The Shekinah Vol III [ Spiritualist Senator Nathaniel Tallmadge ]
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Description
Scarce original collected edition of early Spiritualist Newspaper The Shekinah owned and annotated by Senator Nathaniel P Tallmadge.
The “first magazine devoted to modern Spiritualism,” The Shekinah, a quarterly, then monthly review “devoted to the Emancipation of Mind, the Elucidation of Vital, Mental, and Spiritual Phenomena, and the Progress of Man” was edited and printed in New York from 1851-1853. This copy of the third volume belonged to Nathaniel P. Tallmadge (1795-1864), US Senator for New York State (1833-1844) and the 3rd Governor of the Wisconsin Territory.
A noted spiritualist after converting in 1852, Senator Tallmadge wrote about speaking to the spirits of John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster in journals like The National Intelligencer, The Banner of Light, and The Spiritual Age, as well as the forward and appendix for The Healing of Nations (1855) channeled by the medium Charles Linton. Both the former and this present work were published by Samuel Brittan, Universalist minister turned devotee, editor, and promoter of Andrew Jackson Davis and, later, publisher of The Spiritual Telegraph, arguably the most prominent of the movement’s publications.
Davis, Brittan, and Brittan’s partner, Charles Partridge, exerted enormous sway over the direction of Senator Tallmadge’s public support for spiritualism. In addition to promoting Brittan’s lectures in advertisements (see The Washington Daily Globe, March 21-23, 1854), the most notable incident from this period was the 1854 petition to the US Congress, organized by Tallmadge and read by Brittan, arguing for the reality of Spiritualist phenomena and urging the government to formally investigate such experiences, which met with laughter and derision. Tallmadge remained committed to his beliefs forming the Society for the Diffusion of Spiritual Knowledge in June 1854, the same month and year found in his ownership inscription.
In the address announcing the Society’s creation and intended purpose, Tallmadge said: “We profess to know that angels from heaven—that the spirits of good men progressing toward perfection have come here upon the earth we stand on, and talked with us face to face, and uttered words to us bearing the impress of their divine origin.” These statements appear connected to the annotations found throughout this volume, particularly checkmarks at the appearances of St. Michael in the chapter on Joan of Arc, and also notation on the back pastedown, “Angels, Preuss, 159”, indicating “The Hymn to the Angels” by Charles Preuss.
Considering Tallmadge’s statement in his June 1854 speech that spirits “come here upon the earth” to all those who will “render [their] minds receptive to the truth, and…engage in the investigation”, as well as the references to the angel magic of Dr. John Dee in the speech Tallmadge wrote for James Shields to read before Congress, it is interesting that this is the most worn page in the entire volume. It is also interesting that the essay which immediately follows this hymn is entitled, “Origin and End of Governments”.
BRITTAN, S.B. Ed. The Shekinah. Vol 3. New York. Partridge and Brittan. 1853. 8vo. 300pp with pp2 index. Red leather boards inlaid with gilt arabesques. Corners bumped, edges worn with losses. Diagonal scrape to back board. Spine rebacked, bruised, with added title plate. Gilded bookblock edges darkened. Front pastedown and endpapers browned, with binding visible at the gutter. Ownership inscription “N.P. Tallmadge, June 1854.” on front pastedown, with a small red stain to bottom corner. Pages foxed. Small tear to gutter, lower third p 96. Binding worn by extensive reading of pages 159-160. Page 302 misprinted as p 304. Pencil checkmarks, underlines, and annotations. Illustrated with 4 portrait plates, depicting Andrew Jackson Davis, Jacob Behmen, Joan of Arc, and Edwin H. Chopin. Good condition.
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