Historians And Historical Societies

Author : Charles Francis Adams
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331526124
Total Pages : 46 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (261 download)

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Download or read book Historians and Historical Societies written by Charles Francis Adams and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-09 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Historians and Historical Societies: An Address at the Opening of the Fenway Building of the Massachusetts Historical Society, April 13, 1899 In 1791, - eight years more than a century ago, - the site upon which this building stands was an indistinguishable portion of the "Roxbury flats," as the region hereabouts had immemorially been called, - the neck-ward side of Boston's Back Bay. It was a remote, unfrequented locality; while Court Street, as the ancient Queen Street of provincial times had three years before been renamed, was still a place of residence. On the 21st day of January, of that year, eight Boston gentlemen met by appointment in the house of one of their number, William Tudor, - the house then standing on the corner of Court Street and what was still known as Prison Lane, now Court Square, - the present familiar site of the northerly portion of Young's Hotel. Four of the eight were ministers, - divines of the provincial period: all were men of middle life, the oldest, James Sullivan, being in his forty-eighth year, while Thomas Wallcut, the youngest, was only thirty-three. The constitution of Massachusetts had at that time been adopted only ten years before. John Hancock was, for the eighth time, Governor of the Commonwealth; it was but the second year of the first administration of Washington. The eight gentlemen, all born British subjects and only recently become citizens of the young republic, had met for the purpose of forming an historical society, - certainly the first organization of its kind in America, possibly the first in the world. They called it simply "The Historical Society," a name which, three years later, when a formal act of incorporation was obtained from the Legislature, became "The Massachusetts Historical Society," - the name the organization has ever since borne, and now inscribed over the entrance to this, its third building and sixth abiding-place. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.