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V/hen-cain-:esn-1-heisshheheirtti**ilt;*F_ Tuesday* October 14, 1947. . i ■ iExperts Expose Fake Manuscripts; Adair’s Article Explains Forgeryi •A corps of 11 .experts, including Dr. Douglass G. Adair, professor of history at the college, have exposed the Horn Papers as the* most elaborate and complex collection of fabricated materials dealing with American history-ever manufactured in the United States*5 *An article j ust published in the October issue of the William and Mary Quarterly, of which Dr* Adair is the editor, revealed the forgery of the three-volume work, which contained diaries, maps and court dockets dealing with pioneerlife in the eighteenth century on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia*Fake Manuscripts PraisedTh^ exposure came as a surprise to many historians, genealogists, and the members of patriotic organizations and. local historical societies who previously had accepted the forged documents as genuine* The fake manuscripts had been widely praised for the “wealth of authentic new $ata’* they contained on such famous pioneers a£ Jonathan Hager, the founder of Hagerstown, Md*; Christopher Gist, George Washington's frontier guide; Thomas Cre-sap, John Canon and others, Leading libraries throughout the country and hundreds of private individuals paid $30 for copies of.theHorn Papers*Sheer quantity and variety of forged materials make the Horn Papers unique among AmericanFor three weeks now Botty has been biding his time, watching for the who, where, why, what and how of campus, and waiting for space on page two*. The latter was denied, due to editorial jealously* But at last ole. Botty has come through and his children, will once more know the nobs and stuff, mostly stuff!Triangles: Mary Allen Phillips, Pat Indence and the University of Virginia.Polygons: Mac Savage arid his annual harem*Seen shuffling through the well-worn paths: Lou Creekmur aridBetty Lee Rardin, Peggy Shaw andJack Chandler, Sfeippy Beecherand Dick Duncan, Jane Coleman and Bill Smith of Irish Glory Fame, Peggy Pennewell and Rux Birnie, Monty Woolley and Hunter Jones* *And Keeping the jewelry stores in business: Charles Unrue, andWoody Aron engaged to Betsy De-Vd, and Frances Hawley, respectively* :Pinned: Andy Williams* Sigma , Pi pin, to Pat?y Keene and likewise with Jim Bowman and Liz My-larider. ,Up and Smiling: Ann Brower,Scott Chisholm, etc.Botty has got to end this column but quick to run get in line with the rest of the male population to check on his date with Tita Cecil for Homecoming 1950.Luff to all you kiddies, arid happy hunting to my Little Indian Braves when they take the field against the big bad Justice*Botty*historical forgeries. Four fake diaries, a court docket, dozens of letters, 22 spurious maps, a set of lead plates, one with a pseudo-French inscription stating that theplate was buried in 1751 in Pennsylvania by agits of Louis XV, and more than two dozen alleged relics of pioneer life provided a wide field for the operations of the historical detectives* 1 ■ Because of the quantity and motley character, of the counterfeits, a large group of experts was called upon to scrutinize the collection. Chemical-analysis of the itik and paper of the court docket, supposedly written in 1770, showed that the paper was of a much later date, the ink of a kind not invented until 183 d and the document written With a metal pen, not marketed in the United Statesuntil the nineteenth century,Spectographic analysis made in the laboratories of the National'Lead Manufacturing Companysimilarly disposed of the lt;4Frehch? plate. t The teXt of the diaries* when critically examined, was found to be studded; with anach-ronistic words and phrases and with misstatements of fact. It was even possible for the experts to identify, in some cases; the modem historical works and mapsused aS the raw material in the* • • 1 *manufacture of fakes and to show how this material gave them a plausible appearance of authen--ticity.Financiers Exonerated* A, L* Moredock, president of the Greene, county, Pa*, historical society, and’ the late J* LI Fulton, also of the society, who had been instrumental in financing the publication of the Horn Papers were completely exonerated of ariy blame by the investigating com- , mittee* The forged documents are now iiir the possession of theGreene dounty Historical Society.They were’the gift of W*. F* Bom, a resident of Topeka, KaniCommittee member^, other than Dr* Adair, were Solon J. Buck, archivist of the United States, who served as chairman; Arthur P* Middleton, executive secretary; Julian. P. Boyd, librarian of Princeton University; Chafles F, Jenkins, president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Lawrence H* Gipson, Pennsylvania Historical Association; William B* Mafye, Maryland Historical Society; Francis Berkeley, Jr*, Virginia. Historical Society;' Franklin F. Holbrook, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania; Delf Nor-ona, president of the West Virginia Historical Society; and Lester J* Cappon, Institute of Early American History* The investigation was sponsored by the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg.
Newspaper Details
Williamsburg Flat Hat
Williamsburg, Virginia, US
Tue, Oct 14, 1947
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Library O.
DC, USA 18 Dec 2020
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