From 1765 to 1776, Boston shopkeeper Harbottle Dorr assembled a comprehensive collection of Boston newspapers. Not only did he acquire and preserve a copy of one (or sometimes two) of the weekly newspapers issued in Boston during the entire twelve-year period, but he extensively annotated, cross-referenced and indexed them. The result was an important and unique chronicle of the political upheaval in America from the Stamp Act crisis to the early years of the American Revolution. Dorr had the newspapers bound in four volumes, all of which have survived. The first three volumes, from 1765 to 1771, now reside in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The fourth volume, from 1772 to 1776, is currently owned by the Bangor Museum and History Center in Bangor, Maine. This fourth volume will be auctioned on the Museum's behalf at James D. Julia, Inc.'s auction on August 26, 2011.Volume IV of Harbottle Dorr's newspaper opus consists of more than 1,000 pages of newsprint with newspapers from the beginning of 1772 through the end of 1776. From January, 1772 through April, 1775 (the beginning of the siege of Boston), Dorr accumulated, preserved and indexed the weekly issues of The Boston Gazette. With printing in Boston disrupted by the siege, he resorted to Salem, Cambridge or other Boston papers until the conclusion of 1776. Among the newspapers in Volume IV is the July 18, 1776 issue of the Continental Journal and Weekly Advertiser with a very early printing of the Declaration of Independence. Dorr also appended several important non-newspaper imprints to this volume, including four Boston Massacre sermons.
An excellent essay on Dorr and his newspaper collection appears in Bernard Bailyn's Faces of Revolution (Knopf, 1990). Bailyn also published "The Index and Commentaries of Harbottle Dorr," Proceedings of The Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume LXXXV (1973), 21-35.
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he fourth volume of Dorr's newspaper archive is currently owned by the Bangor Museum and History Center, as the Bangor Historical Society is now known. The volume was donated to the Bangor Historical Society by Bangor resident Dr. Thomas Coe in 1915. Dr. Coe had purchased it from a bookseller for $200. According to Curator Dana Lippitt, the Bangor Museum and History Center's decision to deaccession the Dorr newspaper collection was based on a number of factors, including the very limited connection of the Dorr volume to the Museum's primary mission (preserving the history of the Bangor region), the difficulty of properly caring for the volume and the difficult financial climate created by the recession.The Dorr newspapers will be offered by auctioneer James D. Julia, Inc.of Fairfield, Maine at his summer antiques and fine art auction on August 24-26, 2011. The lot has been estimated -- perhaps modestly -- at $150,000 to $300,000.
Harbottle Dorr's great labor survives as a unique and personal perspective on the coming of the American Revolution as narrated through the newspapers of the day. Soon we will know the next chapter of this signature piece of Americana.
Images courtesy of James D. Julia, Inc.
Original post date: Aug. 3, 2011
