Alexis in America: A Russian Grand Duke's Tour, 1871-1872 PDF
Preview Alexis in America: A Russian Grand Duke's Tour, 1871-1872
ALEXIS IN AMERICA Alexis at age seventeen. Reproduced from Iosif Starkovskii, Aleksei Aleksandrovich, velikii kniaz’ kratkii istoricheskii ocherk piatideciatiletiia, 1850–1900 (St. Petersburg, 1900) ALEXIS IN AMERICA A RUSSIAN GRAND DUKE’S TOUR, 1871–1872 LEE A. FARROW LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS BATON ROUGE Published by Louisiana State University Press Copyright © 2014 by Louisiana State University Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First printing Designer: Barbara Neely Bourgoyne Typeface: Sina Nova Printer and binder: Maple Press, Inc. Portions of chapter 7 first appeared in the essay “Grand Duke Alexis in Memphis and the Reconstruction of Southern Identity during Reconstruction,” West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, 59 (2005): 20–36, and are used with permission. Portions of chapters 7 and 8 first appeared in the essay “Grand Duke Alexei and the Origins of Rex, 1872: Myth, Public Memory, and the Distortion of History,” Gulf South Historical Review 18.1 (Fall 2002): 6– 30, and are used with permission. Portions of chapter 5 first appeared in the essay “Grandeur amidst the Ashes: The Chicago Visit of Russian Grand Duke Alexis, 1871–1872,” Journal of Illinois History 11.1 (Spring 2008): 2–16, and are used with permission. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available at the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-8071-5839-5 (cloth: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8071-5840-1 (pdf) — ISBN 978-0-8071-5841-8 (epub) — ISBN 978-0-8071-5842-5 (mobi) The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. To Sam Ramer, mentor and friend CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: The Eagle, Today, Nestles Close to the Bear 1. Born in the Shadow of an Imperial Crown 2. God Bless the Empire That Loves the Great Union 3. Where Every Man Is a Sovereign 4. Leaving His Russian Steppes Behind 5. “Roamin’ Off ” to the Midwest 6. So Happy to Be Hunting Again 7. This Young Duck of Muscovy Conclusion: Buffalo Tales and Mardi Gras Myths Notes Index Illustrations ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As is always the case with a project of this size and scope, I have many people to thank and I ask that I be forgiven if I have overlooked anyone. First, I need to begin by thanking the institutions that made much of this research possible. A grant from the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center allowed me to conduct research in Washington, D.C., while several Faculty Research Grant-in-Aid awards from Auburn University at Montgomery funded trips to the many other cities Alexis visited while in North America. I also used the Blitz Information Center several times to order and obtain copies of documents in Russian archives when I could not visit myself. Finally, the Interlibrary Loan Department at AUM’s library has been a tremendous help in obtaining books and documents from around the United States. Thank you, Carolyn Johnson and Karen Williams. This project required research in many places, in the United States, Russia, and Canada. I cannot list everyone by name, but I am enormously grateful to all those library and archival workers who helped me obtain materials. I encountered many people with a passion for history and a willingness to help; they cannot be thanked enough for their efforts. I particularly need to thank Ann Case, university archivist at Tulane University, and Kevin Fontenot, formerly of Tulane University. Kevin actually pointed me to the topic of Grand Duke Alexis when we were graduate students together; he deserves credit for helping me find this fascinating and entertaining topic. I would also like to thank the West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, Gulf South Historical Review, and Journal of Illinois History for granting me permission to reprint material that previously appeared in article form. I have also been fortunate enough to have two graduate students who assisted me by compiling lists of possible sources and proofreading my notes— Samantha McNeilly and Brittnee Ward—and one graduate student who did a careful reading of the first draft of the manuscript—Ken Stephens. I am grateful for their help. I would also like to thank Michael Samerdyke, an old friend I met in Moscow in 1994, who read the entire manuscript and gave me very thoughtful and useful feedback. I appreciate his comments and his regular correspondence. Finally, I appreciate the suggestions of the outside readers, whoever they are; their suggestions made this a better book, as well. On a more personal level, there are many people to whom I owe immense gratitude and thanks for their support. I would like to thank all my colleagues at AUM, particularly the members of my department, and my dean, Michael Burger. Many friends across campus have been excited and enthusiastic about this project, particularly Brad Moody, Elizabeth Woodworth, Kim Brackett, and Dana Bice. I also have many wonderful friends scattered across North America, all of whom have encouraged me along the way. Special thanks must go to Pam Kachurin, Angela Mitchell, Karen Racine, and Heather Thiessen-Reily, four women I wish I saw more often. I am also grateful for the support of the good people at the Lion’s Club in Hayes Center, Nebraska, and the various “living historians” and visitors there, who enthusiastically embraced me at the Grand Duke Alexis Rendezvous. Thanks also to Jim Crain, who has shared his collection of ephemera with me; Douglas Scott, Peter Bleed, and Stephen Damm, who corresponded with me about their archaeological research on the Grand Duke Alexis buffalo hunt site; and Byron Stewart, a librarian at Missouri State University, who had collected information on Alexis for years and selflessly mailed a thirty-four-pound box of notes and photocopies to me. I also thank Elizabeth Sverbeyeff Byron, the great- granddaughter of Grand Duke Alexis, who not only met with me and allowed me to interview her, but also read the manuscript in one of its earlier versions. Finally, I have to thank my family. My parents, Adeline and Leroy Verda, and in-laws, Marilyn and Hank Farrow, are always supportive and appreciative of my professional successes and have listened to me talk about Alexis for years. My husband Ben has not only been a great support, both during the research and writing stages, but he has also read the manuscript in all its various stages and given a great deal of helpful feedback. Finally, my truly wonderful children: Sophia, who is always with me in spirit, and Benjamin and Camille, who have traveled with me for much of this research and have cheered me on and celebrated each little victory along the way. Though I did not take their suggestions to add vampires and zombies to the story to improve my sales numbers, they have always been with me through this process. I hope they are proud of their mom. ALEXIS IN AMERICA
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