George Alfred Townsend was born on January 30, 1841, in Georgetown, Delaware. Despite moving often, he lived in the general Delmarva area as a child. As such, much of his work surrounds the history and culture of the region. He was ambitious from a young age, earning his Bachelor of Arts in high school before going on to write for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He later grew to prominence during the Civil War, and gained further notoriety once newspapers began printing the names of correspondents.
An extensive number of his manuscripts can be found in this collection as well, some of the most interesting being the handwritten drafts of his fictional works. Townsend published a few novels in his time, the most notable being “The Entailed Hat: Or, Patty Cannon’s Times, a Romance.” This novel, along with most of his work, is hailed not only as a critical success, but also as an accurate and detailed account of the Chesapeake region during the mid-nineteenth century. Much of Townsend’s published work resides at the Delaware University Archives, while his personal journals and many of his unpublished manuscripts are here at the Maryland State Archives.
Among these manuscripts are almost a dozen drafted plays, and even more novel manuscripts. Notable among these is a handwritten manuscript of “The Entailed Hat,” Townsend’s first and most well-known published novel. There are also a good number of short stories, one of which being “The Entitled Hat,” a predecessor to the similarly named novel. There is also a good bit of poetry in this collection. Townsend published one book of poetry during his life, but clearly aspired to publish more. Townsend’s concern for the preservation and remembrance of his own work is reflected in the many scrapbooks he cultivated, which now reside here in the Maryland State Archives.
While many of his scrapbooks mainly contain snippets of his writing, or mentions of himself and his wife, other document specific projects. These books contain not only a record of Townsend’s own work, but a record of his research process as well. Near the end of his life, Townsend began advocating for the appreciation of war correspondents, whose work, he claimed, would remain “unindexed and unfound.” In 1884, he began work on a memorial for Civil War news correspondents. This memorial is the only one of its kind in the nation and is located at what was once his estate (“Gapland”) and is now Gathland State Park in Frederick County near Burkittsville, Maryland. Townsend is buried at his family plot in Philadelphia.
--Research by Hannah Parker, Maryland State Archives Intern, December 2021 |
