RECENT ACQUISITIONS
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Above: The letter, written to John Armstrong on August 24, 1769, is an important acquisition for the Briscoe Center, shedding light on Washington’s views regarding Indian relations, his moral character, and his acute awareness of the public sphere.
awareness of colonial Virginia’s public sphere: “It is lucky however that … none escapd to carry the Intelligence, and we, in consequence, may represent it in as favourable a light, as the thing will admit of, having the knowledge of it confined to our selves.” Washington obviously understood the destabilizing effect on communities that rumors of souring Indian relations could bring. Washington’s attitudes appear to be in line with those of his peers. During an Aug. 8, 1769, meeting, the Council of Colonial Virginia notes that: no injury or violence be offer’d to the Indians; and if hereafter it should become a serious business proper measures may be taken for the defence of the Inhabitants, who should be caution’d that if they wantonly draw on a quarrel with the Indians, they will not be supported by Government. Washington sincerely believed that, “the Redstone People … wish for nothing more than Peace & quietness.” At the same time, avoiding open hostility with Indians was in the interests of ambitious landowners such as Washington and the men of the Virginia Council. No doubt the council joined Washington in hoping that the Indians “will not suffer their discontent to lead them into Acts of open Hostility.”
he Briscoe Center has acquired the archives of award-winning Time photojournalist Matthew Naythons. This substantial collection, which documents iconic historical events such as the Vietnam War and the Nicaraguan Revolution, offers a window into the processes and rhythms of late 20th-century photojournalism. After graduation from medical school, Naythons combined the practice of emergency medicine with travel around the globe as a photojournalist for SIPA and Gamma photo agencies, and publications including Time, Paris Match, Newsweek, National Geographic, and the Sunday Times of London. The Naythons archive features more than 60 linear feet of transparencies: negatives: prints and videotapes in addition to paper records, correspondence, floppy disks, CDs, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. The new addition enhances the scope of the Briscoe Center’s rapidly growing photojournalism and news media holdings.
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he Briscoe Center’s archival collections cover a wide range of subject fields in U.S. history, with particular strengths in political, business, and social history. The recent acquisition of the papers of historian Louis Filler is an excellent example of a growing collection strength for the center: American intellectual history. Filler (1911–1998) was a leading scholar in the study of American social reform movements, particularly the antebellum abolitionist movement. The Filler Papers join other collections at the Briscoe Center that document the lives and careers of significant American scholars, including Walter Prescott Webb, Lewis Gould, Clarence Ayres, and C. Wright Mills. The Filler Papers span 34 linear feet and cover the period from the 1940s to his death. The collection provides in-depth coverage of his teaching, writing, and research career, and serves as an illustration of the shifts in college-level history curriculum during the three decades following World War II. In addition, the papers include lecture and research notes, student papers and syllabi, scrapbooks and newspaper clippings, photographs, book and article manuscript drafts, tape recordings, legal documents, ephemera, publications, and other materials.
CenterPoints Newsletter
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