Update: Some of you may remember this excerpt from a post I wrote back in July. Well, the wheels of justice sometimes grind slowly but it is good to know that they are still grinding. Today I received news that my request to do research at the site mentioned below has indeed been approved. I am really happy that this is now going to move forward. I wish I could be more forthcoming at the moment but the time being I think it’s for the best that I not discuss the institution itself, as it is a private organization. The final product will hopefully be a book about New York City’s role in the Civil War. I had all but given up on this particular project.

Yesterday I had an appointment at a cultural institution in one of the five boroughs of the city. This is an organization that goes back to the nineteenth century and maintains a strong sense of institutional memory. The purpose of my visit was to seek permission to research said institution’s archives this fall. It is hard to believe Labor Day is just five weeks away. My host was very gracious and knowledgeable, and showed me not only items that may be of interest on my subject but also gave me a quick look at some of the artwork and Americana on display. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. Officials will not be making any decisions until they meet in mid-August. It would be a privilege to research at this organization, and I am really hoping it goes through.

Yesterday I had an appointment at a cultural institution in one of the five boroughs of the city. This is an organization that goes back to the nineteenth century and maintains a strong sense of institutional memory. The purpose of my visit was to seek permission to research said institution’s archives this fall. It is hard to believe Labor Day is just five weeks away. My host was very gracious and knowledgeable, and showed me not only items that may be of interest on my subject but also gave me a quick look at some of the artwork and Americana on display. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. Officials will not be making any decisions until they meet in mid-August. It would be a privilege to research at this organization, and I am really hoping it goes through.

Earlier in the week I emailed the coordinator at a particular National Park Service site to see about volunteering there when the season ends at Governors Island. At the risk of getting ahead of myself, the idea would be to work at Governors Island during the season (May-September) and the other place the other months of the year. The duality would work seamlessly, with a great deal of interpretive overlap between the two sites. If the transfer goes through it would also tie in to the project I am currently working on.

I am off on Fridays in the summer, and instead of going to the Met Museum as I intended I spent the day cleaning out my email in-boxes. I have a tendency to send pertinent, or possibly pertinent, notes to myself at my different email accounts. The idea is to rebuild redundancy into the process, though more often I confuse myself by forgetting where I sent what. This is my self-intervention. From now on specific files go to specific accounts. I even trimmed down my seldom used Evernote account, which I am going to try to use more systematically as I begin these new things. I remember opening my Evernote account way back when, thinking it would change life as I knew it. It didn’t, but maybe that was my fault. The idea is to simplify and make the other stuff easier.

We shall see what happens.

Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, New York; 8 June 2013

I got back earlier this afternoon from Cooperstown, the site for this year’s Conference on New York State History. I spoke yesterday on the role that Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and other wealthy New Yorkers played in both the war and its aftermath. When I was at the Teddy Roosevelt Birthplace in Manhattan in February, my friend Ranger Sam and I were discussing the lack biographies, or even articles, about the great philanthropist and reformer. Yes, he was the father of the future president, but he was much more than that. It is a ripe topic, and I believe I may be the one to tell the story. There are even many parallels with the life and career of  Joseph Hawley.

There were two of us on the panel. The other speaker was Christopher Fobare of Utica College, who I had not met until yesterday. Christopher gave an exceptionally thoughtful presentation about Horatio Seymour, Roscoe Conkling, and the presidential election of 1868. His talk explored the elections of 1872, in which Horace Greeley ran against the incumbent Grant, and 1876 (New York’s Samuel J. Tilden vs. Hayes) as well. It is a very misunderstood time in American history. Christopher really got to the heart of the matter and explained why it is important.

I had not been to Cooperstown in fifteen years. A friend and I visited in 1998, coincidentally just a few weeks after Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa broke Roger Maris’s single season home run. This time their memorabilia was not on display as it was then. Cooperstown–the Hall and the village–is such a great place. No, Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball there but the region has the pastoral feel of the game’s early nineteenth century origins. As the image above reflects, James Fenimore Cooper did not call Otsego Lake Glimmerglass for no reason. Getting there is part of the experience. It was a great weekend all the way around.

Hey everybody, I hope you are enjoying your holiday season. The Hayfoot and I have been relaxing and watching The Rockford Files on our iPad. Posting will continue to be light at best between now and January 6th. This is the time of year when I put the Civil War aside for a spell and recharge the batteries. I have some interesting projects I will be working on in 2013 which I will explain in full when the holidays are over.

Last week on his invaluable Civil War Memory blog Kevin Levin asked people to chime in on what they read in 2012. I posted a comment and thought I would expand it a bit more at the Strawfoot. Here is the short list of books I most profited from in 2012, along with a few I am looking forward to in 2013:

Dark Horse: the Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield–I had heard about this when it first came out, but was intrigued about Garfield only after reading Adam Goodheart’s 1861: The Civil War Awakening. We underestimate the lives of the Gilded Age presidents and leaders at our own expense.

The Devil’s Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America–Barnet Schecter covers so much more than the turmoil in July 1863. This title helped me a great deal with my volunteer work at Governors Island. One of my intellectual goals is to become an authority on role New York City and State during the Civil War period.

Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man–The Secretary of State gets his due. There’s a lot on the antebellum period, including figures such as William Henry Harrison and Millard Fillmore. Again, the tendency is to dismiss such figures because they don’t fit into the popular narrative of our nation’s history. I finished this and started Freedom’s Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War immediately afterward, which covers the same period and gave me a greater understanding of the 1850s. Too many people read about just the war–I suppose because they think the battles are “fun”–but don’t look into the causes and consequences of the conflict. This is, to put it charitably, short-sighted.

Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley–I don’t understand why people read those piece of shit Elvis biographies when Peter Guralnick explains his rise and fall so movingly.

On the list for early 2013:

Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction, by Jim Downs

The Peninsula Campaign and the Necessity of Emancipation: African Americans and the Fight for Freedom, by Glenn David Brasher

I’m going to read the two above back-to-back.

John Quincy Adams, by Harlow Giles Unger–My interest comes from the numerous trips we have taken to the National Portrait Gallery over the past few years. You can’t walk the halls of the NPG and not become intrigued with the people behind the canvases.

All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt, by John Taliaferro—This comes out in May. Hay was of course Lincoln’s secretary (with John Nicolay). Less well-known is that he became a big player in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley—Volume two in the Guralnick portrayal

Lots to look forward to in the coming twelve months. I hope you have a healthy, happy, and productive New Year.