Please Welcome, Mrs. Logan

If you're interested in literature or genealogy, you may have heard of the name Deborah Norris Logan and everything I say about her is redundant... but there's always the possibility you'll learn something new. However, if you have not met Mrs. Logan, let me introduce you.

Me: Mrs. Logan, what is your opinion of family history?

Mrs. Logan: I have frequently thought that it would be both profitable and pleasant if some person in every family would make it their concern to keep a book in which they would record ancestral traditions. My diaries and commonplace books are the very heirlooms my ancestors denied me. I now use these as a means to preserve fresh in memory passing events... the habit of noting down as they occur  the incidents of the times... or anythings that shall appear worthy of preservation. [Excerpts from Deborah Logan's manuscript diaries located at the historical Society of Pennsylvania]

*Mrs. Logan was the 1st female member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the youngest member of prolific literary club as well as a highly regarded keeper of cultural memory during the early republic of America. She believed in archiving and preservation and careful genealogical research. There are a number of biographies regarding Mrs. Logan and her literary companions; however, I suggest reading something a little different regarding her.

Stabile, Susan M. (2004). Memory’s Daughters: The Material Culture of Remembrance in Eighteenth-Century America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Rather than expand on the typical biography or discuss the transformative thoughts of archives and genealogy, one will encounter words such as “topophilic” (love of place) and “materialized memory” (14). These are terms Stabile explores throughout the book especially in regards to the writings of 18^th century women such as Deborah Norris Logan, Elizabeth Fergusson, Hannah Griffits, Susanna Wright, and Annis Stockton. Drawing from their commonplace books, manuscripts and poems, Stabile reconstructs the material world these women preserved through their remembrances or memory.

As a result, Stabile maps a remarkable symmetry between the interior homes of the women and their innermost minds – she “interpreted vernacular architecture as palaces of memory” (14) – a type of topophilic materialism. Since the writers experience the world through their senses and often remember through sensational triggers of smells, sights, sounds, touch and taste, their minds are recording their local history, the experiences of their time. This idea is promoted by the 18^th century philosophy of associationism, “Which postulated a direct, physical link connecting domestic architecture, material objects, and memory” (30). This parallel between material form of architecture and the immaterial form of ideas is unified together and communicated when written. The writing is the materialization of memory.  

Stabile states: “The commonplace book, then, is an archive in both senses of the word: as a physical object, it represents rhetorical topoi, or places for memory storage; as a text, it is the very stuff of memory making” (16). It is important to note that Stabile makes it clear that without memory or association, the objects would not be recorded and thus unarchived making them immaterial. Deborah Logan comments on this when discussing the lack of material evidence of her female ancestors. Stabile also addresses this with regards to Susanna Wright who was a Quaker and had a disregard for material possession. As a result, there is little material evidence for Wright. The point being that humans, or women in this case, project meaning onto object through their sentimental associations of memory and materialize their meaning through writing or deposition.

So, are you writing your family's history?