Society for Historians of the Early American Republic

Clio's Consort: Jeremy Belknap and the Founding of the Massachusetts Historical Society byLouis Leonard TuckerReview by: Frank C. MeversJournal of the Early Republic, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Winter, 1990), pp. 601-602Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press on behalf of the Society for Historians of the EarlyAmerican RepublicStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3123639 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 601

Perhaps there are limits to how much concentrated celebration, particularly intellectual celebration, any historical event can support. Well Begun is a handsome commemorative artifact, but its other functions are problematical.

State University of New York, Oneonta William D. Barber

Clio's Consort: Jeremy Belknap and the Founding of the Massachusetts Historical Society. By Louis Leonard Tucker. (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1990. Pp. xii, 149. Illustrations. $20.00.)

Jeremy Belknap provokes images of both sadness and greatness in New Hampshire: sadness because he failed to find fulfillment in his ministry to the people of Dover; greatness because he left such a remarkable history and contemporary description of the state. Tucker has not produced a biography of Belknap although the first chapter is an excellent summation of the preacher's life. Tucker describes clearly Belknap's frustrations at feeling constrained to practice theology, a study foisted upon him by determined parents, while simultaneously feeling so passionately the pull of history.

It would have been difficult for anyone in 1767 to have filled the Dover pulpit of Jonathan Cushing, who had held the community together during fifty years of growth. Tucker concludes that Belknap simply did not fit in with the rural nature of New Hampshire in the 1770s and 1780s. His intellect required more than just the day-to-day problems and ministerial routine with which to wrestle. He enjoyed the research and writing required of a historian, a field which he had learned from Thomas Prince while a student at Harvard. Thus he traveled to Mount Washington and other natural historic spots, took notes from conversations with those who had lived through historical events, and wrote a multitude of letters seeking information for his history. His congregation in Dover, perhaps envious of the time spent in research and writing, became increasingly unaccommodating toward the clergyman's needs.

When the opportunity arose to remove to Boston Belknap seized it. He must have enjoyed tremendously the meeting of the Massachusetts convention in 1788 which ratified the federal Constitution, especially since he was instrumental in having the meeting held under his pulpit at the Long Lane Church. He would appreciate the fact that his notes of the convention are now a prime research source. Certainly his rapport with the social sciences was more appreciated in Boston than in rural New Hampshire.

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602 JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC

As should be the case, more than half the volume deals with the

founding and establishment of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Tucker, currently director of the society, never quite solves the riddle of why Belknap was unable to establish his archives at the library of Harvard College. Again, a clash of personalities apparently intervened. In any event, the struggle of one individual with support but not much practical help from a handful of others, to put together a collection of documents not only interesting but of vital importance to the

knowledge of America's establishment, makes a fascinating story. From Belknap's dreams, shared with John Pintard who later helped found the New-York Historical Society, grew one of the most prestigious historical societies of our day.

While the volume is not a full-fledged biography of Belknap neither is it a complete history of the society. The account essentially ends with Belknap's premature death in 1798. No one could have more resources at hand for this than the society's director. Probably none could do a better job of the telling. Belknap obviously worked hard at his belief in

preserving history and making it available. The publication of this

story is long overdue. The society should be proud of its production, just as Jeremy Belknap would be proud of its style and its mechanical production, hallmarks of his own publications.

New Hampshire State Archives Frank C. Mevers

George Washington in New Hampshire. By Elwin L. Page. (Portsmouth: Portsmouth Marine Society, 1989 [1932]. Pp. xv, 95. Illustrations. $25.00.)

This attractive book, originally published in 1932, was reissued by the Portsmouth Marine Society for the bicentennial anniversary of George Washington's visit to New Hampshire in late 1789 (October 31 to November 4). The president explained in 1791 that "It was among my first determinations when I entered upon the duties of my present station to visit every part of the United States in the course of my administration of the government, provided my health and other circumstances would admit of it" (3). Washington's trip through New

England, only half a year after his inauguration, was an attempt not

only to gather information about the state of the country, but to underline and confirm the authority of the national government under the newly ratified United States Constitution.

The methods Elwin L. Page employed almost sixty years ago yielded a book that remains valuable today. The author relied on

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