A long-lost 19th century memoir has recently resurfaced, thanks to Cleveland’s Western Reserve Historical Society.
Why it matters: Housed inside the Cleveland History Center in University Circle, the WRHS Library documents the history of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.
- Its 250,000 books, manuscript collections and nationally significant holdings regularly draw scholars researching religion, war, immigration, industry and American life far beyond the region.
State of play: Cambridge University historian Eamonn O’Keeffe recently identified the only known copy of an 1851 memoir by British soldier Shadrach Byfield after contacting WRHS.
- Historians had long believed Byfield wrote just one autobiography.
- O’Keefe’s research recently appeared in the Journal of British Studies.
Zoom in: The 80-page booklet had been cataloged and preserved in WRHS’ collection, but never recognized as a distinct second memoir that offers a more confessional account of Byfield’s postwar life…