Welcome to installment 237 of Bidwell Lore! This week, we continue with our three-part series written by Bidwell summer intern Nadia Makuc, who recently graduated from Princeton with a degree in Classics. In these posts, we will explore Adonijah Bidwell’s library and learn a little more about reading and book collecting in the 19th century.
Two weeks ago, we began this series discussing Reverend Bidwell’s education, which you can read HERE.
While what little evidence we do have from Bidwell about his theological and literary preferences is obscure (namely, his encoded sermons), even completely legible manuscripts would require reverse-engineering literary references in order to determine what books he had at hand. Considering that sermons were specifically aimed towards Biblical exegesis and moral instruction, even intense detective work on Bidwell’s writing would fail to provide insight into what non-religious works he may have had. Yet, considering Bidwell owned so many books, it is worth asking what he had other than the Bible.
What the Bidwell House Museum currently has of Bidwell’s reconstructed library is surprisingly progressive, with titles including A View of Religions in Two Parts: containing an Alphabetical Compendium of the Various Religious Denominations and A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest. While the Museum’s collection contains various Bidwell originals, most date back only to Adonijah, Jr. – most other books are merely authentic to the period but not identifiably Bidwell.
Among some of the oldest in the collection is a French and Latin edition of the complete works of Horace and English translations of Virgil, two Latin authors from the early Roman Empire. While Bidwell himself may not have been reading these exact volumes, they would have likely appeared in his education as foundational Latin texts. Bidwell would have learned Greek and Hebrew at Yale in order to read Christian scripture in its original languages, as well as Latin since it remained the language of academics and was the primary language of scholarship. And yet, in his weekly ministering to the congregation, Bidwell would have had to orient his preaching towards effectiveness and accessibility, not highfalutin commentary. Indeed, from what little we do know of Bidwell’s preaching, he often recycled sermons and borrowed from others circulating before him. [1] Despite these lazy practices, his education does shine forth in the shorthand in which he wrote his sermons, which included notations from Latin, Hebrew, and Greek (you can read more about Bidwell’s sermons and shorthand here). With his education in mind, and what little evidence we do have, Bidwell’s library seems to be comparable to other Puritan ministers, though even their book collections would be dependent on specific theological beliefs.
One of the most famous and well-documented preachers of the time is Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758, most famous for his fire and brimstone sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”). Edwards was a pioneer of the so-called “First Great Awakening,” a charismatic spiritual revival which swept the colonies with religious fervor and spiritual zeal. While Edwards’ influence was far-reaching geographically and culturally, it was also controversial, and from 1751 to 1757 he was in exile from his home church in Northampton. One of the contentious events leading to this expulsion of Edwards from his home congregation was due to how he handled townsfolk reading improper material: publicly reading aloud their names and bringing shame to the very same people who had supported his ascent to popularity. [2] While this erupted against his favor, it goes to show how important reading was, and how what was being read held pride of place in moral education and consideration.
During this flight from Northampton, Edwards served the Stockbridge Church, which coincided with the beginning of Bidwell’s time serving nearby Township No. 1. There is no extant communication between the two; however, there seems to be good reason to suggest that Bidwell would not have wanted to save evidence of their conversations. Bidwell married Theodosia Colton (1721-1759), the daughter of his professor at Yale, Rev. Benjamin Colton (1690-1759), who fell on the opposite end of the theological spectrum from Edwards. Considering this, we can infer that Bidwell was at least sympathetic to, if not a subscriber to, beliefs that competed with Edwards.
Another bigwig of the Great Awakening was George Whitefield (1714-1770), who toured New England and made a stop at Yale in October of 1740, the year of Bidwell’s graduation. While the Great Awakening saw tens of thousands of new members in Congregational churches, the energetic increase waned to a stop by the mid 1750s. While membership plateaued, theological schisms were left in its wake: “Old Lights” preferred ministers who were university educated and led formal worship that “New Lights” opposed by encouraging itinerant preaching. Nevertheless, the aftermath of this movement transformed education by emphasizing the importance of learning beyond merely reading the Bible.[3]
While today we may think of the Puritan ideal as entirely morally austere, this did not mean that non-Christian texts were entirely excluded from their shelves. Indeed, returning to their beliefs about the importance of education, we see how their hopes for an educated congregation lent themselves to a rather liberal education. Clifford Shipton (1902-1973), a Pittsfield Native and Harvard’s university archivist in the twentieth century, described their theology of books by saying, “The Puritans believed that the heresies which from time to time endanger society and religion arise from ignorance, not from corruption by false ideas.” [4] This meant that while they were not welcome to all books without question, they did have a theology robust enough to embrace literature outside of the narrow scope of their beliefs.
In two weeks we will conclude this short series with a look at a specific book in Bidwell’s collection.
1. David Powers, notes on sermon symbols.
2. Allen Guelzo, “The Northampton Eviction,” https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/northampton-eviction.
3. Park Hyung-Jin, “The Great Awakening: Impact on American Higher Education,” https://www.puts.ac.kr/js_nondan/files/V.52-4_03%EB%B0%95%ED%98%95%EC%A7%84.pdf.
4. Clifford K. Shipton, “The Puritan Influence in Education,” 233 https://www.jstor.org/stable/27769818