Brown Bag on the Massachusetts Gaming Commission

Join us for a Brown Bag Lunch
on Tuesday,  August 20th, 2013
State Library of Massachusetts
Room 442, State House
12 until 1:30 PM

Bring your lunch and come to hear James McHugh,  Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner speak about: Expanded Gaming in Massachusetts. Where did it come from? Where is it going? How and when will it get there and who is watching over it? You will learn the answers to these questions and have an opportunity to ask your own. 
                              
To register online, please go to:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RLF3VX7

You may also register by calling the Reference Department at 617-727-2590 or by e-mailing to Reference.Department@state.ma.us.

Sensational Cases: The Case of Theodore Tilton vs. Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher

Tilton vs. Beecher was one of the most famous scandals of the late 19th century. With New York as the backdrop, it involved American newspaper editor, abolitionist, and cuckold Theodore Tilton, his wife, Elizabeth, and the famed Congregationalist clergyman, abolitionist, and social reformer Henry Ward Beecher. Reverend Beecher, also known as the father of author Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin) and women’s rights leader Isabella Beecher Hooker, was accused by Tilton of adultery. Beecher’s personal history was riddled with rumors of extramarital affairs that had begun circulating since the early to mid-19th century. In 1870, Elizabeth Tilton confessed her affair with Beecher to her husband, who then made it known to women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Stanton subsequently told fellow activists Isabella (Beecher’s daughter) and Victoria Woodhull. Woodhull, enraged by what she viewed as flagrant hypocrisy practiced by the popular religious leader, who himself held a public stance against such free love, wrote an article about the affair in her newspaper Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly in 1872. The article sparked massive national interest. Beecher was successful in having Woodhull arrested on the grounds of distributing obscene materials through the mail, which split the allegiances of the clergyman’s two daughters; Woodhull, given her own trial, was eventually released on a technicality. 
 

Elizabeth Tilton

After an inquiry conducted by his church, he was exonerated of all charges and Tilton was excommunicated from the church. In 1875, Tilton then brought a civil case to the city court, which could not arrive at a verdict; this prompted the Congregational church to hold a final hearing that, to the anger of many, resulted in Beecher’s 2nd exoneration.

The 3 volume set titled Theodore Tilton vs. Henry Ward Beecher, action for crim. con. tried in the city court of Brooklyn … verbatim report by the official stenographer (1875), which can be found in our library’s collections, is an important and in depth record of this civil trial. It includes court proceedings, affidavits, the opinions of judges, transcriptions of arguments put forth by the attorneys representing each party, the testimonies delivered by witnesses, witness cross-examinations, and sketched portraits of important figures in the trial.

If you are curious about the current legalities of adultery in Massachusetts, you can search the Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) online by entering “adultery” into the keyword search bar.

Theodore Tilton

Kaitlin Connolly

Reference Dept.




Library Classifications of Yore: Shurtleff’s Decimal System

Did you know that, before the Dewey Decimal System was invented in 1876 and widely adopted by libraries, there were other decimal-based library classification systems in place? One interesting system was developed by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, M.D., chairman of the State Library of Massachusetts trustees in the mid-19th century. His self-designed, self-published classification system and manual titled A Decimal System for the Arrangement and Administration of Libraries (1856) was originally introduced into the Boston Public Library where it had been in “practical operation there since the summer of 1852.”

The classification system was heavily geared toward library administration as well as the physical arrangement of books in a library. It dictated that the alcoves and shelves should be arranged in multiples of ten, with each shelf labeled with a number. For example: “if a book is on shelf No. 208, it will be found on the 8th shelf of the 10th range, and (deducting 1 from the 2 in place of hundreds) of the 1st alcove.” Each book was also to be marked with the shelf number, as well as another number that represented its “true position on its shelf”—starting with 1 at the left. Further letters and numbers help denote multiple volumes in a set, multiple copies of a book, newly added books, etc.

 This system benefitted item retrieval and reshelving, but put both patrons and librarians at a disadvantage when wanting to conduct more precise searching and discovering of materials by subject matter on shelves. Card catalogs at this time were also simplistic in design, and were just beginning to give patrons an idea on what library collections had to offer. In 1857, as the State Library was changing to a new classification system, State Librarian George S. Boutwell, in the library’s 1857 annual report, acknowledges Shurtleff’s assistance during the process. Although the library did not adopt Shurtleff’s system, as Boutwell concedes that it was designed for “library apartments constructed with reference to the system, and for large circulating libraries”, he does praise its “simplicity, completeness and practicalness,” its potential to save on time and labor, and its ability to “promote convenience and despatch”. In this sense, Boutwell believed that the system would still be of great service to the library. It wasn’t until Melvil Dewey’s subject-based hierarchical decimal system was designed that the modern-day concept of library classification began to evolve and meet the needs of both the institutions and patrons alike.

Kaitlin Connolly

Reference Department

An Anomaly: The Massachusetts Census Here today (1970); Gone tomorrow (1974)

Recently, the reference staff received a question regarding a little-known 1971 state census. Massachusetts has taken a census in years ending in 5 since the mid-1800’s and the results are available on the State Library’s website. The United States government also conducts a census in years ending in 0; starting in the year 1790.

We discovered that there was a Massachusetts Constitutional Amendment adopted in 1970 (XCII-#92), which called for a state census in 1971 and every tenth year thereafter. The amendment also refined how the General Court was composed. At that time, the House of Representatives consisted of 240 members and the Senate of 40 members. The General Court (the Legislature) held a constitutional convention in both 1968 and 1969 to pass this Constitutional Amendment. There were court cases to dispute the census results by Brockton, Lowell and others. There were questions about the counting of students, especially for Cambridge.

Constitutional Amendment XCII was annulled in 1974. The General Court held constitutional conventions in both 1971 and 1973. The people of Massachusetts approved the annulment which was on the 1974 ballot; this became amendment CI (#101). Amendment CI also reduced the size of the General Court to 160 members of the House of Representatives and 40 Senators. The 1971 census was completed, but apparently the results were never published. The returns are available at the State Archives.

For more information about the Massachusetts Constitution and General Court (Legislature), please visit us in room 341 of the State House. The State Library is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 5 pm.

The Book of Fishes

The State House's own Hall of Representatives gets a shout-out in National Geographic's The Book of Fishes, from 1924. The introduction features a photograph of the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts, which hangs above the chamber in a tradition dating to 1784.

The Book of Fishes covers one hundred species of marine life, including lobsters, turtles, and dolphins. The proper fishes are illustrated in over ninety color plates, painted from life for the National Geographic Society.

The book is intended for the veteran fisherman as well as the amateur ichthyologist. It covers everything from the manner in which male lumpfish protect their eggs before hatching, to the process of commercial fish-drying in Nova Scotia, to the reason why fish have spherical eyes (apparently because they are close in density to the surrounding water). The State Library is full of unexpected treasures!

Brian Hoefling



Brown Bag on Fenway Park

Join us for a Brown Bag Lunch

on Tuesday,  July 23^rd,  2013
State Library of Massachusetts

Room 442, State House

12 until 1:30 PM

Bring your lunch and join us to hear David Freidman, Senior Vice President and Special Counsel for the Boston Red Sox, and Dan Rea, Special Assistants to the President/CEO of the Boston Red Sox, talk about the history of Fenway Park and their experience chronicling it in the coffee table book, Fenway Park: 100 Years, the official, definitive history of Fenway Park.  David and Dan will speak on the decision to produce the 256-page book in house – in conjunction with Major League Baseball – essentially created a publishing house within the Red Sox organization. They will also discuss and answer questions on how the club is preserving and protecting Fenway Park and the precious artifacts and memorabilia within it.

Both David and Dan served as co-editors of three books associated with Fenway Park’s 100th anniversary: Fenway Park: 100 Years, the park’s official coffee table book; Wally the Green Monster’s Journey Through Time, an illustrated children’s book; and Fenway Park: It Never Gets Old, the park’s official tour book.

To register, please go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B6HJFS5
You may also register by calling the Reference Department at 617-727-2590 or by e-mailing to Reference.Department@state.ma.us.     

Item of the Month for July 2013 - 1924 Report on the Watertown, Massachusetts Police Department

Because of its prominent role in the days following the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks, Watertown, Massachusetts, a town located very close to Boston, is now known all over the world. It was during a gunfight on April 19th of this year that the police force of Watertown worked with a plethora of law enforcement groups to capture one of the suspects in the Marathon bombing. The other suspect was killed during the long encounter.

One of the main collections in the State Library is comprised of materials about the Commonwealth’s communities. Because the Watertown police force is so much in the news, I hoped to find something about this department in our stacks. I found a gem! Published in 1924 it is entitled Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Police Department of the Town of Watertown, approved by the Board of Selectmen of the Town. The volume covers the expectations of the police and outlines the benefits the officers serving received. Page two, though written 90-years ago and of course “dated” in some respects, rings true to what we know of the department today.

Visit the State Library to view this entire document, or to read about our collections of city, town, and county resources. The State Library is located in Room 341 of the State House and is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Pamela W. Schofield

Legislative Reference Librarian

State Library of Massachusetts