By Jeremy Dibbell

One of my favorite things about the early volumes of MHS Proceedings are the donation lists from the first few years, 当时协会不仅积累了礼物，以加强其手稿和印刷书籍的图书馆，而且还收集了大量的自然历史标本和“珍奇品”.“在第六次会议上收到了这类的第一笔大额捐款, on 21 December 1791, “哥伦比亚号”和“华盛顿号”(“美国首批驶往努特卡海峡和桑威奇群岛的船只”)的船主向历史学会“献上一顶帽子”, cloak, and mantle of the natives, several pieces of cloth manufactured there from the bark of trees, 以及美洲那个地方的其他人工的和自然的奇珍异宝带来了这些船只……”.

这样的捐赠继续到来:1793年1月29日 Proceedings note more “curiosities” from the Pacific, plus “A curious Rose,” “A Milliped[e], found at Hopkinton,” and “Some Teeth of the Spermaceti Whale.” In April of the same year came “A Tarantula, from Mr. Elisha Sigourney,” (Sigourney later gave “a Fur Seal, from Falkland Islands”) “A Specimen of Animal Preservation, from Mr. Jeremy Belknap, Sen.,” and the one I like best of all: “A very large Flamingo, from Mr. William Hussey, Jr.1793年至1794年间的其他有趣的礼物包括“锯鳐的骨头，来自约翰. William Miller, Jr.“一只德默拉拉负鼠，标本，彼得·蔡斯船长送的”“一只马达加斯加蝙蝠，彼得·蔡斯博士送的”. Dexter,” and this grand list from Jeremy Belknap: “A Flying Fish, a Vitriol Stone, an Ermine from New Hampshire, an Indian canoe, a number of Coins, a Globe-fish from the island of St. Helena, and a Dolphin.”

On 24 November 1795 Mr. Thomas Hewes presented “A Bird of Paradise, from Batavia; a Crocodile and nondescript Quadruped, from Ceylon; a Silver Pen and Case, from Indian; a Gentoo Letter; a bundle of Palm Leaves, showing the manner of keeping accounts in India; a Bow and Arrows, from Bengal; a Petrified Substance, from the island of St. Helena; a Hooka, or Smoking Machine, of India; a Gentoo Slipper; a Horned Snake, from the Asps of Bengal; a Remora, from the Indian Ocean; a Firearm, from Ceylon, curiously wrought with gold and silver; a Sandwich Island Cup; two branches of Coral, from the Isle of France; a piece of Vitrified Rock, from the Isle of Ascension; a box of Insects, from the Cape of Good Hope; an Antelope’s Horn; a Crystallization, from a salt-pit in Liverpool; a collection of Marine Shells, among which are the Hummer, the Bullock’s Heart, and the Razor; a Petrified Snake Skin; a branch of the Cinnamon Tree; a Hog Fish; and an Indian Fan.” The same day brought “Two Grasshoppers, from the West Indies from Mr. Edward Renouf.

在那些日子里，历史学会的宿舍一定是个相当有趣的地方. This continued for several years, 每次聚会都会捐赠几件纪念品(“一只巨大的蛤蜊”), weighing four hundred and seventeen pounds” arrived in January 1803, for example).

As the MHS matured, 并且更专注于作为手稿仓库(并多次搬家), 许多自然历史和人种学的标本都从收藏中移走了:在19世纪30年代，这些标本被存放在波士顿自然历史学会(今天的前身)的橱柜里 Museum of Science), and later much of the material from the Pacific Coast and islands, along with the archaeological relics, 给了皮博迪考古与民族学研究所(现在的 Peabody Museum at Harvard).

But not quite everything left the Society’s holdings. Among the remaining “curiosities” are the following:

“一个钩子，产自桑威奇群岛，是用库克船长的骨头做成的。. Jacob Williams, May 1804. A letter in the MHS Archives from W. 爱默生在给相应秘书的信中写道:“我从执事雅各布·威廉姆斯那里收到了这封信附带的钩子, formerly an officer in my church, who requests me to present it in his name to the Historical Society. 这是他的儿子雅各布·威廉姆斯(Jacob Williams)送给他的，他的儿子是从一个参加过Capt. Derby, who died at Waterloo, one of the Sandwhich Islands, in 1802, and who, (Derby) received it from an indian chief, who said, 钩子的尖头是用这位著名航海家的骨头做的, Capt. Cook.” In 1996 the hook was tested by the staff of the Kendall Whaling Museum; they confirmed that it is human bone, but could not narrow it down to the precise original owner.

The windpipes of a chicken and a turtle, given by S. Hall of Bridgewater, 31 January 1833. We have no idea which is which (informed suggestions gladly accepted).

钉子和树皮应该来自梅西·奥蒂斯·沃伦的家和爱国者小詹姆斯·奥蒂斯附近的那棵树.1783年5月，他被一道闪电击中身亡. He had reportedly said to Mercy before this, “My dear sister, I hope, 当全能的上帝以他公义的天意将我从时间中带到永恒中，那将是一道闪电.” He got his wish.

For more on the history of the Society’s collections, see Proceedings Vol. 28, pp. 312-348, in which then-librarian Samuel A. Green gives an extensive account of the subject.

By Jeremy Dibbell

我怀疑每个会员制组织都有一些og体育平台成员的故事，这些成员多年来都有理由被开除. MHS在最初的20年里开除了3名成员(但从那以后就很少这么做了——如果有的话)。. 这些会员做了什么事，可以从我们的会员名单上除名?

1797年7月20日，前两名被开除的成员在同一次会议上被开除. The Proceedings (Vol. I, p. 106) record: “Whereas Edmund Randolph and William Blount, who have been elected Corresponding Members of this Society, are, in our opinion, unworthy of our confidence; therefore, Voted, That they be no longer considered as Corresponding Members.” The motion passed without dissent. Randolph, the the Attorney General of the United States, 由杰里米·贝尔纳普提名，并于1792年10月23日当选为通讯会员. Blount was at the time of his expulsion a fairly new member, having just been elected on 25 October 1796.

Why the boot? 1795年，伦道夫因截获法国政府的电报丑闻而辞去国务卿一职，据报道，这一丑闻令华盛顿政府感到尴尬. Blount, a United States Senator representing the new state of Tennessee, 被卷入了一场阴谋，煽动克里克和切罗基印第安人帮助英国人入侵西班牙西佛罗里达. 1797年7月7日，他被众议院弹劾(罪名是“严重轻罪”), entirely inconsistent with his public duty and trust as a Senator”), and expelled by the Senate the following day. Twelve days later, the Historical Society acted as well.

The third expulsion hit much closer to home. Samuel Turell of Boston, a watchmaker, was elected a Resident Member of the Society in 1793, and served as Cabinet-Keeper from 1793 until 1808. In 1802, 图雷利请求允许他从学会的藏品中借用一些自然历史标本来建一座新博物馆, which was granted. Five years later, though, the Society got a little anxious about Turell’s Cabinet, and a committee was formed on 25 August 1807 “to demand of Mr. Turell, Cabinet-Keeper, 他所拥有的属于协会的各种物品, and to see that they are returned to the Cabinet.”

The committee’s demands went unheeded, 1811年8月27日，协会成员投票决定将图雷利开除出MHS，因为他没有归还从收藏中借来的文章, and had “otherwise acted unworthily as a member.”

In his bicentennial history of the Historical Society, 前馆长莱恩·塔克指出:“不知道图雷利是否归还了他所借的物品.”

By Jeremy Dibbell

我们的艺术策展人安妮·本特利(Anne Bentley)最近指出了一个有趣(但残酷)的现象!) passage quoted in the MHS Proceedings of the March 1929 meeting. I feel compelled to share, and for any current author out there who’s ever received a bad review, take heart – it could be worse.

The Proceedings record that Mr. Ford [Worthington Chauncey Ford, then the Society’s Editor] “read the following criticism on Emerson’s Conduct of Life, published in the Southern Literary Messenger for April 1861 [Volume XXXII, pp. 326-7] – a fateful month in our history.” What did the reviewer have to say about Mr. Emerson?

“His mind is like a rag-picker’s basketfull of all manner of trash. 他的书是有价值的，正因为它们与世俗无关. 它们说明了自由社会哲学的毫无价值. Egoism, or rather Manism, (if we may coin a word), propounded in short scraps, tags, 对于一个在政治上没有固定观点的人来说，零星的句子可能会有很好的效果, religion or morals, and have lived for forty years on pure fanaticisms. We of the South require something better than this no-system. Your fragmentary philsopher, of the EMERSON stamp, who disturbs the beliefs of the common folk, 不再用更高更纯洁的信仰来创作或试图创作它们, is a curse to society. 这样的人应该受到永久监禁的轻微惩罚, with plenty of pens, ink and paper. Burn his writings as fast as they come from his table, 等作家死后，就悄悄地把他埋在监狱的后院. If in early life, 他大脑中负责思考的脑叶已经被硝酸腐蚀掉了, 爱默生本可以成为比新英格兰任何一位诗人都更好的诗人. As it is, he is a moral nuisance. He ought to be abated by act of Congress and his works suppressed.”

Thanks to the Making of America site, you can read a digital version of the original review (here), which includes two lead-off sentences not read by Mr. Ford into the Proceedings他承诺按照这本书所教导的戒律(如果有的话)生活, will find himself in a worse labyrinth than that of Crete. EMERSON never had a fixed opinion about anything.”

You can read a first edition of Emerson’s Conduct of Life (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860) at the Historical Society, or online via the Internet Archive (click on “flip book” at the left margin).