My Time At The American Antiquarian Society
I enjoyed my time being a 2024 Hearst Fellow of AAS. I learned a lot, especially that the AAS library is a jewel, and has so much in terms of sources. My main goals were to learn more about poor houses, or poor farms, what the Spiritual movement is, and Harriet E. Wilson’s role in it.
All goals were achieved.
I still have to do some research on the poor farm that Harriet was on, Hillsborough Poor Farm, but still, from the sources I had access to at the AAS library, I understand what the poor house or poor farm is, what the genesis of them were, and who lived in these institutions. A book from AAS did shed a lot of light on these areas. That will be beneficial to an aspect that I am writing about, for one of the novels, that is part of the trilogy about Harriet E. Wilson.
One of the things that stood out to me, was a primary source that showed Wilson being elected as Leader of the Lake group, part of the Children’s Lyceum #1, the first organization that focused on the education of children, whose parents were part of that movement. I did look at other items in the library, that I know will be useful in the writing of the trilogy – but as I mentioned before, the three goals I had, from the beginning, were achieved.
With learning more about poor houses/farms, and the Spiritualism movement, including what Harriet E. Wilson’s role was, I did get a lot more clarity and understanding. All of this was achieved by reading books at the wonderful AAS library. The specialists, the curators, and all the other library staff were helpful.