Members’ New Books

Chris Webber’s latest book, Black Doctor, is the first full biography of James McCune Smith, who was born in slavery in New York City in 1805. Raised by a self-emancipated single mother in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city, he still managed to get an excellent elementary education in a school established by the Quakers for Black children. He wanted to be a doctor but no American college or medical school would accept him. His pastor, Peter Williams, the second Black priest in the Episcopal Church and Rector of St. Philip’s Church, Manhattan, therefore raised money to send Smith to the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where in five years he earned an AB, MA, and MD with honors and returned to New York City better qualified than most white doctors. He established a medical practice in New York City and contributed case studies to medical journals. Working closely with Frederick  Douglass, Smith was a leading voice in the pre-Civil War abolition movement contributing regularly to “Frederick Douglass’ Paper” and editing it occasionally when Douglass wanted to travel. He died in 1865, but lived to see the end of slavery. John Stauffer of Harvard had written about Smith and published some of his writings but Webber is the first biographer of this important figure in American history. He will be speaking about Smith at the IHS monthly meeting via Zoom on March 15th. His book is now available from standard book sources and from the author.

Bonnie Portnoy recently published her lavishly illustrated biography of artist Tilden Daken: The
Man Beneath the Paint: California Impressionist Tilden Daken. IHS member Rose Marie Cleese performed the final edit. The book, filled with Daken’s paintings and numerous historic family
photographs, is the culmination of two decades of research on the grandfather she never knew. Daken
was described by historians as one of the most adventurous and prolific landscape painters of the American West in the early 1900s. Over the past year, she has given presentations to public and private venues throughout Northern California. She invites you to attend her upcoming talk and book signing at the Book Club of California, 47 Kearny Street, Suite 400, San Francisco, on February 24th (reception at 5:30 p.m.; talk and Q&A from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m.), offered both in person and virtually. Membership is not required to attend but both the in-person and Zoom choices of attendance require registration.
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Famous in his day and a close friend of writer Jack London, Tilden Daken (1876–1935) painted as many as 4,000 works in oil, from every California state park and national park in the West, to the redwood forests and High Sierra—and beneath the Pacific Ocean in a diving bell. To learn more about the artist, visit www.TildenDaken.com. The book is also available to order online through the Nevada Museum of Art.

Members:  Please submit news of your history-related publications, lectures, awards, research finds, etc. to info@instituteforhistoricalstudy.org.