ChasingHistory

Mary House: Recognized as Female Patriot of the American Revolution

March 27, 2024 By Karen A. Chase

During this Women’s History Month, and ahead of the nation’s 250th celebrations, I have the great fortune of announcing a new Revolutionary female Patriot. I spearheaded an application with the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) to prove a new female American Revolutionary-era Patriot.

Mary House owned and operated a boarding house in Philadelphia, the House Inn. Because she paid taxes on the inn, her support tax directly helped fund the Revolutionary war. Just two blocks from the famous State House, where Revolution was debated and the Declaration of Independence signed, the inn was a respected political hub, frequented by familiar founding fathers.

In this press release issued by NSDAR, Pamela Wright, NSDAR President General and the National Society’s volunteer elected CEO, says, “We are thrilled to add Mary House to our list of verified female Patriots. As we approach our nation’s 250th birthday, DAR members across the country are concentrating on sharing the stories of these amazing Americans, helping contemporary U.S. citizens understand the relevancy of Patriots to our lives today. As a female entrepreneur myself, I am inspired by the story of Mrs. House.”

The star on this map shows the location of the House Inn. To red outline to the left is the State House. The red outline down and to the right, is the Arch Street Quaker Burial ground where Mary House was buried.

The House Inn hosted Thomas Jefferson and Other Founders

Mary House was a wise entrepreneur. After her husband died, the widow established the boarding house, which quickly became known for what was then called “fine entertainments.” It offered quality lodgings, good food and refreshments, and above all an atmosphere that encouraged convivial engagement. It quickly attracted founding fathers familiar to us now. Silas Deane, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. Mary recognized that congressmen visits to Philadelphia would increase as Revolution rumbled through the colonies. Consequently, she wisely moved her already established House Inn closer to the action, to Fifth and Market Streets. Like the famed City Tavern, the House Inn was a gathering place for end-of-day political discourse over dinner and drinks.

Finding Mary House and Proving Her as Patriot

Although I spearheaded the search and the NSDAR application, the journey to validate Mary House’s Patriot status was a collaborative effort. It took multiple years and involved more than 15 individuals across five NSDAR chapters and three states, along with additional historians and translators. To submit an application for patriot status for Mary House, we found and proved lineage to a living descendant. That descendant is also related to two other significant figures: Jefferson and the subject of what I call my Eliza Project.

Mary House’s Daughter, Eliza Trist, Went West & Kept a Journal

Mary House is significant in her own right as a supporter of the Cause and an entrepreneur. She is also the mother of Eliza House Trist—a woman who traveled west in 1783, two decades before Lewis and Clark. Eliza Trist kept this journal for Thomas Jefferson. Trist met Jefferson when he lodged at the House Inn. The two became significant in each others lives, and long after her westward journey, Eliza Trist’s grandson married Thomas Jefferson’s granddaughter. Consequently, this new NSDAR member on this application, is related to House, Trist, and Jefferson.

To be frank, I feel like we’ve hit the NSDAR’s version of a quadfecta or superfecta. Myself, and this incredible network of genealogists and historians, have correctly proven four positions significant to the NSDAR. New female Patriot. New Female Explorer. New member. And all connected to Thomas Jefferson.

The only known portrait of Eliza House Trist. From the Ledger book of William Bache, National Portrait Gallery.

What will the Patriot Status Achieve?

Mary House was buried in Philadelphia, in the Quaker Arch Street burial ground, which was built over in the late 1800s. Eliza Trist is buried at Monticello. Neither woman has a gravestone, and their contributions have never been granted state historical markers. As I mentioned in the press release, “The goal is to ensure each of these women has a grave marker and historical recognition… In honor of the 250th, we are striving to broaden the narrative we tell about the founding of this country. Eliza and Mary matter. Who we tell our origin stories about matters so more of us can envision ourselves contributing to our future.”

The Permission slip provided by the Quakers to bury Mary House in the Arch Street grounds.

To learn more about Eliza House Trist

I am producing a more comprehensive and widely-accessible narrative for Mary House and Eliza Trist. For now, you can learn more about Eliza House Trist’s journey when you pre-order a copy of The Travel Journal of Eliza House Trist, 1783-84. It’s a brand new transcription, with a brief introduction. For the first time, her journal is replicated as she originally wrote it. In this beautifully hardbound book, is an all new introduction and a map of her journey. The book publishes April 15th.

Historic Bartram’s Gardens in Winter

December 7, 2021 By Karen A. Chase

In late November, I had the good fortune of touring Bartram’s Gardens in Philadelphia, PA—a 50-acre garden in existence since 1728. The oldest surviving botanic garden in the US, the sloping and tiered lands on the western banks of the Schuylkill River were home to John Bartram—a botanist, collector, and explorer—and his son, William Bartram. Their garden was a source for seeds and plants for many of America’s founders including Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. My tour was for research for my next historical novel, and specifically to learn what those gardens looked like in 1787 when James Madison and others visited the gardens during the Constitutional Convention .

Why tour historic gardens in winter?

Now, before you go believing I’m nuts for touring a garden during winter (rather than July when Madison visited) such off-season tours mean fewer tourists and an occasional late bloom/fall burst of color. In our case, the oldest Ginkgo tree in America and the Tea-Oil Camillia, were giving a brilliant show.

The best reason has to do with wandering with a guide. Because there is less to do in winter, the curator—Joel T. Fry, who has been with the gardens since the late 90s—seemed to have all the time in the world to help me prune away the gardens as they are “now” in order to visualize them as William Bartram did “then.”

Bartram’s Gardens then and now

When the British moved through Philadelphia during the Revolution, troops built a floating bridge across the Schuylkill River east of town. What had been a ferry system from Grey’s Landing just few miles from Independence Hall, became a series of floating planks permitting visitors to land just a tad north of Bartram’s.

I wish I could say the view shown in this historic 1838 drawing (Charles P Dare, Fitzgibbon & Van Ness publishers) was equal to the view now. Today, one approaches Bartram’s via a graffiti-strewn bridge, and enters from the less-attractive back lane.

Back in 1787, however, a visitor would have first seen the tiered beds of plants—collected from various states as far south as Florida—rising up to the main house (like the photo above). Greens, tubers, and other edibles would have been planted closest to the house in the kitchen gardens. Built by John Bartram, the house was added onto many times, but the architecturally arresting structure remains.

The numerous trees scattering the property now would likely have been in a specific grove to one side of the house. That Ginkgo tree? In 1787, it was just two years old, so likely shorter than me, and in a different location. It now towers more than two stories tall. You can see an original William Bartram illustration of the garden map, on the Bartram Garden’s website here.

An incomplete archive of plantings

What was planted where and when by William, however, is difficult to ascertain. Although Bartram’s sold seeds and plants, “we don’t really have garden records from that time,” Joel shrugged as we chewed on some of the spinach miraculously still growing and plump despite a few frosts. “We don’t know if the records were thrown out when the family later lost the property, or if perhaps the Bartrams weren’t that good at keeping records in the first place.”

Personally, I find the latter easy to believe. John and William both seemed so enchanted by illustrating, collecting, exploring, and experimenting with plants and seeds, I can see them failing to write it all down at the end of a day’s digging. Their minds were likely their libraries and journals. Although Williams botanical illustrations are in some ways a series of singular plant records, like his study of Franklinia—a tree named for Franklin, and the garden’s signature tree.

A room inside the Bartram’s home. None of the furnishings are original either.

William Bartram’s illustration of the flower of the Franklinia Tree.

Visitors post-Revolution might also have seen a working cider mill along the banks. Again, the Bartrams papers have no record of it, although a reference to it appears in a letter from a visitor named Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts. “[Bartram’s] cider-press is singular; the channel for the stone wheel to run in for grinding the apples is cut out of a solid rock; the bottom of the press is a solid rock, and has a square channel to carry off the juice, from which it is received into a stone reservoir or vat.”

Joel and my spouse, Ted, permitting me a photo for size perspective.

What Captivated Me Most in Bartram’s Garden

“What we’re doing is what William loved to do with visitors in the garden.” About half way through our tour—many stories in, the wind picking up, and much history shared—Joel smiled as he gazed across Bartram’s garden glittering with fall leaves. “We’re walking the paths and sharing ideas about the plants and other events of the time. It’s a chance to learn together.”

Nothing warmed my heart more on that cold November day. Thanks to Joel, in my next novel I expect you’ll find my protagonist Henry (along with other characters real and fictional) sharing ideas while wandering those same paths with William.

I urge you to visit Bartram’s Garden, and not just at the height of spring or summer, so hopefully you will be captured by this historic place, too. Just a 15-minute drive from Philadelphia, it’s a 50-acre respite for the city-weary soul Chasing Histories.

The view from the back of the house, with a new favorite vine—cup-and-saucer—gracing the left-hand edge of the walkway.

The American Revolution and the Shawnee at Fort Pitt, This Week in 1776

October 31, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

The Shawnee, Colonel Morgan, and the Treaty of 1776

Take a read through pretty much any high school history textbook, and you’ll find what I initially did about the Shawnee in 1776. They, like all Native Americans, were supposedly choosing sides between the Colonists and the British. Take a visit to many museums, like the Fort Pitt museum, and you’ll see over-told tales of the Shawnee capturing white settlers. Clearly they do not know about Colonel Morgan, Gregory Schaaf, or the treaty of 1776.

Who was Colonel Morgan?

Colonel Morgan was the Indian Commissioner for the Colonies in 1776. He was also good friend to the Delaware, the Iroquois, and he spoke a multitude of languages—so endeared was he to the Indians, that they gave him nicknames like “Council House” and “Brother Tamanend.” In the fall of 1776, he called a treaty of all Indian Nations to meet in Fort Pitt to discuss the issue at hand. Land.

The Native Americans Came to Fort Pitt in 1776 to Discuss Land Rights

The Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 had drawn a dividing line down the middle of the land at Fort Pitt. The east belonged to the British and west of that line belonged to the Native Americans. When the colonists separated from Britain, that treaty went kaput, and the land was once again up for grabs. Additionally, the land hadn’t been yet surveyed that far west, so it wasn’t certain if Fort Pitt sat upon Pennsylvania or Virginia soil. And to make matters worse, George Washington himself was speculating on land—including about 1500 acres in and around Fort Pitt.

To the Shawnee, and many of the Indian nations, it was their sacred hunting ground. Just as it always had been. So over 650 Native Americans from more than six nations came to Fort Pitt to meet with Morgan, this last week of October, 1776. That included Netawatees, grandfather to the Delaware, who was nearing 100.

How Do We Know The First American-Indian Treaty was in 1776?

We can thank both Colonel Morgan and Gregory Schaaf. Schaaf was working on a dissertation back in the 1980s. He was convinced that there was more to this October 1776 treaty than had previously been discovered. I had seen only one line about it, and I hunted, too. I found Gregory Schaaf, and Gregory Schaaf had been persistent. After knocking on the door of several of Morgan’s descendants, one of them called him to say… wait for it… “here’s a packet of letters and documents I came across in an old chest.”

It included a 73-page journal written by Colonel Morgan, the Indian Agent who had invited everyone to Fort Pitt. An article in People Magazine, described Schaaf’s find as “The Mother Load.”

It was to me, too. The treaty, and the results from it, were described by Morgan. Schaaf transcribed the journal, added his interpretations, and I used it and other sources to frame the facts of the treaty in my historical novel.

So, What Was the Result of the Treaty of 1776?

Keep in mind that treaties like this were often discussions, from which written appeals or pleas were developed. Not always were lines drawn, and land divided. In this case, the Shawnee, along with the Iroquois, the Munsee, the Delawares, the Mohicans, and other nations, drew up a request for Congress, submitting a plea they hoped would resonate with the men who had drafted the Declaration of Independence. The Indians asked for a right to political sovereignty, to religious freedom, and a fair piece or payment for their tribal hunting grounds.

And in exchange for agreeing to stay out of the “White Man’s War”—choosing the side of neither the colonists nor the British—the Native Americans asked for just three rights in exchange. Three little ideals they knew the colonists would find familiar:

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

That puts our founding document in a new light now, doesn’t it? What a different world we would live in now if, back then, the ideals of one group had been expanded and designed to include the others.

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Reader Insights: To read more about the Treaty and what happened beyond 1776, stay tuned or pick up my novel, CARRYING INDEPENDENCE. I’m forever grateful to historians like Gregory Schaaf and Colin Calloway who helped me with my research, and who are striving to tell the Indian story faithfully in part by constantly seeking new information.

I think it’s also fair that Native Americans be given the opportunity and the means to tell their own stories. As such, a portion of the proceeds of my novel are being donated to the DAR American Indian Scholarship Fund. I hope you’ll donate, too.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

A Million Daughters

September 3, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

The DAR Million Members Celebration

I am a DAR. As a Daughter of the American Revolution, I can prove my lineage back to a “patriot” who supported the Cause. This fall, I will become one DAR in a million.

Although the DAR currently has about 185,000 active members worldwide, at some point between now and November the DAR will welcome its one millionth member since the organization was founded in 1890. As this milestone comes, I know what such a celebration provides for the future.

What the DAR Millionth Member Means to Me

First, we’ll get to build on the DAR’s (and my) immense love of education and preservation. Scholarships, grants, and school support for boys and girls come from the DAR. Without the DAR, the Block House at Fort Pitt, PA and the Custom House at Yorktown, VA might not be standing. They are just two examples of historic places the women and chapters of our organization saved, own, and maintain.

Secondly, we are moving into the future as an inclusive organization. It is not religion, politics, or race that define who we are, and this openness fits with who I am. Gone is the privileged DAR featured in movies or shows like the Gilmore Girls. This new DAR is made up of welcoming career women, moms, students, and everyday women who are eager to contribute and get things done.

By comparison, the Sons of the American Revolution has about 35,000 active members. So make no mistake, it’s women getting it done. And soon, we’ll be a million strong.

If you think you might be a DAR, contact a local chapter (search here by zip code) and ask for the Registrar or Membership Chair. They’ll help you with an application. And check out our Facebook Page filled with Million Member Testimonials.

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Reader Insights: I became a DAR while researching my novel, CARRYING INDEPENDENCE. In my travels for research, I kept finding markers at historical sites and upon graves revitalized by DAR chapters. So in addition to researching the book, I researched my own lineage. Although I am Canadian, it was Jacob G. Klock of New York who I proved to be my ancestral patriot. Who is yours?

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Revolutionary Food

August 2, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

City Tavern and Early American Food

From 1774 through 1776, a tavern in Philadelphia that had only been open a few years was the place where our founding fathers assembled after a day of debates. City Tavern, just a few blocks from the State House, was a spot where they could lift a pint, stay the night, and further discuss (or eavesdrop) on the issue of separation. It was also a place to taste dishes made from the game, fruits, and spices coming into the port city.

It still is.

Recipes Recreated

Although City Tavern was destroyed by fire in the 1800s, the National Park Service rebuilt it completely because the original architectural plans existed as did the original footings. A dozen or so years ago, along came Walter Staib—a chef one could describe as obsessed with understanding the origins of 18th century food. In addition to a TV show called A Taste of History, Chef Staib developed a Colonial menu for the tavern.

Now, one can stroll into City Tavern just as folks did in 1776, and order numerous dishes off a lunch or dinner menu, including a chicken or turkey pot pie described as, “tender chunks of turkey, mushrooms, early peas, red potatoes, sherry cream sauce & flaky pastry crust,” and with a, “Pennsylvania Dutch egg noodle accompaniment.” I’ve eaten it. Oh my word. That gravy! This is my idea of Chasing History. (You can see the pot pie in the photo below.)

One might also meet or dine with an actual founding father or two—it was a delightful conversation, Ben and T.J.—as I did while in Philly to see the live reading of the Declaration on July 8th. All of this is to say, that when it came to writing about the Revolution, having such a spot where I could experience the food was crucial to creating the era and setting. Food is universally how we humans experience a time and place.

Including Food in Fiction

I love it when books I read include food, so naturally, it’s in mine, too. I’m also in a book club that often chooses stories so we can try new recipes. This month, my own book club read Carrying Independence. (Yes, there was some trepidation—I’ve seen this group when they don’t like a book—but they were lovely.)

Thanks to Chef Staib’s recipe book and TV shows, and a few revolutionary food-inspired websites, we created a feast of salmon and corn cakes, an elegant salad platter of corn, tomatoes, and greens, asparagus, a succulent pot roast, apple galettes, and Shrewsbury cookies, among other things. Swoon is the word you’re looking for. (Thanks to Becky for the food shots.)

Reader Insights: Chef Staib’s food and City Tavern are recreated within Carrying Independence. My characters meet, drink and dine in a back corner booth of City Tavern in Philadelphia (see photo), and the food and spices they experience are taken from my own in this same place. On my website I’ve included an excerpt—a full chapter—that takes place in City Tavern in that booth.

Now you can get a taste of the history behind Carrying Independence, too. Be sure to mop that gravy off your chin.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Why July 19th, 1776 Matters

July 19, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

An Engrossed Copy

As many readers now know, CARRYING INDEPENDENCE is about the importance of gathering signatures on a single copy of the Declaration of Independence. Today’s date was a significant moment in history that indicated to me that I could indeed write such a story.

July 19th, 1776, was the day the Continental Congress agreed to have one “engrossed” copy of the Declaration made. One readable, handwritten copy, signed by all. Why?

New York Finally Approved the Declaration

Ten days earlier, on July 9th, New York representatives finally agreed to the wording of the Declaration—the last of 13 states to do so. This mattered because their approval finally made the separation from Britain unanimous. But words are hollow without a contract everyone will sign.

Would you agree to move out of your home, while only verbally agreeing the guy moving in could take over? Nope. You’d ensure he came in and signed some papers assuming the mortgage, and absolving you of responsibility. You’d want all parties in agreement.

So did the Congress.

If you really want to see how we began, put down the Constitution and pick up the Declaration.

So what? Why does this decision and day in history matter now?

In a country that too often operates divisively and viciously, we need to remember that this nation began by coming together. By compromising. By being optimistic in the face of grave danger and the real possibility that we might not stand a snowball’s chance of surviving the heat. We began by laying down our lives and our fortunes and our sacred honor for the sake of each other—no matter which colony or country we were born in.

If you really want to see how we began, put down the Constitution and pick up the Declaration. When you read it—actually study it— you’ll find that our country, with this document as evidence, was founded not upon seeking what was best for us individually.

Even with all its flaws, the Declaration was an agreement to collectively be better. And not just for Americans, but for and before “a candid world.”

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Reader Insider Note: I’ll admit it… not before this book had I really studied the Declaration. But with chapter 23 of CARRYING INDEPENDENCE, I wrote myself into a corner. George Wythe, the man who taught Jefferson, was to explain to Nathaniel, my protagonist, the reasoning behind the Declaration. Not the intent. The reasoning.

Of all my chapters and scenes, it took me the longest to write this one—days and days of researching the ideologies, reviewing academic interpretations, and studying the document itself. At times I wondered if I was smart enough to grasp and then convey the meaning of it all. And then I decided I would simply allow Wythe to explain it to me as if I were Nathaniel—a nonacademic, uncertain yet hopeful, resident now living in a foreign land.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Navigating Historic Maps

July 12, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Geographic Time Travel

As a “popular historian” rather than a learned academic, I believe that part of my job is to explore some of the same sources that academics do, and then to bring them into today for the average person to explore with me. Case in point, historic maps.

David Rumsey Map Collection

Very early on an historian, Woody Holton, was gracious enough to have lunch with me to discuss my historical project. He shared numerous sources, including a gem of a website, the David Rumsey Map Historic Collection. It’s a digitized, catalogued historic collection, searchable by region, time period, mapmaker, and so much more. It was there I found late 18th century maps of Britain’s “Middle colonies”—what would become the middle United States. Some maps were so incredibly detailed and high-resolution that I could zoom into ferry landings where travelers would stop to cross on boats before bridges came into existence.

Making Historic Maps Relevant to Readers

While locating those ferry landings was like finding gold for a story in which a guy rides across the colonies in 1776, trying to write modern fiction around archaic maps—such that every day people now could recognize where my character might be—was like trying to dislodge that gold and contextually reposition it using a toothpick. It was tedious. I would pull up the historic map in one browser window, pull up Google maps in another, and flip between them. Or, that was what I had to do five years ago, before the collection added a new feature—the Georeferencer.

The Georeferencer Revolutionizes Map Exploration

The Georeferencer, now in version 4, according to the collection, “it allows you to overlay historic maps on modern maps or other historic maps. The overlaid maps reveal changes over time and enable map analysis and discovery.” Now, my 1776 map is set precisely over the Google map, among others, and moving a simple toggle bar allows me to fade from the old map to a current day one.

I’ve taken these three screen captures of a 1776 cross section of the land in Pennsylvania featured in my novel. Nathaniel ventures into the Kittatiny Mountains to the west, his homeland is along the Saucony Creek in the middle upper Berks County, and he travels first to Philadelphia in the bottom right. The first image below is the original map, the second shows the overlay, and the bottom image is the modern Google map.

You can pop open a new browser window and toggle the maps within the Georeferencer for the 1776 map shown above here.

Prepare to lose all track of time. Maps both of this whole wide world and those of the past are literally at your fingertips.

Reader Insider Note: I was so impressed by Rumsey’s map collection, and the changes that map-making has undergone since 1776, that it plays a small role in the novel for my protagonist. Nathaniel is often marking up old maps. It was during the early years of the Revolution that George Washington, among others, recognized the rebels were never going to win a war with antiquated maps made by the British. In 1777, Congress authorized a national geographic division to chart and draw the fledgling nation.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

The Woman on the Declaration

July 4, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Founding-Documents Blog Series: Part Six

On this, July 4th, my blog features the last in a brief series related to the history and signing of the Declaration of Independence… Part one began here.

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So many blogs will rightly tell you that the Declaration of Independence was not written, voted for, or even signed on July 4th. All true. Today, however, I’d rather talk about the only woman whose name graces the Declaration. A woman featured in Carrying Independence.

Mary Katharine Goddard

Her brother was a drunkard. He owned his own print-shop which often fell into neglect as he stumbled around the colonies bemoaning (whining) that Benjamin Franklin had been given the title of Postmaster General over him.

When the print shop was left in Mary Katharine’s hands in Baltimore in the mid 1770s, Mary Katharine (with two As) became known not only as the printer, but the editor and the first female Postmaster of Baltimore. (As she says in novel, “It does not take a man to organize the mail… I was already writing and publishing both the Maryland Journal and the Baltimore Advertiser, so why not know the post routes, too?”)

Postmasters in the colonies were paid by Congress, making Mary Katharine the first female federal employee of the newly formed United States. But by the end of 1776, problems in that new country were afoot.

Congress Had a Failing Army

Getting all the congressmen to sign a sole copy of a Declaration—while hiding their identities—was one thing. Ensuring troops stayed to fight was quite another. By January of 1777, the enlistments of soldiers who had joined in July of ’76 were nearly up. Their morale was severely down. Would you have stuck around after 6–8 months of marching, starving, and losing, or would you go home to tend your farm and eat?

Congress decided to admit “to a candid world” who the signers were. They put out the call to printers asking them to make a copy of the Declaration with all their names typeset so all those soldiers could see exactly who and what they were fighting for.

A Woman Volunteers

Enter Mary Katharine Goddard. In February of 1777, she volunteered her print shop in Baltimore to print documents, called broadsides. She used the font Caslon, which, ironically, was created in a type foundry in England. Two hundred copies were made and circulated among the states. To date, nine copies still exist.

Only one signer’s name does not appear on the Goddard broadside. That of Thomas McKean of Delaware. It’s believed that when Goddard printed these copies, the congressmen had yet to sign the original—further proof that the congressmen were not all together on August 2nd for the formal engrossing.

Although her name doesn’t appear on the original signed version of the Declaration, I still point to her when historians ignore women’s roles in the struggle for independence. Mary Katharine not only participated, she even had the wherewithal to typeset her own name on her copies, thereby inking herself into history.

The Smithsonian has a lovely article by Erick Trickey on Mary Katharine Goddard‘s life, background, and achievements.

Reader Insider Note: In order to make copies like the Goddard broadside, printers often worked alongside the original document. In my novel, my protagonist, Nathaniel, not only delivers the document, but stays to help Mary Katharine Goddard typeset the thing. To read how it was done, and to see the sparks fly between Postmistress and Post rider, you can get the book… (ahem—it’s just 99¢ all this week).

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Declaration of Independence Mistakes

June 13, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Founding-Documents Blog Series: Part Five

Between now and July 4th, my blog features an ongoing series related to the history and signing of the Declaration of Independence… Part one began here.

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While researching the Declaration for Carrying Independence, I came across a few unique things about the the document itself.

The Declaration is a Document With Mistakes

Timothy Matlack was hired to copy the text from Jefferson’s drafts onto the official document. He was responsible for the ink used for the text and the signers (see Part Four here), but in the copying, there were a couple mistakes.

As Kris Spisak wrote, when she was a guest on my blog in her article on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of an American Language, we often discuss the use of “unalienable” versus “inalienable.” Alison VanNest also wrote an article for Grammarly.com on the spelling and grammatical errors. She illustrates how some mistakes (the spelling of “Brittish” and “shewn”) are simply because of the usage at the time.

The Declaration was Later Corrected

Personally I love the two corrections that were made—some assume by Jefferson’s hand—after it was fully crafted. The word “representatives” was missing the “en” so that was penned in. The word “only” was inserted about ten lines up from the bottom into, “…our repeated Petitions have been answered only in repeated injury.” Cropped images of those sections are below (see the whole document close up here).

A Handprint on the Declaration

There is also a handprint is embedded into the paper in the bottom corner, possibly having seeped through from the back. The size is smaller, as if from the hand of a woman. It’s impossible to determine when it was set or to test for any traces that might result in a DNA examination without pulling up chunks of the actual document. So there it sits, an unknown shadow sealed forever in parchment.

Reader Insider Note: What’s more fun that an unknown piece of history like an inky handprint when you’re a fiction writer? Not much, so youbetchya… I had to scoop that up and provide a scenario for how it got there! No… I can’t tell you what that scenario is right now, but you can get the book… (ahem).

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Faded Ink Informs 1776 History

June 4, 2019 By Karen A. Chase

Founding-Documents Blog Series: Part Four

Between now and July 4th, my blog features an ongoing series related to the history and signing of the Declaration of Independence…

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Evidence to Support An Incomplete Declaration of Independence

My novel, Carrying Independence, as covered in Part One, is fiction supported by the fact that not all 56 congressmen were in the same room on August 2nd, 1776 to affix their signatures to the Declaration. Two factors contributed to my being assured that there were men missing from that formal signing.

Ink Fades Based on the “Recipe”

“Timothy Matlack, a revolutionary leader and one of the official scribes of the Declaration of Independence, copied the official document,” writes Kelly Dickerson for LiveScience.com. “[The delegates] signed it in iron ink, which is made with an acidic chemical compound that bleeds into parchment. The staining makes the ink last longer.”

There was one batch of ink made for one hand-made silver inkwell holding the one pen used by 49 congressmen assembling in the one room at the State House on August 2nd, 1776. The subsequent signers used whatever ink was on hand—some of which are different recipes than Timothy Matlack’s. Those signatures have faded differently.

A Woman Proves the Last Signer of the Declaration

In Part Three of this series, I noted that Thomas McKean was the last man to sign the document. For proof, enter Mary Katharine Goddard (more on her in the next post).

In 1777, Congress decided to typeset a copy of the Declaration that included all the names of the signers. ALL their names. But it doesn’t.

Goddard volunteered to make the copies (shown above) in her print shop. Just like other printers, when she reproduced large documents it was customary to build the printing plates (text inserted, one letter at a time, into metal frames) with the original document before her for comparison.

She would read, and then she or an employee (a composer) would type-set that line. “When in the course of human events…” Type-set. “…it becomes necessary for one people…” Type-set. All the way down to the signatures. “John Hancock…” Type-set. “Thomas Jefferson…” Type-set.

In January of 1777, she completed 200 copies. One name, based on one signature, is missing. Thomas McKean.

Reader Insider Notes: The Goddard Broadside (of which, to date, 9 still exist) helped fix my time frame for inserting McKean into the novel. Also, when you discover a fact in history that suggests the very document your fictional protagonist, Nathaniel, is carrying ended up in the print shop of an historical figure… well, what would you do? Put him there working alongside her, of course! Here, an excerpt from the chapter informed by the research:

“So long as the document stays, so do you. I have to follow the original to replicate it exactly, and I was told your being here should be hush-hush.” Mary Katharine waggled the apron at Nathaniel, and he [reluctantly] took it from her. “Also, my pressman is ill, and my best type composer joined the Cause last week. It must be you.”

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For behind-the-scenes author-related news, giveaways, and to find out where I might be speaking near you, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.