By Jeremy Dibbell
你的博客常驻记者将在接下来的两周内离开博伊尔斯顿街1154号, taking part in a fellowship at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. The first week I’ll be taking the course “Printed Books to 1800: Description & Analysis,” with David Whitesell, 第二周，我将协助苏格兰皇家银行的员工进行各种项目和课程. It’s an exciting opportunity for me, 当我回来的时候，我期待着和大家分享故事和照片!
In the meantime, I’ve scheduled some posts to run while I’m gone, 大楼周围的其他人也会发表自己的帖子, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
By Jeremy Dibbell
如果你曾经仔细观察过埃利斯大厅(Ellis Hall，更广为人知的名字是阅览室)壁炉上方的木制品，, you may have noticed there the seal of the Society, which also appears in the masthead of this blog, 以及各种协会出版物的标题页. The design features a beehive with several honeybees buzzing around it; an inscription above reads “Sic Vos Non Vobis” (which translates roughly to “you work, but not for yourselves”).
Our seal dates from late 1833, 当时MHS主席约翰·戴维斯被会员要求“为协会准备一种设备。.戴维斯答应了，并于1834年2月27日以现在的形式展示了这一设计. 这句话出自罗马诗人维吉尔对另一位诗人的回应, Bathyllus, 谁声称维吉尔写了一首支持凯撒的诗(并匿名发布).
The entire rejoinder reads:
Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores; / Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves; / Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes; / Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves; /Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves.
That is, I wrote these lines; another has borne away the honor; / Thus do ye, oxen, for others bear the yoke; / Thus do ye, bees, for others make honey; / Thus do ye, sheep, wear fleece for others; / Thus do ye, birds, for others make nests.
正如卫生部前局长斯图尔特·米切尔在1949年写道的那样, 把协会的会员比作牛是不恰当的, sheep, 或者鸟……”但是蜜蜂一直以其蜂蜜和蜂蜡的甜美和轻盈而闻名,” and made a fitting symbol for the Society’s mission. And according to MHS member Charles Deane’s remarks at a March 1877 meeting of the Society, 维吉尔的这句话一直被认为是人们最喜欢引用的格言, to indicate devoted and disinterested labor, that is to say, for the good of others …”.
Judge Davis’ seal has stood the tests of time, 尽管成员们在1857年曾一度考虑放弃它，转而采用新设计. 他们决定“抛弃(印章)，换上新的。, 仅仅因为后者更适合目前先进的艺术水平, would afford a precedent for continued changes, 为了跟上进步的步伐而改进. 这种变化削弱了公章的确证性，甚至可能使其身份或真实性受到质疑, to the detriment or hazard of corporate interests. There is, besides, a certain degree of respect, commonly entertained for the antiquity of a seal, which should be cherished by a Society like ours.这句格言的来源在1881年受到质疑，当时成员亨利·海恩斯(Henry Haynes)提交了一份 paper challenging Virgil’s authorship of the poem. Haynes concluded “I fear that [our motto’s] paternity, instead of being as respectable as has been imagined, is in fact rather dubious.海恩斯的观点似乎并没有引起多大的关注, however, MHS(以及世界其他地方)继续将这首诗归因于维吉尔.
然而，戴维斯对海豹设计的灵感来源存在一些疑问. 早在1791年，MHS的创始人杰里米·贝尔纳普(Jeremy Belknap)就对蜂巢有了想法:在他的论文中，有一张利记APP官网手机版印章的笔记:“给历史学会的一个蜂巢——由两只海狸支撑”，还有一句格言“Nil magnum sine labore”(“没有劳动就做不成大事”)。. (应该说，贝尔纳普后来考虑过一种海豹，它的特征是“一只飞鹰、一只游走的狼和一条鲨鱼，它们都在寻找猎物。.)贝尔纳普从未正式提出过他的这两个想法, 也不知道戴维斯在19世纪30年代是否知道他们.
MHS设备的其他几个先例被称为Mr. Deane noted way back in 1877. In John Dunton’s literary periodical The Compleat Library (1692-94)，扉页上的一个装置(左下)包括一个蜂巢和横幅题词“Sic nos non nobis mellificamus apes”(包含我们的座右铭的一行), converted to first person). 在约翰·尼科尔斯的第八卷的扉页 Literary Anecdotes (1814), another beehive (below right), 这张上的铭文与后来MHS印章上的完全相同.
Coincidence?? You be the judge.
不管它来自哪里，你都知道了:蜂巢背后的故事. 我认为这张照片确实捕捉到了我们在MHS的一切. Just as the Society’s members always have, 我们今天在这里工作的人不是为自己工作, but for others.
For further reading:
– Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society Volume 1 (1791-1835), pp. 483-488.
– Charles Deane, “Remarks on the Seal of the Society.” Proceedings Volume 15 (1876-1877), pp. 256-258.
——亨利·海恩斯，“[利记APP官网手机版协会座右铭的作者.]” Proceedings Volume 18 (1880-1881), pp. 402-404.
– Stewart Mitchell, 马萨诸塞州历史学会手册，1791-1948. Boston: MHS, 1949, p. 8.
– Louis Leonard Tucker, 马萨诸塞州历史学会:二百周年历史，1791-1991. Boston: MHS, 1995, pp. 58-61.
By Jeremy Dibbell
Greetings! On behalf of the staff of the Massachusetts Historical Society欢迎大家来到我们的新博客“蜂巢”. I’m Jeremy Dibbell, an Assistant Reference Librarian here at the Society, 我得到了一个机会，来帮助我在博客圈的小小探索, 但你很快就会看到大楼周围的其他人也做出了贡献. We’ll be using this blog as an informal, 博伊尔斯顿街1154号以互动的方式“传播”正在发生的事情. 你可以在这里找到一些东西(排名不分先后):
– notices of upcoming public events and programs
– profiles of MHS research fellows and visitors
-公布新图书馆资源(馆藏资料、数码检索指引、 &c.)
-我们的手稿收藏和其他资源的总结和描述
-学会过去(和现在)的注释、引语和轶事
-从MHS各部门的新闻和事件
-讨论图书馆及历史学会所面对的问题
我的目标是每周提供大约两到三个帖子(有些可能很短)。, and I hope you’ll stop by and visit often. You can bookmark this site at http://tuanwei.52guanggu.com/blog, or add the RSS feed (你也可以点击侧边栏上的“订阅”按钮). Please email me at beehive@52guanggu.com with any corrections, comments or suggestions for future posts, and soon we’ll have a comments feature ready to go.