The Founding of the 马萨诸塞州历史学会

1790年8月, 波士顿部长杰里米·贝尔纳普提出了一项“古物协会计划”，该计划将收集材料来记录这个新国家的历史, 该计划被称为“美国历史学会运动的宪章”.六个月后, 1791年1月24日, Belknap's "Antiquarian Society" became the "Historical Society,七位志趣相投的人与他会面，创建了后来成为美国最古老的组织，致力于收集美国历史研究的资料. 同年晚些时候，贝尔纳普起草了一份 通函, of the Historical Society, in which he announced the Society's formation 和 purpose: "to collect, 保存, 和交流, materials for a complete history of this country."

托马斯Wallcut, the First Recording Secretary

托马斯Wallcut, the reporter of the first MHS meeting, was born in Boston in 1758. 他的早期生活和革命前新英格兰的任何男孩一样充满异国情调:他在汉诺威的摩尔印第安慈善学校上学, 新汉普郡, to prepare for study at Dartmouth College 和 a career as a missionary to the Indians, beginning (before college) by living among the St. Francis Indians (at modern-day Odanak on the St. 弗朗西斯河)在加拿大魁北克省. 革命的爆发终止了“汤米”沃尔卡特成为传教士的计划和他上大学的机会. 他回到波士顿，在那里, 革命时期, he served on a privateer 和 then as a hospital steward in Albany 和 Boston. 和平之后, 他成为了一名无足轻重的州官员(在立法机构做了近40年引人入胜的办事员)——因此他小心翼翼, 清晰的手写). 他几乎错过了MHS的建立，因为他把他作为退伍军人的工资投资在西部土地上，在1789-1790年，他去了俄亥俄州领地的玛丽埃塔, 但我并没有就此安顿下来, 很快就回到了波士顿.

Wallcut was a prolific compiler of historical information 和 statistics, an energetic supporter of several abortive literary enterprises, 和, 最重要的是, 一个狂热的古书收藏家. He never married 和 lived with his mother on High Street in Boston, cramming her house with the books 和 as many as 10,他收集了000本小册子. 他帮助建立了MHS图书馆, 考虑到他收入有限, 重要礼品小册子, 报纸, 和地图. He served as recording secretary of the MHS for only a little more than a year, 1792年7月辞职, but remained a member of the Society for the rest of his life.

1791年只有32人, Wallcut was the last survivor of the ten "founders" of the 马萨诸塞州历史学会. 具有讽刺意味的是, although he was a generous donor to the MHS during its early years, 他似乎已经疏远了历史学会——或者历史学会疏远了他——也许是因为他获得了一个越来越古怪的老单身汉的名声. He donated a portion of his book collection, primarily on religion 和 classical languages, 达特茅斯学院——那些书, 得到了沃尔卡特的允许, migrated to Bowdoin College when Dartmouth was divided by a faculty dispute. In 1812, Wallcut became a founding member of the 美国古物协会 in Worcester, Mass., 后来他允许古物协会从他的收藏中挑选书籍和手稿，尤其是小册子, a donation that was measured at more than two tons. 具有讽刺意味的是, 他给古物协会的礼物包括他利记APP官网手机版历史协会成立的个人笔记.

宗教探索者, 沃尔卡特离开了他的福音派出身，接受了他逐渐崇拜的南塔开特贵格会教徒的和平主义情怀. 他最后担任的公职之一是马萨诸塞州和平协会的秘书，该协会成立于1815年. 沃尔卡特住在波士顿，当时他对奴隶制的强烈反对被认为是一种怪癖, but poverty 和 illness exacerbated his odd behavior in old age. He spent the end of his life in the McLean Asylum for the Insane 和 牧师. 罗伯特F. Wallcut, a nephew, h和led his uncle's affairs. 托马斯于1840年去世，享年82岁，离MHS成立50周年只有几个月的时间. In 1879, 罗伯特·沃尔卡特从他叔叔的财产中捐赠了更多的书籍和手稿给历史协会. MHS也成立 托马斯·沃尔卡特的剪影 1835年8月制造.

MHS的其他创始人

In 1795, the third MHS recording secretary, 牧师. James Freeman, started a second volume of meeting minutes with the statement that 牧师. 杰里米·贝尔纳普牧师. 约翰·艾略特牧师. Peter Thacher, 和 William Tudor of Boston, 和 James Winthrop of Cambridge, Mass., 最初计划成立历史学会，然后又邀请了另外五个人加入他们. 迪顿的威廉·贝利斯和牧师. 詹姆斯·弗里曼，乔治·R. Minot, James Sullivan, 和 托马斯Wallcut of Boston. George Minot 和 James Sullivan drafted the "regulations" (constitution) for the Society, 尽管迈诺特“生病”没有参加在威廉·都铎优雅的宫廷街举行的第一次会议, 波士顿的家. Most of the MHS founders were Harvard-educated ministers 和 lawyers, along with a physician (Baylies) 和 a librarian (Winthrop), 离开Wallcut, 在某些方面, 异类. The other founding member without a college education was James Sullivan, 第一任MHS主席, who then was the attorney general (和 later the governor) of Massachusetts. 牧师. 威廉詹金斯, 另一个早期的MHS成员, later recollected that Wallcut had told him, "I shall be satisfied if I can but carry the hod 和 mortar for men of learning."

第一次参加MHS会议的成员决定在会议记录中按字母顺序列出他们的名字——尽管沃尔卡特似乎很难记住在记录中加上自己的名字. In spite of this democratic impulse, first among equals in the founding of the MHS was 牧师. Jeremy Belknap, who was elected the first corresponding secretary. Through a series of published circular letters 和 notices 和 his own personal correspondence, 贝尔纳普试图将新组织成立的消息及其宗旨“传达给美洲大陆和岛屿上的每一位科学先生”." In a 21 August 1795 letter to fellow antiquarian Ebenezer Hazard, Belknap eloquently described his ambitions for the Society 和 the purpose of the MHS: "没有什么比拥有 良好的仓库 并且保持 小心点不是呆在家里等着事情落到自己的腿上，而是像狼一样四处游荡，寻找猎物".