American History

The Garrett Library has a noteworthy collection of Americana, particularly of seventeenth- century books relating to Maryland, printed for the most part in London (209 items), and books printed in London, Paris and elsewhere before 1800, which describe the American colonies. It also contains a large collection of American imprints to 1800 printed in Philadelphia, New York, Annapolis, Baltimore, Cambridge, and Boston including the first book printed in Baltimore, John Redick-Le-Man's A Detection of the Conduct and Proceedings of Messrs. Annan and Henderson (1765). Elizabeth Baer, the former Garrett Rare Books Librarian, included these volumes in her: Seventeenth Century Maryland, A Bibliography. Introduction by Lawrence C. Wroth. Baltimore: The John Work Garrett Library, 1949.

In 1937 Herbert Friedenwald, a Hopkins alumnus, gave the University his collection of books on the American Revolution and preceding events. The opinions of both sides are represented in this group of contemporary literature. Early editions of Thomas Paine's Common Sense include one published in 1776 in London, which left blank those passages that might have offended British readers. Samuel Johnson's Taxation No Tyranny, which he published anonymously in 1775, is also represented in the collection. Especially important are the Journals of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1788. Besides the Friedenwald gift there is a group of pamphlets, books by and about Benjamin Franklin, and about fifty titles on George Washington, nearly all contemporary, including many of the funeral sermons and panegyrics that appeared after his death.

John Work Garrett's library has a fine manuscript collection of signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as presidents of the United States. There are also letters written by members of the Continental Congress when it was meeting in Baltimore in 1777.

A particularly interesting group of rare pamphlets and periodicals is the anti-slavery collection of William Birney, a major general of Union volunteers in the Civil War. His father, James G. Birney, who was active in the abolition movement, began the collection, and William Birney was adding to it up to the time he presented it to Hopkins in 1891. One of the earliest items is Memorials Presented to the Congress of the United States . . . (Philadelphia, 1792) by members of several anti-slavery societies. One of the rarer is a partial run of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, published by Benjamin Lundy from 1821-1839. No complete set of this paper exists. The collection also includes reports of various colonization societies and about fifty bound volumes of controversial pamphlets, which extend from the eighteenth century through the Civil War to about 1868. The Birney Collection is supported with ephemeral literature and novels written to illustrate the differing views on slavery.

A collection of more than 500 Civil War broadsides at the Garrett Library represent both Northern and Southern views. They are primarily political and military in their orientation. For the North, there are broadsides concerning soldiers and the draft, battles of the war, Abraham Lincoln as savior of the Union, Pro-McClellan political poetry for his presidential campaign in 1864, Northern sentiment and pro-Union propaganda. For the South, the collection covers the founding of the Confederate States of America, divided Baltimore, Southern military and political leaders, Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant and a traitor, and Southern sentiment and pro-Confederacy propaganda. Complementing the broadsides are the Garrett Library Collection of Civil War Pamphlets consisting of 102 volumes containing approximately 1,200 titles. The subject matters covered are very diverse and include southern school textbooks, battle reports (both official and personal narratives), military biographies, Confederate Army regulation and drill manuals, laws of the Confederate States of America, speeches in the United States Congress, and other topics. The collections are detailed in "Civil War Resources in Special Collections" available in the department (Spec.Coll.Ref E647.M5 1994).

The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music includes sheet music and broadsides relating to the Civil War, with nearly 1,000 pieces published in the North and about 500 published in the South. A number of the pieces have decorative title pages, with pictures of generals and battles. Of interesting note are the first editions of "Dixie", "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", and "Maryland, My Maryland."

Manuscript collections related to the Civil War include the Confederate Naval Papers (MS 412), the Civil War Clippings Collection (MS 480), and correspondence in the Howard/Ridgely Family Papers and the Merryman/Crane Papers.

Manuscript Collections

The manuscript collections are rich sources for exploring American history.  Two collections of Baltimore Sun cartoonists offer visual interpretations of local and national events.  The Edmund Duffy Cartoon Collection (CC 1) includes cartoons depicting the United States's relations with Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa as well as many cartoons relating to World War II and peace.  Duffy also covered domestic issues such as dissent and civil rights, local and national elections, taxes and fiscal issues, labor problems, and the Supreme Court. 

Tom Flannery Cartoons [1957-1967], (CC 2) cover topics such as foreign affairs, poverty, the space program, Congress, fiscal problems, politics, Vietnam war, dissent and civil rights, Cuba, Latin America, the Balkans, Greece, Africa, the Near East, Europe, the Orient, the South Pacific, Russia and her satellites, world problems, the United Nations and international meetings.

Colonial and pre-revolutionary America are described in the Merchants' Collection, the John Weatherburn Papers, the Carroll Papers, the Greenway Papers, and the Documents of Confiscations of Loyalists Holdings.