Past Imperfect: Essays on History, Libraries, and the Humanities

Contents: Introduction: Bill Towner I. Historian. 1. "A Fondness for Freedom" : Servant Protest in Puritan Society 2. The Sewall-Saffin Dialogue on Slavery 3. The Indentures of Boston's Poor Apprentices, 1734-1805 4. The Confessions and Dying Warnings in Colonial New England 5. Ars Poetica Et Sculptura : Pocahontas on the Boston Common 6. Pocahontas on the Boston Common, Revisited 7. The Mapping of the American Revolutionary War in the Nineteenth Century 8. American Studies Today ; The Middle of a Revolution (1969) II. Librarian. 9. Past Imperfect: The Uses of a Research Library 10. A History of the Newberry Library 11. A Plan for the Newberry Library (1971) 12. Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud : The Recent Shaping of the Newberry Library's Collections 13. "Wrecking" Havoc : Conservation at the Newberry 14. The Art of the Antiquarian Book Dealer 15. Genealogy at the Newberry : The Service That Came in out of the Cold 16. An End to Innocence 17. An Exciting and Incredibly Rewarding Twenty Years III. Colleague. 18. Ray Allen Billington 19. Clifford Kenyon Shipton 20. Lester Jesse Cappon 21. Hermon Dunlap Smith 22. D'Arcy McNickle 23. Everett Dwight Graff IV. Spokesman for the humanities. 24. Some of My Best Friends Used to Be University Press Directors 25. Independent Research Libraries: "Truly National Libraries" 26. On "Pure Scholarship" And "Public Programs" 27. "What Are Our National Priorities, Anyhow?" : In Defense of the National Endowment for the Humanities 28. Turning Problems into Opportunities : An Agenda for the Humanities Published Writings of Lawrence W. Towner.