Karen Kane, our new president, marched with our new Huguenot flag at the 103rd Annual Flag Service of Historical and Genealogical Societies of New York at Saint Thomas Church.
The recent move to our new headquarters, after eighty years at the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society building, brought about the discovery of treasures in our library and archives. One of these finds was a wooden box containing sixty glass lantern slides handcrafted and painted by French artist and humanitarian Samuel Bastide circa 1920, along with his original captions and presentation script in French.
This collection is an artistic record–combining etching, photographic techniques, and painting–of the persecution and exodus of the Huguenots of France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685.
Below is a selection of images taken from the sixty lantern slides that comprises Bastide’s illustrated lecture.
Destruction of the Protestant Temple of Charenton
The Huguenots of Mornal fleeing on three boats in 1687
Geneva–a city of refuge for many Huguenots
The Netherlands–a Protestant country to which many Huguenots fled
A number of Huguenot refugees sailed for the Cape Colony in South Africa.
Guides in the forests of Jura (Switzerland) met Huguenot fugitives to lead them to safety.
The last slide in the presentation–New York’s Statue of Liberty–alludes to the fact that many Huguenots and their ancestors landed on our shores. The statue, a symbol of freedom and democracy, was given to the people of the United States by the people of France in 1884.
An Armory of American Families of Dutch Descent, by William J. Hoffman, edited with introduction and index by Francis J. Sypher, published by the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society, 2010.
Donor: Francis J. Sypher
John Jay: A Family Affair, Nominated from New York: The Empire State’s Contributions to the Supreme Court Bench, published by the Supreme Court Historical Society & the Hisotorical Society of the Courts of New York, 2011.
Donor: Hon. Alvert Rosenblatt
The Geneva Bible 1599, a leather bond copy published by the Tolle Lege Press, 2011, this Bible was first translated into English in 1560 by English reformers in Geneva escaped from the Catholic Queen Mary of England, They used as their sources John Calvin and Theodore de Beza. This Bible was carried by the Pilgrims to the New World on the Mayflower.
Donor : Henry C.B. Lindh
Belle Ardeche: Merveilleux Pays,by Jean-Francois Lacour & Simon Bugnon, published by subscription in Spain by Sagrafic SA, 2010.
Donor : Raquel Granda
Gallatin, America’s Swiss Founding Father, bu Nicholas Dungan, co-published by New York University Press and the Swiss Confederation, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2010, containing the life of Albert Gallatin, who had Huguenot roots, his emigration to America and his rise from Congress to the Treasury and to the world of diplomacy.
Donor : New York University Press
Gallatin Iconography, by Albert Eugene Gallatin, published privately, 1934.
Donor : Mary Collins
Lady Historian Martha J. Lamb, by Susan Elizabeth Lyman, published by The Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Library, Northampton MA 1969.
The Sophia Smith Collection (Women’s History Archive), edited by Mary-Elizabeth Murdock, Ph.D., published by Smith College, Northampton MA 1976.
Donor : Firth H. Fabend
Gallatin, America’s Swiss Founding Father, by Nicholas Dungan, co-published by New York University Press and the Swiss Confederation, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs 2010 containing a history of Albert Gallatin’s rise from Congress to the Treasury and the world of diplomacy.
Donor : New York University Press
Gallatin Iconography, by Albert Eugene Gallatin, published privately 1934
Donor : Mary Collins, Librarian of the Holland Society of New York
The Cadwallader-Colden Papers, Volumes I to X, 1711-1775, published by The New York-Historical Society through the years 1876-1935, and containing the letters and papers of the Tory Lieutenant Governor of the Province of New York up to his death just before the Revolutionary War.
Donor : Michael S. Neill, 8th generation descendant of Cadwallader Colden
The Rescue: A Story of the Huguenots, published by The Religious Tract Society, St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, and printed by Knight, Middle Street E.C. 1880. A story with illustrations of Huguenot refugees in Spain.
Donor : Mrs. Marthabelle Nelson
Paul Revere-Artisan, Businessman, and Patriot. The Man behind the Myth, published as a catalogue for the exhibition at the Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, Massachusetts, detailing the life of Paul Revere with illustrations.
Donor : The Paul Revere Memorial Association
From a Far Country: Camisards and Huguenots in the Atlantic World, by Catharine Randall, published by The University of Georgia Press 2009
Donor : Regan Huff, The University of Georgia Press
Imagine New Amsterdam, by Courtney Alfred Haff, published 2009 by the author. An examintation of Dutch-influenced land policies and finance strategies in the development of New York City.
Donor : Courtney A. Haff
Turff & Twigg, Volume One, The French Lands, by Priscilla H. Cabell, published 2006 and illustrated by the author. A study of ten thousand acres donated by King William III to the French refugees who settled at Manakintowne, Virginia in 1700.
Letters Written from America: 1849-1853 of Leo Lesquereux, published by the Picton Press 2006 with biography and illustrations by Dr. Donald G. Tritt, Advisory Committee, Swiss American Historical Society.
Excerpts from a talk at the Huguenot Society Annual Luncheon 2009 by Susan Kriete, Reference Librarian at the New-York Historical Society.
My relationship with Martha Lamb began while I was searching for something in our library’s catalog. I came across a record for the Martha Lamb Papers and noticed that her dates spanned the nineteenth century. This caught my eye, because we have very few papers from women of that era….a dark time when people had the temerity to believe that nothing a woman said could possibly be worth saving. I decided to do a little further investigation, and quickly uncovered the following fascinating facts about Mrs. Lamb:
She was the author of the highly-acclaimed, three-volume History of New York City, originally published 1877-1881. In 1883, she became the editor of The Magazine of American History, the first American periodical devoted to history. She also wrote a novel with the racy-sounding name of Spicey. She was a divorcée. She accomplished all of this after she moved to New York City in her middle age.
Based on this information, my initial impression of Martha Lamb was of a radical figure, a sort of fireball feminist. Far from being a radical, I was discovering, Martha Lamb could be described as conservative, genteel, patrician, and respectful of tradition. Somehow, this defender of traditional values managed to become an independent, highly successful author, effectively breaking all the rules of nineteenth-century polite society while remaining very much a part of it.
Martha Lamb was simply following a path that was blazed in her blood by her Huguenot heritage. As stated on the Society’s Web site: “The Protestant movement in France was not a proletarian upheaval or a liberal agitation. On the contrary, it was a solid, conservative movement of notable respectability on the part of many of the most responsible and most accomplished people in France.”
Martha Lamb played a significant role in the founding of the Huguenot Society of America. Shortly after the Civil War, she moved to New York City and embarked on what was to be a highly successful and prolific writing career. The Huguenot Society was founded in 1883, with John Jay as its first President. Martha Lamb became Chair of the Ladies Committee the following year. She recruited new members in New York City and spearheaded efforts to collect information and materials from persons of Huguenot descent throughout the country. As Chair of the Library Committee, she managed something of a coup: with help from John Jay, she persuaded Melvil Dewey–famous as the father of the Dewey Decimal System, and head of Columbia College Library–to house the Huguenot Society’s collection in the College building with the proviso that meetings could be held therein. She oversaw and wrote the introduction to the library’s first catalog and personally contributed a number of the volumes in the collection. By 1891, the library numbered some 800 volumes. And, as a final contribution, and a mark of her special affection, Martha bequeathed all of her genealogical books, as many as 100, to the Huguenot Society of America.
THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF FRENCH PROTESTANTISM has begun posting online English translations of its 16th and 17th century material, and is also adding video clips and sound recordings. Its wide ranging collections span the 16th to 20th centuries.
As well as a permanent collection and guided tours, the site hosts temporary exhibitions www.museeprotestant.org.
THE HUGUENOT TRAIL is a sign-posted European trail, 1800 km long stretching from Le Poet-Laval in Dauphine, France, and from the Waldensian Alps in Italy to Bad Karlshafen in Hesse, Germany, via Geneva, Switzerland. Details and maps are available on www.surlespasdeshuguenots.eu.
The setting up of this commemorative trail, which will continue to be developed, is the result of a major cooperative venture between France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.
The French Hospital in England / Its Huguenot History and Collections by Tessa Murdoch and Randolph Vigne
The French Hospital, known by generations of residents as La Providence, was founded in London in 1718 as a charity offering sanctuary to refugee French Huguenots escaping persecution in France. This book marks the tercentenary of Jacques de Gastigny’s founding bequest. Its survival and continuing existence today bear witness to the tenacity of the Huguenot refugees and their descendants. The richly illustrated text covers many aspects of life from the early eighteenth century onward. It provides information to a wide audience including those interested in art and social history, as well as Huguenot heritage. Books can be purchased directly from the The French Hospital’s website.
The final underwater dig off the coast of Florida & an identity report.
An investigation of the remains of a shipwreck conducted from 8/24/15 to 6/28/16 revealed some forty bronz cannons and design emblems dating from the mid 1500s to 1600. Mr Mendel Peterson, former head of the Smithsonian Institution’s Underwater Archaeology kept extensive records. These artifacts were tragically lost to the fledgling French colony settled in 1562 by the Huguenot Renee de Laudonniere and may well have enabled the colonists to withstand the fatal attack by the Spanish in 1565. However, it should be remembered as an example of a new spirit of colonization that, in the years ahead, becane the force for establishing religious liberty and personal freedom as the great trademark of the United States
Author and managing editor of Navy Times John Grady has published a definitive new biography: Oceanography, a Biography 1806-1873, published in 2015 in Jefferson, North Carolina.
This new book includes details on Maury’s life growing up in Tennessee. The 354 page book includes the biography and an index. Maury charted sea lanes and bested Great Britain’s admiralty in securing the fastest and safest to India and Australia. He helped bind the continents with the laying of the transatlantic cable. He preached manifest destiny from the Arctic to Cape Horn. This book is available for purchase from Amazon.com.
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DE LA BEAUMELLE, Vol. 12 in a projected 18 volume set, edited and published by the Voltaire foundation 2017, for more information visit: www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk
This is the first edition of the correspondence of French Huguenot, La Beaumelle (1726-1773) and contains unpublished documents from a private collection. They are an important primary source that enables the re-evaluation of the intellectual developments in politics, literature, philosophy, history and religion associated with the eighteenth century. Beaumelle was a fine letter-writer, translator of Horace and Tacitus, freemason, private tutor, journalist, historian, Voltaire’s dreaded polemicist author, editor of Mme de Maintenon’s memoirs, and champion of tolerance. He was, strikingly one of the few Huguenot men of letters. His career took him from the rural Cevennes to Geneva, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Nimes, Montpellier, and Toulouse. From the thirteen year-old schoolboy in Ales to student days in Geneva, we follow him to his position as an historian and man of letters until he became a prisoner in the Bastille, then an exile in his native southern France, to, ultimately, the King’s librarian at Versailles.
