WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

Last month, Bulls Room volunteers talked about how to recognize and observe International Women's Day (March 8) and Women's History Month (March). We decided to start by making a list women authors in the Bullis collection.

The spreadsheet is still in process and so far we have 245 items, which include well-known as well as lesser-known women authors. Here are some of the titles that have attracted our attention and are on our "must take a closer look" list:

Costumes of Colonial Times, Alice Earl (NY, 1894)

Gleanings from Old Shaker Journals, Clara Endicott Sears (Boston, 1916)

Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Ida Harper, (Ind., 1899)

Memoirs of the Emperor Napoleon, Madam Junot (Washington, 1901)

Tales of New England, Sarah Orne Jewett (Boston, 1895)

Life of Abraham Lincoln, Ida Tarbell (NY, 1900)

Our next step is to display these books (and others) in the case outside the Bullis Room. We hope to have that completed tomorrow, so please stop by and see these books as well as others because they represent one of the many, many achievements of women in the past two centuries.

LEAP YEAR

Well ... this year we have an extra day in February, which we can put to use in the Bullis Room working on our various projects, hoping to "catch up" a bit. It also means one more "official" day of our Black History Month and Presidents' Day display in the case outside the Bullis Room.

Then ... tomorrow officially begins another month and the display case will feature Bullis books by women authors in recognition of Women's History Month.

So ... we invite you to stop by the Bullis Room in March to view the display case and remember some of the great women authors of the past.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

As part of our Black History month, volunteers looked this researched Bullis books on the subject of the Sixteenth President of the United States and his role in the abolishment of slavery in this country. One document in the collection that immediately caught our eye is:

Memorial Address on the

Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln:

Delivered, at the request of both houses of the

congress of America, before them,

in the House of Representatives at Washington, 

on the 12th of February, 1866

by George Bancroft (1800-1891)

Published by Washington Government Printing Office, 1866

Here is a quote from  this message delivered 150 years ago yesterday:

"Jefferson and the leading statesmen of his day held fast to the idea that the enslavement of the African was socially, morally and politically wrong. The new school was founded exactly upon the opposite idea; and they resolved, first to distract the democratic party, for which the Supreme Court had furnished the means, and then to establish a new government, with negro slavery for its corner-stone as socially, morally and politically right.

The storm rose to a whirlwind; who should allay its wrath? The most experienced statesmen of the country had failed;  there was no hope from those who were great after the flesh; ... could relief come from one whose wisdom was like the wisdom of little children?

"The choice of America fell on a man born west of the Alleghenies in the cabin of poor people of Hardin County, Kentucky  -- Abraham Lincoln." (pages 15 and 16)

When you're in MPL this week, we suggest you take a closer look at this document.  We think you'll find it an interesting and informative read.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

If you haven't read Frederick Douglass's book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave,  we urge you to:

A) Stop by the Bullis Room and take a look at the collection's copy published in 1847 in Boston at the Anti-slavery office; and,
B) Get a copy (through PLS or your friendly online bookseller) and sit down for a good read.

This is a book that will grab your interest from the very beginning. In fact, a letter from the abolitionist Wendell Phillips, dated April 22, 1845, is printed in the Preface. In it, Phillips declares:

"I was glad to learn, in your story, how early the most neglected of God's children waken to a sense of their rights, and of the injustice done them. Experience is a keen teacher; and long before you had mastered your A B C, or knew where the 'white sails' of the Chesapeake were bound, you began, I see, to gauge the wretchedness of the slave, not by his hunger and want, not by his lashes and toil, but by the cruel and blighting death which gathers over his soul.

"In connection with this, there is one circumstance which makes your recollections peculiarly valuable, and renders your early insight the more remarkable. You come from that part of the country where we are told slavery appears with its fairest features. Let us hear, then, what it is at its best estate—gaze on its bright side, if it has one; and then imagination may task her powers to add dark lines to the picture, as she travels southward to that (for the colored man) Valley of the Shadow of Death, where the Mississippi sweeps along.

"Again, we have known you long, and can put the most entire confidence in your truth, candor, and sincerity. Every one who has heard you speak has felt, and, I am confident, every one who reads your book will feel, persuaded that you give them a fair specimen of the whole truth. No one-sided portrait,—no wholesale complaints,—but strict justice done, whenever individual kindliness has neutralized, for a moment, the deadly system with which it was strangely allied. You have been with us, too, some years, and can fairly compare the twilight of rights, which your race enjoy at the North, with that "noon of night" under which they labor south of Mason and Dixon's line. Tell us whether, after all, the half-free colored man of Massachusetts is worse off than the pampered slave of the rice swamps!"

Again, we strongly suggest you spend some time with Frederick Douglass's book which, according to the abolitionist Phillips, is written with truth, candor and sincerity. 

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

As you honor the memory of Martin Luther King this weekend,  please consider a visit to the Bullis Room.

Why?  There are no books in the collection written by or about Dr. King. However, there are over a dozen Bullis books that address the slavery issue as well as the lives of our country's great emancipators and liberators who came before Martin Luther King, Jr.

Therefore, in honor of Dr. King and observance of next month's Black History month, we will highlight these books for your reference -- and in hopes that you'll want to stop by the Bullis Room to study them further.

For this post, we chose the book:

History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880.

Negroes as slaves, as soldiers, and as citizens;

together with a preliminary consideration of the unity

of the human family, an historical sketch of Africa, and

an account of the Negro governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia.

By George Washington Williams (1849-1891)

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons New York, 1883

The author, George Washington Williams, was "an American Civil War veteran, minister, politician, lawyer, journalist and a groundbreaking historian of African-American history."   His varied life experiences prepared and qualified him to write this book,  "... the first overall history of African Americans, showing their participation and contributions from the earliest days of the colonies." (Wikipedia, "George Washington Williams") 

Some of the other books we will highlight in the next six weeks are: The Galley Slave; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade Ancient and Modern; The Yankee Slave Driver: Or, The Black andWhite Rivals; The Wrong of Slavery, the Right of Emancipation; and, The Future of the African Race in the United States.

Please "tune in" for more details.

PS: The Wikipedia article also mentions that George Washington Williams 

NATIONAL HANDWRITING DAY

National Handwriting Day is January 23. This special recognition of the lost art of penmanship and letter writing has been celebrated annually since it's establishment in 1977. (FYI: According to History.com the January 23 date was chosen, very appropriately, in honor of John Hancock's birthday.)

As Bullis volunteers, we marvel at the handwritten letters, notes, and documents in the collection. The idea that people used to devote an hour or more to write a letter to a friend seems almost foreign to us in these days of instant messaging, texting, and emailing. And yet, we get a sense that the writers of these missives enjoyed these writing sessions as much (or perhaps more than) the recipients enjoyed the final product.

And so we've been thinking - when is the last time we sat down to write a long, newsy letter to a friend or relative? Do we even remember how to do this activity? Well, if we need a few pointers on letter writing, we can always refer to Mary Owens Crowther's How to Write Letters that was highlighted in our post a few weeks ago.  Ms. Crowther's book was written over 90 years ago.  Is it relevant today? It must be--there's a 2015 paperback version of it for sale online.

So here's the deal - there are two weeks left before National Handwriting Day.  In this interim, let's find a quiet time, sit down, relax, pick up a pen, put it to paper, and write a letter.  If this seems a bit awkward at first, know that with practice the skill will come back.  Honest.

And also know that you are invited to stop by the Bullis Room and look at some perfect examples of this lost art.

THE CHRISTMAS THINGS YOU DO ALL YEAR

If you read our post "Christmas With Aunt Jo," you know that the Bullis family's Christmas celebrations were not as elaborate as those of most of their neighbors.  However, they were a kind and basically generous family.

Nettie Bullis exemplified these traits with the $12.3 million bequest she left to her community.  As a result, many individuals and organizations in Wayne County have benefitted  from that generosity (and continue to do so). This reminds us of two lines in the song, "The Secret of Christmas," which read:

"It's not the things you do, at Christmas time

But the Christmas things you do all year through"

Just as important as her monetary gifts to others - and maybe more so - Nettie Bullis consistently showed kindness to all of those she met during her lifetime. Her colleagues at Gleason Works noted that she mentored younger workers at that institution, where she served as Private Secretary and Private Assistant to President James Gleason.  Among neighbors and others who met her, Miss Bullis had a reputation for being very non-threatening, approachable and  kind. If someone needed help, she would be there, doing those Christmas things, all the year through. 

Our community is a better place because of Nettie Bullis and her "Christmas things." And for that, we once again say a sincere, "Thank you."