The news that an important manuscript of18th century was found in the attic of new york Museum in the summer of 20 13 is another story: a document with historical value was found in an unlikely place, and a small museum was found in a tense environment, which will get a lot of positive news media attention and a lot of cash. It even has a celebrity auctioneer at the helm.
The heat wave swept the whole city in July that year. Emily Grouchow, then an archivist at Morris Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights, Manhattan, recently started working in the three-story attic of this historic house. When she recalled the scene that day, she clearly realized that there was no air conditioning above, and the average indoor temperature was around 95 degrees. Her plan is to re-catalog 17 and18th century manuscripts and store them in flat filing cabinets. She knows that many of them are worthy of attention in history, and many of them need to be saved immediately (it is absolutely not recommended to store files in a hot and humid attic).
One folder contains the records of Nicholas Roach, a doctor who treated slaves in new york and New Jersey in the18th century. It was a fascinating material, she recalled. "I was reading these documents (admittedly a little off my work) and they were intertwined with fragments of another document." When I finished reading Roche's newspaper, I went back to those fragments. They were not neat, so I began to read the fragments one by one until I reached the fourth or fifth page, and there was a paragraph at the beginning of this page.
She realized that these words were very familiar. Her academic background in early American history did not betray her (take Ye who stopped liberal arts education as an example). She went on to say, "Many years ago, I read the final printed version of 1775 to the residents of Great Britain in a college class, and approved this line through these and all other titles. "
From the urgent appeal of the Second Continental Congress to the British people the year before the American Declaration of Independence to the manuscript now before her,
Uncovering the Secret of Rare Books: Finding Wonderful True Stories in Unlikely Places Rebecca Barry, an expert on rare books and ancient books, tells the story of great discoveries in book collection.
The mistake discovered by the buyer Groucho in his doctoral thesis is a draft document entitled "12 joint colonies, from their representatives in Congress to the residents of Great Britain".
It is an appeal to King George of England, but for the British people, in order to reconcile and avoid war, they advocate "the glorious achievements of our ancestors". 1775 On July 8, a few weeks after the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Second Continental Congress approved this incisive text and entrusted printed materials in capital form (several of them were in the institutional collection). III ordered a colonial rebellion. However, for historians, the "olive branch" reveals the intense and contradictory feelings of the colonists in the spring and summer of 1775. In the draft form, a large number of edited and deleted lines are displayed, and the concept is enlarged. As the auction catalogue says, "... this document is an important omission, because the colonists began to think that they were not British subjects, but were always American citizens." "Until the discovery of" KDSP "and" KDSP ",there were no manuscripts, and even their authors were uncertain. The Continental Congress originally appointed Robert R Livingston, Richard Henry Lee and Edmund pendleton as its representatives, but the printed version was not signed. According to scholars, from the recent findings, it is obvious that Livingston is the first author (the manuscript is in his hand, with Li's comments and edits). By the way, Livingston was one of five people who were sent to write the Declaration of Independence a year later. The other four were Thomas Jefferson, john adams, Benjamin Franklin and roger sherman.
Even before these details were enriched, Groucho brought this document and nicknamed it "Livingston Manuscript", which attracted the attention of museum curator Molly Helm and curator Carol Ward. They thought that this paper was made by hand with fiber pulp, and they asked experts to give a second opinion and conduct handwriting analysis. The conclusion is that this is indeed a true, meaningful and revolutionary manuscript. Therefore, they know that this is very valuable.
In the next six months, the museum board made a major decision. Morris Jumel Building is not a wealthy institution. Its reputation is that it is the oldest private residence in Manhattan. Palladio style house was built by British Colonel Roger Morris and his American wife Mary Phillips in 1765 as their summer house. But George Washington did sleep there. He made it his headquarters in the autumn of 1776, and came back for cabinet dinner with Jefferson, Adams and alexander hamilton in 1790. The Morris family (they are loyal) moved to England. 18 10, French businessman Stephen Jumel and his wife Eliza bought this house. Later, she became a widow. Eliza married former Vice President Aaron Burr in the front hall of her house (and then divorced him before he died. She seems to have a lot of personality. This house was hers until she 1865 died. Jumel's heirs subdivided the property (about 1 15 acres) in the1980s, but there was still a family that continued to run the house. It was not until 1904 that new york bought it that it became a museum. Now it has become a national historical landmark and a national historical site list.
It is no secret that the history museum is a landmark or does not fight for money and tourists. Morris Jumel's maintenance costs are also high. According to * * *, the annual budget of this museum is about $250,000. In fiscal year 20 13, the museum had a deficit of $30,000. In Gruzhou's words, "the museum itself has experienced a period of becoming less and less popular and less and less concerned by history."
That was after Michael D. Alkhatim, an early American history doctoral student at Yale University, inspected and evaluated the manuscript. Experts estimated that its value might be between 654.38 million and 400,000 dollars. American manuscripts, especially those related to revolutionary wars or civil wars, are highly valued by collectors. If Maurice Jumel's board of directors is willing to sell, it will be a windfall to ensure the future of the mansion, at least in the next ten or twenty years. They voted to sell.
As the curator of the museum told The Times before the sale, the house was in urgent need of $350,000 for external repairs, and she added, "We hope to have a reserve fund." It also discussed "how to best provide documents", and the curator and the board of directors reached an agreement. Ge Luzhou believes that such an important document with historical significance "needs to be placed where a country can see it". Not only that, it also needs a file storage and security guarantee that only major institutions can provide.
It's not all about money. The museum is already in the initial stage of renovation. She recalled, "Just when this document was discovered, people's interest in protecting museums rose for a while, which coincided with people's re-understanding and re-popularity of its historical importance. Fundamentally speaking, the process of innovation and re-conception is under way. In fact, I was even allowed to enter the archives for classification, which was a major change.
Morris Jumel's board of directors hired auctioneer Leigh Keno, half of whom were dynamic "antique roadshow" furniture evaluation portfolio (the other half was his twin brother Leslie) and the president of Keno Auction Company in new york. At that time, Keno was quoted as saying that the first time he saw the Livingston manuscript "was one of the most exciting moments in my career," he added. "In the field of American historical colonial literature, such an important new discovery is extremely rare. When reading the draft, with its many changes, people will understand what happened in the minds of our founding fathers. This is really a national treasure.
2014 65438+1October 26th, this national treasure was auctioned by Keno auction house. This is a single item for sale. Usually, rare books and manuscripts are of special importance. "In a crowded store, after fierce competition from several mobile phone bidders, the price of mallets was reduced to 965,438 US dollars+02,500 pounds (including the buyer's premium)," Keno wrote in a press release. A 12 page document, at least 100 years old, nearly 100 million dollars, was completely ignored and put in a drawer in a damp attic.
Carol Ward, the curator of the museum, said at the time, "I am still in a state of shock. This is beyond our expectation. The scale of this auction is four times that of our donation, which ensures that this mansion can serve future generations.
The winning bidder was Brian Hendelson, a private collector in New Jersey. After the auction, he said, "The only thing I can compare with is the original draft of the Declaration of Independence." In his name, Henderson allowed the new york Historical Society to publicly display this document for three months in April, 2065438, and lent it for two years of research and exhibition.
How long this Livingston manuscript has been preserved in the mansion is still a mystery. Groucho is now a full-time archivist at the Maurice Jumel Museum. He believes that this document arrived at some time between 1903 and 19 13, and may not even be known to the donors.
This is indeed an amazing discovery. For example, Groucho's discoveries don't happen every day or even every decade, but they do happen. She refused to accept the view that all major historical discoveries had been made, whether in archives or flea markets. Gruzhou said that in fact, about two weeks after she found the manuscript, an archivist in Planfield, New Jersey found a letter from john quincy adams in the temperature-controlled basement of the city's main library, with the theme of abolitionism. Like Livingston's manuscript, its existence is unknown. He suspects that "there are many other libraries, archives, museums and family collections in history that are priceless manuscripts because they have not changed the historical process that we still can't find." Sometimes, the "seemingly insignificant page" that conveys the true story of our past is taken from "The Rare Book Discovered: The True Story of Adventure in the Impossible Place" written by Rebecca Pressure Relief Valve Barry, published by Traveler Press/Quato Publishing Group of the United States, 65438+February 2, editor's note, 20 15: the previous sentence will be Livingston and.