BROOKE BARBIER, BOSTON TOUR GUIDE AND AUTHOR, SPEAKS TO ROUND TABLE
Brooke Barbier (BAR-bee-eh) is a native of San Diego. She did her undergraduate work at the University of California, Davis, and got her PhD. at Boston College. At Davis, Dr. Barbier studied under Alan Taylor, who has spoken at the Round Table and at Fraunces Tavern Museum on his 2006 book Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution. She makes her living running a company that gives historical tours in Boston, rather than by teaching. (Of course, historical tour guiding is a form of teaching.) She is also a baseball scholar, and previously worked for the Boston Red Sox (boos from the Yankee fan peanut gallery of the Round Table) as their historical consultant.
Dr. Barbier’s power-point talk was on her new book, Boston in the American Revolution. She began by reminding us that 2018 is the 250th anniversary of the British occupation of Boston. This was in the Townshend Act Crisis, the second of the three main crises of the Revolution (the Stamp Act and the Tea Crisis being the first and third). Good time for a new book on Boston’s whole revolutionary saga.
Among other surprises were these: Massachusetts sent more soldiers to the French and Indian War than any other colony. Boston had five newspapers at a time when a British city of the same size would have had only one. The two groups most affected by the Stamp Act were lawyers and newspapers – the two groups you least want to make enemies of in politics. All those legal documents had to be stamped, and every copy of every newspaper. John Hancock was the richest man in Boston, and he was generous with his money and made many friends, even across class lines. A very popular leader, all the more so because he was a smuggler who got away with defying the King’s tax and customs collectors.
Dr. Barbier has a loud and clear voice – a tour guide must project outdoors – and a well-practiced delivery. Lots of verve and enthusiasm. Spirited and entertaining. This is the first time this reporter ever heard a speaker squeal with delight upon being presented with our speaker’s plaque. And she picked up peoples’ names quickly. Those name tags really paid off this time. It is a welcome quality in a speaker that she addresses people she just met by their first names.
CONGRESS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION ROUND TABLES REPORT
The 5th Congress of American Revolution Round Tables met in Yorktown, Virginia from April 6 to April 8, 2018. It was hosted by Jeff Lambert and Randy Flood of the Williamsburg-Yorktown RT. Twenty-three guests from twelve RTs attended. Alas, New York was not represented. But two other groups did join the festivities: “Campaign 1776” and Civil War Trails. The former protects and promotes battlefields of both the War for Independence and the War of 1812. The latter is an initiative of the Civil War Trust that marks Civil War trails and is headquartered in Richmond.
This intelligence is sent to us by Bill Welsch of the Richmond RT. Bill is a prime mover of the Congresses. More dispatches from Richmond below, under BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS.
FRAUNCES TAVERN MUSEUM HONORS THOMAS FLEMING
On April 23, Jon Carriel and Jean Hayter attended Fraunces Tavern Museum’s and the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York’s annual Battles of Lexington and Concord Commemoration and Book Award Presentation. Russell Shorto accepted the annual award, but the opening act was the presentation of a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award to Thomas Fleming. Tom’s wife Alice and all four of their children were in attendance. Thomas Jr. accepted the award. Ambrose Richardson, head of the SRs and a Round Table regular, asked Jon to speak on behalf of the Round Table.
Thomas Fleming, Jr., accepts the plaque from SRNY Book Award Committee Chairman Kenneth Chase. [Photo by Colyn C. Hunt]
Jon spoke of Tom’s dedication to the Round Table, editing the Broadside, engaging speakers for the group, and serving on the Board. Tom, Jon added, was a mentor and inspiration to several writers in the Round Table. Jon is in regular touch with the ten or twenty other Round Tables around the Thirteen States, and they all recall Tom helping them get organized and speaking, and just being a favorite author of theirs.
BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS
“Read The Revolution,” the newsletter of the Museum of the American Revolution, features a review this month of the latest book by our own Arthur Lefkowitz: Eyewitness Images of the American Revolution. Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., 2017. The book includes over fifty paintings, drawings, engravings, and other images, many of which are rarely reproduced.
The Thrifty Guide to the American Revolution: A Handbook for Time Travelers, by Jonathan W. Stokes, was published on January 30, 2018 by Penguin Young Readers. It is illustrated by David Sossella. It was advertised in Boys Life. (Yes, there still is a Boys Life!) The ad says the book “makes history approachable, engaging and funny.” It is the second in a series, the first one being about a time traveler’s visit to ancient Rome. Stokes is a young LA screenwriter.
New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester has written a book that is slated for publication on May 8, 2018. The title is Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World. The Industrial Revolution made greater precision measuring necessary. This shows the cross-fertilization between engineering and pure science, and between those and the American Revolution: it was Thomas Jefferson who familiarized American audiences with the advances in measuring that European industry was producing. His point was to encourage American manufacturing. Maybe we need to amend the simple picture of Hamilton being pro-manufacturing and Jefferson anti.
Our own John Buchanan will be among the speakers at the Fort Plain Museum’s American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley conference, June 7-10. Jack will speak on his book The Road to Valley Forge. Also speaking will be Bruce M. Venter, of the Richmond, Virginia RT, on his book Benedict Arnold’s Nemesis: Col. John Brown’s Fateful Journey to the Mohawk Valley. The Richmond RT gave their 2017 book award to Nathaniel Philbrick for his Valiant Ambition. Mr. Venter is president of America’s History, LLC, a tour and conference company.
Here is something different: Round Tabler Richard Melnick is writing a book and solicits material for it from the Round Table. The working title is The American Revolution in Astoria and Long Island City, New York, 1776-1783. The History Press will be publishing it in January, 2019. If you have suggestions, articles, quotes, images, or anything else useful, contact Richard at melnick99@earthlink.net.
Richard has been a Round Tabler since 2014, and a Greater Astoria Historical Society Board member since 2003. He has reviewed books by Tom Fleming, Jack Buchanan, Dr. Joanne Grasso, and Arthur Lefkowitz.
SITE CITES SIGHTS: LIBERTY HALL, HOME OF WILLIAM LIVINGSTON
In Union, New Jersey, between the Union and the Elizabeth train stations and on the campus of Kean University, is a big, rambling old house called Liberty Hall. It was the home of William Livingston, the first elected governor of New Jersey. It was later the home to generations of the Kean family, who bought it from the Livingstons in 1811. The last Kean to live there spent her life preparing the house for its next role, that of museum. Her name was Mary Alice Kean, and she died in 1995. She had lived in the house since 1932. She had entertained presidents there. Governor Thomas Kean was a cousin.
Liberty Hall, Union, NJ [Photo courtesy of Wikipedia]
By that time the house had grown from a 1772 Georgian of a handful of rooms to a Victorian maze of fifty rooms.
Alexander Hamilton lived with the Livingstons here for one year. The house is on the AHA tour – the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society. John Jay was married here.
You can tour the house, but only under the supervision of guides, who provide a guided tour every hour. One highlight is the bayonet marks left on the banister by intruding Redcoats. From April to December you will find the house open from Tuesday through Saturday. From January through March you have to make an appointment. You can reach the house at 908-527-0400, or libertyhall@kean.edu. Driving, you will find the house on Morris Avenue at North Avenue, Union, NJ.
NEWS NOTES
A lock of hair, found some months ago in a letter in the library of Union College, Schenectady, has now been confirmed as George Washington's hair, by DNA analysis! This item was in a clutch of news clippings passed around by long-time Round Tabler Vic Miranda, who is active with the Fort Montgomery historic site near Bear Mountain, NY.
The Junto, a group blog on early American history, is celebrating five years of publication. In addition to the blog, the group produces a monthly podcast. www.earlyamericanists.com
On April 12, CIA Director Mike Pompeo was questioned by the Senate as the President’s nominee for Secretary of State. (He is now confirmed.) By way of introducing himself, Pompeo gave a quick sketch of his life and interests. “I love Revolutionary War history, country music, show tunes and basketball.” It is always welcome to hear the Rev listed among the interests of people high up in government. Maybe something will rub off.
On Saturday, April 21, Fraunces Tavern® Museum held its seventh annual walking tour, “A Rebellious Brew: New York’s Tea Party of 1774.” The tour was led by Fred Cookinham, a Revolution specialist among licensed New York City tour guides. About thirty people attended. The tour lasted two hours and began and ended at the Tavern. It covered the sites of the Tea Party itself, the confrontation the following morning at the Merchants Coffee House, and the Battle of Wall Street and the Battle of Golden Hill. The first was a fracas between the radical and moderate wings of the revolutionary committees, and the second was between the Sons of Liberty and the Redcoats.
GW INAUGURATED AGAIN
On Monday, April 30, 2018, General George Washington was again inaugurated President at Federal Hall National Memorial. This re-enactment has been done annually for many years by the St. John’s Lodge Number 1, Ancient York Masons. When the original inauguration took place here in 1789, it was Chancellor (New York State’s chief judge) Robert Livingston who sent the inaugural parade marshal, who was also Grand Master of the Lodge, around the corner to the Lodge to borrow the Lodge’s altar Bible for the swearing-in. Livingston was himself the Grand Master of the Whole New York State Masonic organization, and he was the one who swore in the President. He was also the negotiator President Jefferson sent to Paris to buy the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon. And of course the General was a Mason too.
That inaugural Bible has been on display at FHNM for many years. Recently, though, the Lodge has reportedly put it in safekeeping for fear of terrorists. So today’s inaugural Bible was a replica.
The President-Elect was preceded into the rotunda of FHNM (it was raining, so the re-enactment was not held on the building’s porch as in most years) by a color guard. The Round Table’s frequent guest Ambrose Richardson, of the Sons of the Revolution, carried the national colors.
Mr. Mark Wright portrayed His Excellency. He put his left hand on the Bible and raised his right, as is done today by real presidents. But eyewitness accounts say that GW put his left hand on his heart and his right on the Bible. The Bible was open, in the hands of the Secretary of the Senate, to Genesis 49-50: “Then Jacob called for his sons and said ‘Gather around, so I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.’”
Mr. Wright then read GW’s inaugural address. Greetings from the Mayor and City Council Member Margaret Chin were read.
At the urging of the Master of Ceremonies, Geoffrey T. Hoderath, of the Lodge, the audience, about a hundred strong, gave lusty huzzas at the General’s entrance and exit.
The Fife and Drum Corps of the Old Barracks provided music for the occasion both in the rotunda and outside on the steps, so that passersby might be curious enough to come in and see the annual re-enactment.
One interesting new feature of this annual do was a talk by another of the Masons on Martha Washington. Martha took the trouble to learn to read and write, which American wives did not always do, especially in the South. She rode to the hounds. She broke Virginia law by teaching her slaves to read. She joined her husband in camp every winter of the war except 1776-7, when things were a little hairy. The men were glad to see her carriage approach every fall, because she would bring hams and other produce from the plantation. She volunteered with the copying of letters, and in the camp hospitals. Her skirts were often stained with the blood of the wounded.
THE JUNE SPEAKER
Christian McBurney will be speaking to us about his 2016 book Abductions in the American Revolution: Attempts to Kidnap George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and other Military and Civilian Leaders, McFarland Publishers. This was his third Revwar book after The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation of the Revolutionary War and Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee and Richard Prescott.
In high school, McBurney wrote a book on the history of his native Kingston, Rhode Island. He graduated from Brown University in 1981. At Brown, he wrote a 300-page undergraduate thesis on colonial South Kensingtown planter society. He then graduated from NYU Law in 1985. He is now a partner at Arent Fox LLP. He lives in Kensington, Maryland with his wife Margaret and three kids. He is on the lookout for neglected Revolutionary topics. This will be his third visit to the Round Table.
DEADLINE
September 11 will be the deadline for submissions to the October 2018 Broadside. You may expect the Broadside to appear in your inbox on or about September 18.
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIRMAN —That’s DOCTOR David Jacobs to you!
The June Round Table will be held Tuesday, June 5, at the Coffee House Club, General Society Library, 20 West 44th Street, 6th floor, at 6 p.m.
The semi-annual meeting of the Round Table’s Board of Trustees will be held before the June dinner. Meeting time will be 5:30, in the same room as the dinner, the Coffee House Club.
Your most obdt svt,
David W. Jacobs