"A Traitor to His Class"

Well, as you may have noticed from my earlier post, it's Archives Month here in the Bluegrass state (as well as the rest of the US of A), and I implored you all to act like it: go forth and celebrate archives in whatever way seems appropriate to you. So you may then be wondering what we here at MM are intending to do to support our own favorite archival repository (the Filson Historical Society). Well, as a new member of the FHS I have the privilege of attending their sponsored lectures, like the one coming up this Thursday: the Gertrude Polk Brown lecture series will feature H.W. Brands, author of the new FDR bio Traitor to His Class: the Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who will discuss the book.

I would be pretty excited about this no matter what, and I know there's plenty of other FDR biographies already out there, but this is a book I'm especially anxious to read for one particular reason: Brands is the first historian to write a book about FDR without actually having lived through his presidency. He has no memories of his own to burden the trip--no nostalgia to squint through, no feelings to filter owing to living through the Great Depression and World War II. It's the first biography about what has been called the most influential presidency of the 20th century written by someone outside the "Greatest Generation," and that seems noteworthy. My FDR knowledge definitely needs bolstering anyway, and what with all the Depression era parallels being drawn to our current-day economic 'sitch and partisan fuss-bucketing about New Deal programs, I think this 900+ page tome will give me (and everyone else who gets through it) an excellent brush-up on my 20th century American history.

So I'll be attending the lecture this Thursday and thinking about other ways to celebrate Archives Month...what will you be doing?

Happy Archives Month!

Readers, one more reason to love October (as if you needed another one): It's American Archives Month in the USA! This means that it's appropriate to visit, support, or otherwise promote your own favorite local archival institution. Kentucky has decided to expand its Archives Week into a full, month-long celebration to coincide, and this year's theme is especially exciting: the Lincoln bicentennial! Check out that poster!

Kentucky has a (somewhat tenuous) Lincoln connection which we tend to exaggerate--er, focus on--he was born here, and though he only spent a few years of his early boyhood in the state before his family moved to Indiana, we get to claim those great legendary Honest Abe, log cabin, teaching himself to read on a dirt floor stories. Plus, an added Lincoln bonus for the state: his wife Mary Todd was born and raised in well-to-do Lexington society (a distant relation, Charles Todd, was the very first Kentucky Colonel). So, yeah, Kentucky's Lincoln fixation may be a bit much sometimes--yet another bid for fame and relevance--but in a lot of ways it's legit.

Anyway, it's October 1st and you all have 30 more days to figure out how you will celebrate American Archives Month. I recommend making that visit to your local archives that you've been putting off--research your family in a genealogical collection, ask to see some awesome primary resource, or even just subscribe to a mailing list so you'll be informed of things like interesting lectures, publications, and new collections in your area. Support your local archives--read a book, make a donation, and/or buy an archivist a drink--you'll be doing your part.

The Filson Historical Society

This photo is of the main building of the Filson Club, a 125 year old local historical society of which I am now a proud member. I've been wanting to join up for several years, but I finally decided that now's the time: I'm only going to be in school for a few more months, so I had to act soon to take advantage of their student rate. Plus, I'm taking a class called Archives and Manuscript Management this semester and will need access to a local archives.

Anyway, my first visit was a rousing success: I have a paper due in which I have to write about being a patron at an archive, so I randomly decided to do a bit of research on the Civil War battle of Perryville, Kentucky (also known as the Invasion of Kentucky). The anniversary of the battle is coming up in a few weeks on October 8th (1862), and there is quite a bit of material at the Filson concerning the war, as well as the state's role in it. I spent some time in the library, getting oriented by the friendly reference librarians, and finally worked my courage up to go upstairs and visit the rare books and manuscripts room.

Readers, it was REALLY awesome: I got to page through the ACTUAL field report penned by Confederate General Hardee on the battle at Perryville. It was written on your basic-looking ruled notebook paper (sans spiral fringe, of course), and the General's penmanship puts us 21st century slobs to utter shame. It described, with poetic flourish, how the Confederate path "was marked by the crushed lines and disordered battalions of the enemy. Our troops displayed higher qualities than mere discipline can confer. The furor of freemen and the enthusiasm of patriots animated thier valor: whenever they advanced, the enemy recoiled before the shock: when they retired he dared not venture to pursue." I wonder how modern military reports compare to that.

Anyway, I was astounded that they brought it right out for me and left me alone in the reading room with it--free to ogle and page through it for as long as I liked! W-O-W! Here I am, just a random schmuck, and they treat me like some book writing historian--being taken seriously by strangers is kind of a new experience for me.

I plan to make a return trip next week to look at random awesome things: maybe I'll ask to see the letter penned by Mary Todd Lincoln to her cousin Emily in 1864...oh, boy!