From 6f30e4a3f0e593227c21a2a5ee2fb842b4adbe72 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jacob Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2025 20:16:46 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Updates. --- Horsford.md | 4 ++++ Paper.md | 61 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----- bibliography.bib | 9 +++++++ 3 files changed, 68 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) diff --git a/Horsford.md b/Horsford.md index 74afa91..9a137fb 100644 --- a/Horsford.md +++ b/Horsford.md @@ -77,6 +77,10 @@ the third grade of the Order of Danneborg."[@AdamsMemBiog08, p.105] - Seems his ideas were well-received by former Vikings. + "in the mid 16th century the name Norumbega reffered to the Penobscot Bay + area and, by extension, to what is now Maine and southern New Brunswick" b/c of GIROlamo Verrazzano (map guy) refugio -> oranbega + [@KirsNor98, 35] + ## Other Doings - "Wellesley College was the object of his largest benefactions (...) He diff --git a/Paper.md b/Paper.md index 9402a9d..951d6f4 100644 --- a/Paper.md +++ b/Paper.md @@ -2,18 +2,67 @@ header-includes: - \usepackage{setspace} - \doublespacing +title: Norumbega +author: Jacob Signorovitch --- +\maketitle + In Weston, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Brandeis University, an unusual structure rises between the trees; a forty foot stone tower, complete with spiral staircase and ramparts, weathered and stained with time, looking distinctly out of place within earshot of I-95. The story of how it came to be -involves Vikings, a baking soda magnate, 16th century natural philosophy, the -discovery of America, and at the center of it all is the myth of Norumbega. As -one explores the area, the name comes up again and again; a map will tell you -the structure's name is Norumbega Tower, and running alongside is Norumbega -Road. Further south, one finds a Norumbega Park, and another road called -Norumbega Court. +involves Vikings, a baking soda magnate, the discovery of America, and at the +center of it all is the myth of Norumbega. As one explores the area, the name +comes up again and again; a map will tell you the structure's name is Norumbega +Tower, and running alongside is Norumbega Road. Further south, one finds a +Norumbega Park, and another road called Norumbega Court. This paper will +explore how one man in the late 19th century, Eben Norton Horsford, brought +together two seemingly disconnected ideas into a theory for the original +discovery of America, what motivated him to do so, and what he left behind. + +The myth of Norumbega originated during the Age of Exploration. It was +variously a town, city, or country, somewhere along the coast of New England, +inhabited by amiable and civilized natives. First given the name *Nurumberg* by +Giacomo Gastaldi in a 1548 edition of Ptolemy's Geography,[@KirsNor98, 34] the +myth can be traced back to a conflation of two separate accounts. The first is +that of Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer under King Francis I of +France.[@GreeneLife37, 4-7] He was one of the first Europeans to explore the +area around Narragansett Bay in 1524[@KirsNor98, 36, 39], far distant from +where Norumbega would eventual be described. However, due to geographical +ambiguity at the time, his account would later become "at the heard of the +Norumbega legend."[@KirsNor98, 39] He recounted his experiences in a letter to +the king, where he described a pleasant harbor inhabited by friendly and civil +natives.[@KirsNor98, 39] They practiced "more systematic cultivation [of crops] +than the other tribes," and were "very like the manner of the +ancients."[@KirsNor98, 39] In the letter, Giovanni names the place *refugio*, +"on account of its beauty."[@KirsNor98, 39] Civilized inhabitants became one of +the core aspects of the myth, present throughout its evolution even as its +exact location and size varied. The second account is that of Jean Alfonce de +Saintonge, pilot on Jacques Cartier's exploration of the Penobscot Bay area +[KirsNor98, 41]. Sailing up the Penobscot River, which he called the +*Norenbègue*, he described "a city called *Norombegue* with clever inhabitants +[...] The people use many words which sound like Latin and worship the sun, and +they are fair people and tall."[KirsNor98, 41] These two accounts, Giovanni s +*refugio* and Saintonge's *Norombegue*, eventually merged into a single myth, +canonized by Gastaldi, of an advanced Native American city whose manners were +closer to those of Europe than their neighbors.[@KirsNor98, 41] + +Eben Norton Horsford was a chemist working in Cambridge, best known for his +invention of modern baking powder.[@JackHors92, 343] In addition to his work, +he showed some interest in history and archaeology throughout his life. He +would collect fossils around his father's farm in Moscow (now Leister), New +York where he grew up,[@JackHors92, 340] and expressed interest in learning the +language of the Seneca Indians[@JackHors92, 340], to which his father worked as +a missionary.[@JackHors92, 103] Later, he would often visit his wife's family +estate on Shelter Island, New York.[@AdamsMemBiog08, 104] There, he became +interested in the island's history and "erected a monument to the Quakers, who +found shelter there from Puritan persecution."[@AdamsMemBiog08, 104] He would +later repeat this pattern of investigation and monument building in +Massachusetts. + + \pagebreak # References +\singlespacing diff --git a/bibliography.bib b/bibliography.bib index 57dd785..2031c6f 100644 --- a/bibliography.bib +++ b/bibliography.bib @@ -122,3 +122,12 @@ volume = {30}, year = {2018} } + +% https://archive.org/details/lifevoyagesofver00gree +@book{GreeneLife37, + author = {Greene, George Washington}, + title = {The Life and Voyages of Verrazzano}, + year = {1837}, + publisher = {Folsom, Wells, and Thurston}, + address = {Cambridge, Massachusetts}, +}