Reuben Gold Thwaites
Reuben Gold Thwaites | |
---|---|
File:Reuben Gold Thwaites.png | |
Born | Dorchester, Massachusetts |
May 15, 1853
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Madison, Wisconsin |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Journalist |
Known for | President of the American Library Association, Editor of the Wisconsin State Journal |
Reuben Gold Thwaites (1853 - 1913) was an American historical writer.
Biography
Thwaites was born in 1853 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. His parents were William George and Sarah Bibbs Thwaites, who had moved to Dorchester in 1850 from Yorkshire, England.[1] The family moved to Omro, Wisconsin in 1866 where Reuben worked on the farm, studied college-level coursework and reported for the Oshkosh Times. In 1874-75 he studied English Literature, Economic History and International Law at Yale University. Thwaites studied at Yale as a special student, and beyond that never formerly studied at the collegiate level,[2] although later in his life he was awarded an LLD from the University of Wisconsin.[3]
From 1876 to 1886, Thwaites was managing editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, at Madison. In 1885 he became Assistant Corresponding Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and when Lyman Draper retired as Secretary 1887, Thwaites was appointed to succeed him.[3] While leading the historical society he edited volumes XI-XIX of the Wisconsin Historical Collections , The Jesuit Relations, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, and Original Journals of Lewis and Clark. He also authored a number of papers and monographs including a biography of Daniel Boone,[4] a biography of Father Marquette,[5] and a history of colonial North America.[6]
Thwaites is credited with raising the scholarship surrounding the Lewis and Clark expedition to a new level. Previous to the editions that were published under his leadership, general knowledge as well as serious scholarship were for the most part hampered by legend. Thwaites discovered and uncovered various additional original sources, including the journal of Sargeant Charles Floyd, the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die on the expedition. By including these disparate sources and tying them together in a cohesive set of volumes, the nature and importance of the expedition became more generally recognized.[7]
In 1899 he was president of the American Library Association, and in 1910 he was named president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association.
Thwaites was well-known for not being a mere academic, but rather as a historian who attempted to understand history by experiencing those aspects that he could, and bringing those experiences to life.[8] In 1888 he took canoe trips on the Wisconsin, Fox and Rock rivers.[9] In 1892 he took a bicycle trip across England. In 1903 he took a trip down the Ohio River in a rowboat.
Thwaites' approach and work has been questioned, to some degree by his contemporaries[10] but more so in modern times.[11] His summaries include phraseology such as "[Europeans] left the most luxurious country in Europe to seek shelter in the foul and unwelcome huts of one of the most wretched races of man."[12] When editing the Jesuit Relations, he included background information that is generally credible and thorough with respect to events and Europe, but is far less thorough in regard to the disruptions from disease and other sources that the indigenous people themselves were facing.[13] In other words, the criticism is that the original works were insensitive, and Thwaites failed to fully account for the prejudicial and inaccurate reporting in the Relations. However, Thwaites is also recognized as being the pioneer in an approach to using the Relations that is continuing to be enriched by modern scholarship, and so in a sense he started a process by which his very work could be corrected and improved as historians learn more about the periods in question.[14]
Thwaites died in 1913 of heart failure after a short hospitalization. He was survived by his wife Jessie, who he married in 1882,[15] and a son Frederick.[16]
References
- ↑ Turner 1914, p. 15.
- ↑ Lord 1963, p. 3.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 WHS 2016.
- ↑ ThwaitesA 1902.
- ↑ ThwaitesB 1902.
- ↑ Thwaites 1910.
- ↑ Blessing 2005.
- ↑ Turner 1914, pp. 38–39.
- ↑ Thwaites 1888.
- ↑ Lord 1967.
- ↑ Korp 1995.
- ↑ Korp 1995, pp. 263–264.
- ↑ Korp 1995, p. 272.
- ↑ Abé 2003.
- ↑ Turner 1914, p. 56.
- ↑ Interocean 1913.
- Attributions
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Publications
Other publications not already cited in the references include:
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Wisconsin (1909)
- School History of the United States (1912)
- Thwaites, Reuben Gold, ed. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791, Cleveland: Burrows Bros. Co., 1896 - 1901.
- Withers, Alexander Scott, Chronicles of Border Warfare, or a History of the Settlement by the Whites, of North-Western Virginia, and of the Indian Wars and Massacres in that section of the State; with Reflections, Anecdotes, &c., Edited and annotated by Reuben Gold Thwaites, with several notes by Lyman Copeland Draper. (Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company, or Steward and Kidd Publishers, 1895). Reprinted in 1958 by McClain Publishing Company, Parsons, W.Va., ISBN 0-8063-4509-8.
External links
- Works by Reuben Gold Thwaites at Project Gutenberg
- Lua error in Module:Internet_Archive at line 573: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Works by Reuben Gold Thwaites at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, a series of annotated reprints of some of the best and rarest contemporary volumes of travel : descriptive of the aborigines and social and economic conditions in the middle and far West, during the period of early American settlement / edited with notes, introduction, index, etc., by Reuben Gold Thwaites.
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with hCards
- Articles with Internet Archive links
- 1853 births
- 1913 deaths
- American book editors
- American male journalists
- American historians
- Presidents of the American Library Association
- Presidents of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association
- Writers from Boston, Massachusetts
- Writers from Wisconsin