Thomas Lannon, New York Public Library
Proposal Type
Panel
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
Related Topics
- Archives
- Digital
- Labor and Economy
- Public Engagement
Abstract
In 2017, The New York Public Library received a CLIR Hidden Collections grant to digitize the historic records of the mercantile firm and bank, Brown Brothers & Co. The project has been stewarded by technologists and archivists. The Library is looking to present on this project at the National Council on Public History in order to connect with other similar projects that build on digitized records from major archival repositories. We are seeking to team up with NCPH attendees to explore new ways to build community around digital resources which are freely available as part of The Library’s digital collections. Due to the complexity of the Brown Brothers records, a presentation would help connect to new users of this unique historical data.
Description
As a major force in the Transatlantic cotton trade, the records of Brown Brothers & Co. document hidden details about the antebellum economy and America’s place within global capitalism. Through loans to southern cotton interests after the economic crisis of 1837, the company effectively possessed at least thirteen large Louisiana plantations with hundreds of slaves. By 1850, the firm was the largest negotiator of domestic and foreign cotton exchange in the US. During the civil war, Brown Brothers became one of the leading brokers of federal government bonds. They continued to provide capital to northern factory owners and workers who made finished goods. Only after 1860, instead of selling shoes for slaves to plantation owners, those factories sold shoes for soldiers to the U.S. Government. Following the Civil War, Brown Brothers& Co. expanded and were heavily invested in gold during Panic of 1873. Thus, the Brown Brothers records are a source for new scholarship in the history of 19th-century capitalism, and will serve to show slavery’s place in that process. Through records of Brown Brothers & Co.’s financial maneuvers, researchers will be able to see the role northern capital played in financing southern enterprise, and the economic source that goods produced by southern slaves were to northern merchants.
Scholarship based on the Brown Brothers & Co. might also be able to confront the current limits of historians’ interpretations of the inextricable links between southern slavery and northern industrial capitalism. The digitization of these records creates virtual reading room for anyone to use. We are seeking historians interested in the fields of economic and social history, the economy of slavery, and also to take part in any discussion of the transformation of publicly available archives through mass digitization. Our project is still in its early stages, but by Spring 2019 the Brown Brothers records will be available via digital surrogate. Much work is to be done to interpret the archive, create data sets, and reach new communities of scholars and popular historians. We seek an audience, and to collaborate with NCPH membership and conference attendees.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Thomas Lannon, [email protected].
All feedback and offers of assistance should be submitted by July 1, 2018. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
This looks fascinating! I wonder if there’s a way to link this with the “repair” theme, particularly in terms of the history of various kinds of economic repair and reinvestment (by northern bankers but also by the federal government through its wartime investments in industry). It seems as though this archive illuminates the story of continual capitalist volatility and the repair work that it requires.
I’d also suggest taking a look at Eric Hung’s “Repairing Archives” proposal (and my comments there) for some possible collaboration. That proposal is raising the kinds of questions about community engagement and uses of archives that you’re gesturing toward here, but in a somewhat more explicit way, which might be useful in framing your own approach.
Thanks for your note Cathy, I have seen the “Repairing Archives” proposal and it raises important questions ongoing across the archives field. The Brown Bros. material recently digitized includes significant records regarding the management of plantation economy after 1837 by New York and global banking interests. Thus, included among the records is evidence of lives whose stories are otherwise missing — but how these lives appear now and what stories are told remains completely open as a result of digitization. Thanks for your comments, they are much appreciated.
Hi Thomas,
I echo Cathy’s comments. This a very interesting topic of discussion. The possibilities for academic research here are great to think about! I only suggest connecting your proposal to the conference theme more clearly. Reading through it it is easy to pick up on the theme, but to make your proposal just a bit stronger, perhaps incorporating the language of repair helps. I’d also consider looking at Eric Hung’s proposal.
Sounds like Reparations and Restitution to restore from all northern bankers and cotton and all resources slave trade Corp. for the new generations of indigenous black people are totally available and are in question as of this day and are in immediate payment warranty pay up asap.. and now..with the one drop rule being EXCLUDED…