter originated the idea of bringing summer culture and entertainment to the small towns and rural areas. He combined culture and comedy on the same platform in a traveling tent. Vawter married the respectability of the Lyceum to the spangles of the stage, naming his presentation "Chautauqua" after the cultural institution permanently established on Lake Chautauqua, New York. The "Chautauqua Circuit" separated the pulpit from the platform and substituted footlights for the religious dimness of the Sunday schoolroom. Once launched, it became a might influence on America’s entertainment, education, politics and culture. The Chautauqua ten programs were quire varied but the lecture was the program's backbone. Topping the list of orators were William Jennings Bryan, Robert M. La Folette and Calvin Coolidge. The serious portions of a program were tactfully leavened by performers, magicians, impersonators and puppeteers. Our web site is a tribute to the modern day lecture platform. To us, the birth date of the "Chautauqua Circuit" also symbolizes the birth of the modern lecture bureau and the entertainment agency, the first organized booking agency to arrange appearances by dignitaries and performing artists throughout the country. PDA is pleased to continue the proud tradition of Daniel Webster, the American Lyceum Association, Redpath’s Lyceum Bureau and the "Chautauqua Circuit".

Workspace: 1871-1901, The Distinguished Guests at Athenaeum Hall

Whose signatures are found in the guestbook beyond that of President Harrison? Which noted explorers came here to reveal details of their expeditions? How did artists, musicians, and authors celebrate their cultural achievements in the grand lecture and performance hall of this classic Athenaeum?

Check back often to learn what we've discovered.