Burn This: Preserving Private Papers in the Early United States

Sacred ties of families and friends often came into conflict over preservation of private papers. Many a letter survived despite containing instructions to “burn this.” Other papers were destroyed to protect the peace of the living or the memory of the dead, as Martha Washington burned her correspondence with husband George. Questions of preservation and destruction grew in importance as the rise and spread of historical societies in the early American republic raised the specter of public preservation of private papers.

Early American historical societies primarily sought to preserve the public history of the growing nation and its colonial past, but they construed their mission as incorporating preservation of the private history of public figures, both local and national. Historical society members actively petitioned descendants and friends of “first families” and notable individuals for donations or loans of private papers. Such requests sometimes had the opposite effect; in 1816, John Lardner of Pennsylvania destroyed his father's correspondence rather than donate it to the American Philosophical Society's new historical committee. Individuals in possession of desirable private papers had to weigh competing claims of family, friendship, and history, as they decided whether to destroy materials, retain them in the family, publish, or donate to historical societies.

Building on recent research in historical memory, this paper explores deliberate preservation—and destruction—of private papers. Sacred ties to living friends and family proved key to decisions of whether to destroy or preserve the private papers of the deceased. Donations to historical societies often came after several generations—or from intermediary collectors, sufficiently distanced from the deceased. Encouraged by growing interest in biographies and memoirs, many heirs used print as a way to honor and preserve the memory of friends and family on the one hand, and control what was preserved on the other.