We also worked on gathering some information on a particular person for a visitor who is coming in at the end of the week. We pulled the clippings files, reference files, and photographs related to this person, and we printed out copies of some of the related finding aids.
We also located some negatives of the men's swimming team in the 1960s for an alum, and I scanned these images.
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One of the most interesting requests we dealt with today allowed us to use the "Pering Letter." The requester needed an image of the first Bloomington courthouse, and the only image we have of it is a watercolor included in an interesting letter written by Cornelius Pering in Bloomington, Indiana to S. Edwards, Esq. in Somerset, England on August 27th, 1833. The letter is long and detailed--a double-spaced transcript of the letter runs to 19 pages--with lots of fascinating information about the United States in 1833 and Pering's impressions of it.
Near the beginning of the letter, Pering writes of the United States, "The more I see and know of its government, customs, manners and people, the more am I convinced that it will one day be (if it is not at present) the most powerful, the most prosperous, and the most happy community in the World. Some parts of it, it is true, particularly here in the West, look rude and uncivilized to those accustomed to the splendour of European cities; but if we do not see the magnificence, we look in vain for the sights of wretchedness, the squalid misery, and hopeless destitution which every where excite the commiserations of the sympathetic... Sixteen years ago the spot on which I am now writing was Indian Hunting Ground, an almost pathless Wilderness, an illimitable Forest, now the frontier settlements are four hundred miles west of this place."
Later parts of the letter include more detailed information, but those were some of his general first impressions.
Here is an image of the letter:
One of the most fascinating features of the letter is the watercolor views of Bloomington and other locations in the United States in the center. You can also see that the paper has been written on both horizontally and vertically in order to include as much information in as small a space as possible (an approach Brad indicated was necessitated by the high cost of sending mail to England from the United States at the time). This certainly conserves space, but it makes the letter a bit difficult to read. You can see a close-up of some of the writing here:
And here is a close-up of the watercolors in the center of the letter (clicking on the image will allow you to see a slightly bigger version):
The image at the top includes the first courthouse. Pering writes that "The upper view is in the center of this town, the middle building is the Court House where all the judicial business is transacted. On the left of it is the jail; on the right the Clerk's office and County Library. The white weather-boarded house on the right forms the angle of the street."
The center image includes the first buildings of Indiana University. Pering writes that "The New College is the center picture, which is not yet finished in the interior, the building on the left is the one at present occupied. It will remind you more of Mr. Rister's Factory than the princely halls of Oxford and Cambridge, but I have no doubt as good scholars will be turned out from that humble Edifice as from the more celebrated seats of learning in England. The President and Professors are men of great talent and would do honor to any University in the World... the admission fees are only $15 a year, which it is expected, will be soon altogether dispensed with, as the College is richly endowed by the State."
The whole transcript looks really interesting... I'm hoping to get a chance to read through the whole thing this weekend.
I love our Pering letter! Fabulous information, and so beautiful!
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