Charter Oak
The Charter Oak was a stately old oak in the city of Hartford that plays a special role in the folklore of the American state of Connecticut . It was one of Hartford's landmarks for a long time until it fell in a storm on the night of August 20-21, 1855.
According to legend, the settlers of Connecticut in the hollow trunk of this tree hidden in 1687 charter ( Charter ) of their colony, as the new royal governor Edmund Andros tried to confiscate them. As a kind of constitution, the charter guaranteed the extensive self-government of the Colony of Connecticut , and so the Charter Oak is one of the official emblems of the state of Connecticut as the “guardian of the constitution” and a symbol of the will for freedom; In 1947 the American white oak ( Quercus alba ) was declared a Connecticut state tree .
Historical context
The background to the legend is the increased efforts of the English royal family in the 1680s to bring the colonies in North America under their control. The colonies in New England in particular had enjoyed extensive autonomy by then. Their rights were mainly anchored in the royal charters, some of which had existed since their foundation. The Connecticut Charter was granted in 1662 by the young Charles II and since then has represented a kind of constitution for the colony alongside the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut from 1639 .
After negotiations about a reorganization of the balance of power had failed, Charles first revoked the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1684 . His successor James II then sought from 1685 a "consolidation" of all English colonies north of the Delaware River in a " Dominion of New England " under a governor appointed by the king. In September 1686 the Board of Trade decided to annex the neighboring colonies, including Connecticut, to Massachusetts , which had now been converted into a crown colony under Governor Joseph Dudley . With this order, Edmund Andros , Dudley's successor, reached Boston in December 1686. After he had settled the official business there, he rode with his entourage in October 1687 to Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, to officially take over power there. To do this, he formally closed the colony's register and had its seal handed over.
In Andros' official documents, however, there is not a word about the charter or an attempt to withhold it from him; there is no reference to this act of colonial resistance in any English sources; if the episode took place at all, Andros does not seem to have attached great importance to it - as an unnamed author speculated in the Proceedings of the Society of Colonial Wars in 1909 , he may have viewed the drama as childish. It is hardly surprising that the American sources are also silent about this, precisely because the hiding of the charter represented an act of subversion, the success of which depended on its secrecy.
James II was overthrown in 1688 in the course of the Glorious Revolution , his governor Andros was captured in a revolt of the citizens of Boston in 1689 and finally deposed; Connecticut was restored as a separate colony and the 1662 charter reinstated.
Lore
The traditional version of the events surrounding the Charter Oak, as found in countless school books in the 19th and 20th centuries, goes back to Benjamin Trumbull's A Complete History of Connecticut (1797), a work that claims to be scientific accuracy; In his presentation, Trumbull relies on " tradition " without any commitment . Accordingly, Andros rode to Hartford on October 31, 1687 with a force of fifty men, declared the dissolution of the government of the colony, and demanded the surrender of their charter. His negotiations with the general assembly of the colony dragged on into the late evening, with the previous governor Robert Treat in particular expressing his reluctance to renounce the colony's privileges and the release of the documents that guaranteed them. In the course of the debate, more and more observers came. Suddenly all the candles in the room went out, and when they were lit again, the charter that had previously been on the negotiating table had vanished without a trace; Trumbull reports that she has since been taken away by a Captain Wadsworth and hidden in a "large hollow tree" across from the estate of Samuel Wyllys, a magistrate of the colony. Although he could not get hold of the charter, Andros then took power and closed the colony's registry with the note FINIS.
The episode described in Trumbull became so popular in the 19th century that it soon assumed a central position in the history of Connecticut. Correspondingly, historians have often tried to shed light on the “tradition” to which Trumbull refers by means of more concrete research, but have come across a remarkable number of contradictions in the sources. A roughly contemporary source indicating that the charter was indeed hidden from Andros is Gershom Bulkeley's Will and Doom (1692); It says: "They [the colonists] were able to keep the charter ... it is in Hartford, safe." So the legend has a historical core, but it is not only uncertain when, where and by whom the charter was hidden , but also which or how many, because two versions of the charter are known today, both of which are undoubtedly contemporary, ie “genuine”, but whose provenance is quite nebulous. One copy is owned by the Connecticut Historical Society , another is on display on a kind of altar in the Connecticut State Library (the wings of which are also the doors of the steel vault in which it is locked at night). Both institutions claim to have the original.
There was initially some confusion as to which tree the charter was hidden in. The first written evidence that it was hidden in a tree at all can only be found in George Chalmers' Political Annals of the Present United Colonies , published in London in 1780 ; However, Chalmers does not name an oak, but an elm in which the colonists once hid their charter and which until this day would have been regarded as the “guardian of the constitution” and thus “holy” ( they now concealed their charter in a venerable elm ; which to this day is deemed sacred, as the preserver of their constitution ). Two years later, Samuel Peters (who in turn was probably Chalmer's informant) mentions this elm in his General History of Connecticut as one of Hartford's "curiosities". That it was rather an oak in which the charter was hidden can be read for the first time in 1789 in Jedidiah Morse's American Geography ; Morse also mentions " ------ Wandsworth " [sic] as the accomplice of this deed. In 1805, Abiel Holmes reported in his American Annals (1805) that the oak (Trumbull had only spoken of a tree), which once served as a hiding place, stood on the property of the Wyllys family and was devotedly tended by them. Some of its branches have now broken off, but it is still leafy. Its trunk was 7 feet in diameter and 21 feet in circumference. The cavity near the roots, which once served as a hiding place for the charter, has now grown over again, "as if it had fulfilled the divine purpose for which it had opened up."
More than half a century after Holmes, John Gorham Palfrey , the author of the History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty (1870), inquired of the descendants of Trumbull about his guarantors for the "tradition"; these suspected that he probably heard about the episode from George Wyllys, a grandson of Samuel Wyllys. Palfrey has further found that the Council of Connecticut in 1715 Joseph Wadsworth, a remuneration of 20 shilling zusprach, as he had proved the service of the colony Duplicate Charter - that is, the duplicate of the Charter - to bring in tough times in security and it has since to keep safe.
The fact that a duplicate of the charter has existed since 1662 is evident from the official English documents, which record the payment of fees for the execution of both the charter and a copy. In the same year they were brought to Connecticut by Governor John Winthrop , where receipt of the charter and the duplicate were confirmed on file. But if Wadsworth only hid the duplicate, the question remains what happened to the original. Albert Carlos Bates (of the Connecticut Historical Society) argued around 1900 that Winthrop did not bring both copies to Connecticut in 1662, but rather left one in England for safekeeping with a certain James Porter: As Bates was able to prove, the Connecticut Council expelled its agent in 1686 in London to take this copy in order to be able to fight better for the rights of the colony at court. The copy of the charter, which Wadsworth hid in 1687 and still kept in 1715, was, according to Bate's theory, the only one the colony had.
In Jeremy Dummer's The Defense of the New England Charters (1721), however, it is said that Andros rode to Hartford and took control of the charter. Palfrey explains the apparent contradiction so that Andros actually confiscated the charter; The duplicate may actually have been brought to a safe place, as can be read in the memo on Wadsworth's later remuneration, but Andros knew nothing of its existence and thus had absolutely no idea that something was wrong, which in turn would explain why in there is no mention of it in his papers. According to this theory, contrary to Bates' assumption, both copies of the charter were in Connecticut, of which only one - the duplicate - was hidden from Andros.
This, however, contradicts the memories of the former governor Roger Wolcott , who was born in 1679 and was therefore not a direct contemporary witness, but still knew some of them. According to his version, written down in 1759 at the request of Thomas Clap , the charters , i.e. at least one, were put on the table when Andros met with the General Assembly; the candles went out, and when they were lit again they were gone ( all the candles were snuffed out at once, and when they were lighted the charters were gone ). In 1764 Wolcott, now 85 years old, told the story to Ezra Stiles , who wrote it down in his notebook - here, too, there is talk of two charters - both of which were hidden, one by Nath. Stanley , the other by Mr . [Joseph] Talcott (the father of the future governor Joseph Talcott ). In Thomas Ruggles' History of Guilford (written 1769, printed 1809), however, there is the statement that Andrew Leete made sure that the charter was brought to safety; it was also hidden in his house. Hence, neither Wolcott nor Ruggles mention an oak tree, nor Joseph Wadsworth, the presumed savior of the charter, which is all the more surprising since the colony's 1715 logs specifically confirm that it was still in his possession at the time. Charles J. Hoadly argues that Wadsworth held just as little office in 1687 as Samuel Wyllys, who was dubbed by Trumbull as magistrate, was not allowed to be present at the negotiations with Andros and was probably only the henchman of Stanly or Talcott. They belonged to the council of the colony as deputy or assistant , so they were also in the room when the candles went out, took hold of the charter (and its duplicate) at that moment and handed it over to Wadsworth, who carried it (or just its duplicate) away.
reception
Cultural context
The Charter Oak is not mentioned in the voluminous historical works of the New England colonial era (such as Cotton Mathers Magnalia Christi Americana or Thomas Princes Chronological History of New England ), and the episode also takes up little space in Trumbull. The fact that it only assumed such a prominent position in Connecticut's history in the 19th century is a late consequence of the American Revolution . In the decades after the revolution, the historians and writers of the United States endeavored to write America's own identity, especially in order to present and assert itself as a nation in the first place (and not just as the appendage of the English nation and culture). Until around 1800, in their search for something that unites and creates identity, they still concentrated on the events of the revolution itself, which grew to mythical greatness in works such as Timothy Dwight's The Conquest of Canaan - by 1865 this transfiguration of the founding fathers was so advanced that in the Dome of the Washington Capitol depicting George Washington's becoming god was unveiled. Like their European contemporaries, who believed they were discovering the origins of their nations in ever more remote, mythical ages (in Germany, for example, in the Nibelungen saga ), American historians also went further and further in the 19th century in search of a “ usable past ” back in time. In doing so, they discovered the Puritans of New England in particular for their purposes; the passengers of the Mayflower , who founded the first Puritan settlement in New England with Plymouth , did not become " pilgrim fathers " until the 19th century ; fragments of the Plymouth Rock , where they first entered land, were distributed throughout the country and, like Alexis de Tocqueville In 1835 on his trip to America, observed how sacred relics were venerated. The Charter Oak fared similarly - especially after it was overturned in a storm in August 1856, fragments of its wood or artefacts carved from it found their way to many corners of the country and were partly exhibited in museums.
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| Relief of the Charter Oak in the tympanum of a portal on the east facade of the Connecticut State Capitol (built 1871–1878) | Postage stamp from 1935 (based on the 1857 painting by Brownell) issued to mark the 300th anniversary of Connecticut's founding | The Charter Oak in the State Quarter Connecticuts, minted in 1999 |
The legend of the Charter Oak was suitable for use in this emerging national American "mythology" for several reasons. On the one hand, the resistance against Andros from 1686 and the American contribution to the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 easily became a forerunner of the American one Rethinking the revolution of 1763–1783 as an expression of a peculiar American will for freedom that already existed at that time. However, the Charter Oak not only offered a connection point to the past, but also served as a natural object at the same time another dominant feature of the claimed American national character: its bond with nature . In contrast to Europe, which could boast of its centuries-old cities and castles, the topos of the pristine, “virginal” nature of America, under the influence of Romanticism , assumed a special position in American culture (which, ironically, became all the more important the more this nature was pushed back and changed by the advancing settlement and industrialization of the country).
Last but not least, the efforts of citizens and politicians of Connecticut to emphasize the importance of their state in American history must also be taken into account in the formation and spread of the legend. Virginia still boasts today of being the "mother of presidents" (four of the first five presidents of the United States were from that state), and Massachusetts, in many ways Connecticut's historic rival, boasts a variety of events of national importance (the Landing the Mayflower, the Boston Tea Party , " Paul Revere's Ritt " and the skirmishes of Lexington and Concord ), Connecticut alone seemed to lack anything comparable to the glory. Local patriotic politicians and historians began in the 19th century to retrospectively declare Connecticut's long constitutional tradition to be one of the main sources of the United States ' constitution , and hence the germ of American democracy. This self-image continues to this day: Connecticut has been officially known as The Constitution State since 1959 . Indeed, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut are often referred to in political science today as the first constitution in the modern sense; Connecticut was also the only state that did not adopt a new constitution during the revolution - the 1662 charter remained in force until 1818. This rather abstract merit was embodied in the episode above all by the Charter Oak as the physical “keeper” of the constitution.
painting
The worship of the Charter Oak seems to have its origins in the family tradition of the Wyllys on whose property the tree stood, and which was closely linked to Connecticut history for another reason. Members of the Wyllys family held the office of secretary, first for the colony and then for the state of Connecticut, almost continuously between 1712 and 1809 ; Among other things, they were responsible for the administration of the official documents before they were recorded centrally in a state archive. A portrait of George Wyllys (1710–1796), painted by Joseph Steward around 1790, shows him in his library, one of the two copies of the charter on the table. His daughter Mary Wyllys Pomeroy was portrayed by Ralph Earl around the same time ; In the background, next to the Wyllys' house, you can see the Charter Oak, which was certainly included in the picture with the family tradition in mind. This is also the first pictorial representation of the tree. The next two date from 1818 when the carriage painter George Francis captured two views of the Charter Oak. Francis probably painted them on behalf of Daniel Wadsworth, the leading patron of the arts in Hartford (and descendant of Joseph Wadsworth) - the occasion may have been the adoption of Connecticut's new, more democratic constitution that same year, Wadsworth as a federalist and member of one of the long-established residents The city's patrician families are likely to have been hostile to it. In this context, a detail can be interpreted that can be seen in both paintings by Francis: an inconspicuous passer-by pulling on a branch of the tree; the "common people" now also demanded their share of the democratic blessings that the Charter Oak symbolized. In concrete terms, it is also an early indication that the “reliquary collecting” was already in full swing at that time. As the legend grew in popularity, it became a tourist attraction in itself. Every twig, leaf and acorn that fell from its branches to the ground was soon picked up by visitors and taken away as souvenirs.
The Charter Oak later became a popular motif in American landscape painting of the 19th century and was painted by both Thomas Cole and his student Frederic Edwin Church , two prominent representatives of the so-called Hudson River School .
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| The Charter Oak on a drawing and two paintings by Frederic Edwin Church , created 1846–1847. | ||
In addition to these authenticated representations of the Charter Oak, it is believed that Church included them in one of his few history paintings, Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness from Plymouth to Hartford (1846), which depicts the establishment of the Connecticut colony by Thomas Hooker in 1636. Here, too, the oak appears as a symbol of permanence - as a living witness of Connecticut's historical development through the centuries. The Charter Oak's most famous painting today was created shortly after its fall. Charles De Wolf Brownell had lived in the house opposite the tree for many years, but apparently it had not occurred to him to paint it during that time. The first execution of his picture hangs today over the "altar" of the Charter in the Connecticut State Library, framed in a frame that was carved from the wood of the Charter Oak and is decorated with oak leaf ornaments. It also served as the template for a 1935 postage stamp for the American Federal Post Office , commemorating the three hundredth anniversary of Connecticut's founding.
Artifacts from the wood of the Charter Oak
In 1827 the Wyllys family died out in the male line; the heir Stephen Bulkeley had the almost 200-year-old family estate demolished around 1830 and built new Federal-style buildings on the same site . In 1841 the property fell to Isaac W. Stuart, who had married Bulkeley's daughter Caroline in 1834. Stuart, whom contemporaries describe as an eccentric of the “absent-minded professor” type, was the driving force behind the popularization and marketing of the Charter Oak legend in the decades that followed. His efforts increased as it became clear that Charter Oak would soon be a thing of the past. In 1830 the oak was badly damaged in a storm and some main branches began to die. It caught fire in 1853 after children playing set fire to crackers in its hollow trunk, and soon afterwards wide cracks appeared in the remaining hollow trunk.
Stuart began making a history of Charter Oak in 1855. He also commissioned the Hartford landscape painter and photographer Nelson Augustus Moore to photograph the Charter Oak. This photo, produced using the wet collodion process , is the only photograph that shows the Charter Oak still upright; it was long thought to be lost. When it was rediscovered after a few decades, quite a few letters to the editor believed they could make out the likeness of George Washington in its branches - a natural “miracle” that seemed to underline the national importance of this tree. On the night of August 20-21, the Charter Oak finally fell in a storm. The next morning a great crowd of onlookers had gathered, and the city notables gave Stuart their condolences; Moore captured the hustle and bustle on his behalf; A total of four recordings have been preserved from this day. In the evening, the church bells of Hartford rang out for an hour to peal.
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| The only known photograph of the still upright Charter Oak (around 1850) | When it was published, quite a few observers believed that they could make out the profile of George Washington (highlighted here) in the branches. | The Charter Oak the morning after it fell, August 21, 1856 (photography by Nelson Augustus Moore ) |
The history of the Charter Oak is inextricably linked not only to Stuart, but also to the arms manufacturer Samuel Colt . Colt had gotten rich with the invention of the revolver and made Hartford the center of his industrial empire. From 1854 he had his model factory ( Colt Armory ) built here in the South Meadows of Hartford, very close to the Charter Oak , in whose organization and architecture he wanted to realize his vision of the industrial future of the USA. At the same time he met Stuart, whom he rescued from financial difficulties more than once in the next few years. In return, Stuart used his antiquarian energies to intertwine the legend of the Charter Oak with the person, the family and the Colt company. For the new factory site and the adjacent workers' housing estate, he devised a large number of street and place names based on a sophisticated symbolic structure; he named the central axis through the Colt Complex Charter Oak Avenue . The Charter Oak Hall was inaugurated in 1855 as the focal point of the factory premises , a four-story building in the main hall of which all his workers and their families (around a thousand people in total) should have space. The hall was conceived as a "temple" of technology and the arts at the same time, built to - in Stuart's words - to promote the "intellectual and aesthetic culture of mechanics" ( for advancing the intellectual and aesthetic culture of mechanics ).
| Charter Oak Chair |
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| John H. Most , around 1857 |
| Oak wood |
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Connecticut State Capitol , Hartford
Link to the picture |
| Charter Oak Cradle |
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| carved by John H. Most after a design by Isaac W. Stuart , 1857 |
| Oak wood |
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Wadsworth Atheneum , Hartford
Link to the picture |
To deter souvenir hunters, Stuart soon had a high fence built around the Charter Oak and personally supervised the sawing, removal and later the marketing of the wood. Reacting to the many inquiries that reached him from all over the country, he had thinner twigs and other difficult-to-work leftovers sold unprocessed in manageable portions - a contemporary newspaper article estimates that around 10,000 fragments were sent across the United States in this way. Some of these were exhibited in museums as historically significant objects. He had a large part - partly according to his own designs - processed into furniture and a variety of other artefacts by the cabinet maker John H. Most - pianos, crucifixes, book covers (especially for family Bibles), chess pieces, turned goblets, picture frames and women's jewelry (brooches , Earrings). The art critic Robert F. Trent ruled in 1984 that, even if the Victorian taste of the time was taken into account, most of these products could only be described as kitsch . Some of the splendidly decorated armchairs are among the most magnificent individual pieces. One of them is still in the Connecticut Senate Chamber, where it is known as The Wishing Chair because anyone who decides to sit on it is said to have ambitions for the governor's office.
Probably the strangest object that was carved out of the Charter Oak is the cradle for Colt's son Sammy, who was born in 1857 by Most according to Stuart's specifications ; As recently as 1998, at an exhibition by Coltiana, the American Quarterly art critic found himself unable to understand how a culture could produce such hideousness. The cradle consists of two pillars richly decorated with oak leaves, on each of which a foal (English colt ) is enthroned; the actual cradle is in the shape of a canoe (alluding to Colt's famous saying that he always “paddled his own canoe”) and is adorned with the Colt family crest. On the day Colt Jr. was born, Stuart also published a letter in which he explained the history of Charter Oak and his father's career to the newborn in childlike language. This overly vulgar display of Colt's vanity and self-esteem, seconded by Stuart's embarrassing servility, led to some ridicule in the conservative press. Colt's attempt to be an upstart to break free with the help of the Charter Oak of the Ruchs failed spectacularly in this case, but he was not deterred. So he bought large tranches of the remaining wood from Stuart and had knobs made from them for high-priced Charter Oak special editions of his revolvers. These were made intermittently until 1905, when Colt's widow bequeathed the three remaining blocks of raw wood to the Wadsworth Atheneum , one of the leading art museums in the United States, where they are exhibited to this day.
literature
The Charter Oak has also been represented in literature many times, among other things it inspired John Jay Adams to his poetry book The Charter Oak (1839) and a historical novel by William Seton ( Romance of the Charter Oak , 1870). Today, both works are at best of antiquarian interest, but they illustrate the legend's popularity in the 19th century. How powerful it became as folklore beyond Connecticut is suggested by the fact that the young Ezra Pound , born in distant Idaho in 1885, was persuaded by his mother that he was descended from the very same Captain Wadsworth who hid the charter in 1687. In the 74th of his Cantos , one of the main works of literary modernism, the Charter Oak appears as a symbol of resistance against tyranny.
Nathaniel Hawthorne takes a more critical look at the legend . The oak in his short story Roger Malvin's Burial (1832) is based on a description of the Charter Oak in the Collections, Topographical, Historical, & Biographical, Relating Principally to New Hampshire by John Farmer and Jacob B. Moore (1822). In Hawthorne's strongly allegorical tale it recalls the original destination not only of Connecticut, but of all of New England (in Hawthorne's tale it is in the woods of Maine), hence the United States - it symbolizes the promise of a better society in a new world , especially in view of the numerous misconducts of which the descendants of the first settlers are guilty. The story has, among other things, the aftermath of Lovewell's Fight 1725, a not very glorious episode in the history of New England, which, however, was beautifully painted in the 19th century and, like the Charter Oak, made use of in the emerging "national mythology", the Hawthorne ironically questioned.
In 1868, as travel correspondent for the Alta California newspaper , Mark Twain reported on his visit to Hartford and the cult around the Charter Oak:
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Monuments
However, the "cult" surrounding Charter Oak soon peaked in the years after the Civil War. In 1896, the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars decided to erect a monument to the Charter Oak. The original site was already built on, but a wealthy widow gave the association a piece of land in the immediate vicinity - a steep, sloping, wedge-shaped property at the acute angle of a street intersection (between Charter Oak Avenue and Charter Oak Place ). At the apex of this hairpin is the actual monument, designed by the New York architect Charles A. Platt and inaugurated in 1907 after a long delay. It consists of a low but massive stone pillar to which a memorial inscription is attached. A stone wreath of oak leaves winds around the shaft just below the egg stick . At the top of the column rests a globe, which for some unknown reason is not surrounded by oak leaves, but by shells and whales. A new oak was planted right behind the pillar.
In general, many oaks were planted in Connecticut after the fall of the Charter Oak, especially in 1902 when the State of Connecticut convened a constituent assembly. Although their draft constitution later failed in a referendum, each of the 168 delegates received an oak seedling to plant in their respective home community. Most of these now fully grown oaks are still standing today, but they are all specimens of the swamp oak ( Quercus palustris ), whereas the Charter Oak was an American white oak ( Quercus alba ). A likely true descendant of Charter Oak was planted in Bushnell Park in Hartford in 1871; this copy also has its own memorial stone. After the Charter Oak fell, offspring were raised from acorns collected under it. Direct descendants of the Charter Oak, now in the third generation, were cultivated in the Connecticut State Nursery, the state-owned tree nursery, until 2003. Upon request, the state of Connecticut announced in 2005 that these had now been taken over by a private company; However, no Charter Oak seedlings are currently available.
literature
- Albert Carlos Bates: The Charter Oak . Case, Lockwood and Brainard, Hartford 1907.
- Charles J. Hoadly: The Hiding of the Charter . Case, Lockwood and Brainard Co., Hartford 1900.
- William N. Hosley: Colt: The Making of an American Legend . University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 1996, ISBN 1558490434 .
- Colin McEnroe: 'Oakaphilia' Has Gripped State Ever Since Famed Tree Fell; Charter Oak Leaves State Stumped; Facts, Folklore About Famed Tree . Article in Hartford Courant , July 18, 1993.
- John Gorham Palfrey: History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty . Volume III. Little, Brown and Co., Boston 1870.
- Gayle Brandow Samuels: The Charter Oak . In: Arnoldia. 59: 4, 1999, pp. 2-9 (PDF; 668 kB).
- Gayle Brandow Samuels: Enduring Roots: Encounters With Trees, History, and the American Landscape . Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, NJ 2005, ISBN 9780813535395 .
- Morris Woodruff Seymour: The Hiding of the Charter . In: Papers and Addresses of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut . Volume I, 1903. pp. 89-116.
- Ernest R. Shaw: Story and Legend of the Charter Oak Tree, Hartford, Connecticut . Heritage Trails, Farmington, Conn. 1996.
- Robert F. Trent: The Charter Oak Artifacts . In: The Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin. 49: 3, 1984, pp. 125-139.
Web links
- The State Tree: The Charter Oak - brief representation on an official Connecticut state website
Individual evidence
- ^ Anon: Three Memorials . In: Papers and Addresses of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut . Volume II, p. 122.
- ^ Benjamin Trumbull: A Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical, from the Emigration of its First Planters from England, in MDCXXX, to MDCCXIII . Volume I, Hudson & Goodwin, Hartford 1797, pp. 390-391.
- ^ Charles J. Hoadly: The Hiding of the Charter. P. 7.
- ↑ George Chalmers: Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, from Their Settlement to the Peace of 1763 . J. Bowen, London 1780, p. 298.
- ↑ Samuel Peters: A General History of Connecticut ... J. Bew, London 1782, p. 166, p. 89.
- ↑ Jedidiah Morse: The American Geography , Elizabethtown 1789. (p. 240 in the 3rd edition , John John, Dublin 1794.)
- ^ Abiel Holmes: American Annals, or, A Chronological History of America from its Discovery in MCCCCXCII to MDCCCVI . Volume I, W. Hillard, Cambridge, Mass. 1805, p. 470.
- ^ Albert Carlos Bates: The Charter Oak. Pp. 7-8.
- ^ Charles J. Hoadly: The Hiding of the Charter . P. 18.
- ^ John Gorham Palfrey: History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty . P. 543 (footnote).
- ↑ Wolcott, Stiles and Ruggles, quoted in: Charles J. Hoadly: The Hiding of the Charter . Pp. 19-20.
- ^ Charles J. Hoadly: The Hiding of the Charter . Pp. 19-20.
- ↑ Gayle Brandow Samuels: The Charter Oak . P. 5.
- ^ William N. Hosley: Colt: The Making of an American Legend . Pp. 126-127.
- ^ Robert F. Trent: The Charter Oak Artifacts . Pp. 125-127.
- ↑ Gayle Brandow Samuels: The Charter Oak . Pp. 5-6.
- ^ William N. Hosley: Colt: The Making of an American Legend . P. 128.
- ^ William N. Hosley: Colt: The Making of an American Legend . Pp. 129-130.
- ^ Robert F. Trent: The Charter Oak Artifacts . P. 133ff.
- ^ Alan Wallach: Colt's Ambiguous Legacy; Or When I Hear The Word "Revolver," I Reach For My Culture . In. American Quarterly 50: 3, 1998, citations on p. 619.
- ^ William N. Hosley: Colt: The Making of an American Legend . Pp. 131-133.
- ^ Robert F. Trent: The Charter Oak Artifacts . P. 130ff.
- ^ John Jay Adams, The Charter Oak, and Other Poems . Samuel Colman, New York 1839.
- ^ William Seton: Romance of the Charter Oak: A Picture of Colonial Times . O'Shea and Company, New York 1870.
- ↑ Anthony David Moody: Ezra Pound: Poet. Volume 1: The Young Genius, 1885-1920 . Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 2007, p. 5.
- ↑ John Samson: Hawthorne's Oak Trees . In: American Literature 52: 3, 1980, pp. 457-461. Hawthorne drew on a description of the Charter Oak in Collections, Topographical, Historical, & Biographical, Relating Principally to New Hampshire by John Farmer and Jacob B. Moore (1822).
- ↑ Michael J. Colacurcio: The Province of Piety: Moral History in Hawthorne's Early Tales . Duke University Press, Durham NC 1984, ISBN 0822315726 , pp. 127-128.
- ^ Mark Twain: The Charter Oak . In: Alta California of March 3, 1868.
- ↑ For the planning of the memorial see the two articles entitled The Charter Oak Memorial in: Papers and Addresses of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut . Volume II (ca.1909), pp. 120-124 and pp. 125-129.
- ↑ For the present condition of the monument, see the entries Charter Oak Monument, Hartford on the website CT Monuments.net and Charter Oak Monument in the Historical Marker Database (hmdb.org).
- ↑ Connecticut's 1902 Constitution Convention Pin Oaks: 100th Anniversary Report (2002) - from the website of Connecticut's Notable Trees .
- ^ Historical Marker Database: Scion of the Charter Oak
- ↑ CHARTER OAK SEEDLINGS . Notice from Steve Dilella of the Connecticut State Environmental Protection Department dated April 29, 2005.
