Miles Rock Collection

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(upbeat music)

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- The material arrived to us in five trunks.

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It's surprising to see trunks from the 19th century

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that contained the correspondence

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that we began to unpack with assistance from our,

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our generous donors,

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the great great grandsons of Miles Rock.

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(upbeat music continues)

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Miles Rock was one of the members

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of the first graduating class at Lehigh,

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the first student in fact to receive

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a civil engineering degree in 1869.

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And this is just an amazing collection

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with so much research potential.

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It includes his diaries,

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it includes photographs

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and perhaps most interesting is his Civil War uniform.

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- I think that for many years

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this is gonna be serving our community,

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critically to assess, you know

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how people were living at that time.

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And also thinking about the organization

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and Lehigh as a university.

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- This is actually a once in a lifetime opportunity

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to see a collection that is this comprehensive.

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It tells us such an interesting story

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how a young boy from Lancaster County

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can go on to not only serve his country

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but then also receive a college degree,

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writing a thesis on civil engineering,

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mapping zinc mines and then graduating

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with an assignment as a Lehigh faculty member.

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He taught civil engineering here at Lehigh for a year

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before moving to Argentina.

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He is in effect, the typical Lehigh student.

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- [Boaz] There are so many things we can do

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because this is such a rich collection

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where many times research shows up from

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not familiar avenues.

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And there are things that we gonna be doing

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in collaboration with many other faculty members.

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All of it is gonna be a venue for research in the future.

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(upbeat music continues)

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thank you okay so hello everybody this is so exciting we are finally here together to celebrate the Life and

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Legacy uh of ma Rock we're so excited all of you are here it's almost like a family reunion uh I know that there are

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lots of people that are in other places as well you traveled far you got here

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we're so excited about you all being here thank you uh so we have a little bit of kind of a plan for the day but

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there's going to be a lot of kind of informal conversation we hope um we're starting with around 40 minutes or so of

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us talking about things things we like things we appreciate things we'd like to explore uh around the collection and

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then there's going to be a panel discussion and you got all those amazing people people around the table to kind

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of lead us into you know the discussion there uh so uh we also record uh

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everything today so we picked up this room especially to make sure that what we're saying today is available for

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people that are not able to join us or other people that want to just kind of enjoy what we're talking about later uh

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and uh thank you all for coming this is great so I have a few words myself I'm

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Boaz nadav manes I'm the University libr librarian in Lehi University Library um

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and I wanted to say dear friends colleagues and guests uh de uh Chris and

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David Grace uh descendants of ma Rock uh the family your loved ones uh we are

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honored to have you all here with us today to celebrate the life of ma Rock the person and his

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legacy uh to our guests who came from near and far welcome to the Lei Valley

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uh to Bethlehem and to Leah University this is the place that Miles

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Rock loved so much so we are really honored that you're all here today um in

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February 8th uh 1862 in the middle of the Civil War ma

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Rock wrote to his brother Edward rock you hope the war will soon be over

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and we will see each other I have very strong doubts about it being over for a

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year however when it is over and I live I shall rejoice to come to Bethlehem and

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botanize over the beautiful hills around Lehi we invite you all uh in the coming

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days to follow M's advice rejoice and botanize exploring this beautiful campus

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and its surroundings uh as the university librarian in in Lehi when such an

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opportunity arise uh and the decision needs to be made if we accept a donation

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of such a scale uh we often hope and sometimes pray uh that what seems to be

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a golden opportunity for us to reconnect with our past to the benefit of our future will be a wholesome

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experience such that will allow us to learn about the past but also confirm

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and sometimes challenge our current beliefs and deeds and strengthen of values going forward honestly you never

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know until you see the collection the past is indeed complicated and so is

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our present alignment between the undying urge of research libraries like ours to

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preserve and protect legacies stories and motivations often conflicts with

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other values very dear to us and communities we serve still we choose to

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collect anyway this is what Librarians are all about we are here to provide authentic and accurate

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information uh freely to anyone who likes to learn explore and grow no

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matter what their orientation of views are even when past stories are difficult

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to understand or agree with in the past year and a half and since Lois and I first connected with

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Chris and David Graves and as our librarian staff faculty and students

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began to immerse themselves in the miles rock collection many of us became real fans of the person and his

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legacy you see us all growing beards and like having shirts with birds and and

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everything and we we look like him more and more uh uh beyond the facts about his Global

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exploration and his success in becoming a self-made man starting from humble beginnings we learned much about his

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inner thoughts his curiosity about Science and Arts and his interest in advancing causes of social justice work

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and racial Equity as well as his deep and Rich connections to his friends family and to Lehi we are proud with his

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legacy David said to us we were really hopeful we would find a place where it wouldn't get lost in a larger collection

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or some remote collection where no one knew about it Chris said the I was a

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natural first choice We believe that you made the excellent

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choice uh Lei 2023 strategic plan inspiring the future of makers outlines

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free goals make it new we lead with curiosity make it different applying new

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knowledge to existing problems and make it together connecting with our communities and partners while

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approaching the world with humility and desire to serve and care for value and

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and care for and value each other in my my mind this goes written just recently

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with an eye towards the future are echoed and exemplified again and again by the ma Rock story and is

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I think he would be very much approving how this institution intends to March forward I'm so excited that you're all

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here today join to join us to learn more about the man and his legacy of course there are many people

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to thank for the events and activities leading to today I would like to first and foremost thank our amazing wonderful

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special collections team here uh at Le for the Deep engagement with the collection this far and making it

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accessible to Future Generations if you're in special collections raise your

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hand thank

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you um also to the faculty and students who already partnered with us to explore new

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research directions and interests we have two of them here and we're very very excited about you know them talking

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about what they want to do with the collection they're already working on it this is amazing you know like we have it for a year and a half by now and it's so

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cool to see work done already and kind of thinking what is the collection uh in

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in terms of present uh also to our Librarians and staff in the library and

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Technology services for putting all the events here together uh and to our University

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communication folks Alumni Association and the advancement office for the sheer

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excitement expertise and support all around about this unbelievable gift we

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acknowledge today last I want to thank the friends of the Lea University Library members

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and the board for ongoing strong support your help make us make sure that our

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libraries can continue to create preserve and share the wealth of knowledge produced by this

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community I want to introduce now our next speaker and partner in crime Lis

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black uh who has been in Lehi since 2006 where she currently serves as the

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Director of liary special collections she brings rare book and manuscript experience from private public and

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independent institutional libraries to Lehi to say a few words and introduce our speakers today thank thank

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[Applause]

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you good afternoon please allow me to begin by

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echoing boaz's words of gratitude and thanking the friends of the Lehi libraries we appreciate their

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sponsorship of this exciting series of events commemorating the life of Miles rock this program and ensuing research

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opportunities wouldn't have been possible without generations of Miles Rock's descendants having had the

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foresight to preserve his papers and memorabilia largely intacted preventing his story from being lost to the passage

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of time and what a story it is let me Begin by describing this generous gift

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of Chris Grace and David Grace great great grandsons of Miles Rock they were the most recent

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custodians of rocks papers prior to Their donation and the archive to the Lehi libraries special

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collections David and Chris contacted the Lehi Library special Collections and

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described over Zoom we remember those days but Zoom the most amazing

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historical collection Lehi archist could imagine the papers of a member of the

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first graduating class in

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1869 the brothers generously offered to bring the collection to Lehi making the trip respectively from Massachusetts and

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Wisconsin Chris and David regaled my colleagues and I with stories that had been passed down from generation to

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generation we learned about the fascinating life of Miles Rock who much like today's students pursued an

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education and subsequently a career that took him around the globe we learned firsthand through

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photographs journals and correspondence the story of Miles Rock the only Lehi student who have served in the American

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Civil War the earliest material dates from his childhood in Lancaster

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Pennsylvania and his studies at Franklin and Marshall College his enlistment in the Civil War and enrollment at Lehi

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University also documented are his professional Pursuits beginning with lehi's hiring him as an instructor a

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survey of a local zinc mine and work as an astronomer in

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Argentina miles Rock's most famous most significant professional accomplishment

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was delineating the border between Mexico and Guatemala he died on his coffee

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plantation in Guatemala in 1901 we've learned more about about

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miles rock thanks to generous support provided by Chris and David that enabled special

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collections to expedite cataloging of the archive Casey keys and Casey is here

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today a PhD student in the department of History was hired to serve as a project

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archist through the course of this work Casey made a number of interesting discoveries that he'll share with you

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shortly Casey also served as guest curator of the current exhibit on display in

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lehi's historic Linderman library and online re rediscovering miles rock

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thanks to Chris's and David's support the exhibit includes Maps drawn

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by Miles Rock letters written between his family members and examples of miles's work as both an astronomer and

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surveyor I hope you'll have a chance to visit and walk in the footsteps of Miles Rock the exhibit is on display through

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campus through early July and I know many folks in this room have had a

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chance to uh preview the exhibit you've seen portions of it in the main and

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third floor of Linderman Library uh if you join us at the reception following

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you'll have a chance to see material that's exhibited in the cafe Gallery as well I'd also like to take this

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opportunity to describe some of the teaching and learning opportunities students have had with Miles rock

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collection during the past year special collections has presented classes such as World stories fictional

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expressions of globalization for the modern languages and literatures department and power and

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the planet for the international relations department students utilize the exhibit and then interact with

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primary source materials from the collection in our reading

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room the miles rock collection is one of the most significant archives to have

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been received by Lehi University in the last century telling firsthand the story of a

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member of the first graduating class consisting of only five students at that time this collection provides current

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Lehi students with a measurable opportunities for experiential learning the library special collections

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is hoping to undertake a number of initiatives during the course of deeper investigation of the miles Rock archive

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including potentially conservation treatment of selected portions of the

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collection enhanced cataloging of the papers to ensure discoverability and Aid researchers in understanding aspects of

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Miles Rock's Ambitions and life digitization of the collection to

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facilitate access to researchers and lifelong Learners around the globe uh potentially new acquisitions of

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related materials such as photographs of Argentina Guatemala and other locals

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Central to the story of Miles Rock public program and events designed to educate students faculty in the

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community about miles Rock and um potentially the creation of a student internship or Fellowship to

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perform some of the aforementioned tasks I'm now pleased to welcome great

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great grandson of Miles Rock Chris Grace and David grace to the

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podium after they each provide insight into their experience growing up with Miles

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Rock PhD student Casey keys will share his reac ction to the archives and

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highlight some of the discoveries he made along the way Casey will also describe the process of selecting

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material for the exhibit rediscovering miles Rock the archive is extensive and

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the exhibit has limited space finally Devin Finn visiting assistant professor in international

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relations will describe the research opportunity she's anticipating as she delves into the

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collection so I'll welcome Chris now to the

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podium thank

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you I'll be brief because I don't have I'm not a librarian and I'm not a

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historian um so we'll leave that to The Experts um the one thing I wanted to

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remind everybody or at least to tell the uninitiated even though so many are

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familiar faces here um is to remind you of how how unlikely it is that these

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things actually survived at all they made it from remote remote Guatemala in

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1901 um back somehow through a must have

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been a securious route at least probably to New Orleans or Philadelphia or

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someplace um eventually landed in Washington in the family home of on Belmont Avenue or Street Street in

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DC that's right and at some point they moved from

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what must have been either the basement or the attic there because nobody would want to live with all of this stuff in

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the middle of their home moved out to Leonville Maryland and they lived in a

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barn for a while quite a while some of them were in the Attic but other stuff was in the barn

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and then they moved to Trumansburg I mean it's just like this except for DC everything else is just a pinpoint on

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the map at best and um there were there was there were no floods there were no

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fires there was no mold to speak of there were no Vermin there were no I

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mean there's very very little uh that got to these things so

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that's all dumb luck none of us that was not by anybody's design because nobody was stewarding these things they were

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just they were tolerating them at best and and and and the family had enough

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appreciation there was enough understanding vague understanding you know as time went on of of his

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significance that people thought well we're not at least we're not going to just ship them off to the dump or burn

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it we'll just we've got space put it in the barn and um so David and I realized

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that our children have the CH very small chance of ever having space to hold this stuff

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let alone interest so we needed to stop this cycle and um and make the logical

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step to really preserve them so that's um that's what I would add is just to

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remember when you're looking at this stuff it it's it's it's lived a Charmed

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existence in the sense that it did didn't that the normal course of events

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didn't happen they didn't things these really fragile things did not get

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destroyed um so that's the good news um that's that's my point so I'm gonna

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hand it over to [Applause]

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David I should I should start with with an admission I'm a materialist not not in the the sense of wanting to collect

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money but I collect other things I I love objects I'm trained as a historian

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and material culture is is my passion

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and the my relationship with the with Miles Rock was always through the objects at my grandparents house walk in

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and there was Furniture Cutlery um China

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uh uh oil painting of my of Miles Rock's mother um these are all just everyday

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objects in the house um miles Rock's mother's dowy chest was was a family

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heirloom um his parents fractur uh the the Pennsylvania Dutch artwork

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celebrating their marriage always on the wall if you look at family portraits or family pictures from a family those are

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always in the background there always little objects that that connected us to Miles Rock so it was something

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I to me it was this is material roots of of our family who we were who where we

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came from just reminded you know the reminders everywhere you looked in the house and they were all connected with

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my grandmother it was all her family inside the house outside the barns the cows chickens those were all my

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grandfather's realm that was that was the fry family the the the ransoms and the Rocks were in

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indoors and and in college when I went through I I

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had the privilege of going through the chests when they came to Trumansburg the first time at about gu my junior or

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senior year in college and I was looking for a topic I'd been nominated to to write an honors thesis at

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Wittenberg and was looking for a topic and started going through these documents and decided oh there's there's

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a lot here um narrowed it down to just the Civil War Diaries but remember going through and and seeing so much stuff but

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it hadn't I was still relating to it as a materialist and giving the documents to

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Lehi has actually it's it's opened up new new understandings of them to me you

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you guys have have as you cataloged them and made things just going through the boxes when when we gave them um it

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was more documents than you were expecting I I believe that's safe to say and and after after delivering we came

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back the next day and we started just going through the the the trunks opening them up in the room upstairs in the

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archives where we visited and we quickly ran out of space it was was or it was it

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was hard to you know as we U move through the things and it's at

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that point when I started to realize that that by giving away these objects we were actually they were finally

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getting opened they we were able to possess them by by giving them away and

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that's something that I hope the other family members the the school um I hope

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everyone gets to experience that of of now that they're at Lehi they're they're available for everyone to possess so

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that was just my my addition here

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so okay good I have prepared remarks only because I think it wise to have an

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exit plan should I begin talking about miles Rock um I came to this subject uh

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through my work with library special collections as a project archist so I was the person who processed and

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cataloged the miles rock collection though I am in training and inclination I should add a historian so while my

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academic work has thus far focused on questions of Empire and nationalism in the 19th century Atlantic world I have

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for the past year researched and written rather much on on the the subject of Miles Rock so without trespassing on our

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time I would like to give you a chance to hear the archive speak for itself so I'll devote some time to what I think

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are some of the more resonant contents of the collection and having to having come to know in a sense The Helpful

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ghost of miles Rock I think it best to allow him to speak in his own words as we welcome him back to our Shores I

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should say at the broadest level that I perceive of history as a source of vicarious experience so the depth and

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richness both in personal and epistemological terms of History depend heavily on the quality extent and

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accessibility of archives and although archives are the Keystone of historical knowledge they

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are like the people whose sayings and deeds they document flawed what a pleasant Discovery it was then to

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encounter such a rich archive pertaining to such a fascinating man one that is so complete as this so relatively without

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those flaws The Collection describes most broadly the life of a man born in

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1840 died in 1901 a soldier of the Civil War a Lehi University graduate an

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astronomer a surveyor a boundary commission Chief the list goes on the collection contains essays poems Diaries

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correspondence Professional Publications photographs Memoirs Maps books of Astron

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astronomical and geodetic data and More in other words if miles Rock bought

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a toothbrush in 1895 we are likely to have not only the bill of sale but a

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corresponding diary entry describing the exhaustion of the previous

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toothbrush my first impression was truly one of surprise at finding how simultaneously Broad and deep this

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collection truly is there was also my continuous and ongoing pleasure and interest in learning more about this man

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whose letters and papers sort of always stacked in strings and bundles all

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around me as I worked chronologically The Collection spans miles Rock's School

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room essays to his funeral invitations well beyond including many documents and letters from his wife then Widow Susan

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Clarkson Rock his rather exceptional children and the Guatemala coffee plantation that remained in the family's

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possession for years after his 1901 death in Guatemala City as I processed

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The Collection I naturally thought about it as a historian would or might the work of a historian involves I think

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labors of empathy as well as intellect thinking about history entails a kind of

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effort in balancing these concerns such that they develop and facilitate each other rather than fall into a kind of

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strained apologetic or denunciation the Czech novelist Milan

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kunda described this perception very well I think in his 1993 book of essays Testaments betrayed so you may know the

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quotes rather famous One Man proceeds in the fog but when he looks back to judge

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people of the past he sees no fog on their path from his present which was their far away future their path looks

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perfectly clear to him good visibility all the way looking back he sees the path he sees the people proceeding he

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sees their mistakes but not the fog miles rock as I'm sure you'll agree has much to tell us and this collection

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having been so well I was going to say carefully and devotedly maintained but I should say tolerated uh by the family

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and so generously placed at the disposal of posterity makes it possible for us for hisor and readers alike to walk a

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bit nearer to Miles Rock in that fog of history that Milan kunda described in recent years it has been

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the negative space silences in archives that have magnetized historians and even

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with all its scope and completion there is also the occasional patch of desert in the miles rock collection his time at

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Lehi for example is sadly thinly uh thinly documented in the collection so too his time with the wheeler Expedition

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west of the H hundredth parallel the work of an arch an archist excuse me

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and a historians do seem to me to complement each other rather effortlessly both of these Pursuits at a

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minimum involve the organization of sources into a kind of retrievable coherence but attention of course always

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scraped in the constant temptation to dwell for too long in the letters the journals the photographs to read as much

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as possible on the Guatemala border question as I seem to see it unfold in real time reading miles Rock's Diaries

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reading his letters alas I was not always able to resist as I think Lois and ilhan may may be able to attest but

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I do hope that the discoveries that I made in these instances will not only interest you for their historical perspective I think uh there's there's

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quite a great deal of that but will give you as it gave me a sense of Miles Rock himself his personality his intelligence

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and his ability to express these in writing so in order to do that I will I will devote what remains of my time to a

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brief selection of Miles Rock's quotations all discovered in the collection his

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son-in-law LL Ransom remembers him after his passing by writing it is not given

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to a much younger man who knew Mr Rock Only in his later years to Ade adequately convey the rare personal

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charm that was the Delight of his Intimates and made him an inspiration to all who knew and loved him there was in

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him a certain boyish ardor that age could not chill nor disappointments quench he was generous in the highest

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sense of that word and gave his best to those who needed his help his scrupulous

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adherence to the high standards that he set for his own conduct never diminished the original warmth of his heart or

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contracted the flow of his sympathy he looked naturally upon

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life with courage courageous optimism seeing many things worthy of the doing

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and finding his truest intellectual pleasure in the achievement writing to his brother

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Edward from the first brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserve volunteer Corps in July of 1862 miles writes yours was the

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first letter I received after our many battles you say you had a great flood of

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water in the Lehi I had read of it in the papers so we had a great flood here

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but of blood you have no doubt R all the reserves were in four or five battles

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and fought nobly it was a great slaughter a whole week especially for the rebels who were mowed and M angled

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by the thousands it was terrible horrible I suppose many volunteers will

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again come from Bethlehem but you stay at home it would kill you your lungs

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would not hold out two months I wrote to Allan on July 4th and hope he has received my letter for mother's sake who

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must have felt uneasy as there was a rumor in Lancaster as I learned by a letter from Harrison today that I am

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dead I can't think how it could originate I am far from killed God and His Providence has granted me a

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few days longer life my company lost four or six men in in the battles and

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that would be from a company of around a hundred men so of fair proportion writing again to Edward from

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the same letter that Boaz quoted earlier your description of Bethlehem was very satisfactory and now I request that in

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your next letter you will give me a rough map of it you can draw with the pen how the river runs and the principal

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streets the locality of churches foundaries Etc the island and the river and mountain on the other side and Shop

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you work in also the railroad Canal Etc and the school girls and boys suppose

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you send me a Bethlehem newspaper once in a while give me the names of those published in your

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town must have been a good map an advertisement of a Kind writing to his brother John in

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1863 I am glad for your sake that you have resolved to stop smoking

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in after years you will thank yourself for this manly determination I know a young man here in the sixth regiment

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infantry prvc who smoked after a while it was not strong

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enough or he he also chewed first weak tobacco and then strong then he got used

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to this and he craved something still stronger and now he uses liquor and is

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bloated to distinguish right from wrong on All Occasions always ask yourself this question would mother approve of

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it a caring and and and very faithful older brother on slavery miles fought in the

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Union Army I am reading elements of Botany by Dr Benjamin Smith Barton the following

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sentiment occurs on page 38 speaking of Ora sativa or rice he says but how

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greatly it is to be regretted that this vegetable in the most free and happy country upon Earth should be cultivated

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almost exclusively by the hands of Slaves Shall we never learn to be just to our fellow creatures shall we blindly

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pursue the imaginary advantages of the moment and neglect the still but solemn voice of God until Vengeance in the

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lurid air lifts her red arms exposed and bare this day answers these questions

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terribly in the affirmative the nation is rent and stricken our loved president

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is sacrificed but the evil spirit is cast out he writes this letter on April 18th

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1865 reeling still from the news of the death the assassination of Abraham

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Lincoln but what did Miles Rock have to say about Lehi University and its students alas we perhaps more than we

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can tell because of the collection not having all that much on his time at Lehi but enough to give I think a sense on

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January AR 31st 1869 he laments I am not with Sue today who is to be his wife

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because I do not want to miss my teaching on the last day of the term tomorrow February 1st

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1869 the last day of first term in the last day of my teaching for which I am

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glad more relatable all the time Thursday November 25th

32:55

1869 whan misbehaved beh aved badly and I reported him the gas fixtures on the

33:02

tables were destroyed Tuesday February 3rd

33:07

1870 at 11:30 started for Bethlehem and after dinner got to college just at 1 I

33:12

found the class well behaved and agreeable and the three hours of teaching were a pleasure whan has been

33:19

again dismissed for some misbehavior in his room Payne was dismissed too B

33:25

Miranda was before a Justice this morning on a charge of being the father of a child with NTI

33:33

casgil it is a shame on artificial

33:38

intelligence man who was ahead of his time when at Cordoba about two years ago I read in the Atlantic Monthly an

33:45

article about the production of artificial stupidity in our

33:50

schools he somehow got a copy from I think last year on and and to give you a sense uh

33:58

more so of his of his humor and his character than anything a remark upon

34:03

his boundary commission colleague claudo arua that inflated bag of vomit egotism

34:12

and Malice on work and contentment during his time as a as a as an engineer for

34:18

the Pennsylvania Railroad while I am in a reasonable state of contentment it is

34:24

not the way that I would like to spend my life I want to do do a certain astronomical work I have planned and I

34:30

must also do something to earn a living oh hard cruel fate there is no money in

34:37

astronomy I am disqui to be so down with my nose to a grindstone to have only one

34:44

short life to live and to be compelled to pass the precious time in drudgery to supply animal wants instead of doing

34:51

what I like it's ging I can think of no occupation but teaching to give me support and also Leisure to pursue my

34:58

astronomical project I'll leave you uh for

35:05

now with a bit of a letter to his closest male friend with whom he remained I think a

35:12

very dear friend until Harrison mccre died rather

35:18

tragically but leaving for Guatemala in 1883 miles Rock would not have known

35:23

what we know now which is that it it would only be on very rare

35:29

and few occasions that he would return to the United States that he may indeed never see his best friend Harrison mccre

35:37

again writing to him as he embarks on what he believes will be a year or two

35:43

long expedition to delineate the Border but what turned into a lifetime and what extended Beyond miles

35:51

Rock's death he observes how time flies and very soon

35:58

will all be buried and forgotten the generations will go on our nation will

36:04

Decay other nations will arise and will necessarily be forgotten at last the

36:11

very surfaces on which we move will be buried thousands of feet under new strata of rock perhaps or it will be

36:19

eroded and carried to Sea and the places we walk now will someday be hundreds of

36:25

feet up in the air in position with reference to the new Surface on which new nations and races if not

36:33

species will live their lives important to them as ours to us but they will not

36:41

even suspect that we ever had existence except in digging they may find a brick

36:47

bat or bottle or tomato can to Grace a shelf of some paleontologist or fossil

36:55

Anthropologist what a puff of steam thank

37:01

[Applause]

37:14

you well I have the benefit of having just received all of this kind of fine

37:20

texture and color and Detail in um hearing about how the collection has

37:26

been preserved and tolerated but also these deeply um I think revealing and

37:33

Rich quotes and um stories that that Casey revealed right so I come to you

37:39

not as a historian I'm a trained as a political scientist I teach here in the international relations department um

37:46

but and I've always chosen to conduct research um sort of in an inter

37:53

interdisciplinary way right in a way that crosses um the aisle of different

37:58

um disciplines and methods and so this is what I try to bring you know this kind of holism and dialogue um is what I

38:05

try to bring to my students um and what I do hopefully what I try to do in my

38:10

research um so I'll talk just a little bit about how my students and how I've

38:16

how you know engaging with historical archives and especially miles Rock's collection um you know what what that

38:23

can bring to the classroom and to Lehi and and kind of this intellectual tradition

38:28

um and then a little bit on you know the political context right these are these were real disputes and um sometimes

38:36

violent political contestation over you know where dividing lines between countries lie at really critical moments

38:43

of you know po Independence what we call State formation um in political science

38:50

and international relations um so first how can students

38:55

um how can students engage with historical archives well first you know

39:00

experiencing new kinds of evidence and identifying patterns in how events occurred and how they were connected how

39:08

they were interpreted written about um contravened and portrayed students can

39:14

then sort of make sense of these moments in a broader analytical context a broader historical context right like

39:21

post Independence Latin America um or the history of foreign investment right

39:27

um second drawing on the archive as a connection to humanity right

39:34

um humans make history right their passions their Curiosities as we've been

39:40

hearing about you know miles Rock's Expeditions um their biases their

39:45

personal loyalty sometimes their flagging loyalty their discontent um really shape what happens right who wins

39:52

Wars um where who makes scientific discoveries where these um boundary

39:57

lines actually fall in the end um and you know in all of my courses and with

40:05

my students I focus especially on kind of the so the social nature um the

40:10

deeply fundamentally social nature of politics right um and how politics work

40:18

sort of how the everyday so Gathering Provisions for some field Expedition um

40:24

riding a train to get to the ship that would take miles Rock to Chile right um

40:30

negotiating the difficulties of translating informal agreement made in the rural wildlands of Western Guatemala

40:37

into a formal diplomatic treaty right all of these challenges that rock faced

40:42

um those everyday moments really um

40:48

shape kind of the shifting Sands and terrains of power and of

40:54

connection um so third I think um digging into the archives is a way for

41:00

students um and for me as an educator to kind of cultivate that moving across

41:05

disciplines and that Curiosity right how would a geologist look at this question how do how does an historian right how

41:13

would an engineer um a chemist right so we know that Lehi is a university of

41:18

Engineers of biologists and now increasingly business persons um but

41:24

also it's a university of poets and historians and philosophers um and so for instance

41:33

speaking more specifically about the archive when we look at Bethlehem iron company of

41:38

Pennsylvania um their documents and photographs showing their investments in iron mines in eastern Cuba um in the

41:45

late 19th early 20th century which are here they live here in special collections um we can consider that

41:52

Source from a few different perspectives right one is you know the role of the sovereign state in regulating foreign

41:59

investors activities how they treat their laborers the standards they're being held to right um in Mineral rich

42:05

but poor developing countries second you know Engineers might think about um

42:12

those Investments um relationship to the built environment right and advances and

42:19

Technologies um so so what do we do my students um with the miles Rock

42:24

documents for instance I asked students to visit the ction um through guided sessions kind of small um four or five

42:31

person sessions with the team of archists um and so that meant Lois and

42:36

Alex um and Eric and also ilhan and um the assignment was sort of that they

42:43

absorb elements right of the of the exhibition and also of primary you know

42:48

of documents themselves and put it in dialogue with some of the ideas um and arguments that we're discussing in class

42:55

so this semester as leis mentioned this was for a course called power in the planet which is a new course that's

43:00

never been taught at Lehi very exciting um it concluded yesterday and actually unlike miles Rock I was very sad to see

43:08

it end um not can always be said for for all of my courses but this one that was

43:14

definitely true so it's an IR course an international relations course on nature and politics um with a focus on sort of

43:21

international policy and local efforts to build resilience to the effects of

43:26

climate change change so as part of the the assignments the students engaged with details that got them looking you

43:32

know sort of really closely at the maps at dates at the sketches um made by

43:37

Miles Rock and his colleagues um at letters and government documents um that

43:43

populate the collection right so it made these kind of vague Notions of State Building and um even armed conflict

43:51

right and Plantation agriculture sort of come to life right making them very real and personal

43:57

for the students um one student in the in this class in the power in the planet

44:02

course remarked that on Rock's use of the phrase my Indios like my Indians

44:08

which would have been a common reference perhaps you know during the era um by

44:14

landowners uh to refer to the indigenous laborers on the FAA on the coffee Farm

44:20

um and so this student was sort of questioning Rock's economic and person personal relationship to Native

44:26

inhabitants of the area including those that he had employed right considering the fact and Casey just discussed this

44:33

at length um that rock had fought in the Civil War including in some very bloody

44:39

battles in in Virginia um a struggle that as the student mentioned brought to

44:44

an end quote the ownership of people in America um so for him the question was

44:49

what did that experience of of participating in in such a um a meaningful War right

44:57

um what did that mean for Miles Rock when he years later moves to Guatemala and owns a um a coffee plantation right

45:05

the student um whose family is who's from Sudan asked um so we know that

45:10

Miles Rock was very committed um to and rejected slavery and enslavement in all

45:16

its forms but um that's just one example of of some of the the reactions and

45:21

engagement with the the documents themselves so my hope is that students are prompted to ask

45:27

um what might my path look like right as a Lehi educated professional um a lorded

45:34

perhaps by work and investment um and taking on responsibility in a foreign context

45:41

right or even here in Pennsylvania or the American West um perhaps excited by this possibility of shaping local

45:47

histories and community building and scientific advancements um so the other aspect you

45:55

know of Miles Rock and His World um specifically his experiences in Guatemala that I wanted to focus on is

46:02

this idea of the state um being constructed around him and certainly

46:08

through his efforts right um and also sort of the relationships with nature

46:13

and people that this role that he took on and his immersion in these sort of

46:18

wild Parts um entailed so again seen from one angle rock is doing this work

46:25

of building States in physical iCal terms by mapping lands delineating boundaries um shaping political

46:31

relations both within Guatemala um and and between the Mexican

46:37

and Guatemalan governments right I me so we know that borders right if you've ever taken a politics or IR course right

46:43

um or read the news we know that FR you know this idea um of Fronteras or limes

46:49

that that is constantly you know emerging from the archive from the from the correspondence um are immensely

46:55

important um in in the conduct of of international politics right um these

47:01

borders outline and limit Authority and give the imprator of States Mutual recognition to a specific government or

47:09

regime's ability to wield force and defend its lands and people right so that's the boring IR theory part right

47:16

um but in Central America um this is a process that's defined by state breaking

47:22

right followed by state making so um a c

47:28

a local sort of regional strongman um Rafael carera LED all of Central

47:34

America's not only Guatemala's kind of struggle for Independence in the early 1800s against Spanish forces um he later

47:42

carved out a relatively small very precise um state which becomes gu um

47:49

which becomes Guatemala that he could sort of rule confidently without having to be concerned about major Challengers

47:56

or you know waves of resistance political um contestation right so

48:01

careras was a strategy looking toward having a really strong export Market um

48:06

and tightly controlled um very tight political control right um so you know

48:14

that Independence Movement is successful in the 1820s by 1838 1840 Central

48:20

America the Federation of Central America had broken up into Costa Rica Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua and Al salv

48:28

Lord right so you know I won't go into details but you can see sort of some of the

48:34

changes um that Miles Rock intervened in right he had um really concrete um

48:42

exploratory mapping surveying um and also frankly political

48:48

and diplomatic roles in shaping the lines that would become eventually permanent right and certainly his his

48:55

persona and his his um human influence played a role right in his um in in how

49:03

persuasive and how how much he inspired confidence in his interlocutors um and so you know these

49:10

are deeply again deeply contested boundaries um Mexico was claiming you

49:15

know it's hard to see was um claiming like in the 1893 map you can see um to

49:22

the north to the northeast of um Guatemala you can see Chia Chas um you

49:28

know um Guatemala was claiming chapas for its own um for its own territory and

49:34

Mexico was claiming you know parts of Guatemala right so there was concern uh and deep investment in seeing the

49:39

boundary the actually delimited boundary between the two countries change um and

49:45

that's why miles Rock was sent and came so highly recommended to undertake um this work right so of course you know

49:52

this wasn't just about increasing the amount of land under Mexican control or

49:58

Guatemalan control but it was about access to the Pacific Ocean as well this was a time when the ports were

50:04

incredibly valuable for what you know local Elites Financial Elites and and

50:11

and investors saw to would be sustained investment by Europeans in um these

50:16

markets um these export markets right um this is also the time when there's a big gold rush in California and Australia

50:24

right so the Pacific itself becomes incredibly important in terms of um uh

50:29

transport and you know supply chain issues right um and so you know we know

50:36

that rock was praised and acclaimed for having retained really valuable lands

50:42

for Guatemala right um incredibly important political role there so

50:49

through the documents and correspondence between Rock and his fellow Engineers doing this boundary commission work we

50:55

learn that nature and natural conditions frequently pose obstacles to achieving their goals right

51:01

so we hear in the letters we hear about Haze and fog and intense sunshine and wind and boulders um and extreme

51:08

temperatures unrelenting forested swats um are all mentioned sort of in field

51:14

notes as obstacles to the commission's exploratory and mapping work um in James

51:20

Scotts parlament through these exercises of seeing like a state through census taking mapping generating cadastral

51:27

records right um looking toward taxation these early States right these nent

51:33

states um were you know through the wielding of a force right um were kind

51:40

of building their own power but also through these measurement efforts right

51:45

through mapping um and through learning local dialects this is a state um that's

51:51

building a a in its own in its own perspective building a modernist um uh

51:56

government right and and exercising um through simplification kind of ignoring

52:02

um for instance social uses of the Forest right however driven by the

52:09

commission's objectives and certainly his entrepreneurial Spirit Rock himself

52:15

shows is emerges as a naturalist as an environmentalist right he was an

52:21

individual who was sort of deeply aware as many of you know I don't need to tell you this right but I was struck by by

52:26

this um deeply aware and appreciative of place um and the natural world so for

52:33

instance we can see this in a joke about temporarily capturing um temporarily capturing an

52:39

armadil an armadillo and in rock um and in rock sketching a toad in a ravin's

52:46

crevice to include in a letter to Susan Clarkson Rock so here you have um Edwin

52:53

rockstro writing a sort of field from the field and rock is in another part of Guatemala saying I send you for eye

53:00

inspection an armado which I think he's talking about an armadillo we've just taken into

53:06

prison but it is only for looking at because the Indians want to eat it um so

53:12

I knew that this was not an armed person person but he's talking about armadillos

53:18

which are actually various species of armadillos are native to this part of C North Central and Western Guatemala um

53:26

so I found you know deep enjoyment in this kind of appreciation which is all over the archive um and in Reading

53:33

Rock's description of Guatemala's forests so this comes out in a scientific publication I believe that um

53:40

the American naturalist in 1888 not this um in which rock seeks to bring the

53:47

reader along for a journey from the High Altitude volcanic Peaks facing the Pacific down through the dry grasses and

53:54

brush flora and fauna and the Pines sprues and Cedars where he saw great

53:59

potential for furniture making but Express concerns about the the the the Practical ability to extract this Timber

54:07

always kind of looking toward the business um the business opportunities I think all the way down to sea level um

54:13

and he remarks at the outset of this article that he sees his task as laying be the face of

54:20

Guatemala so immediately after a passage in which he discusses generations of Indians inhabiting the Beautiful and

54:26

balmy High Plains of the country cultivating corn um beans

54:32

potatoes um and peppers Rock notes their profound diversity of language and

54:37

practice so this is from this 1888 article called Guatemala's forests the

54:43

many languages surviving to this day and mere fragments of tribes in isolated

54:48

patches and often mixed would seem to show that many different peoples came here and took possession of the fruit of

54:55

previous occupants and were in their turn subdued or driven away from their Mountain Fields thus the

55:02

cupidity and necessity of races or classes is ever making turmoil and

55:07

changing the established order these people seem fixed to their soil like the

55:13

very trees sometimes a village seems All That Remains of a race surrounded by

55:18

other languages unintelligible to it so observing the indigenous people's

55:25

relationships with the land and mountains and their skills in agriculture perhaps lens Rock insight

55:31

into State formation one understanding of State peration this idea of the changing Order of Things um so you know

55:40

to conclude all the while rock is navigating social relations economic

55:45

transactions I was very proud as a Philadelphian as a Pennsylvanian I was very proud to see that he bought

55:52

pretzels in Philadelphia in 1873 as he was prep preparing to go to Chile

55:57

packing them in his bag for chile very very proud Philadelphian um and he's you

56:03

know he's making sense of this all as a civil engineer as an astronomer as a father as a husband colleague land owner

56:09

and also as I mentioned a kind of Diplomat um so this process you know that I mentioned of strong men

56:15

cultivating local support and Indigenous peasants carving out an existence after

56:21

Colonial Devastation and and and victimization is in fact deep driven by

56:26

external influences like European built railroads and investment in inks and tree resins and coffee but it is also a

56:35

story of being rooted in soil and lava measuring the distance to the stars and

56:42

marveling at the Mist in the highlands thank you miles

56:47

[Applause]

56:54

Rock okay uh do you hear me okay yes awesome thank you so uh we got like

57:01

around half an hour until we want to kind of start rolling back to the lendman to for a reception uh we thought

57:08

of kind of having a little bit of a discussion and then open it up for you all to ask questions uh Eric where are

57:16

you thank you Eric Eric has the mic uh so once we're getting into that Eric

57:22

will find you here we have a question already please yeah yes so he was inv

57:28

would you mind waiting for a second just that Eric will ah Heather thank you he

57:33

was that allows us to record what you're asking oh okay I was just wondering about his work with zinc mining since

57:39

zinc mining was so big here in the Lehigh Valley and um it's kind of come

57:44

full circle with Lehi now owns the land where I think he did uh work zinc mining

57:50

so I was wondering about what you found in the archives about that

57:57

here we

58:06

go yeah my name is Mark Connor and I'm a community advocate for creating a

58:11

Heritage Park on that property where the Z where the 19th century Uber Ro zc mine

58:16

was and Miles Rock was um I started as a student working there and I don't not

58:23

sure if he was paid or if it was some kind of apprenti ship but after he graduated he continued to work there in

58:30

drawing maps of the zinc mine so that's just not the surface it's actually the

58:35

underground workings as well so the maps are very detailed they show the open m

58:41

pit and then also all the um uh uh what they call veins that were or tunnels

58:47

that were followed underground where the miners were going after the zinc rich or

58:53

uh so we drew very detailed maps and they really became the basis for all the maps that were done in the 19th century

59:00

uh if you look at all of them they refer back to the work that Miles Rock did uh not only at there was actually five

59:06

mines uh in freedv uh all all owned or controlled by the Lehi zinc company who

59:13

was his employer and U so if you he drew maps of

59:18

all those of all the mines and uh I said they're very detailed very complete it

59:23

sounds like that was the story of his life he was a de detailed man who uh who

59:29

was very careful about what he did and uh and had a lot of pride in his work and it's very clear on the maps that was

59:35

the case um his assistant in doing this work uh was uh Lehi graduate of the

59:42

class of 1871 uh Henry Sturgis Drinker who is a familiar name on campus he was the fifth

59:49

Le High president and first one until currently who was aluminous ofly high he

59:56

was Miles Rock's assistant uh when miles Rock would leave Lehigh campus he would

1:00:01

go over the hill supposedly they walked over but my guess is they hit a ride in a wagon now and then but but uh went

1:00:08

over the hill to the mines which are four miles away um miles Rock carried the transit and um um uh Drinker ended

1:00:18

up with having to carry the the transit pole over the over the hill so um so he

1:00:23

was his assistant and Drinker would credit uh because the only mining professor at Lehi had quit because

1:00:30

Drinker was the only mining engineering student um either quit or they told him

1:00:35

he didn't need him because he only had one student he uh Drinker learned much of what he knew about mining as a mining

1:00:42

engineer at the mines and I'm sure a lot of that had to do with what he learned from Miles Rock so yeah that's kind of

1:00:48

what I know about it so thank you Mark Mark Conner is a friend of the Le

1:00:56

University libraries and an expert on mining and everything and I think last week was it that there was a

1:01:03

tour um yes in fact um Mark led a tour for approximately a dozen students and a

1:01:11

number of staff from special collections to um actually examine the terrain that

1:01:18

Miles Rock So carefully mapped and it was a great experiential learning opportunity for our students to get out

1:01:24

on the field and actually see not only the the landscape there but

1:01:29

also the president's pump engine that has been left

1:01:36

behind Okay we started with questions go on do you have here let's let's start

1:01:42

maybe there Eric thank you uh H how many students do you think

1:01:48

have interacted with the exhibits I I didn't realize that you'd have classes around it but how many how widely has it

1:01:55

been seen how how else do students interact with

1:02:00

it you may know the the grand total this semester my students numbered 30 so the

1:02:07

entire class U it was an assign it was a required assignment um and it was right

1:02:12

after spring break so they kind of were like you know dragging their their heels a bit and sort of like okay but it was

1:02:19

neat to have them in small groups it was sort of like um I've also done visits

1:02:24

which are also great where we can have um you know bigger the entire class at once in special collections in the

1:02:30

reading room interacting um but I think this exhibition the way Casey designed

1:02:36

it and the way special collections kind of worked on it and and and diffused it

1:02:41

through the library I think allowed it really catalyzed this kind of like small

1:02:46

group um and like conversation and then they did some writing about it they

1:02:52

responded to questions so on my part this semester was 30s 30 students but I

1:02:57

think there are more yes I describe our instruction programs and special collections as um presenting content

1:03:04

from A to Z and you've heard about miles Rock's interest in astronomy uh you might say that his work sketching the

1:03:11

birds is represented in our Autobon case is an example of zoology so we do indeed

1:03:17

teach from a toz and Miles rocks collection is um is an archive that we can incorporate in classes across the

1:03:24

curriculum so I would say at this point probably well over a hundred students have had

1:03:31

instruction sessions centered around the exhibit and uh many many different

1:03:40

disciplines yeah obviously Beyond those instructional sessions we have the exhibit that you you've seen today uh

1:03:47

numerous people I think seen it already in the last few days uh and there is

1:03:53

another exhibit coming in the ewfm so the other Library we have that we're working on right now that's going to be

1:03:59

opening tomorrow uh with a lot of kind of more on the popular side the quotations that we heard about today uh

1:04:06

we are very much interested in the community engagement with the collection uh scholarly and more uh so uh we are uh

1:04:16

going to continue to explore it and present it and make it public we should mention too I think that uh because of

1:04:24

deliberate placement of the exhibit cases in such a public area in the library we're not locking our exhibits

1:04:30

away in special collections not that we lock anything away but the cases are in

1:04:35

a very prominent location and you think about how many students we have who are

1:04:40

passing by on an average day so we like to think that more than half of the student body has at the very least

1:04:47

stumbled over the cases and become familiar with Miles

1:04:53

Roth where was d yeah can you say also who you are I'm sorry I didn't ask the other people so just just introduce

1:05:00

yourself um hi my name is nck Carpenter um I'm here at I'm the editor for Le un

1:05:06

University press um this was a really lovely presentation um it it you know uh

1:05:15

of Saw and fold from boxes of documents stored away in somebody's basement or

1:05:20

attic we hear miles Rock's Voice come out and then we see how rocks can get

1:05:26

put into of a much broader International historical context so I

1:05:32

kind of have two-ish questions um uh the I'll just start with the one so maybe

1:05:39

you could talk a little bit about what was significant about the

1:05:44

collection when these discussions first took place and has how you understand

1:05:50

their significance changed um and then the second question is is you know this is this this is a

1:05:55

family archive right and so you know um David had kind of mentioned that he he

1:06:02

in handing it over you kind of I forget how you phrased it you sort of gain ownership but when I was listening to

1:06:08

this I also feel like the AR it breathes right so but also it's a family archive

1:06:13

so I mean were there ever conversations about what it would mean to take a family archive and open it up to the

1:06:20

public thank you maybe I'll start and keep it going so immediately you know uh

1:06:27

when Lois said something like U there is this collection that we may be uh kind

1:06:32

of getting uh into Lei uh it it felt very exciting it was very immediate and

1:06:39

quick uh because uh we knew a little bit about the collection we had some uh

1:06:45

writings uh uh by David that we looked at and you know we we thought that for

1:06:51

sure the person has significance for Lehi we knew that he has you know being

1:06:57

the first class uh of uh students here we knew that he was in the Civil War we

1:07:02

knew that you know like there is some excitement maybe about global you know

1:07:08

um work that he's done uh and also I think it was quick that we talked with

1:07:13

Chris and David and like okay there is a connection here you know uh and uh from

1:07:19

there it was easier to kind of I think what we did actually was to bring the whole collection without even you know

1:07:27

knowing yet if we're going to be receiving it because it it felt like a really genuine important collection for

1:07:34

Lei and we wanted to just see it you know like we were excited we wanted to

1:07:39

see we wanted to see how it open tires yep yep uh because as we you know like

1:07:46

we are kind of because this is like you never know it opens up and then there are lots of different things you never

1:07:52

know about so uh it was very immediate at least from my end but like it was

1:07:59

like the quick kind of reaction yeah Chris Christopher and I had had quite a

1:08:04

few discussions just about how how it would open it up for the family because when they were all in Leonville at the

1:08:11

farm that was the the the sort of focal point for the the entire family would come to that house um but when that

1:08:18

didn't exist anymore neither one of us could provide that kind of setting for it so to have them come to Lehi this is

1:08:24

a place for the entire family can come and look at them we'll know that they're here um so we did have that discussion

1:08:31

we yeah and we had so David and I grew up in an academic home so we both were

1:08:38

on the same page understanding the um the specific reasons the

1:08:46

importance of of sending it to an academic Library um and what the potential was

1:08:55

there um for Access as for you know discussions about whether

1:09:02

there was stuff in there that would be painful or embarrassing or somehow

1:09:10

awkward to um expose we didn't really go into that and uh neither one of us

1:09:17

wasn't a big we didn't feel self-conscious about it I mean if if we found in there that he had some kind of

1:09:23

you know monstrous habit or so you know that there was some side of him that

1:09:29

well yeah that's get in line I mean we've got a lot of we've got a lot of we've got a

1:09:35

lot of ugly um um ancestors everybody does if you go back far enough so that

1:09:42

yeah so we didn't we didn't really spend a lot of energy on that it was mostly um and David and my mother had made um

1:09:50

initial um approaches and thoughts about this uh many many years ago 20 or 30

1:09:57

years ago initially trying to think about the process and it just wasn't the right time but um when when both of our

1:10:06

parents had passed away and we really needed to dispose of a lot of stuff um

1:10:12

then David and I it forced the issue and um and we were both at a point in our

1:10:18

lives where we were prepared to do the work and and make the decisions and um

1:10:25

give up some of the control um all of the control uh all of those things fell

1:10:31

in place and and it's helpful that it was just two of us and that we were in agreement there there wasn't there

1:10:38

wasn't a lot of dispute we so once we once we made the call it went very

1:10:47

easily now we're we're attracted by the collection of course the Lehi collection

1:10:53

is as we've described but uh in special collections now our instruction uh

1:10:59

always comes out of Storytelling we're looking for uh a way to have a

1:11:04

collection an archive um an instruction session resonate with students and one

1:11:11

um aspect of our um pedagogy now that um students actually seem to retain is that

1:11:18

storytelling components and of course there's a tremendous story here uh knowing that um he grew up not to too

1:11:25

far away in Pennsylvania he he fought in the Civil War he attended Lehi

1:11:30

University and like so many of our students today his career took him around the world so everywhere um I

1:11:38

think across South and Central America uh then throughout the United States um

1:11:43

he's he's fairly well traveled for uh someone of that period so for us um it's

1:11:49

about storytelling and knowing what a rich story we had here uh the collection

1:11:54

is is nearly complete and that um was of course most U attractive to us as well

1:12:00

because uh archives often preserve autograph files U if you have a letter

1:12:05

that just happens to have George Washington's signature it's thought to be important but you don't have the

1:12:11

whole story you just have one signature and in this case as as we've heard from

1:12:16

from Casey and and Devin as well that there are many many

1:12:22

um research opportunities

1:12:29

hi um my name is Hannah and I'm a cousin to Chris and David I have one comment

1:12:36

and then a question from my daughter uh that I'll help her with the comment is

1:12:41

to add to um Chris and David's description of you know Chris talking

1:12:48

about the generations of tolerating the you know these box trunks of things um

1:12:54

and David you're talking about remembering just these items being so present I I just want to I feel that

1:13:03

it's right to add that your mother was an incredible Storyteller and speaking of Storytelling

1:13:10

and I'm GNA I love your mom so much um and so some of my favorite childhood

1:13:18

memories are like laying on the floor in your Den with her just regaling me with

1:13:24

the just the Amazing Adventures of Miles Rock um sorry emotional but it really

1:13:31

she was a Storyteller and she for me she kept his story alive so I'm grateful for

1:13:37

that um Hannah did you notice how much um in the picture where he's standing

1:13:43

with his two children the daughter looks like my mother yeah yeah yeah that's

1:13:48

that that's Amy yeah his daughter Amy yeah um and

1:13:55

and and so my and then a question um my daughter

1:14:01

Clara she and both my son I think they're so used to hearing about very

1:14:06

people with very specialized career these days so it was very confusing to

1:14:12

them to hear that he did astronomy civil engineering surveying uh he knew things about botney

1:14:19

geology and so their question and you can add to it if you'd like but their question was did

1:14:26

he do all these things at the same time how does somebody do all of these careers how did you get from one to the

1:14:33

other and I don't know if anyone can answer that but it it was it it w it was

1:14:38

something that was and I I know you were speaking about kind of interdisciplinary

1:14:45

studies um but to them that's somewhat of a foreign concept so if anyone is

1:14:51

wants to speak to that that was their question one of the things in the in in his the things that he preserved from

1:14:57

his parents um they're very much the religious community the the

1:15:04

fractures um the the dowy chest has has Pennsylvania Dutch painting on it and

1:15:10

his mother um couldn't read or she she couldn't read and write she would uh she signed her name with an ex and the

1:15:16

transition for him into sort of the modern world with the education it's it

1:15:22

it it coincides with uh measurement and Science and so much so many of those

1:15:27

jobs the titles astronomer um cartographer

1:15:32

geographer they're all applying the same um

1:15:38

uh data collection mentality of measure

1:15:44

record um map um so so lots of the although there different titles it's

1:15:49

often the same activities the the astronomy uses the same angle measurements as the triangulation that

1:15:55

he was doing out west on the wheeler survey um the chronometers that were used on the for the hydrographic office

1:16:03

uh surveying the coast of of Central America and and the

1:16:08

US the the the skills he learns with measuring time with chronometers there he's using in Guatemala he's using out

1:16:14

west um he he's using an astronomy an astronomy at the Naval Observatory so they're all skills they're skills that

1:16:21

he learned here at Lehi but they're all part of that the modern approach where where the the world can be um understood

1:16:29

mathematically by measurement um and then using that knowledge you know to to

1:16:37

to uh sort of command the environment um

1:16:42

so there are many hats but the hats are all out of the same

1:16:51

material thank you um uh James AER uh also a great great grandson of Miles

1:16:58

Rock uh and also an alumnus of Lehigh University class of 1980 and I mainly

1:17:04

took the mic because I wanted to commend you for making me leehi proud you for

1:17:11

everything that I see happening with this collection um I knew very little

1:17:16

about you know miles Rock other than the fact that well he graduated in the first class and my parents were thrilled when

1:17:21

I came to attend Lehi so but uh so I wanted to comment first by just thanking you for uh really engaging with this

1:17:30

collection and you know really as as David put it you know bringing it to

1:17:35

light so that everybody can see it so that the family can see it but also so that you know students now and into the

1:17:42

future can also see it and so that leads me to the question and that would be uh what do you see as sort of the pathway

1:17:48

going forward with this collection and also perhaps are there going to be

1:17:54

perhaps fundra raing initiatives to sort of help support uh research activities

1:17:59

with the collection should talk yes I I think I I

1:18:07

had mentioned a number of potential projects that we would love to undertake

1:18:12

in future and um I I can't help but refer back to my bullet points um now

1:18:19

that um we' recognized the need for some conservation treatment in portions of the collection

1:18:25

and uh that is fairly labor intensive uh whether it's about paper repair

1:18:31

rebinding uh some of the the collections um have have needed some TLC I think

1:18:37

we've agreed over time yes uh we have created what we refer to as U folder

1:18:46

level inventory there are various technical terms and um if we had let's

1:18:53

say a smaller volume material specific letters here and there we would be

1:18:59

cataloging them as individual items in this case um in the interest also of

1:19:05

time we've created a finding Aid that has um what we think of as a folder

1:19:12

description so it might be correspondence during his Lehi years

1:19:17

there might be another folder while he was in uh Argentina another folder while he's in

1:19:23

Guatemala one one possibility in future would be to provide more detailed

1:19:28

enhanced cataloging that might um detail specific letters within the folders um

1:19:36

we've also have plans for digitization we've digitized as you've

1:19:42

seen examples in the online exhibit and I guess by a show of hands I assume that

1:19:47

many of you have already browsed U the virtual exhibit that we have uh that is

1:19:54

um just to the tip of the iceberg regarding our digitization efforts

1:19:59

because um we were focused primarily on the exhibit what we'd like to do is

1:20:04

digitize extensive portions of the collection and uh that would also reach

1:20:10

a global audience we've been contacted by researchers in Mexico who are

1:20:15

interested in his work and um I think the Guatemalan government uh would also

1:20:20

like to see some examples of his correspondence he is bued in Guatemala

1:20:26

well I might be able to add a word on that point I think that uh where the collection has its most uh scholarly

1:20:32

value is probably on that question of the dispute about the border between Guatemala and Mexico excuse me that was

1:20:39

a question that seemed to uh create tensions even after the 20 years it took

1:20:44

to settle it so for example the bag of vomit arua that he described in the quote wrote A Memoir of the boundary

1:20:51

question and uh that book was suppressed by the Guatemalan government a kind of

1:20:56

touchy subject I think because it involved while miles Rock uh did such hard and good work in helping them to

1:21:03

preserve portions of their territory that Mexico being more powerful than Guatemala was able to sort of get its

1:21:09

own way more often than not in that process able to delay and defer things to its own advantage and so uh I think

1:21:17

that it's only now possible thanks to the donation of the collection that real Clarity really uh kind of a deeper and

1:21:25

valuable understanding of the Border question can be had because I had read a person's dissertation who was writing

1:21:31

about that Guatemala Mexico boundary and it was pretty clear that they were using

1:21:36

Mexican archives because there was very little reference to Miles Rock and what was there was based either on ARA's

1:21:42

Memoir or on the Mexican archives and you just got a sense knowing that arua is not somebody who's really they were

1:21:50

colleagues but certain rivalries within this commission as well and uh the Mexicans being sort of opposed for

1:21:57

political reasons to getting this done a certain way that it it it ends up being a sort of very narrow and

1:22:03

one-dimensional picture that you get I would say both of Miles Rock and of the question because you simply couldn't

1:22:09

know uh you couldn't have the vast majority of the documents that he had himself in his own possession I imagine

1:22:16

that some of them would have sort of duplicates and things like this in Guatemalan archives but uh his personal

1:22:23

perspective for example writing to the state department and saying look I I've it's taken me a long time to come to

1:22:28

this view but it does seem as though The Mexican government is not playing straight with us and that they don't

1:22:34

want this to be mapped in a timely way so I think that those perspectives are only just now for the first time

1:22:40

possible to have or possible to get and I think that um it's even the case that

1:22:46

people were interested in this before the collection arrived so as Lois could tell you uh there was an email from a

1:22:52

scholar asking about miles Rock stuff at Lehi because they were interested in the boundary commission so they knew about

1:22:58

him from that I Googled him and found that he was you know there's mention of

1:23:03

him on lehi's website here and there before the collection arrived because he was the first civil engineering graduate

1:23:09

but there is a there is an interest in that subject and I think that that subject can at last be sort of uh done

1:23:17

at the level that it should be done because of this collection so there are others but I think that's where its real

1:23:22

strength lies as a scholarly archive can I'll just take a second and

1:23:28

give a perspective from the donor's side um this from David and I made the this

1:23:34

is an unrestricted gift so Lehi has complete control over what happens going

1:23:42

forward there there's no restrictions at all on who can access it what

1:23:48

conclusions they can draw as if you could control that but you know people try um

1:23:55

and uh but we asked you know we asked

1:24:00

that the focus remain or that that undergraduate access

1:24:05

and experience be a large part going forward that digitization be be a a goal

1:24:13

and that public and family access always has to be available going

1:24:18

forward um and then I've heard recently from Lorraine

1:24:25

um who she's a vice president that um they have established

1:24:30

now a fund specifically for this this is another thing we pushed for um there is

1:24:36

a there will be a fund that anybody can donate to that they can designate a donation toward which will support this

1:24:44

collection it'll be available to do digitally you know online uh to make it as easy as possible

1:24:51

so that so that you know people who are interested in supporting the work can do that going forward and it but David and

1:24:58

I have no role in managing what they do in the future so they may want to they

1:25:04

may want to buy things you know add to the collection in ways with materials

1:25:09

that are not miles Rock but are that are related um you know to build it out they

1:25:14

may there could be we can't even imagine the things that they want to do so that's why we don't want to try to

1:25:20

manage it going forward it makes no sense at all that that wouldn't be a gift um but but the most important part

1:25:27

is that they do have a fund established now so that it'll there'll be a way for people who are who are watching this and

1:25:34

are interested in the future David and me included because we we're continuing to support it um that

1:25:40

they can you that you know that that what you contribute will go toward what

1:25:46

you've seen today and you know um online and and in the

1:25:52

cases thank you again you know just to add a little bit to that uh we we have

1:25:58

the whole certain family members here many family members here I already heard

1:26:03

that there was a trumpet somewhere that you know like so and and like another one of those

1:26:10

facets that we kind of discover as we go about this collection that you know like this this and not just the person but

1:26:17

the storytelling about the person uh keeps on going and uh we are very curious about folklore about the stories

1:26:25

that you're telling each other about the family history uh our special

1:26:30

collections team is great in kind of collecting those and recording those

1:26:36

because this is it's not just one person one time a long time ago right the whole idea we got together today so the whole

1:26:43

idea is to keep it as a living Legacy and kind of think about the people that you are and the way that you relate to

1:26:50

this person that that long ago so kind of think about those things too you know

1:26:56

uh you don't need to give us all the stuff you know if you don't want to uh you know sometimes images sometimes just

1:27:02

talking with us uh all those things are great you know like we really want it to be a valuable program a place where you

1:27:09

know people can connect our students can connect to the material in a foundational level so the story like the

1:27:17

human uh story is what really we're seeking and like please do come to us

1:27:23

and tell us St stories cuz we we're really curious about those things in addition obviously yes if there is a way

1:27:29

for you to support the collection in any way shape or form that's great helps us

1:27:35

there a lot of stuff this is a huge collection and and you know like when

1:27:40

when we got it were you know like you never know what is inside uh those um uh

1:27:48

big containers there's a lot there okay that's a sign

1:27:55

we had one more okay one more

1:28:04

question thank you I'm Don Baxter I'm a great great grandson as well uh I guess

1:28:10

my question is probably best directed at Casey um as you went through the

1:28:15

collection what surprised you the most what intrigued you the most and what excited you the

1:28:22

most well it was full of surprise uh naturally at being such a large archive I think the thing that surprised

1:28:27

me most was I think its completion and the extent of it so not only is there uh an an almost uh complete amount uh like

1:28:35

I've mentioned in in in my remarks there's uh some missing areas uh particularly his time at Lehi uh his

1:28:41

time on the wheeler Expedition items pertaining to that but not uh documenting it fully the biggest surprise was the extent of it so from

1:28:49

his Boyhood School room essays uh essays on Bumblebee lightning bolts nuns things

1:28:56

like this to uh funeral invitations to uh bills of sale uh you know things

1:29:02

relating to the sale of the coffee plantation in the 1920s when his uh

1:29:07

daughter who by that point is middle-aged is is finally selling it the thing that most intrigued me I would say

1:29:13

was uh miles Rock's personality that uh it's it's relatively irrepressible in

1:29:18

the archive it's all over everything he if he's describing anything he'll do it in a way that is memorable he he he

1:29:25

seems to resist cliche descriptions in his writing uh and and that's something

1:29:30

I would add to some of the things that were said earlier about the uh whether or not it was the case that he was

1:29:36

really wearing one or many hats in his professional life I think it I think it is true to say that he was an excellent

1:29:43

writer and and a very cultured person in addition to being someone who did uh

1:29:48

Sciences there's there's nowadays I think and perhaps a shame that there's this sense in which

1:29:54

the humanities and stem fields are are siloed and isolated from each other uh whereas miles Rock would never have

1:30:01

related to that distinction whereas uh he was doing astronomy or doing uh surveying he was also reading the Poetry

1:30:08

of Robert Burns and there's a mention of this in the letter where Alfred his son goes to retrieve his effects and says uh

1:30:15

I did get my hands on that copy of burns that he like to read at night uh so little touches like that he emerges as a

1:30:21

very I think relatable figure and one who uh it's very tempting and I did fall

1:30:27

prey to this temptation to spend long hours just reading his letters and to me it it was simultaneously kind of a a

1:30:35

nice thing to discover that we had the boundary commission Chief's papers his documents pertaining to his work but

1:30:41

also his ideas about what was going on here his perspective on it I I think a

1:30:47

deeply intelligent and expressive man and one who uh was as good at kind of

1:30:54

expressing those qualities as he was at putting his uh education to work in the form of those uh th those more

1:31:00

scientific projects um also the kind of uh depth of

1:31:06

the collection with regard to other members of the family so in addition to having letters to and from his children

1:31:11

his wife Brothers uh colleagues people like that we have letter copy books we have copies of the letters that he sent

1:31:18

out that he's painstakingly written down in a clear hand things like that so uh

1:31:24

really in terms of getting to know a historical figure as well as one possibly can I think that uh the

1:31:30

collection is extremely rich and that it would be it would be hard not to sort of find yourself magnetized to the to the

1:31:37

person who's just everywhere you look in it so yeah I hope that answers your

1:31:45

question okay we we ran out of time we could have spend like two more hours I think it was so good

1:31:54

uh thank you very much so remember to go to the reception 6:30 back in the

1:32:00

library in the Linderman uh we don't have pretzels I think from

1:32:06

Philly but we have other great stuff there and uh happy to meet you all thank

1:32:12

you

1:32:24

okay thank you

0:00

- Well, we've described the Miles Rock collection

0:03

as being nearly complete

0:05

and it is so unusual to find a Civil War uniform

0:10

in addition to the memoirs, the diaries, the journals

0:17

from the soldier who wore them.

0:20

And we know Miles Rock is important to Lehigh

0:23

because he was a member of the first graduating class.

0:27

He's important to the history of our country as well

0:31

because he served in the Civil War

0:34

and we have as part of the collection,

0:38

a remarkable survivor, is his Civil War uniform.

0:44

This is his jacket and it has some damage.

0:49

You can see the ravages of time,

0:51

presumably from moths or other insects,

0:55

but this is the actual jacket

0:57

that he would've worn and is likely the one

1:00

that is pictured in the photographs

1:03

that form part of the collection.

1:06

This also has buttons present on it

1:09

and it would be manufactured from wool.

1:14

So it's very interesting to see this

1:17

from a textile perspective as well.

1:20

We, in the archives, of course

1:22

focus on paper based materials

1:24

but we teach our students through storytelling now,

1:29

primarily because it's more likely

1:30

to stick with them over time

1:33

and having this tangible aspect,

1:37

this component to the story,

1:39

will actually bring Miles Rock to life

1:41

as part of part of our Lehigh history

1:45

as well as mentioned, the nation's history.

0:01

1 second

- This is Miles Rock's Diary from 1864 to 1865, which would've been when he was in the military serving during the Civil War.

0:11

11 seconds

This specific section is from Saturday, April 15th, 1865.

0:17

17 seconds

"This morning at breakfast table, I heard rumor that the president was assassinated. I cannot believe it and paid no attention to it.

0:25

25 seconds

On my way to the capital, I passed the telegraph office where crowds were collected and I had to open my ears to the awful probability.

0:33

33 seconds

Soon after reaching the office, I learned the positive fact from Captain Harvey.

0:37

37 seconds

I never before groaned so in spirit, the good, the noble, the great man, particularly good. The rebels have destroyed their best friend.

0:46

46 seconds

The jubilee to be had today is postponed.

0:49

49 seconds

This has been the longest day to me of any since I am out of the army, perhaps of any since my birth.

0:55

55 seconds

The heavens were clouded, some mournful drapes fell, a dark and weary day."