Pierre Eugène du Simitière collection

Pierre Eugène Du Simitière, collector, artist, and historian, was born in Geneva, Switzerland on September 18, 1737 to Jean-Henri and Judith-Ulrique Cunegonde Delorme Ducimitiere. "Du Simitière was a restless man, forever traveling, forever collecting, forever projecting grand schemes in solitude," (Library Company of Philadelphia, Introduction).

In 1757, Du Simitière sailed from the port of Amsterdam and arrived on St. Eustasius, a Dutch island. It was during this trip that his collecting began. According to the Library Company of Philadelphia, Du Simitière's collecting, the main purpose of his travels, "cast a very wide net: books, newspapers, manuscripts, broadsides, prints, fossils, coins, medals, Indian artifacts, rocks, plants, and some animals—mostly dried insects and reptiles preserved in alcohol." Paul Sifton's research indicates that Du Simitière may have served in the military and that he probably had some training in art prior to his travels. He sketched specimens and scenery during his travels. He became a naturalized citizen of New York in 1769 and settled in Philadelphia in 1774.

Early in his collecting career, Du Simitière gathered materials regarding the natural and civil history of the West Indies and North America, however, after approximately 1770, he appears to have narrowed his focus to North America's political history. Indeed, his collection particularly focuses on "relations with the Indians in the settlement of the West; and popular, democratic uprisings, including the Leisler Rebellion in New York in 1688, the Zenger freedom of the press trial, the Paxton Rebellion, the Stamp Act crisis, and finally the American Revolution," (Library Company of Philadelphia, introduction). His attention to collecting ephemeral documents during the American Revolution was extraordinary and he "gathered every pamphlet, broadside, and newspaper he could get his hand on which related to the conflict," (Library Company of Philadelphia, introduction).

Du Simitière attempted to publish "Memoirs and Observations on the Origin and Present State of North America," which was based upon his gathered material, however, the United States Congress did not provide either approval or financial support. According to the Library Company of Philadelphia, this "rejection was … a psychological and financial blow from which Du Simitière never recovered." Painting, instead of serving as a hobby, became his means for supporting himself and he submitted designs for seals for the United States, New Jersey, Delaware, and two other states; painted miniatures; taught drawing; painted portraits; and served as a translator for Congress as he spoke fluent English and several other languages.

Opening the first public museum in Philadelphia, Du Simitière presented his collected gatherings in the form of the American Museum in May 1782 at his home near Arch and Forth Streets. Unfortunately, the cost of upkeep exceeded the proceeds from tickets costing fifty cents. Du Simitiere died in October 1784 at the age of 47. Following his death, the contents of the American Museum were auctioned and the Library Company of Philadelphia purchased the bulk of the manuscript materials in 1785 for 104 pounds.

Du Simitière was "respected and occasionally even honored (Member and Curator of the American Philosophical Society, an honorary Master of Arts from Princeton), but he was never really embraced by his adopted country," (Library Company of Philadelphia, introduction).

Bibliography:

Library Company of Philadelphia. Pierre Eugène Du Simitière: His American Museum 200 Years After, 1985.

Sifton, Paul Ginsburg. Pierre Eugène Du Simitière (1737-1784): Collector in Revolutionary America. University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 1960.

The Library Company of Philadelphia purchased this collection of Pierre Eugene Du Simitière's manuscripts at the auction of Du Simitière's American Museum after his death on March 10, 1785. The books and pamphlets bought at the same auction have been dispersed through the Library Company's collections. Du Simitière gathered or copied these manuscripts during his travels in the West Indies, Boston, New York, and while he lived in Philadelphia, where he was a member of and one of the curators of the American Philosophical Society. After the Library Company of Philadelphia purchased the manuscripts, they were bound together. The Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration described the manuscripts in "Descriptive Catalogue of the Du Simitière Papers in the Library Company of Philadelphia" (1940), from which many of the following series and records descriptions have been abstracted. Since the Historical Records survey, many of the bound volumes have been unbound and foldered by the Library Company of Philadelphia. The unbound volumes in the series descriptions contain folder level description; however, the bound volumes are described only as an overall work. For more detail on the bound volumes, see the "Descriptive Catalogue of the Du Simitière Papers in the Library Company of Philadelphia" (1940). Researchers should be aware that the series titles are drawn from the title of the bound volume. It is important to read the entire scope note for each series, because the volumes often contained additional topics than are listed in the title.

The collection includes information on places such as the West Indies, Pennsylvania, New England, New York, and the Carolinas. It includes information, documents, and research on many Native American groups and Creoles. The collection also contains information, documents, and research on historical events in the United States such as the Jacob Leisler case, politics in New York, the American Revolution, the colonization of America, and the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny. With the exception of a few miscellaneous items, the collections focus is on the years 1720 to 1780.

This collection is divided into thirteen series that were established when the manuscripts were in bound volumes. The titles of the series are also developed from the original titles of the bound volumes. The series are titled: "Papers Relating to Natural History," "Papers Relating to New York," "Papers relating to Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, etc.," "Indian Treaties, 1721-1756," "Original Letters, 1560-1781," "Papers Relating to the West Indies," "Original Journals and Extracts," "Papers Relating to New England and New York," "Papers Relating to Pennsylvania, New England, Etc.," "Miscellaneous Papers from Du Simitière (Scraps)," "Papers Relating to New York politics, 1768-1771," "Prints and artwork, 1758-1790," and "Volume boards, undated." The series are arranged and described in this order.

Most items were purchased by the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1785. The Inventory of Du Simitière's American Museum [12354.F (Doret)] was gifted to the Library Company of Philadelphia by David Doret in 2017.

The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" Project.

This collection was minimally processed in 2009-2011, as part of an experimental project conducted under the auspices of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries to help eliminate processing backlog in Philadelphia repositories. A minimally processed collection is one processed at a less intensive rate than traditionally thought necessary to make a collection ready for use by researchers. When citing sources from this collection, researchers are advised to defer to folder titles provided in the finding aid rather than those provided on the physical folder.

Employing processing strategies outlined in Mark Greene's and Dennis Meissner's 2005 article, More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Processing Approaches to Deal With Late 20th-Century Collections, the project team tested the limits of minimal processing on collections of all types and ages, in 23 Philadelphia area repositories. A primary goal of the project, the team processed at an average rate of 2-3 hours per linear foot of records, a fraction of the time ordinarily reserved for the arrangement and description of collections. Among other time saving strategies, the project team did not extensively review the content of the collections, replace acidic folders or complete any preservation work.

Microfilmed copy of this collection is available at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Additional information regarding Jacob Leisler is available at the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, https://jacobleislerinstitute.org/.

Use

Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the Library Company with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box and folder number], Pierre Eugène du Simitière collection (MSS00002), 1492-1784, Library Company of Philadelphia.

Publisher

Library Company of Philadelphia

Sponsor

The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" Project.

Finding aids author

Finding aid prepared by Megan Atkinson.

Date

2011 September 8

Subject

Indians of North America

Native Americans

Natural history

New England--History

New York (State)--History

Pennsylvania--History

Poets, American

United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775

United States--History--French and Indian War, 1755-1763

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783

West Indies--History

Language

English

Form

Clippings

Correspondence

Minutes