Mystery of the London Bankruptcy

This is a guest post by Oliver Hughes, archival volunteer, reporting on the completion of an exciting project in the New Rochelle Public Library Archive under the supervision of David Rose, Archivist. It deals with the oldest item in the Archive which has been an almost total mystery ever since it arrived here some decades ago – a vellum manuscript produced in London in 1726. The material of the manuscript, an animal skin of some kind, is so fragile that close examination could be ventured only with great care and at much risk of damage, and even when unfolded the handwriting presents such difficulties that reading the text was a laborious and uncertain task. No transcript existed to our knowledge, and therefore little was known for sure about the contents of this document, only in broad terms that it had to do with bankruptcy proceedings in London.

I am very glad to report that after three months wrestling with this curious and challenging manuscript, I have succeeded in producing a typed transcription, available for viewing here. I worked from photographs, which I took in two brief sessions so as to minimize the handling of the manuscript. This posed some difficulty, as I had to take the photographs from quite a close distance in order to make the writing legible, resulting in more than a dozen disjointed segments which I had to transcribe separately and then stitch together. I also ran into unfortunately intractable obstacles in the form of the deep creases and folds of the manuscript, which swallowed up a number of words beyond recovery. Likewise, there were some few instances of damage that had effaced the words in places, but these were rare, and the majority of the document was clearly visible – leaving only the problem of the handwriting!

This was indeed the greatest challenge I faced, making sense of the hand and the peculiarities of orthography employed by the manuscript’s creator. But soon I began to find it captivating and engrossing work, very much like a puzzle. At first I had to cut my way through the thicket letter by letter; close, careful study yielding up some of the easier words to me. Then with enough of these established, context clarified others. Eventually I had a command of the whole alphabet and could decode nearly any word. It became a wonderful thrill to have the text open up to me. What had once been an impenetrable scrawl snapped into view, and I can now read the original at sight almost as easily as I read the type. But I am very glad that no one else now will have to go through such a process in order to read this document! Much remains unclear about it, not least its provenance and the story of how it came to New Rochelle in the first place, having seemingly nothing at all to do with any place outside southeastern England. But should it attract the interest of any researcher, a transcription is now available, and I hope it may play at least a small part in shaking this particular piece of the past free of obscurity.

Environmental Activism in New Rochelle: Citizens for a Better Environment

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 ushered in an era of popular concern for our living environment unlike any other event. It arrived in an era of grievance and protest over war, racism, and social justice; and while it seems celebratory, Earth Day now provides a regular opportunity to educate about climate change, the extinction of species, and our fragile environment. There were other watershed moments – the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and the nuclear catastrophes of Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986) come to mind, but Earth Day is special for its hybrid mix of purpose, gravitas, and celebration.

Several New Rochelle residents observed Earth Day in 1970, all eco-friendly citizens who had organized the Ecology Club of New Rochelle in 1969. This group built a foundation of concern about environment pollution and alarm over the possibility of construction of a nuclear power plant on Davids Island. The Ecology Club was an offshoot of an earlier group, the Citizens League for Education About Nuclear Energy (CLEAN). As their concerns grew, the club reorganized as the New Rochelle Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) to focus on a broader spectrum of issues beyond the single matter of nuclear power and its dangerous waste streams.

Excerpt from CBE News / December 1972

CBE opposed the nuclear plant and helped to prevent it by requesting a public hearing in 1971 prior to a city council vote on a contract extension pertinent to Davids Island. CBE’s pressure led to broader interventions. On April 12, 1971 (ten days before the second Earth Day), council passed a resolution to establish an Environmental Conservation Advisory Commission for New Rochelle. The commission was created to advise the mayor and the city council on environmental problems, conduct surveys and studies, educate the public, and connect with other environmental groups. 

County Sewage Treatment Plant / Echo Bay, New Rochelle / c. 1975

Photo courtesy Kit Bregman

Through the decade of the 1970s, the New Rochelle Citizens for a Better Environment served the community as a voice to raise awareness and a platform to offer realistic solutions to ecological problems. CBE was surprised to be dismissed by some as “well-meaning obstructionists,” but to its credit it focused on air pollution, water pollution, wildlife preservation, recycling, and consumer education. CBE advocated for a municipal recycling program, a wetlands ordinance to protect Titus Mill Pond, and the prevention of unplanned zoning in the city. It also established the first municipal curbside pickup of newspaper waste in Westchester County.

The NRPL Archive contains newsletters and records of the CBE along with the Long Island Sound Study Records. This study was a cooperative project of the 1990s to mitigate disastrous water quality problems in the Sound that also benefitted from a citizen’s advisory committee. As we focus on Earth Day 2021, with our urgent concerns over a global pandemic and rampant climate change, we should also remember the earlier efforts by citizen’s groups such as CBE to focus attention on the fragility of our planet.

April 22, 2021 / David Rose / NRPL Archive

Small Tracts and Fugitive Pieces

Samuel Johnson, the preeminent literary figure of the 18th century, once organized a collection of materials from the library of the Earl of Oxford known as the Harleian Miscellany. In doing so, Johnson spoke up for the importance of preserving "small tracts and fugitive pieces," that is, ephemeral pamphlets that are more likely to be discarded than preserved. On the contrary, Johnson insisted, such "fugitive" pamphlets constitute a vital part of a library collection. He went even further, stating with great emphasis that such tracts "preserve a multitude of particular incidents, which are forgotten in a short time...and which are yet to be considered sparks of truth, which, when united, may afford light in some of the darkest scenes of state."

Sparks of truth! What a fascinating phrase! The Archive of the New Rochelle Public Library has its own collection of pamphlets that deserve recognition as the "sparks of truth" that illuminate the history of New Rochelle. Our collection of pamphlets is gathered into a group of records call the Publications Collection. In this collection are the ephemeral pamphlets, brochures, and printed notices that document our social and cultural life through the course of two centuries. Over the years, the Library staff has built up a collection of hundred of pieces of printed literature. Many items have been generously donated by history-conscious city residents who find an old trunk in the attic with their own fugitive pieces. The Publications Collection includes historical programs for anniversaries and special occasions, stage coach schedules, periodical publications such as the magazines They Say and The Tatler, church bulletins from our many churches, concert and graduation programs from our schools, exhibit programs of the Library, journals for annual Police Department benefits, offprints of scholarly articles about Thomas Paine, auction notices, industrial catalogues, street maps, a variety of printed city codes that regulate traffic, building, plumbing, and civil service - the list goes on and on. To make sense of this miscellany is the business of archives, and we now have the archival collection of printed materials organized into logical categories known as "archival series" described in a finding guide to the entire collection. 

       

Found among this historical bounty of printed matter are some unexpected items; for example, a bookplate of Carrie Chapman Catt; a musical score for City Alive, the official song of New Rochelle; an invitation to a cruise sponsored by the Quahaug Club, dated 1865; a report card of a high school student from 1945; and two of Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" posters. There are also many brochures in French relating to La Rochelle, France, our "sister city" which launched the migration of Huguenots who landed on the shore of what became the City of New Rochelle. Samuel Johnson claimed that there are many advantages to maintaining such a collection of printed literature or "flying sheets." The obvious advantage for us today is that the Library makes accessible for study a great stream of occasional documents that collectively portray the scintillating historical landscape of our city that we can all claim as our own "sparks of truth."

Images (In Order of Appearance): 

1. A Guide to New Rochelle and Vicinity by Robert Bolton / 1842

2. Thanksgiving Dinner Menu / Fort Slocum / 1920

3. National Airmail Week / Commemorative Envelope / 1946

4. Advertising Brochure for Greater La Rochelle, Our “Sister City” in France / 2016

5. Calendar Illustration for Teddy’s Deli / c. 1960s

6. Library Exhibit / Association of Women Painters and Sculptors / 1915

September 3, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archives