The Revolutionary College Blog

The RevColl Blog is Back ...

2007-03-12T10:19:00.000-04:00

... kind of ... I mean, I think so ... uh, maybe.

We'll see. I will try to post some more and get others contributing soon. We are at the start of the big 225th here, folks, and somebody's got to cover it.

Besides, the Literary House has thrown down the gauntlet with a blog of their own. And if anything motivates us devotees of the Customs House, it's our hatred of the Lit House and their close proximity to campus.

Obviously, this means war (but unlike Braveheart, we'll be historically accurate.)

Meanwhile, here's something I wrote about the GW Book Prize for my more serious blogging stead.

Paying In Change: Not Just for English Majors, Anymore!

2007-02-15T14:29:00.000-05:00

The George Washington dollar coin launches today, so you've got some time to get a few before Birthday Ball.

Et tu, Schiff?

2007-02-13T09:13:00.000-05:00

2006 George Washington Book Prize laureate Stacy Schiff in this morning's New York Times:

By one estimate, 27 novels are published every day in America. A new blog is created every second. We would appear to be in the midst of a full-blown epidemic of graphomania. Surely we have never read, or written, so many words a day. Yet increasingly we deal in atomized bits of information, the hors d’oeuvres of education. We read not in continuous narratives but by linkage, the movable type of the 21st century. Our appetites are gargantuan, our attention spans anorectic. Small wonder trivia is enjoying a renaissance. We are very good on questions like why men fall asleep after sex and why penguins’ feet don’t freeze.

Happy Birthday Ball!

2006-11-21T12:21:00.000-05:00

It's almost Thanksgiving, and unless you're one of the I-House kids who have free reign on campus this weekend (No human bowling on the Cater Walk this year!), you'll be visiting with relatives and family.

In other words, you'll be bored.

So why not take the time to get acquainted with some American history? Check out the Evans 'Early American Imprints' database available through the Miller Library online. There, you'll find the 1699 pamphlet, The Indian Primer; or, The Way of Training Up of Our Indian Youth in the Good Knowledge of God, in the Knowledge of the Scriptures and in an Ability to Read. Even better, got to NetFlix and get the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation, The Indian Primer or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Subjugation.

On a more serious note, take a glance at Washington College's general evening prayers, as prepared by William Smith. Smith touted them as an example of the College's non-denominational approach. Here they are in their original 1784 printed format (click to enlarge).

The Sultan of Speeches

2006-11-16T20:10:00.000-05:00

Some things can snap your memory right back to high school. Small cartons of milk. Jansport bookbags. A 1990 sparkle blue Mercury Topaz. And the covers of books published by the Library of America.

Or maybe I spent too much time in the library.

Anyway, seeing the covers of these two volumes of American speeches immediately brought me back to sitting on the floor amid waist-high stacks in 5th period study hall. They were edited by our former Custom House captain and the permanent badass of eloquence, Ted Widmer. You can listen to Ted talk about his book here.

Buy them both. They'll make great presents.

Today in Procrastination

2006-11-13T12:32:00.000-05:00

Did you know GoogleMaps does history? You can impose historical maps on ones of today. Here are a couple of screenshots.

This is a world map of 1790 with modern continental borders.

Here's the same map with a close-up on the East Coast.

A little off and no good shot of Maryland. Let's go back to 1733 with a shot of the Chesapeake Bay region.

Notice 'Kent C.' on Kent Island and 'Chester B.' This next map is of the United State 1833.

Is it just me, or does the Age of Jackson seem pretty boring?

It's Alive!!! (Albeit Slightly Waxy)

2006-11-01T10:43:00.000-05:00

Hey! Sorry I've been away so long -- I had a wicked flu and have been busy with work on top of that.

But back to business. . . . Serious business. . . . For example, re-animating people who have been dead for 200+ years.

Yes, Mount Vernon recently spent millions of dollars (!!!) on a new exhibit to get the best idea of what George Washington looked like at different stages in his life. They turned to an esteemed anthropologist, Dr. Jeffery ~~Frankenstein~~ Schwartz, who pulled together a team of experts who spent two years studying all the relics of Washington's likeness -- even looking at his clothes to interpret his posture.

The results are three Washingtons, ages 19, 45, and 57, and they look more realistic than some real-life Georges. Hopefully, they'll brew up some new Madisons, Jeffersons, and Hamiltons in time for the 2008 elections.

Expect some more posts about this exhibition, now open at Mount Vernon, as Dr. Schwartz and others involved in the project are coming to Washington College later this month. They'll even have their forensic research on display. Check it out on November 30 and December 1 in Norman James Theater and the Larrabee Arts Center.

Ain't No Party Like a Custom House Party

2006-10-20T12:36:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: Tomorrow, I'll reveal a previously unknown SEX SCANDAL* and I won't be posting about it here. I really hope you can make it.

F.Y.I. for you and your folks: this Saturday afternoon, you can come see 'Revolutionary College Blog: LIVE IN CONCERT,' or, 'Rebel Without a College and Other Tales About the Founding of Washington College' in the Custom House, at the foot of High Street.

This one-time only event will happen twice, at 1:30 and 2:30. See you then.

*~~Depends on how you define 'sex.'~~ Sorry. Thanks to President Clinton, that didn't come out right. I'm talking about 'sex' in the gender sort of way.

Pulitzer Schmulitzer

2006-10-13T09:33:00.000-04:00

Stacy Schiff has an op-ed in today's New York Times on historians' ability to apply the words of yesterday's icons to today's issues. But this is what's really interesting:

Stacy Schiff is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America.”

What is this?! They call themselves the 'Paper of Record,' but they can't correctly spell 'George Washington Book?!' Apparently, it's more words than what's "fit to print." Shenanigans!

In other news, word has it that our man AG is going to look over George Washington's personal copy of An Account Of Washington College, housed at the Boston Athenæum. I wonder how he reacted to Smith's claim that he cried at the 1784 commencement?

Technorati tags:
Boston Athenæum, George Washington Book Prize, New York Times Bashing, Pulitzer Prize, Stacy Schiff, Super Troopers references, William Smith

Tax to the Future

2006-10-11T15:20:00.000-04:00

This picture with its caption was very prominently placed above the fold in this morning's New York Times. The caption reads, "The Rev. Rick Warren, who fought for tax breaks for clergy members, conducts an afternoon service at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif." I've made one, minor alteration to it. Take a few seconds to see if you can find Waldo.

Find him? . . . Of course you did -- it's the focal point of the picture and this was done without Photoshop. It's the face of Washington College founder William Smith, and he's very appropriately placed. For if you went back 220 years, took away the stadium screen, praise band, and Hawaiian shirt, you'd have a very similar scene with William Smith front and center.

Smith's success at Washington College came quickly, albeit not easily. This left him with some extra time and energy, which Smith devoted to the organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland. As you've probably figured out by now, Smith had limitless ambitions. One of them was to reorder the mess left by the Anglican clergy who fled America during and after the Revolution. When the theocratic monarchy of Great Britain was deposed, so went the tax structure that kept the church organized. This presented a problem for those in Rev. Smith's line of work -- when he first came to Chestertown in 1780, he was paid in bushels of wheat.

So Smith got together the Anglican clergy left on the Eastern Shore to work out a tax system to pay for the churches, and when that was successful, those on the Western Shore wanted in. It was a big hit and worked so well, that Smith got this just brilliant idea in his head. He thought that if he lobbied really hard, he could get the Maryland state legislature to enact a "Religious Bill," which would levy a tax on all citizens -- regardless of religious denomination -- to go to the clergy members of their chosen faith.

Like most taxes, it wasn't recieved very well. From Charlotte Goldsborough Fletcher's Cato's Mirania.

Never having recieved tax money to pay their clergy, the Presbyterian and other sects were accustomed to supporting their clergy without a state subsidy. They thought the episcopal congregations should support their clergy without a state subsidy. Lobbying for this bill turned out to be a grave political error on the part of Bishop-elect Smith. Opposition to it was led by the Rev. Patrick Alison (Presbyterian and an alumnus of the College of Philadelphia), who objected not only to the religious tax but contended that an equitable distribution of the taxes collected was impossible because the Episcopalians, as the Anglicans now called themselves, outnumbered all other sects and would receive the lion's share of any distribution.

You see, for years before the Revolution, the Presbyterians and other denominations had been subsidizing the Anglican church through their taxes, and they were not interested in going back.

Upon realizing the unpopularity of this proposal, Smith pointed over everyone's shoulder, shouted, "What the hell is that?!" and escaped on a makeshift skateboard.

Technorati tags:
Back to the Future references, Episcopalian Church, Funny Pictures, Maryland State Legislature, Religious Bill, Taxes, William Smith

Autumn Open Thread

2006-10-02T20:38:00.000-04:00

The new season and some references from yesterday's post have reminded me of a poem I like for this time of year, when things fall away and you hope you'll see them again. Please join me in the comments section and post an autumn poem or quote that you like. Also, I'll be brainstorming titles for my upcoming lecture on the Saturday of Fall Family Weekend.

Now, the poem:

Beneath these shades, beside yon winding stream,
Lies Hawthorne's manly form, the mortal part!
The soul, that loved to meditate and dream,
Might linger here unwilling to depart,
But that a higher life has called away
To fairer scenes, to nobler work and thought.
Why should the spirit then on earth delay,
That has a glimpse of such bright regions caught!
And near another, Nature's child, doth rest,--
Thoreau, who loved each woodland path to tread;
So gently sleeping on his mother's breast!
Living, though numbered with the numerous dead.
We mourn! But hope will whisper in the heart,
We meet again and meet no more to part.

- Jones Very, On Visiting the Graves of Hawthorne & Thoreau

Technorati tags:
Autumn, Open Thread, Poetry, Shameless Self-promotion

. . . And All I Got Was This Lousy Defrocking

2006-10-01T22:19:00.000-04:00

For the past week, I've been trying to dig up the information to do a post, as promised, on traveling to and from Chestertown back in the day. Unfortunately, I don't have all the necessary materials with me and it will have to wait -- just like my post on Board member Samuel Chew's 'Ye Olde THUG LIFE.'

So in the meantime, let's play early America's favorite pastime, 'Shame That Bastard!' Starring: Washington College President, the Reverend Timothy Clowes.
Clowes was president of Washington College from 1823 to 1829, and rector of Emmanuel Church from 1827 to 1829. Either Chestertown wasn't the right fit for him or he was extremely unlucky. After he took control of the college, the state legislature handed down new regulations mandating new paperwork for increasingly elusive funds. The college puttered along, falling behind its contemporaries to the north, and then . . . well . . . Remember that crazy-expensive edifice that Smith sold his right arm to build? Yeah, that burned to the ground in, like, ten minutes. Lost in the flames was Clowes' library, with books valued at approximately $1,000.

So Clowes next used all of his good fortune to raise money for a new college building. Take a guess at how that one worked out.

Good grief.

As if things couldn't get any worse for Clowes, in 1829, he gets charged with "immoral and scandalous conduct." I here on out defer to a 26 year old lecture from former Emmanuel rector, Greg Straub:

The charge was that while Mr. Clowes was rector, he had been seen fornicating with a Miss Cordelia Clarkson who was, as a consequence, great with child. Although Mr. Clowes had moved on to New York State before his indictment, an ecclesiatical trial was staged in 1829 in Chestertown under the chairmanship of the Rt. Rev. William White, D.D. Many of you will recognize Bishop White as first presiding Bishop of the Continental Congress. In 1829, fifty-five years after the Continental Congress, Bishop White was still interested in the affairs of the Church (no pun intended).

Mr. Clowes refused to attend the trial, and Bishop Onderdonck of New York refused to extradite him, because, as he wrote Bishop White, "he was at college with me."

The entire transcript of the trial is available and it makes fascinating reading. The two witnesses called against Mr. Clowes were parishioners. One had seen Mr. Clowes and Miss Clarkson holding hands after church one Sunday. Another parishioner had seen them at night, as he put it, "fornicating in the grass." He reported he had been painting his porch at the time and they had beeen only a hundred yards or so away. Asked if it was dark out, the witness said it had been. Asked why he had been painting his porch in the dark, the witness made no answer. [JRB: Just like every other damn episode of Law and Order]

This sketchy evidence was enough to produce a conviction, especially after it had been learned that Mr. Clowes had given 200 shares of Chester River Bridge stock for the support of Miss Clarkson's soon-to-be-born child, whether out of compassionate generosity or of guilty paternity will never be known. Both Miss Clarkson and Mr. Clowes denied the charges.

Perry Mason would have had a field day with the defense. But the prosecution won out with the argument that Mr. Clowes woul dhave been at the trial had he been innocent. His written response to his conviction was a well-reasoned defense which postponed his defrocking another fourteen years.

The details surrounding Clowes' departure from Washington College aren't as clear. According to Fred Dumschott's history of the college, Clowes "submitted a proposal to the board for its consideration" on April 18th, 1829. What the proposal was is not clear, as the board merely recorded it was made and that they turned it down on June 9th. By August, the search for a new president was in full-swing.

Clowes would spend the rest of his days free from flammable schools and fertile parishioners.

Technorati tags:
Baby Mama Drama, Chestertown, Demi Moore Mocking, Emmanuel Episcopalian Church, Greg Straub, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Peanuts references, Simpsons references, The Scarlet Letter, Timothy Clowes, Washington College Professors, William White

Catching On Faster Than Yellow Fever in 1793

2006-09-26T10:42:00.000-04:00

Google's been strange today, so it's been hard to post.

Check back soon to learn about transportation to Chestertown in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. We're 90% sure that parking on campus was a problem back then, too.

Technorati tags:
Funny Pictures, Inappropriate Jokes

Nobody Puts Stacy in the Corner

2006-09-23T09:57:00.000-04:00

This pic of Play It Again Sam's via Steele For Senate's Kent County Bus Tour photo gallery:

NEWS ALERT: 2006 GW Book prize recipient Stacy Schiff enjoys coffee.

Technorati tags:
Chestertown, Coffee, Dirty Dancing References, George Washington Book Prize, Stacy Schiff

Justifying Nonsense

2006-09-22T16:02:00.000-04:00

Rick Lyman has an article in this morning's New York Times about another scheme "in the history of the efforts to kill the Electoral College," through state governments automatically yielding their electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote.

How is this salient to the Revolutionary College Blog? Well,

A) Revolutionary College, Electoral College.
B) Both were founded around the same time (though they haven't gotten around to starting an unofficial blog yet).
C) C.V. Starr Fellow Birch Bayh gets a shout out.
D) Screw it -- it's Friday.

Actually, it offers up an interesting fact.

Robert Hardaway, a professor of law at the University of Denver who wrote "The Electoral College and the Constitution: The Case for Preserving Federalism" (1994), has counted 704 efforts to change or abolish the Electoral College.

Seven hundred and four times. I may be lowballing here, but I think that's more times than Wile E. Coyote tried to kill the Road Runner.

So there you have it, folks: some more useless knowledge, courtesy of the Revolutionary College Blog.

Technorati tags:
C.V. Starr Fellow, Cartoon References, Electoral College, Useless knowledge

Live-blogging A General Idea of the College of Mirania Part 1

2006-09-20T13:31:00.000-04:00

Okay, here's the deal: I drank way too much coffee this morning and am still bouncing off the walls. So I'm employing this extra energy in the best way I know how: live-blogging as I read William Smith's A General Idea of the College of Mirania -- a feat that can only be accomplished by taking performance enhancing stimulants.

Smith wrote this treatise on American higher education between 1752 and 1753. He devised the curriculum, the professors, the students, the location and more -- all in detail. Ben Franklin enjoyed it so much that he invited Smith down to Philadelphia to work at the College of Philadelphia.

It doesn't seem that formidable, but everyone tells me it takes ages to read. 'Live-blogging' (or Ljubljana, you decide) is a term bloggers use for writing as an event occurs, with multiple updates. It's the blogosphere version of the play-by-play. So if you're reading this as it goes, refresh every now and then and maybe there'll be an update. Here we go:

1:31 pm: Oh snap! This thing is riveting. Oh wait, three large military helicopters just did a very low flyover, shaking my house like an earthquake. I'm reading the Preface now. Smith says he's writing this "at the desire of some gentlemen of New York." Smith was trying to start a college there in the early 1750s, but it just didn't work out. Anyway, it doesn't really matter that it's for some New Yorkers, as Mirania is supposed to be a mythical place with elves, gremlins, and Eskimos.

1:50 pm: Okay, read the Prologue. Some of this was read at the first Washington College Commencement, by Charles Smith if I'm not mistaken. An account mentions that he even dropped down to one knee to increase the drama. No word on whether he used spirit-fingers. A bit melodramatic at the beginning, but really pastoral. He mentions Mirania is a "With shade and silence, far from dire alarms."

1:55 pm: Smith pitches his idea in the introductory section. "To the Gentlemen (with the money to fund this), You are all very very smart, and handsome -- did I mention handsome? Blah blah blah, the time is nearing for a decision, so please give me a charter so I don't have to tutor a bunch of brats."

2:04 pm: Here Smith gets all J.R. Tolkien, talking about a young gentleman named Evander ("who is a person of some distinction," so you better regonize) and the college he attended. Mirania "is one of the provinces of the New World, first settled by our countrymen, the English, about a century ago." Also, "In what degree of latitude it lies is of no importance. . ."

2:17 pm: Mirania needed education to keep the law from being "infringed by powerful villany." Also, the diverse cultures and their "different customs, languages and extractions . . . [might] prove fatal to government." I once read that Smith took up this cause when he was in Pennsylvania, helping to start schools for Germans so they could learn English and not be exploited by corrupt politicians who used the language barrier to filter information. Intermingling would also create a younger generation with "prejudices worn off." Mirania sounds like a place of universal education -- where everybody gets a chance. Hey, William Smith: folklorist and idealist.

2:25 pm: I'm kind of puzzled at what he's getting at here: "Life would be far too short to attain any proficiency in all the disputes and researches of this kind, which have so long puzzled the learned world, and are still as much undecided as at first."

2:30 pm: Smith: No need to tell you about how they founded the college -- just that it's perfect now and so you guys in New York should just fork over the money today because it'll be perfect by next Tuesday. Trust me.

2:32 pm: Oh, now I get the universal education thing. "With regard to learning, the Miranians divide the whole body of people into two grand classes. The first consists of those designed for the learned professions; by which they understand divinity, law, physic, and the chief offices of the state. The second class consists of those designed for the mechnic professions, and all the remaining people of the country."

2:40 pm: Smith describes the "Mechanic's School, or Academy." It has to be different than the traditional method of education because, Smith's says, teaching them things they won't understand or really use in their vocations. (Where were you when they were forcing chemistry on me in high school, Smith?) Better to teach them the things they need to be good citizens and good at their crafts.

2:46 pm: Ah-ha! I see why Franklin liked this so much: Smith credits him with the idea of the Mechanic's School. He says it's a lot like what Franklin was doing with the English Academy, and calls Franklin "ingenious." Too bad they straight-up hated each other for the rest of their lives.

Alright, the coffee buzz is gone and I am fading. I have some other work to do for the rest of the day, so we'll continue this another time. Keep an eye out for new contributor Albin Kowalewski and his magic dowsing rods later today or this week. Thanks for reading.

Technorati tags:
A General Idea of the College of Mirania, Benjamin Franklin, Bring It On References, C.V. Starr Fellow, Coffee, College of Philadelphia, Education, Live-blogging, Pennsylvania, Simpsons References, William Smith

Lesson In Fine Dining: Unlimited Coffee = Food Fights

2006-09-16T16:35:00.000-04:00

People keep telling me about the new dining service on campus, and how great it is. I have yet to taste for myself, but judging them by the stock photography on their new website, I'm getting the faintest soupçon of spandex and just a flutter of hilarity.

Food on campus has long been a contentious issue, as evidenced by Rowland Watts. For when Professor Watts wrote a brief history of Washington College in the late 19th century, he told the story of the first attempts at dining services, and how nobody could get it right.

In July 1819, the boarding of students at the college commenced. Various ways were tried. The steward employed did not succeed. Then Dr. Waters managed the boarding department, but was compelled to give it up. In March 1821, occurred the first "grub riot." It is very amusing to read the action of the board of visitors upon the petition of the students in regard to the matter of food. Their decision was worthy their reputation for discretion and wisdom. We can not give the menu, but fresh meat was to be served at least three times per week. When no fresh meat was served a simple dessert was to be provided. They were not to be limited in the amount of coffee consumed. . . . Then followed a long list of rules and regulations that as models of table etiquette would be quite interesting. Several times since then "grub riots" have occurred with varying results.

Today's dining hall is only a few dozen yard from the original, a part of the first college edifice on the hill. Notice how Watts focuses more on conduct than on menu -- which just goes to show, the college will little note, nor long remember what they consumed here, but it can never forget what they threw here.

P.S. Welcome The Washington Note and TPM Cafe readers.

Technorati tags:
Big Ups, Coffee, College Dining, Funny Pictures, Sideways References, Washington College Professors

Book Prize Lecture Open Thread

2006-09-14T17:02:00.000-04:00

What did everyone think of Stacy Schiff's George Washington Book Prize lecture, Ben Franklin's French Adventure? What did you find interesting? What would you like to know more about? Tell us in this open-thread.

Technorati tags:
Benjamin Franklin, Bill & Ted References, French People, Funny Pictures, George Washington Book Prize, Stacy Schiff

In West Philadelphia, Born and Raised?

2006-09-12T08:41:00.000-04:00

Hello. I'm coming to you from Philadelphia this morning, checking out all the things I haven't seen since 3rd grade.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce you to someone very important to this city: Robert Morris, Jr., "the financier of the American Revolution."

He was, at one time, one of the richest men in America, member of the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, national superintendent of finance, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and U.S. Senator. He also established the Bank of North America, where Washington College once had an account. And it was Morris who William Smith went to to collect Washington's fifty guineas.

But Morris' journey to prominence began on the Eastern Shore at Oxford, in no small part due to his father, Robert Morris, Sr., who brought his son with him to America.

Morris, Sr., was a factor for the Foster Cunliffe & Sons company. There are a few definitions for a 'factor' in those days, but Goodheart explained it to me as a broker for farmers and shipping companies, with a meaning largely unique on the Chesapeake. Morris' job was, in essence, to make trade possible.

It is said Morris' abilities made Oxford one of the most successful ports in Maryland. Morris dealt in trade (tobacco and slaves) and supplying shipwrights. He pioneered the inspection law on tobacco. Tilghman notes that he was the reason why "[w]hen a planter shipped his own product, a fear of rejection abroad rendered him wary of including anything of an inferior quality." It is fair to say that this practice bolstered Oxford's reputation in the trading world. "After the death of Mr. Morris," Col. Jeremiah Banning wrote, "commerce, splendor and all that animating and agreeable hurry of business at Oxford declined" until the Revolution, "when it became totally deserted as to trade."

Morris, Sr., has some other ties to Washington College, but I will explain them soon, as I am running late and need to get going. By the way, if you're looking to escape Chestertown for a night, it's Restaurant Week here. I reccomend my favorite place, Sansom Street Oyster House. Adam, this is your town -- what do you suggest?

Technorati tags:
Eastern Shore, Fifty Guineas, Fresh Prince References, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Restaurants, Robert Morris Jr., Robert Morris Sr., Trade

F.D.R. speaks

2006-09-12T08:27:00.000-04:00

"In the last analysis we need people who have had a chance to look not just at the history of things in the past, but to look also into the application of that history to the problems of the moment and future."

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address on his visit to Washington College, Chestertown, Md., October 28, 1933.

(with thanks to Jay Griswold)

Technorati tags:
Chestertown, Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Rolling Stones (To Eventually Build)

2006-09-09T21:18:00.000-04:00

As I was taking a walk along the Common this evening, my shoelace came untied. Since this is Boston, I decided I'd prop my foot up against a historical marker, natch.

A few yards ahead was a small one for the Marquis De Lafayette, French military advisor to the Continental forces and George Washington's brother from another mother. Like I said, it wasn't very big, but I could tell it was Lafayette from his redonkulous forehead. I had checked out the Houdon bust of him at the Athenæum the day before, and I will never mistake this guy's profile again.

So I'm reading the write up (and tying my shoe), and it mentions that in 1825, he laid the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument.

Hey now! We've got a live one here! (If you're new to RevCollBlog, catch up here.)

Sure, William Paca is credited with laying the Washington College cornerstone in 1783 while someone else did the work, but this is 1825 . . . in Boston . . . in Massachusetts.

What gives? Could it have been slave labor like at WC? (I question whether or not it was slaves who laid the cornerstone for Paca, since the first edifice was erected by paid labor from Philadelphia. But the workers didn't get to Chestertown until more than a year later, so somebody had to do it.) Like Adam said earlier, Chestertown had a fairly enlightened community, but there were still slaves aplenty. What was the scenario in abolitionist Boston?

So I'd like to lob this one over to Goodheart so he can knock it out of the park: would slaves or people in a similar situation have laid a cornerstone in Boston in those years? Or was it paid day laborers? Or maybe Lafayette did it himself and this was the thrill-sport for those seeking a greater rush than foxhunting had to offer? (By 1825, Lafayette was 67 years old, so that'd make one heck of a Mountain Dew commercial.)

Technorati tags:
Athenaeum, Boston, Bunker Hill Monument, Cornerstone Laying, French People, Large Foreheads, Marquis De Lafayette, Monuments, Mountain Dew References, Slavery, William Paca

On An Old Building

2006-09-08T16:48:00.000-04:00

Like I said earlier, I'm in Boston (not Austin), Massachusetts. Right now, I'm sitting in a lounge on the corner of School and Tremont Streets (about a block down from the Boston Athenæum on Beacon), looking out the window at King's Chapel, which was once a magnificent building dedicated to Anglican worship.

It goes unsaid that Boston has been a hotbed of liberty throughout the history of our Republic. Every five feet, you'll find another monument to some Revolutionary or Abolitionist hero (I got to visit my favorite one today: Wendell Phillips in the Gardens). Thinking of the Revolution, looking at the King's Chapel, and hearing the accents of loud British businessmen at the table next to mine has made me wonder, 'How did it remain King's Chapel through the Revolution?'

Well, it didn't. It was known as the Stone Chapel in those days, and had actually closed its doors in 1776. Anglicans were under a lot of suspicion of being loyalists those years, and the chapel didn't fully reopen until 1782, and still had trouble getting sanctioned for years after that.

It wasn't easy being Anglican in Boston back then, and despite what you may have heard, it wasn't that much easier in Chestertown.

Most of us know that Washington College's first president, William Smith, was very important in organizing the Protestant Episcopal Church, even if it was mostly out of necessity, as many Anglican pastors who elected to stay in post-colonial America got cut off from the royal purse. Smith had a great life in Philadelphia. He even talked College of Philadelphia's board into building him a beautiful home near campus for his large family -- rather uncommon for a college in those days. Chestertown didn't have that much to offer Smith, and think about it: if you were a big-shot PhD. who moved to the country to make 600 bushels of wheat a year, you'd find a way to get paid, too.

So Smith spent the 1780s working on a few projects: one being the organization of the Maryland clergy's paychecks and another being the development of Washington College. Through this connection and the affliations of board members and professors, Washington College got a rep for being an Episcopal college, even though its charter deemed it non-denominational.

In the early years, Washington College benefited greatly from the financial and institutional backing from prominent Episcopalians of the Eastern Shore, but in time, Jeffersonian types would make WC pay for its Episcopal/Anglican ties. M. P. White says, "The college edifice became an Episcopal, Federalist symbol for the attacks of the Jeffersonians and growing success of the Methodists in the decade of the 1790s." Jeffersonians resented the elitism exuding from the college's giant structure upon the hill. They questioned why clergy were paid more than laymen (The provost and vice-provost were both ordained). And furthermore, their thoughts on education went something like 'Isaac Newton + Eager Young Minds = Eternal Hellfire.'

When the Jeffersonians came into power in Maryland in the ealry 19th century, they redirected the college's state funding to smaller county schools, putting the college into a financial tailspin. They straightened out, but within a few decades, the huge edifice on the hill burned down, undoubtedly to some's delight.

I don't think it's fair to equate King's Chapel with the original college building. The first structure was meant to be grand, but not as a sign of Washington College's greatness over those on the Eastern Shore. This was all about Smith stickin' it to his Northern counterparts. By erecting one of the largest buildings in the country, the college was actually advancing the reputations and educations of all on the Eastern Shore.

And I am also certain that if it were like King's Chapel and still standing today, no one would sit and wonder how it survived the Revolution and early Republic.

Yankee Gone Home

2006-09-08T08:09:00.000-04:00

Hey Adam, Great post. As evidenced by the James Bowers incident, the Abolition Society remained a powerful force for many years after the publication of that pamphlet. Just a few years later, a French passerby and travel diarist, the Duke De La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, was surprised that Chestertown's had a different attitude toward African Americans than most other places he had been nearby. Historian Maynard Pressley White, Jr., said Rochefoucauld felt "Chestertown residents showed a greater regard for negroes than he had witnessed elsewhere, Chestertown having an active Abolition Society by 1793." I wonder what other sources he used, and where he got 1793 from.

Anyway, I have left Chestertown and am currently in Boston -- unfortunately with less internet access than I had planned, so the posts may be scant. But rest assured, there is still a lot of college history to reveal. I took a lot of notes during my two and a half weeks on campus, and there's a lot more to come.

Chester-town Abolition Society

2006-09-07T20:07:00.000-04:00

One of the little-known gold mines for anyone studying American history here at Washington College is the Evans Early American Imprints Database, 1639-1800. This online treasure trove, to which Miller Library subscribes, includes the searchable full text (in facsimile) of every known book and pamphlet printed in the U.S. (and the English colonies) before 1800. It's a breathtaking resource, one that puts the holdings of every rare-book library in the country at your fingertips from any computer (as long as you have a WAC i.d.).

There may be precious few reasons to be grateful we're living in the 21st century, but as far as I'm concerned, the Evans database is one of them - right up there with antibiotics and modern dentistry.

Anyway ... browsing on the database recently, I was excited to come across an excessively rare publication - one I had not known existed. It appears there may be only a single surviving copy. This discovery, while it's not directly related to the College, seemed worth sharing here. It's the constitution of the "Chester-town Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage," dated 1791. (The original book is in the library of the New-York Historical Society.) It may be surprising to find an abolitionist group existing openly in what was, after all, a slave society - in the 1790 census, enslaved African-Americans comprised almost half the population of Kent County. But at this moment in our nation's early history - just after the American Revolution had awakened the love of liberty, while the French Revolution was proclaiming the universal rights of man, and before slavery became essential to the "cotton kingdom" of the Deep South - the antislavery cause enjoyed a kind of high-water mark, even down here below the Mason-Dixon Line. During the late 1780s and early 1790s, abolition societies like this one sprang up across the northern states, but also in Delaware, Maryland, and even Virginia.

Revealingly, the title page includes two quotations - one from the Declaration of Independence ("We hold these truths to be self-evident...") and the other from the biblical Book of Jeremiah ("Wo [sic] unto him that buildeth his House by Unrighteousness, and his Chambers by Wrong; that useth his Neighbour's Service without Wages, and giveth him not for his Work.") These show the two streams of philosophical influence - one secular and one religious - that fed the current of abolitionist sentiment in the early Federal period. And in fact, on the next page, the preamble to the Chestertown group's constitution states: "Slavery being repugnant to the sacred Obligations of the Christian religion, the Dictates of Humanity, and the Rights of Mankind, we esteem it the Duty of every Person, enjoying the Blessings of Freedom, to throw in his Mite to remove this Disgrace of Christianity from among us."

Just who were these Chestertown Christians, exactly? This is revealed on the following page, where the society's rules provide for its annual elections to be held "on the first Seventh-day, called Saturday, in the Month called February." It is a longstanding practice of the Quakers to call the days of the week by numbers rather than names, so we know that this group was probably dominated by (though perhaps not composed entirely of) members of the Religious Society of Friends.

Also interesting are the marginal notes that were scribbled in ink by early owners throughout this copy of the 7-page booklet. These include a number of names - Thomas Bowers, William Bowers, James Bowers, James Groome, [?] Rasin.

The Bowerses were a white Quaker family in Kent County who were involved in a notorious incident more than 60 years later. Late one night in 1858, a certain James Bowers, suspected by his neighbors by helping some of their slaves to escape to the Underground Railroad, was lured out of his farmhouse by a group of conspirators who pretended that their carriage had broken down. When Bowers came out to help, they seized him, beat him, tarred and feathered him, and ran him and his family out of Kent County. Two black neighbors and alleged collaborators of Bowers were similarly treated. A number of "distinguished" white citizens of Chestertown were later implicated in the incident, which locals referred to - even though no one died - as "the Bowers lynching." (I have a letter from 1858 in which a local woman writes of the mob's action with approval, as something that would help keep Kent County's free blacks in line.)

So it appears that the Bowers family had a legacy of antislavery activity that went back to the 18th century. I don't know whether James Bowers lived to see all of Maryland's slaves freed in 1864 (more than a year after the Emancipation Proclamation), but I hope he did.

Final note: the last page of the 1791 book apparently includes a printed list of the Chester-town Abolition Society's charter members, but for some reason this was not included in the Evans database's online images. However ... the redoubtable and intrepid Albin Kowalewski '07, who is writing his WAC senior thesis on free African Americans in antebellum Chestertown, plans to travel to New York and peruse the original copy. This may turn out to be the most revealing part of the whole story ... so stay tuned for further developments.

AG

Who's Up for a Game of Washington Slept Here?

2006-09-04T21:35:00.000-04:00

*Promoted by JRB: Eat your cereal, tie your shoelaces, and head for the bus-stop, because MQF is about to take you to school in the comments section.*

Before Adam introduces himself and the idea of The Revolutionary College, I thought I'd share an interesting possibility about George Washington's 1784 visit to Washington College.

About a year and a half ago, I researched and wrote a piece on George Washington's trips to Kent County. I tried to pick up as many specifics as possible to illustrate the truth and debunk the false. When I was done, I was confident enough to declare some visits as inconclusive and one to be almost certainly false. I thought I had done a pretty thorough job.

Until yesterday evening.

That's when I read an account of Washington College in History of Education in Maryland, which I had borrowed from the Miller Library. The section was written in or about 1894 by a WC professor named Rowland Watts. It was interesting, but was pretty much the standard info that can be found in one of the college's contemporary histories. I had begun to wonder whether it was worth finishing, when this paragraph jumped out at me:

[The Kent Free School] was situated upon the eminence which overlooks the Free School spring, still so called, and the ravine or valley bordering the town of Chester. The depression of the foundation was plainly visible until June, 1890, when Marion DeK. Smith, esq., commenced to erect a residence upon the same site. Opposite is the residence of Horace Brown, where tradition says Washington slept while visiting the college in 1784.

Say what? That's not in Dumschott or the College at Chester.

I had never been sure about what Washington did the night of May 20th, 1784, after he took in Washington College's second commencement. Could Horace Brown's be it?

I asked some friends and long-time Kent County residents where they thought this "Free School spring" might be. They didn't have the foggiest. I've seen the plaque marking the Kent County Free School on Washington Ave., and I've read that it was located where Washington and Maple Avenues meet. But I was still unsure about what Watts was describing, so I looked to Google Maps for some perspective.

Of course.

The Free School spring, "still so called." Spring Avenue. And "the ravine or valley bordering the town." The turkey vulture pit. It was all coming together.

So I took to the courthouse to find out what I could about Horace Brown and maybe Marion deK. Smith. I was unable to find a will or an estate for either, so I checked the index of deeds. Horace wasn't listed, but Smith was. A lot.* There were easily half a dozen entries on that page and I'm sure more on the others. With my other work, I didn't have the time to hunt down the right one.

But the possibility is now open for exploration. Just off North Mill Street and set back from Washington Ave., we may locate another case of Washington Slept Here.

*Figuratively, that is.

Tropical Depression HURRICANE! Edition

2006-09-01T19:32:00.000-04:00

Hello folks. It's been a long, wet day, and I'm settling in with an old dissertation on the first edifice of Washington College. My socks are soggy and I lost my umbrella, but I hope the weather hasn't gotten you down.

I, on the other hand, could die.

At. Any. Moment.

If I seem a bit melodramatic, I'm just taking my cue from William Smith, D. D., the founding force behind our college, who could go over the top on account of bad weather and somewhat risky situations.

And he wrote the letters to prove it.

I'd like to share one with you this evening, from Smith's days at the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania.

It was the winter of 1772, and Smith had been on a very successful recruiting trip to South Carolina. There he had raised 1,000 guineas and found 20 new students for the College. But on February 11, he is very dismayed to learn that he would not travel back by land, but by sea. In response, he writes his wife, Becky, a farewell love letter, as he felt his death was imminent.

Smith, of course, survived. The letter is now in Philadelphia in the UPenn Archives' Smith Collection (.pdf file).

So, each time I look to my left and see the wind swaying the very large and very heavy tree outside my very large and very glassy windows, I think, 'Who would Bill Smith write a letter to?'

And yes, it's true -- Ernesto was downgraded to a tropical depression before it hit Chestertown. But the more important question is, 'Would William Smith downgrade it?'

I think not.

Happy Labor Day!

Ooh My, A Game, Dont-cha-know

2006-08-31T12:28:00.000-04:00

We've unearthed some really interesting stuff in the last 24 hours alone, but we're going to take some time to better explore and understand these discoveries.

So for now, let's play a game of Oh Yeah, That's ... Umm ... What's-His-Face!

Here's how you play: I'm going to post a picture of someone related to the college's history, and you tell us what well-known current WC character he or she looks like in the comments section. I'll put hints as to who it is around the post because there will always be a correct answer.*

Our first subject is Charles Peale, a master of the Kent County Free School in the 1740s. I'll tell you more about Peale's relationship with Washington College in the future, but for now, here's the closest thing to a picture of him I could come up with:

This is actually Peale's son, Charles Willson Peale. But Peale family historian (and Charles Peale's great-great grandson), the late Charles Coleman Sellers, said that they looked alike.

Now who on campus do you think this looks like? (Note: You're disqualified if I've recently stuck my cellphone in your face, goading you, "Doesn't this look like ____ ____? Doesn't it? DOESN'T IT?!?!"

*Correct answer completely arbitrary and probably incorrect.

Secrets of the Buntagon

2006-08-30T19:15:00.000-04:00

Jack, sorry to hear you found nada in the attic of Bunting - not even the legendary WAC freshman who went looking for the bathroom one night in the fall of '74 and hasn't been seen since. I was sure he was up there somewhere.

Anyway, a few years ago I did unearth the tale of something interesting that used to be in Bunting Hall - current whereabouts unknown. It's a mural painting commissioned by the College in the late 1930s from the Baltimore artist M. Paul Roche, which hung on the first floor for many years while Bunting was still a library. The title is "Governor Paca Laying the Cornerstone of the First Washington College Building, 1783":

But hey, wait a minute, take a closer look ... that's not Paca (the Talbot County plantation owner and signer of the Declaration of Independence) who's laying the cornerstone ... it's somebody else ...

That's right, folks - as is usual in American history, it turns out to be a black guy who deserves the real credit. In this case, it appears, he's an African-American slave, who seems to be doing the actual cornerstone work while Gov. Paca dabs about ineffectually with his trowel and Bill Smith peers out owlishly at nothing in particular. Which explains why, in a moment of awakening Political Correctness, the college removed the painting and exiled it to cold storage, apparently sometime in the 1980s. Things had changed - fortunately - in the few decades since President Mead had commissioned it, at a time when this was still a segregated school.

Personally, though, I think they should have left the painting right where it was and simply changed the plaque to read, "African-Americans Laying the Cornerstone of the First Washington College Building, 1783."

On another note, this raises the question of the role of enslaved African-Americans in the early history of WAC. They would almost certainly have been involved in constructing the College buildings, and perhaps worked at the College in other capacities as well. The Eastern Shore, of course, was slave territory in those days - in fact, about half the population of Kent County was composed of enslaved African-Americans.

However, I have found a couple of clues suggesting that William Smith's own racial attitudes may have been more progressive than the prevailing norm. One is that when his wife died, in the 1790s, her funeral was presided over by Rev. Richard Allen, the famous African-American minister and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. (Inviting a black minister to officiate at a "white" funeral would have been a pretty radical gesture.) Another clue is a cryptic note I found in Smith's handwritten notes from the 1788 Commencement, indicating that the program included a student debate on the subject of slavery. This would have been a provocative - even incendiary! - topic in Chestertown at that time.

At any rate, all this suggests many new avenues of research. For starters, it would be good to know what became of that 1930s painting (the b/w photo of which turned up in a file in the College Relations office). I'd always heard it was in storage in the attic of Bunting ... but apparently not.

Wondering Heights

2006-08-30T15:36:00.000-04:00

So I was doing some reading in the archives this afternoon to compile notes on a project, and I kept hitting a brickwall when looking for info on this sort-of-obscure-but-really-shouldn't-be 18th century reverend. It happens sometimes, and you just have to roll with it and call around and maybe somebody will have something on him. But it's the middle of the day, and people are busy, and it's dreary out, and -- okay, okay: I just didn't feel like doing anything else on this guy for now, alright? So I decided I'd go have some fun.

I decided I'd go look around Bunting's attic.

Yes, Bunting has an attic, and when I first got here about two weeks ago, some people explained it to me, along with stories of the treasures it held. Someone else told me I wouldn't find anything except a swarm of bees and, possibly, a bat or two (or twenty).

Still, the attic of the old library. Sounds pretty cool to me.

I first had to figure out how to get up there. I spoke with someone with some knowledge about the building, who told me I needed a ladder, a flashlight, and probably some gloves. Someone else suggested a dust mask. I enjoyed this part a lot, excited about what other cool duds I might get out of this.

I collected my gear and headed up to the little hatch in the ceiling. I climbed to the top of the ladder and took a look down.

From this view, I thought about what had led me here, and asked myself, 'Would Schlesinger have done this?'

Nah, he wouldn't have used a ladder -- he'd have just hopped up on Galbraith's shoulders.

So I began to push the hatch aside and felt a little bit of resistance, wondering what artifacts I was knocking over. Some light broke in and I saw it was just some insulation. The hatch was now open and I was fully exposed to the angry swarms of disturbed bees and rabid bats.

Fearing I had just unleashed the fury, I braced myself, but was only hit by the thick air. I poked my head in.

Nada. It was big, and the windows were cool. Come to think of it, it was kind of majestic and peaceful -- like a quiet church, as Emerson would say -- but there was no treasure. Not even any bees or bats.

I got hosed, Tommy.

I took some pictures and started down the ladder. I noticed that some bees or hornets or something was swarming outside the window.

'I'll just be closing this now.'

Still, I think I might take a journey to the tops of other buildings around campus.

Hey, I got the dust masks and rubber gloves, if you got the ladder.

I Love the Smell of Reenactments in the Morning

2006-08-30T13:18:00.000-04:00

Now taking bets on who will win the Battle of Martha Washington Square.

My money is on King George's 4th Company, as Martha Washington Square can get pretty windy and their hats are more aerodynamic.

So make your predictions in the comments, or talk about anything else you've been wondering about the history of the college, as this is an open thread.

Theophilus Was Awesomeilus

2006-08-29T14:37:00.000-04:00

Looking for other sources of information on Washington College's early curriculum, I went hunting for a book in the Miller Catalog: "The University of Pennsylvania: Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics." I found it in the Spohie Kerr Room. It's heavy, illustrated, leatherbound (smelling of it), from 1901, and not in great shape. It's the first volume in what was to be a series called "Universities and Their Sons," edited by Joshua Chamberlain (of Little Round Top fame). The UPenn items were written by Edward Cheyney, who published a history of UPenn in 1940, but this one has some good illustrations and other information Cheyney's later book does not.

But let me back up for a second.

When looking for info on Washington College's curriculum, it's helpful to look at what Smith did at UPenn, known then as the College of Philadelphia. Smith modeled a lot of WC's curriculum on what he designed at UPenn. He even says it himself in an An Account of Washington College published in 1784, reprinting a list of the classes, authors and books that his pupils were instructed in.

Reading the Chamberlain book, I found mention of Theophilus Grew, one of UPenn's founding faculty in mathematics. It's unclear where he came from, but we do know that he taught in Chestertown until 1742 (the year the colorful Charles Peale took over), which means some of his subjects and teaching methods took shape here in Kent County.

Chamberlain's book also lists some specifics about the mathematics Grew taught at the College of Philadelphia: "Writing, Arithmetic, Navigation and all other branches of Mathematics."

Cheyney's 1940 book details some of Grew's accomplishments and his influence on the College's curriculum.

The Mathematical School owed its prominence to the large part that subject played in the curriculum of the College, to the general interest of the time in mathematics, pure and applied, and in allied subjects, and to the excellence of its masters. The first in the series was Theophilus Grew, a well-known city schoolmaster, who had attracted attention by publishing a description of the approaching eclipse of the sun. . . . He wrote a textbook on the Use of the Globe for the use of students in the Academy and College [JRB note: And possibly Washington College].

It should also be presumed that Grew knew William Smith well and had some influence on him, as they worked together until his death in 1759.

I think this is neat because, like I said before, we always think of Penn's curriculum being a forerunner of WC's, but here's a part of it that was more Chestertown-by-way-of-Penn.

A Universal Seminary and a Tar Pit

2006-08-29T07:57:00.000-04:00

What's up, Goodheart? Good to have you here, and great post.

I enjoy that 1782 William Smith quote to Washington, too. The one that goes,

In every possible way, your country wishes to erect public monuments to you, even while living, and posterity, without doubt, will greatly increase the number; but none, it is believed, can be more acceptable to you, than a seminary of universal learning expressly dedicated to your name . . .

But I like it even more because of a book from the 1960s called Facts About the Presidents. It belonged to my mom when she was a kid and I found it in our basement not long after I decided I was coming to Washington College.

It lists a dozen or so interesting tidbits about each president, including the first town to name itself after Washington in the 1780s -- the former Tar Pit, North Carolina.

Another great moment in American public relations.

More posts to follow today.

"The Revolutionary College"

2006-08-28T20:23:00.000-04:00

Hey, Jack ... I have really been enjoying your discoveries, and look forward to seeing what else you unearth down there in the Miller Library archives. As you know, while this college has a history that stretches back farther than nearly every other academic institution in the United States (all but nine of them), that rich heritage has hardly been explored yet. Which is where your current project - and this blog - come in. I am sure there will be a lot more mysteries to pursue (like the burning question you addressed below: Where did Washington sleep when he came to collect his honorary degree from WAC?)

* * *

You wanted me to explain why I suggested the other day that WAC could be called "The Revolutionary College." Well, it's because one of the extraordinary things about this college is that it was established literally while the Continental Army, under George Washington, was still in the field fighting for our nation's independence. In 1782, no new college had been founded in America for more than a decade - the tumultuous period during which the thirteen colonies had fought to establish themselves as free states.

Then, that spring, a small group of visionaries here on the Eastern Shore decided that the moment had come to establish the first institution of higher learning in the new nation - an institution, moreover, that would attempt to instill in future generations of Americans the same values that had just won the Revolution. "The souls of our youth," William Smith wrote, "must be nursed up to the love of LIBERTY and KNOWLEDGE; and their bosoms warmed with a sacred and enlightened zeal for every thing that can bless or dignify their species." (A man of no small ambitions, our Bill Smith!)

Naturally, then, the College's founders decided to name it in honor of the man who embodied, in the eyes of the whole world, these Revolutionary values: George Washington. Here's Smith again, writing (prophetically as well as eloquently) to Washington in July 1782:

In every possible way, your country wishes to erect public monuments to you, even while living, and posterity, without doubt, will greatly increase the number; but none, it is believed, can be more acceptable to you, than a seminary of universal learning expressly dedicated to your name, with a view of instructing and animating the youth of many future generations to admire and to imitate these public virtues and patriot-labours, which have created a private monument to you in the heart of every good citizen.

"The youth of many future generations": clearly, Smith at that moment was thinking not just of 1782, but also of 2006 and beyond. And unlike, say, the founders of Harvard - who also invoked a distant posterity, but were primarily interested in spawning future generations of erudite Puritan divines for the Massachusetts Bay Colony - Smith's vision was a national, secular, practical one. "Public virtues and patriot labors" were what counted in the newly hatched United States.

And Washington - who, when Smith's letter reached him, was encamped with his army on the banks of the Hudson, waiting to see whether Britain would continue fighting for its lost American empire - clearly agreed. At least to the tune of 50 guineas.

By the way, the last battle between British and American forces was fought along the Combahee River in South Carolina on August 27, 1782. Since Washington College's founding date was May 24, 1782, and the next oldest college (Liberty Hall Academy, later to be rechristened Washington & Lee) would not be founded until October of that year, we can solidly claim to be the only college founded during the Revolutionary War.

And if that's not enough to make us "the Revolutionary College," I don't know what is.

AG

The Revolution Starts Now

2006-08-25T12:16:00.000-04:00

Welcome to The Revolutionary College Blog. This all started during a recent conversation between me, Jack Bohrer, and Adam Goodheart in Chestertown, Maryland (a.k.a. 'New Town,' 'New Town at Chester,' and 'Head Quarters on the Chester'*).

You see, Adam and I are into American history, and these past few years, we've been lucky enough to be associated with a college that is very important in that regard. Adam is a professor and the newly selected director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and I am a recent graduate doing a few weeks of research under the direction of Washington College president, Baird Tipson.

Anyway, Adam and I make a lot of fascinating discoveries about Washington College's history. So many, in fact, that Adam suggested we start a blog and share them with anybody else who might be interested.

So here we are, The Revolutionary College Blog.

And now that I've explained the idea behind this venture, I'll throw it over to Adam to explain the title.

*I only wish people would call it Head Quarters on the Chester.