These Student Notes accompany the 2024 edition of ‘US Politics Today’, an exciting learning programme that takes place each November for students of A-level Politics.  

Former Members of the US House of Representatives – one Democrat, one Republican – share reflections from their direct experience at the heart of Washington D.C., and discuss the latest trends and events with leading academics. These conferences and events offer students the chance to hear some of the critical questions and issues in US politics come alive and leap out of the textbook, and support classroom work on key topics in A-level US Politics courses, including sessions on The Presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court, and Elections and Democracy. 

This year, former Members of Congress Cheri Bustos (D-IL, 2013-2023) and Bob Dold (R-IL, 2011-2013; 2015-2017) shared their experiences and insights of lawmaking and representing two very different congressional districts in Illinois – together with their interpretations of the Republicans’ triumph in the general election.  

Professor Andrew Moran, Rep. Bob Dold and Rep. Cheri Bustos at the British Library, 22 November 2024.

If you would like access to catch-up recordings of the conference which took place at the British Library on Friday 22 November 2024, including academic presentations and Q&As with the Former Members of Congress, please email [email protected]. Please also get in touch if you would like to register your interest in bringing a class to the live events in London in 2025. 

Student Notes 

Professor Philip Davies: The Party Political Balance in Washington

Professor Josephine Harmon: Congress

Professor Andrew Moran: The Presidency

Dr Emma Long: The Supreme Court

Other Links and Resources 

Cheri Bustos recalls the events of 6 January 2021: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/03/january-6-capitol-riot-house-democrats-525975 

CNN’s updated data on the general election: 

https://edition.cnn.com/election/2024/results/president?election-data-id=2024-PG&election-painting-mode=projection-with-lead&filter-key-races=false&filter-flipped=false&filter-remaining=false 

Congress to Campus is organized by the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania, in collaboration with the USAFMC and with the support of the US Embassy, London.

Country music is certainly having a moment this year. Beyoncé surprised everyone by dropping Cowboy Carter, intentionally disrupting the racial politics of Americana. Orville Peck's interrogation of the genre's sexual and gender politics has crossed over into the mainstream. And a singer named Taylor, who started her career as a teen on Music Row in Nashville, has taken over the world. What are we to make of this country music moment? What does it tell us about the USA's understanding of itself and its culture? And is it going to last? Join us, members of the British Associate for American Studies and a panel of superfans and pop-culture experts (detailed below) to discuss more later this month. 

Why Country Music Conquered the World in 2024 takes place at the British Library, London, on Thursday 28 November 2024. Book your ticket today. 

On the panel will be:

Rachel Sykes: an Associate Professor in Contemporary Literature and Culture at the University of Birmingham, where they lead courses in gender and sexuality studies and popular culture. Their work focuses on confession in contemporary culture and recently published (separate) articles on ‘hot’ priests, Princess Diana, and confessional pop music.

Jon Ward: a Lecturer in Race and Diversity Studies at King’s College London. His research and teaching generally focuses on representations of the body in visual, literary, and popular culture. His recent work examines “misremembrance” of racialized histories and coloniality in popular culture, and the figure of the “White Saviour” in US popular film.

Robyn Shooter: a Ph.D. candidate in English and American Studies at King’s College London. Her current research examines the role of (post-)genre classifications, gender representation, and community formations in the establishment and reception of Americana music (1960 to Present).

Claire Hurley: a lecturer in American and 20th century Literature at the University of Kent. She teaches modules on race, gender and sexuality, with a special interest in Black feminism. She has a chapter in the recently published Bloomsbury collection, The Literary Taylor Swift and organised a conference on Taylor Swift entitled ‘F**k the Patriarchy’ in May this year.

Listen to our event playlist on Spotify: Cowboy Carter to Taylormania!

Beyonce Cowboy Carter Billboard on April 6, 2024 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Photo by Barry King/Alamy Stock Photo

When we hear stories of long, hot summers, decayed and grotesque settings, and flawed or troubled characters – do we think Southern Gothic literature or 21st-century country music? Themes of social climate, gender identity, and sexuality can certainly be seen in both. For those interested in exploring representations of the Southern Gothic, particularly through a lens examining contemporary racial and gender stereotypes, the Library holds Kara Walker’s Freedom: A Fable (RF.2017.a.46). Featuring Walker’s famous silhouettes, the short story tells of a woman granted emancipation from slavery but who can never escape oppression and discrimination; the book speaks directly to the persistence of negative stereotypes that emerged in performances, novels, and artworks of the 18th and 19th centuries in America.  

The artistic reinventions of Taylor Swift may have changed over the course of the last 18 years but to revisit her country era beginnings, the Library holds an early edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Gothic Romance The Scarlet Letter (12704.f.15.), published by Ticknor, Reed & Fields in Boston, Massachusetts in 1850. Telling the story of a young woman outcast from society after an illicit affair, the novel is one of the many intertextual references mentioned by the Swift in her songwriting, in this case, 2008’s Love Story. When Swift re-recorded the song in 2021, it marked her eighth number 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.  

Lana Del Rey’s country album Lasso is set for release in 2025 so it seems an apt time to nod to the Americana that has inspired her creative practice. From A Streetcar Named Desire to the Beats via 150+ years of Walt Whitman; all can be found in various forms at the Library. Along with a first edition of Leaves of Grass, published anonymously in 1855 (C.58.g.4) the Library also holds this place / this hour (2019)*, an accordion-fold artists’ book commemorating the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth. Created by Brooklyn-based artist Anne Gilman, the book combines Gilman's own writings with related quotes from Whitman’s works and is a fascinating contemporary interpretation of a piece of classic Southern American literature.  

New Directions front cover for A Streetcar Named Desire, designed by Alvin Lustig, BL shelfmark: YA.1996.b.5800, and Pictures of the Gone World (Fifth Printing) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1955) BL shelfmark 011313.t.3/1.

 

First edition of Leaves of Grass, BL shelfmark: C.58.g.4

Remember it’s free to get a Reader Pass from the British Library and access materials in London and at our Reading Room in Yorkshire.   

“America Now!” is a new series of live events exploring the current state of the USA and its place in the world. See the full events programme on See Tickets and read about the season launch in our blog from September 2024.

*Shelfmarking of this item has been delayed due to the Library’s cyber-attack in 2023; we hope to make it available to Readers as soon as possible. 

America Now! is organised by the Eccles Institute and BAAS, and supported by the US Embassy London.

After a year’s hiatus, the Eccles Institute is delighted to announce that the Visiting Fellowship programme will be back for 2025-26. 

The lingering effects of last October’s cyber-attack on the British Library’s services mean that we are having to change elements of the programme this year, and we have developed some expedients and workarounds to support the application process.  

However, the central mission and purpose of the Visiting Fellowship programme remains the same – if you are working on any kind of fascinating and significant project about the Americas (the peoples and lands of Canada, the USA, the Caribbean, and Central and South America) that would be transformed by a few weeks of using the British Library’s collections, we urge you to apply. 

We’ve outlined a fairly comprehensive Q&A about the Fellowship programme and the application process below, but if you have any further questions please email [email protected].  

The deadline for receipt of completed applications via our online form is 17.00 GMT on Friday 20 December 2024. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application in late March, and Fellowships can be taken up after 1 April 2025. 

What is the Fellowship Programme? 

The Eccles Institute Visiting Fellowship offers funding for researchers working on the Americas across the arts, humanities and social sciences, to spend some time with the British Library’s collections in London.  

Visiting Fellows will join an exciting community of writers, thinkers and makers working across academic and creative disciplines and boundaries. We expect Fellows to be largely self-directed and independent in conducting their research in the Library’s Reading Rooms, but there will be opportunities to access enhanced curatorial support where necessary, and to present ideas at workshops and events. 

What support does the Fellowship offer? 

Fellows are given financial stipends intended to support at least 3 weeks research at the British Library in London. 

The amount of funding depends on where the Fellow is travelling from.  

The current stipends levels are: 

• The UK (Within the M25): £1,000  
• The UK (Beyond the M25): £2,000  
• Europe (incl. Eire)*: £2,500  
• Rest of World: £3,000 

Fellows are expected to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. We also cannot arrange for or guarantee any necessary travel documentation to the UK (such as visas), but we will, where possible and appropriate, provide written documentation to support Fellows’ visa applications.    

We do not currently have a distance or remote-working version of the Fellowship available, but we hope to develop this option in the coming the years.  

Who is eligible to apply? 

Anyone over the age of 18 years old, from anywhere in the world, can apply. If you are interested in the Americas, we are interested in you.

What projects are eligible? 

The Eccles Institute Visiting Fellowship supports innovative and exciting use of the British Library’s collections to ask questions about the past, present and future of the Americas.  

This could be original academic research leading to a doctoral dissertation, journal article or scholarly monograph. It could also be part of the research and development for new creative work in fiction, poetry, music, dance, theatre, art, design, and everything in between. 

You can see some examples of the kinds of researchers and projects that we have supported in the past on our blog. 

There are three themes that we are particularly excited to explore through the Eccles Institute Visiting Fellowship. Please note that you do not have to apply with one of these themes in mind, however, and you will not stand a greater or lesser chance of success by applying with an ‘Open Submission’. 

Americans Beyond the Americas
This theme seeks to flip the script on prevailing narratives which define the Americas by inbound migration – of invading armies, of free settlers, of bonded and enslaved workers. Not only can such narratives erase the vitality of Indigenous presences before, during and after such waves of migration, but they can also encourage insular perspectives on the Americas which ignore the significance of Americans’ movement and action in the world. This theme invites researchers to consider how various American experiences and identities have been forged through military and colonial enterprise, travel and tourism, emigration and exile, to lands beyond the Americas.

American Environments
This theme seeks to support researchers exploring the role of the environment and the natural world in the making of the Americas, and their futures. Environmental humanities has been one of the most dynamic intellectual fields to emerge over the past generation, and we are excited to support researchers asking new questions of the British Library’s collections from an eco-perspective . The Centre has recently supported researchers investigating ecological change in eighteenth-century Barbuda; the colonial origins of climate change in Canada through King George III’s topographical drawings; and an artist exploring the relationships between pigments and dyes and Jamaican identity. We also very much welcome projects that will apply eco-critical methodologies and insights to the Library’s literary collections, and which use collections such as the Library’s newspaper and government document collections to trace the development of environmental thought and policies in the Americas.

Religion and Spirituality in the Americas 
The British Library has an outstanding collection of sacred texts and objects which bear witness to religious encounters and experiences in the Americas. Many of these items - the Library’s collections of Bibles and Psalters in Indigenous American languages, for instance - are not only of historic importance but are also highly contested items. This theme invites researchers to interrogate the British Library’s collections and ask often difficult questions about the role of religion and spirituality in the making of the Americas. The Centre has supported a number of projects in American religious studies, including studies of enslaved Africans’ spirituality in North America; Muslim identity and the Nation of Islam in twentieth-century Jamaica; and Indigenous spirituality at the Guyana-Venezuela borderlands.

Although the Eccles Institute curates, researches and promotes the British Library’s Americas and Oceania collections, only projects that foreground the Americas or American experiences are currently eligible for support through the Visiting Fellowship programme. We plan to expand the scope of the programme to include Oceania over the coming years. 

How do I apply? 

Applications open on Monday 14 October 2024, and the deadline is 17.00 GMT on Friday 20 December 2024. 

Because of the impact of the cyber-attack on our catalogues and retrieval systems, we ask that applicants give detailed information about what they would like to consult if they are successful, as well as telling us about their wider project and plans for their work. 

As well as some questions about their disciplinary background and training, applicants will be asked to complete four sections about their project on the form: 

• A description of the topic or question they would like to research during their Eccles Institute Visiting Fellowship at the British Library. (400 words) 
• An indication of which kinds of material they would like to focus on during your Fellowship (e.g. Newspapers, Modern and Contemporary Printed Books)
• A list of up to ten representative collection items, with Reference Numbers. Please see the answer to Question 6 for more information about searching the British Library’s collections.  
• A description of what applicants hope to learn through using these and other research resources of the British Library. (300 words) 
• An account of what you hope to do with your research. This might include plans for a publication, a performance or exhibition, or a chapter in a thesis. We are particularly interested in suggestions for how your work might inspire non-specialists or non-experts to learn more about the Americas and use the British Library. (300 words) 
• Only applications made using the online form will be accepted, and we will not look at any late submissions. We do not require references or samples of work for the application.  

How do I search the British Library’s collections? 

The majority of the Library's collection, including Printed Books, Journals, Newspapers and Magazines, and Maps, can be searched using our online interim catalogue. Applicants are strongly encouraged to look at the latest tips and advice from the British Library about how best to use the interim catalogue.  

If you wish to use Archives and Manuscript collections or Sound and Vision collections (neither of which have publicly available online catalogues currently), you can, if you wish, request a ten-minute conversation with someone from the British Library. They will then conduct a short search on your behalf and then send you, where possible, a list of relevant collection items for your consideration and potential inclusion in your application. For more information, please click here. 

Please only request a conversation with a member of the Eccles Institute team if you want support in exploring our Archives and Manuscript and Sound and Vision collections.   

The deadline to request a consultation is 17.00 GMT on Friday 6 December 2024. The deadline for consultations to take place is 17.00 GMT on Friday 13 December 2024. 

There are a range of other research guides, bibliographies and handbooks that offer insight into the British Library’s holdings (including Eccles bibliographies and the Americas and Oceania blog) that are available online, at the British Library, or in other major research libraries. 

*‘Europe’ here is taken to include Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia), Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Vatican City (Holy See)

Launching on Tuesday 24 September 2024, “America Now!” is a new series of live events exploring the current state of the USA and its place in the world. Book your free tickets and see the full programme on See Tickets.  

Times Square, New York, showing US flag

 

In a world of hot takes these discussions will offer some much-needed deep dives, giving expert insight into some of the most pressing or peculiar aspects of modern American life - from the Supreme Court to Cowboy Carter. 
 
Organised by the British Association for American Studies and the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania, “America Now!" takes place every other month in the British Library Knowledge Centre. 

Ahead of the first event, we took to the collections to share some suggestions of what can be found in the Americas holdings at the British Library which speak to the first topic we’ll be discussing: The Supreme Court.  

Courting controversy: What’s the Deal with the US Supreme Court? 

Tuesday 24 September 2024 | 18.30-19.30 

Book your tickets

From reversing the constitutional right to have an abortion to boosting the power of the President, the US Supreme Court has been making some headline-grabbing decisions over the past few years. With its judgments also potentially reshaping other major issues including gun control, environmental protections, and Indigenous tribal sovereignty, it seems we need to talk about the conservatism of the Supreme Court. How have we got here, and how will the court’s impact be felt on the ground for everyday Americans?   

Who sits on the Supreme Court? What are their backgrounds and specialisms that shape their interests and priorities in making decisions that impact a superpower like the USA? Consult this online resource, via US Federal Government Documents: The nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, to find out more about the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. While Being Brown: Sonia Sotomayor and the Latino Question (YC.2021.a.45) tells the story of the country’s first Latina Supreme Court Associate Justice’s rise to the pinnacle of American public life at a moment of profound demographic and political transformation. 

Official photograph of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson taken by Supreme Court Photographer Fred Schilling, 2022 and Being Brown picture from: https://impactolatino.com/la-jueza-latina-de-la-corte-suprema-sonia-sotomayor-inspira-un-libro-puntual/

Primary source ephemera documenting historical movements in America relating to gun control, abortion laws and environmental protections are also available in the collections to unpack these very relevant and ongoing topics. For example:  

• a broadsheet by the People to Abolish Abortion Laws demonstrating against New York State Abortion Laws (YD.2014.b.915). This campaign poster, including the name of Betty Friedan, called for the repeal of all laws restricting abortion in the 1970s 
• an interesting and illustrated 70s women's guide on self-defense can be seen in The woman's gun pamphlet: a primer on handguns, 1975 (RF.2018.a.2015).

Demonstrate Against n.y. state Abortion Laws broadsheet and The Women’s Gun Pamphlet by and for women, photo courtesy of Ulysses Books/Michael L. Muilenberg, Bookseller

And here are the event speakers’ ‘must read’ books, articles, and resources for anyone who's appetite for further exploration of the topic is whetted by the talk.  

Dr. Ilaria Di Gioia, an academic with expertise in the American Constitution, American federalism and intergovernmental relations at Birmingham City University, recommends:  

• Jeffrey Toobin, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Doubleday, 1st Ed., c2007), BL shelfmark: m07/.33898 

• Stephen Breyer, The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics (Harvard University Press, 2021)

• Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong, The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (Simon and Schuster, c1979), BL shelfmark: 80/11640

Dr. Emma Long, Associate Professor in American History and Politics at UEA, recommends:  

• SCOTUSBlog - arguably the single best online resource for studying the Court - largely written for those with some knowledge of the Court and its work, it's the best resource for keeping up with what the Court is doing and what people are saying about it 

• National Constitution Center - not just about the Court, but about the broader role of the Constitution in American politics and society - runs an incredible programme of events, podcasts, and discussions (almost all available online) that are designed from all levels from primary school to professorial 

• Linda Greenhouse, The US Supreme Court: A Very Short History (Oxford University Press, 2nd Ed., 2020) - a good, short introduction to how the Court works from the former New York Times' Court reporter 

• David O'Brien, Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics (W.W. Norton & Co., 2020) - available in multiple editions, one of the best academic introductions to the Court (previous editions in BL holdings available)

Dr. Mitch Robertson, Lecturer in US History at UCL, recommends:    

• Geoffrey Stone and David Strauss, Democracy and Equality: The Enduring Constitutional Vision of the Warren Court (Oxford University Press, 2020), BL shelfmark: YC.2022.a.1168

• Mary Ziegler, Roe: The History of a National Obsession (Yale University Press, 2023)

• J. W. Peltason, Fifty-eight Lonely Men: Southern Federal Judges and School Desegregation (University of Illinois Press, 1971), BL shelfmarks: X6/2646, W55/6339

• Anthony Lewis, Gideon's Trumpet (Random House, 1964), BL shelfmark: W28/9549

• Slow Burn: Roe v. Wade (podcast series) 

Some of these titles haven't hit the British Library's shelves yet but they should be available in other major libraries. Find items in libraries near you via WorldCat. 

Please note: we're continuing to experience a major technology outage as a result of a cyber-attack. Our Reading Rooms in London and Yorkshire are open, but access to our collection and online resources is limited. Visit our website for full details of what is currently accessible. 

Stay tuned for further blogs with reading lists related to “America Now!”, and book your tickets for Why Country Music Conquered the World in 2024 on Thursday 28 November and The Inauguration of a New President: Where Will American Politics Go From Here? on Tuesday 23 January 2025. Details of events for the rest of 2025 will be announced later this year. If you have any suggestions of topics that you’d like to see discussed, please email [email protected] with ‘America Now!’ in the subject line. 

America Now! is organised by the Eccles Institute and BAAS, and supported by the US Embassy London.

Weiao Xing (PhD in History, University of Cambridge, 2023, @WeiaoX) is a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the Global Encounters Platform and Institute of Modern History, University of Tübingen in Germany. He works on cultural and literary history in early modern English-Indigenous and French-Indigenous encounters and was a 2022 Eccles Institute Visiting Fellow at the British Library.

Among the items I consulted at the British Library as an Eccles Institute Visiting Fellow was a 215-folio manuscript entitled ‘State papers of John Thurloe, Secretary of State, 1650–1658’ (Add MS4156).¹ Its compiler, John Thurloe, made use of his intelligence network across Europe, playing a pivotal role in domestic politics and foreign affairs during the Interregnum (1649–1660).² Within the manuscript, on its second folio, rests a copy of a letter that has traversed the Atlantic. Dated 2 October 1651, the original letter was sent from Oliver Cromwell to John Cotton, the esteemed pastor of the Boston church in New England. ‘I receaued yours a few days sithence’ [sic], as Cromwell commenced his letter in a continuing dialogue, the circulation of texts intertwined political and religious circumstances in England and New England.

This letter concisely conveyed the prevailing political situation in England. Just one month prior to its writing, the Battle of Worcester, a major event at the end of the English Civil War (1642–1651), witnessed the Parliamentarians defeating a predominantly Scottish Royalist force led by Charles II. In his letter, Cromwell celebrated this victory with Cotton – when Charles II and his ‘malignant party’ invaded England, ‘the Lord rained upon them such snares’.³ Moreover, Cromwell earnestly sought religious support from Cotton, emphasising the need for prayers ‘as much as ever’ given the recent successes, or ‘such mercies’ in his own words. This letter affirms Cotton’s interest in English politics and his significance among Puritans in England during the Interregnum.⁴

The transatlantic movement of texts and individuals unveils intricate connections within the political and religious realms of England and New England. In the summer of 1651, five Massachusetts ministers, including John Cotton, corresponded with their fellow ministers in England.⁵ They defended the embargo placed by the colony’s General Court on a theological book entitled The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption […], authored by William Pynchon, one of the founding figures of the colony.⁶ Pynchon had managed to publish and sell his book in London in 1650 while residing in the colony. At the British Library, a copy of this work, annotated with ‘June 2d’, is under the shelf-marked E.606.(3.). It was acquired from ‘Thomason Tracts’, a collection of imprints dated from 1640 to 1661, curated by the London-based bookseller George Thomason (c. 1602–1666). The provenance of this copy suggests that Pynchon’s work, albeit heretical in New England, entered the intellectual spheres amid the political upheaval in England. Facing religious tensions and sanctions, Pynchon relocated to England in 1652 and continued publishing books that reflected his theological views. Pynchon to some extent maintained his ‘New England’ identity; he identified himself as ‘late of New England’ in his The Meritorious Price reprinted in 1655.⁷

Between the 1640s and the 1660s, a convergence of political, religious, and economic motives prompted numerous English settlers in New England to return home. While this statement articulated by William Sachse in 1948 holds merit, it does not fully alter the prevalent presumption of seventeenth-century transatlantic migrations as one-way journeys from Europe to the Americas.⁸ Many returnees from New England embarked on careers in England while maintaining their transatlantic connections. Sir George Downing exemplifies this pattern. As an ambassador in the Hague from 1657 to 1665, he facilitated England’s acquisition of New Amsterdam from Dutch settlers – in 1642, he had previously graduated from Harvard College in its inaugural graduate cohort.⁹  The tapestry of transatlantic migration is also woven from ordinary lives. In the prologue of her monograph Pilgrims, Susan Moore zooms in on Susanna Bell (d. 1672), an English merchant’s wife who crossed the Atlantic twice. Bell’s testimony, published in London upon her death, encapsulates her experiences, rhetoric, and mentalities.¹⁰

Fig. 1: Egerton MS 2519, folios 10 and 11.

Within the British Library’s holdings, a myriad of manuscripts unfolds stories of texts and individuals crossing the Atlantic. Egerton MS 2519, for instance, encompasses correspondence and papers of Samuel Desborough (or Disbrowe), who assumed the role of the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland from 1657 onwards.¹¹ Desborough, after setting off for New England in 1639 and settling in Guilford, New Haven, returned to England in 1650 amid the Civil War before relocating to Scotland.¹² In this manuscript, on folios 10 and 11, a letter dated 1654 from Guilford by William Leete appears (see Fig. 1).¹³ Leete, who would later become the governor of New Haven and Connecticut colonies, shared recent affairs in New England with Desborough, particularly his operation of Desborough’s colonial estate and several settlers who returned to England. This letter epitomises multiple connections between New England and England, ranging from personal careers and businesses to colonial affairs. As Moore suggests, it underscores the ‘delicate relation’ between those who remained in the settlements and those who returned to England.¹⁴ Additionally, as the letter tells, Desborough had addressed Cromwell, expressing his concern about potential threats from the Dutch on the settlement. Therefore, such transatlantic movements of texts and individuals repositioned overseas affairs of New England within the scope of domestic and European politics.

For the New Englanders who made the voyage back to England during the mid-seventeenth century, their ‘American’ identities were ill-defined as they ‘returned’ to their careers and lives in England, but many maintained connections with the settlements. Their experiences, in both New England and England, contribute to our comprehension of their engagement in and perceptions of transatlantic travels, mobility, Puritanism, colonisation, and English politics.

Notes

1. John Thurloe, ‘State Papers of John Thurloe, Secretary of State, 1650–1658 (Especially 1654–1655)’ (1658), Add MS 4156, British Library, https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_4156.
2. Timothy Venning, ‘Thurloe, John (Bap. 1616, d. 1668)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/27405.
3. In his letter, Cromwell enclosed a short narrative (possibly available on 26 September), see C. H. Firth and R. S. Rait, eds., ‘Table of Acts: 1651’, in Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660 (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1911), British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/lxxxii-lxxxvii.
4. John Cotton, The Correspondence of John Cotton, ed. Sargent Bush (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 458–61.
5. Cotton, 454–58.
6. William Pynchon, The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, Iustification, &c. Cleering It from Some Common Errors (London: Printed by J.M. for George Whittington, and James Moxon, and are to be sold at the blue Anchor in Corn-hill neer the Royall Exchange, 1650); Michael P. Winship, ‘Contesting Control of Orthodoxy among the Godly: William Pynchon Reexamined’, The William and Mary Quarterly 54, no. 4 (1997): 795–822.
7. William Pynchon, A Farther Discussion of That Great Point in Divinity the Sufferings of Christ (The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption [...]) (London: Printed for the Author, and are to bee sold at the Signe of the three Lyons in Corn-hill, over against the Conduit, 1655).
8. William L. Sachse, ‘The Migration of New Englanders to England, 1640–1660’, The American Historical Review 53, no. 2 (1948): 1640–1660.
9. Jonathan Scott, ‘Downing, Sir George, First Baronet (1623–1684)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7981.
10. Susan Hardman Moore, Pilgrims: New World Settlers & the Call of Home (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 1–15; Susanna Bell, The Legacy of a Dying Mother to Her Mourning Children Being the Experiences of Mrs. Susanna Bell, Who Died March 13, 1672 (London: Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock, Senior and Junior at the three Bibles in Popes-Head Alley in Cornhill, 1673).
11. Samuel Desborough, ‘Correspondence and Papers of Samuel Disbrowe, or Desborough, of Elsworth, Co. Cambridge, Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, 1651/2–1660’ (1660), Egerton MS 2519, British Library, http://searcharchives.bl.uk/permalink/f/1r5koim/IAMS032-001983482.
12. Susan Hardman Moore, Abandoning America: Life-Stories from Early New England (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2013), 90–91.
13. Bruce P. Stark, ‘Leete, Williamunlocked (1613–16 April 1683)’, in American National Biography, 2000, https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0100511.
14. Hardman Moore, Abandoning America, 91.

 

 Join two former Members of the US Congress and leading academics in a lively and bipartisan discussion of major themes in contemporary American politics. 

President Joe Biden, joined by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and their children Ashley Biden and Hunter Biden, takes the oath of office as President of the United States Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

 

What is ‘US Politics Today’ 

This is an exciting opportunity for Year 12 and 13 students of A-level Politics to hear some of the critical questions and issues in US politics come alive and leap out of the textbook, as two former Members of the US House of Representatives – one Democrat, one Republican – share reflections from their direct experience at the heart of Washington D.C. 

Discussing the latest trends and events with leading academics, this day-long conference supports classroom work on key topics in A-level US Politics courses, including sessions on The Presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court, and Elections and Democracy. 

When is it? 

Monday 18 November | 10.30-15.30 (In-person only) 

Friday 22 November | 10.30-15.30 (In-person and Online) 

How can my school take part? 

Schools can attend either In Person at the British Library Knowledge Centre in St Pancras (£15 per attendee, to cover the cost of refreshments) or Online (free). 

To register your interest in bringing a class In Person: Please email [email protected] with the subject ‘US Politics Today: In Person’, specifying which date you would like to come (Monday 18 November or Friday 22 November) and how many people (students and teachers) would like to come. Applications close at 5pm on Friday 4 October and schools will be notified on Tuesday 8 October. School places will be allocated by ballot. 

To register your interest in participating Online: Schools can watch the session on Friday 22 November live online, and ask questions to the Former Members of Congress either in advance or through the viewing platform. Please email [email protected] with the subject ‘US Politics Today: Online’, and you will be sent a link nearer the time.  

There are also events with the Former Members of Congress in Norwich and Leicester during the week of 18 November. If you would like more information about these, please email [email protected] with the subject ‘US Politics Today: Norwich/Leicester’ (as appropriate). 

Marina Delfos Harris is a native Jamaican and community historian; she was a 2023 Eccles Institute Visiting Fellow at the British Library. 

Jamaica’s Jewish heritage has intrigued me for over 20 years and was the focus of my Master’s Thesis at the London Metropolitan University back in 2005. Over the last 12 years, I have become more involved in researching and preserving this rich heritage, particularly through Jewish cemeteries. However, this work has been mainly voluntary and not as consistent as I would have liked. Two years ago, I made a commitment to myself to find a way to dedicate the rest of my working life to what I consider a vital, albeit forgotten aspect of Jamaican history and culture. 

Lifelong learning is a thing, a thing so powerful that we underestimate its importance when it comes to mature students and researchers who can contribute to world knowledge in powerful ways. The Eccles Institute for the Americas supports this concept of lifelong learning. Their Visiting Fellowships offer a brilliant opportunity for independent researchers such as me to engage in original research at a world-class institution. They are especially beneficial to those of us who need that jumpstart to further our research.   

In applying for the Fellowship my goal was and is still to expand our knowledge of Jamaica’s Jewish history so that the overall historical narrative of Jamaica can be more inclusive and accurate. One of the ways I wanted to pursue this goal was to start filling in the gaps in original community records that have been destroyed by fire, hurricanes and earthquakes on the island over the last three and a half centuries. The collection of Jewish cemetery archives that remain in Jamaica has, like many other historic cemeteries around the world, been compromised by vandalism and neglect. Yet, what I discovered while in London, was that Jamaica’s oldest Jewish cemetery, the 17th century Hunts Bay burial ground, has a much larger percentage of legible tombstones than the oldest Jewish cemetery in the UK, the 17th-century Velho ‘Old Cemetery’ established by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London’s East End. What this realization reinforced for me was that the work that my colleagues and I do through the Jamaican Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Fund (JJCPF), has value and that the documentation we are creating is significant. My research findings at the British Library will supplement this work and contribute to a repository that other researchers and genealogists can access. 

Initially my research plan was focused on searching for maps confirming the locations of Jewish cemeteries in Jamaica, plus scanning for death announcements in newspapers and other publications. I spent my first week in Maps Reading Room and and had assumed there must be detailed plans of the key port towns like Port Royal and the old Capital of St. Jago de La Vega (Spanish Town) as Jamaica was a former British colony, and a significant one at that in the 18th century. Frustratingly this was not the case. I found maps of interest but not that “aha!” moment I had expected. But this is research, as one of the other Fellows commiserated with the rest of us at one of our bi-monthly Researchers Packed Lunch.  

C.E. Goad, Insurance Plan of Kingston, 1894. British Library shelfmark: 145.b.3(5.)

From there I moved on to the Newsroom where I could have spent my entire four weeks! The data was rich and broad and my plan to scan only for obituaries quickly went out the window. I was giddy with excitement when I found numerous references to the Jewish population: business ads, court cases, gaol lists, juror lists, lists of passengers departing and arriving, and committee memberships. One page of ads from the 19 February 1840 edition of The St. Jago De La Vega Gazette, for example, mentions the following Jamaican Jews: Depass, Dias, Spyers and Sanguinetti - Liquor Licenses; Deleon and Lyon - Tavern Licenses; Lyon, Fuertado and Sanguinetti – Goods for Sale; De LaMotta – Deputy Marshall’s Office; Court Cases – Moss vs Lazarus and Levison vs Lyon. 

St. Jago De La Vega Gazette, 19 February 1840. British Library shelfmark: MFM.MMisc1070 

Scanning microfilm was tedious but rewarding. One of the bits of helpful advice I received before I embarked on my Fellowship, was to gather as much information as possible while I was there and save the analyzing for later. The ability to scan and email a newspaper page from microfilm allowed me this luxury and is one of the best tools offered by the British Library. 

The final two weeks of my research were dedicated to the Manuscripts and Rare Books Reading Rooms. This is when I started to hone my research skills and build confidence with my approach to the materials. I became more adept at sifting through documents to determine what information was valuable and what wasn’t. It was essential to get a feel of what else was held within the various collections at the British Library, as undoubtedly there are treasures to be discovered in the most obscure of manuscripts. It could be a telling entry in meticulously kept government records, or a sentence that gives pause, challenging what you thought you understood. My research also benefited from access to online journals during my Fellowship.  Jstor is an incredible resource that connected me with multiple articles and references to Jamaica’s Jewish community.  

One of my finds The Natural, Moral and Political History of Jamaica... by James Knight, included commentary on Jamaica’s Jews; some of which was derogatory. The ‘List of Landowners in Jamaica etc. about 1750’ was a gem of a record, however, and I was surprised to see the number of Jews who owned land, many of them occupying over 500 acres.  It will be constructive comparing it to the ‘List of Jewish Persons Endenizened and Naturalized 1609-1799' compiled by Samuel, Barnett & Diamond that I viewed on Jstor, as 141 Jews were naturalized in Jamaica during the period 1741-1751. 

All in all, I collected a significant amount of information, although at the time I thought I hadn’t, and it has taken me several weeks to compile and label 48 pages of typed notes and tables, 94 pages of newspaper scans, 43 images of maps and 69 images of manuscripts and books.  There were many maps and documents that didn’t reveal anything useful, but for me the absence of information is just as telling as the presence of information.   

My role now, as I see it, is to analyze, write and present my findings, add to the knowledge base and continue research. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity that the Eccles Institute Fellowship offered me and the sense of purpose it gave me to continue with my goal of learning and sharing research about Jamaican Jewish history. 

As I reflect on my Fellowship and the data I collected, I am encouraged by Heidi Kaufman’s “Strangers in the Archive,” where she asserts that archives have the power to shape and produce meaning, and in turn, I believe, to reframe marginalized narratives like that of Jamaica’s Jewish community. 

  

 

Jean Renel Pierre Louis (aka Prensnelo) is a Haitian-Grenadian artist and was a 2023 Eccles Centre Visiting Fellow at the British Library. 

I came to the British Library as an Eccles Visiting Fellow in July 2023 to research and unravel Haitian stories within the Library’s collection. My objective was to find inspiration for a new series of artworks, drawing strength from both my own recollections of the 2010 earthquake and the profound spirituality that defines Haitian existence and resilience. 

Hispaniola – named in 1492 by Christopher Columbus and split between French and Spanish control – over time became the distinct entities of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Opening and unrolling maps created between 1564 and 1794 revealed the evolving contours of this shared landmass and was very emotional for me. The many changes to the border separating the two nations shows a history of changing plot lines and its impact on the Haitian psyche. Varying spellings of Haiti and other place names which still exist, including those that were new to me, also caught my attention.  

Isle of San Domingo or Hispaniola. London: Printed for William Faden, 1794. British Library shelfmark: Maps K.Top.123.36.2. 

The Library’s Philatelic collection holds what could be described as a Haitian history in miniature. From stamps honouring revolutionary heroes and commemorating the bicentennial of Port au Prince – showing George Washington, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Simon Bolivar – to a 1979 stamp portraying a rural Haitian mother breastfeeding and marking the 50th Anniversary of the Interamerican Children Organisation, these stamps are a mosaic of Haiti’s triumphs and tribulations. I had not thought of stamps as holders of history before this and finally appreciated the value of my father’s cherished collection, held in two red and brown suitcases and including a stamp of François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, Haiti’s 40th President.  

British Library Philatelic Collections, UPU Collection, Haiti.

I did not find much information on Faustin Elie-Soulouque, a politician and military commander from Petit-Goave (my maternal hometown) who was president and later Emperor of Haiti. However, documents on Henry Christophe, a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti, included a peculiar typewritten addition to the Library’s copy of Lithographic Sketches of the Public Characters of Calcutta (Calcutta: W. Thacker and Co., 1850; British Library shelfmark W.4769): an image of ‘Christophe, or Henry the First, King of Haiti.’ This addition reminded me that history, like ink on paper, can be amended and expanded. 

'Christophe, or Henry the First, King of Haiti', in Colesworthey Grant, Lithographic Sketches of the Public Characters of Calcutta. Calcutta: W. Thacker and Co., 1850. British Library shelfmark: W.4769. 

Photographs of Haiti in its glory days made me a little sad, given the many buildings that are still unfixed more than a decade after the earthquake. However, those images, as well as video and recordings of ceremonial songs and festivals, were good references for future projects.  

Between July and November my days at the British Library helped me to think more broadly about how I, as a visual artist, can pay my respects to the resilience of a nation and of a people that have endured such highs and lows. The Eccles Fellowship provided me with a wellspring of inspiration for canvases yet to come.