First a Declaration of Independence, Then an Oath of Allegiance

This month, the country is gearing up for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. To coincide with that historic milestone, we are sharing An Act for Prescribing and Establishing an Oath of Fidelity and Allegiance in our Collection Spotlight case. Visit us from June 16 through August 4 to see this item on display.

Published on February 3, 1778, this is a broadside printing of an Act that was enacted by the Council and the House of Representatives in the General Court. As the new country was establishing its independence, oaths of allegiance were commonly administered by the colonies as a means to confirm loyalty from its citizens while affirming separation from Great Britain. This act recommends the manner in which an oath of allegiance should be established and enforced within Massachusetts. It begins with these stirring words:

Whereas the King of Great-Britain hath abdicated the Government of this and the other United States of America, by putting them out of his Protection and unjustly levying War against them, and the said United States by their Representatives in General Congress assembled by a Declaration bearing the date of the fourth day of July, A.D. 1776, for the Reasons therein mentioned, solemnly declared, that the United Colonies of North-America, are and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Union between them and the State of Great-Britain is, and ought to be totally dissolved; which Declaration has been solemnly Ratified and Adopted by this State.

As this Act harkens back to the language of the Declaration of Independence, it seems a fitting broadside to display as we come upon the July 4 anniversary. The Act then goes on to describe how an oath should be administered, under what circumstances, and by whom. If an individual was presented with an oath and refused to take it, then the county’s Justice of the Peace could commit them to the county jail. Forty days after refusal, the individual would then be removed to a port within the “Dominions of the King of Great Britain, at their own expense."

The Act also includes the language of the oath, as follows:

I, A.B. do swear (or affirm as the Case may be) that I will bear true Faith and Allegiance to the State of Massachusetts-Bay, and will faithfully support and maintain and defend the same against George the Third King of Great-Britain, his Abettors and all other Enemies and Opposers whatsoever, and will discover all Plots and Conspiracies that shall come to my Knowledge against said State, or any other of the United States of America. So Help Me God.

It is interesting to note a line included at the bottom of the Act, that allows Quakers to omit the word “defend” and the phrase “So help me God” should the Oath be administered to them, as it is language that is against their religious beliefs.

We are excited to share that this broadside is part of our upcoming exhibit Raising the Alarm: Revolutionary Broadsides at the State Library, which opens on June 17 and will be on display in the cases outside of the Main Library (Room 341). Due to the nature of the cases, the exhibit utilizes facsimiles, but each month for the duration of the exhibit, one featured broadside will be on display in our Collection Spotlight case – beginning with this Act! The exhibit utilizes broadsides published from 1773 through 1779 to provide a historical overview of the Revolutionary War period in Massachusetts, while also highlighting a significant primary source resource in our collection. Stay tuned for more information about the exhibit later this month!

We would also invite you to join us for a special event on July 1 as the State Library celebrates the 250th! Come to our Main Reading Room (Room 341) between 11:00 and 1:00 to see our copy of the Declaration of Independence, printed in Salem on July 17, 1776, on display in our Collection Spotlight Case. Special Collections staff will be on hand to share the Declaration, and for this special event, all of the original broadsides featured in our new exhibit will be pulled from storage, giving visitors the rare opportunity to see them up close and imagine themselves receiving news of the Revolutionary War directly from the Boston Committee of Correspondence.

Our July 1st event is free and open to the public and we hope you join us to see these stirring documents on display as the country approaches its 250th birthday. Reach out to us at special.collections@mass.gov with any questions.


Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian

A Double-Duty State Bird

Our next state bird deserves extra credit! Within the thirteen original colonies, the cardinal is the state bird of both Virginia and North Carolina. In fact, this popular bird is the state bird of five other states, too - Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The North Carolina State Assembly established the Northern Cardinal as its state bird in 1943, and seven years later, Virginia did the same on January 25, 1950.

Even though the cardinal is not our state bird, you can still spot them around Massachusetts. They are year-round residents, found from Cape Cod to Western Mass.

In this print, Audubon depicted the Cardinal Grosbeak (plate 159), with the vibrant male shown above and the more subdued female below. Both are shown in the branches of the wild almond tree. The cardinal was previously on display in January 2025, so after it is displayed for just three weeks this month, it will return to storage for the foreseeable future. Visit us from June 9 through June 30 for your chance to see it now.

We are also excited to share that as a special treat, the Bird of Washington will be on limited display from June 30 through July 14, in celebration of the country's 250th birthday!

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian

Reference Tip: Bulletin of Committee Work vs. the Legislative Record

At the State Library, Massachusetts legislative history assistance is one of our top research requests. Conducting a Massachusetts legislative history is a journey; sometimes you hit a gold mine (hearing transcripts, committee files, an actual written report) and sometimes you find the bare bones (bills and journals). And most often it is the latter scenario. However, the basic resources are the starting point; they give the framework for tracing the action of a bill through the legislature and open up key research access points (session dates, petitioner names, committee information).

The State Library has these key resources in print and digital - House and Senate Journals, Legislative Documents volumes, the Bulletin of Committee Work and its companion volume the Legislative Record.* Per our legislative history guide, the Bulletin of Committee Work and Legislative Record provide bill information and short bill histories for the years 1907-2000. While it may seem like these are two different sets; the information they contain is the same, the difference lies within their organization.

From 1907-1977, the Bulletin of Committee Work and the Legislative Record were combined into one physical volume. The Bulletin is in the front half and the Legislative Record is found in the second half of the volume. Starting in 1978, the titles were separated into two individual volumes. The Legislative Record physically looks different; the pages are landscape. As noted previously, the information contained in these volumes is the same, it is just a matter of how an individual prefers to research legislation/what information they already have.

Bulletin of Committee Work: As the title suggests, the Bulletin content is compiled and organized alphabetically by committee. The Bulletin provides general overview information such as committee member lists, room number for the committee within the State House, and the days on which the committee met. For bill information, bills that were referred to the committees are listed numerically by bill number (Senate followed by House) with the Subject (short description), Hearing Date, and Report. Report meaning the last action of the committee - this could be the next bill version, discharge to another committee, withdrawn, moved to the next annual session, etc.

Legislative Record: This resource is organized by bill number. Think of it as a giant listing of all Senate bills followed by all House bills for each session. Researchers should use the Legislative Record once they have identified the bill number they are interested in. The Legislative Record provides a short bill history (same as what you would find in the Bill History section of the journals).

While bill histories are succinct, they provide the key research access points: date of a public hearing, bill number of a new draft, committee name, etc. You take this information and then move on! Take that public hearing date and search Boston Globe articles and SHNS articles and see if the hearing was reported on. You can view all versions of the bill in the library's digital repository and find their subsequent bill histories. You take the committee information and see if the committee hearing files or legislative files are at the State Archives (see example).

Additional sections: The volumes contain a subject Index and an Acts list. Both great for quickly identifying a bill number. The earlier volumes also contain Orders, Resolves, and list Public Documents issued during each session.


The Bulletin of Committee Work and the Legislative Record can be found in the library’s third floor reading room. Please contact the Reference Department with questions reference.deparmtent@mass.gov.


April Pascucci
Legislative Reference Librarian

*House and Senate Journals and Legislative Documents available digitally.

State Library Newsletter - June Issue

Happy June from the State Library! In this month's newsletter, read about our upcoming events and our new exhibits and displays, and catch up on past blogs commemorating Juneteenth and Pride Month.

Pictured here is a preview, but the full issue can be accessed by clicking here. And you can also sign up for our mailing list to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox.

Initial Capitals Found at the State Library

A whaling cruise to Baffin’s Bay and the Gulf of Boothia

There are many beautiful books in the State Library’s collections. Covers and spines are the flashiest, catching your eye as you walk by the shelf, but it is always a welcome surprise to open a plain-looking book and find detailed illustrations. My favorite genre of these illustrations are initial capitals. During a recent project I kept finding more and more of these initial capitals and thought it would be fun to highlight them for our patrons.

An initial capital refers to when the first letter of a section of text is larger than the rest for emphasis. The history of initials goes way back, all the way to before the invention of lowercase letters. People used to write in all capitals, and to differentiate the start of a new section people began to use a larger initial letter. Eventually, people began incorporating decorations and illustrations to those initial letters. Thus was born a long and beautiful history of “initials.”

Voyages of Samuel de Champlain (left) The Great Centennial Exhibition (center) and
Whale hunt: The narrative of a voyage by Nelson Cole Haley (right)

Some of the most famous and most intricate initials come from the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript from around 800 A.D. These initials sometimes took up an entire page. If you’re interested in seeing some of this stunning artistry, this website has collected and organized them all.

With the invention of the printing press, people less often illustrated initials by hand and instead carved them out of wood blocks. Though this style is quite different from a hand illustration, it is still just as striking. These carved initials often were done without magnification and in natural light—an impressive feat for a work of art that is often no larger than a postage stamp! In the 19th century, people grew so enamored with initials that it was a trend to cut them out of books and trade them as though they were baseball cards. Modern readers are likely to be more accustomed to simpler initials. Often a text will just increase the font size of the first letter without any embellishment-- for example, this blog post! 

The Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution

Whether an initial is a full page of gilded color or a square inch of black ink, an initial elevates the reader’s sense of the text’s content. Though initials are not confined to any one genre or style of writing, their beauty and artistry indicate a care for the design of the text. In this post, I’ve included some of my favorite examples of initials in the State Library's collection. Enjoy!

Emily Colson

Government Documents Intern

Sources:

(2018, August 21). An illuminating workshop and exhibit with Bill Moran. Hamilton Wood Type &    Printing Museum. https://woodtype.org/blogs/news/an-illuminating-workshop-and-exhibit-with-bill-moran

(2020, August 20). Make the letter bigger. I Love Typography. https://ilovetypography.com/2020/08/20/history-of-illuminated-initials/

Haley, N. C. (1948). Whale hunt: The narrative of a voyage by Nelson Cole Haley, harpooner in the ship Charles W. Morgan 1849-1853. Ives Washburn, Inc.

Heller, S. (2018, July 31). Initial caps: The birth of illustrated typography. Design Observer. https://designobserver.com/initial-caps-the-birth-of-illustrated-typography/

Lossing, B. J. (1860). The pictorial field-book of the revolution. Harper & Brothers, Publishers. 

Markham, A. H. (1874). A whaling cruise to Baffin’s Bay and the Gulf of Boothia. Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle. (image one)

Otis, C. P. (1880). Voyages of Samuel de Champlain. Prince Society.

Sandhurst, P. T. and others. The great centennial exhibition. P. W. Ziegler & Co. Publishers.

In Celebration of MA250 and America250: Author Talk with Donna A. Seger and Brad Austin

• Salem’s Centuries: New Perspectives on the History of an Old American City - Edited by Donna A. Seger and Brad Austin
• Wednesday, June 10, 2026. 12pm - 1:00pm
• In-person and Virtual event. No registration required.
• State Library of Massachusetts - Room 341, Massachusetts State House
• Livestream on YouTube

In honor of Massachusetts250 and America250 the State Library of Massachusetts Author Talks Series is celebrating with the 2026 release Salem’s Centuries edited by two local professors from Salem State University, Donna Seger and Brad Austin.

This is an in-person and virtual event. The livestream available on our YouTube channel courtesy of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Broadcast Services. Tune in at noon! 

Be sure to sign up for our Author Talks newsletter and follow our social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, and X) for the latest information on our visiting authors. If you are unable to attend, the recording will be posted to our YouTube channel to watch anytime - view all past recordings here!

About the book: Salem’s Centuries celebrates the 400 year history of the city from multiple perspectives. The book is a compilation of essays written by Salem State University History Department faculty and graduates of the university’s master’s program. Of course the book includes the infamous witch trials, but the focus is on the other areas of Salem’s vast history. Included are essays on Salem and the Civil War, Salem’s maritime history, and Salem’s labor and industrial history; the essays not only highlight Salem’s history beyond the witch trials but emphasize the history of the indigenous and enslaved peoples of Salem. Salem’s standing as a centuries old city is a reflection of not only Massachusetts history but the nation’s.

Donna A. Seger is Professor of History at Salem State University. She is the author of The Practical Renaissance: Information Culture and the Quest for Knowledge in Early Modern England, 1500–1640 and manages the blog Streets of Salem.

As a resident of Salem, Seger has a passion for local history. This passion combined with her professional and academic background resulted in Salem’s Centuries. Seger holds a doctorate from Brandeis University and is professor of medieval and early modern European History at Salem State University.

Brad Austin is Professor of History at Salem State University. He is the author of Democratic Sports: Men's and Women's College Athletics during the Great Depression and the coeditor of Understanding and Teaching the Vietnam War and Teaching U.S. History through Sports.

Austin holds a PhD in modern American history from Ohio State University. He is the current chair of Salem State University’s History Department.

As always, this author talk is free and open to all. Assisted listening devices will be made available upon request courtesy of the State House ADA Coordinator. If you are able to join us in person for this talk, attendees will be able to participate in a question-and-answer session with the authors.

Any questions or concerns, please email us at AuthorTalks.StateLibrary@mass.gov. For more information on the State Library Author Talks series, please visit our site.


April Pascucci
On behalf of the Author Talks Committee

Delving Into the History of the Cape Cod Canal

With the summer fast approaching, some of us will again create fond memories of our time on Cape Cod. The beaches, the waves, and the cool breezes remind us why we love the Cape. However, we do not have fond memories of the times spent waiting to cross the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges over the Cape Cod Canal to reach our destinations. The waiting can be an hour or more, especially on the weekends, and you may ask yourself, “Why do we have those bridges?” The history of those bridges is intrinsically linked to the Cape Cod Canal whose initial conception goes back to the 1800s. The State Library of Massachusetts has primary and secondary sources for both research and personal curiosity.

The concept of building the Cape Cod Canal started back to the late 1700s as described in an article from Cape Cod Magazine. The Massachusetts legislature began considering a canal as early as 1860 through House legislation prompted by the suggestion of Governor Nathaniel P. Banks. The author Clemens Herschel describes the early proposal and how it would affect the people living in the Canal area. The General Court’s Committee on Harbors and Public Lands had many sessions regarding the Canal as outlined in the book titled Hearing as to Incorporating the Bass River Canal Company from 1893 that provides an excellent history of what happened during those sessions.

The impetus for a Canal continued for decades with frustration mounting as discussed in the pamphlet  titled Cape Cod Canal. There were different proposals regarding the exact location of the Canal from Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay. Hand drawn maps in the Special Collections Department illustrate those different approaches with examples including one map by the Massachusetts Commission on Waterways and Public Lands from 1917 showing one approach and the Massachusetts Board of Internal Improvement showing another very early approach.

Sagamore Bridge Construction

Since those times, several books have been written on the subject. One of the earliest was a book by George Everett Burbank in 1916 with more recent books including a book by William James Reid in 1961 and Robert H. Farson in 1993.

The State Library and its Special Collections Department have other resources for those interested in the history, issues, and construction of a major civil engineering project in Massachusetts. Search for materials in our library at www.mass.gov/lib or visit us during our hours of operation to delve into a fascinating and complex story.

Francis Alix

Cataloging Librarian