This thesis examines the continuing growth of the House of Murray during the 1820s-1840s. Prior to the 1820s, Murray had enjoyed massive success with the publications of the work of Lord Byron, whose celebrity, and the profits generated, contributed significantly to the House’s prestigious reputation. Murray’s move from Fleet Street to Albemarle Street in 1812 also signified the House’s shift from bookselling to publishing, which enabled Murray to attract an increasing number of high-profile names from the worlds of literature, travel and exploration, the sciences, and politics. Murray’s drawing-room at Albemarle Street became renowned throughout the trade for its gentlemanly gatherings, comprising of the luminaries of the day. The four chapters of this thesis explore how Murray (re)established the House identity in different markets during the 1820s-1840s, as the Romantic epoch diffused into an increasingly commercialised era, with new production methods, an expanding marketplace, and increasing competition. Chapter One considers Murray’s use of the drawing room at Albemarle Street to construct a House identity amongst selected members of his inner circle. It also looks at the importance of the Byronic legacy to the House and the means by which Murray sought to protect it. Chapter Two engages with the contrasting side of the House, namely the ‘cheap’ publications, which Murray published in response to the growth of this market in the late-1820s and early-1830s. During this time Murray used some of his well-established assets, such as Byron, Crabbe and the Quarterly Review, to retain the prestige of the House, while attempting to reach new readers within the burgeoning middle class. Chapter Three examines Murray’s correspondence with some of his female authors to consider how the House responded to authors of both genders, and, with reference to ongoing scholarship regarding ‘women’s writing’, questions the veracity of a gender-centric approach when applied to the study of archival materials; the chapter’s findings suggest that both Murray’s male and female authors were treated similarly. The final chapter explores how Murray strove to retain control over the House’s reputation as international trading possibilities developed. The roots of the 'Handbooks' and the 'Colonial and Home Library' are also traced back further than has previously been considered, and read within the context of the ongoing re-branding of Byron discussed in Chapters One and Two. The House’s literary figures, and the Quarterly Review, were used by Murray in the 1840s to promote the values and prestige of the House in America, Europe and the Colonies. This thesis offers much previously unpublished archival material from the John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland. It builds upon previous scholarship on John Murray and seeks to contextualise some of these lines of enquiry through providing a sustained study of the House during the 1820s-1840s. It uses quantitative analysis, where possible, to provide further grounding for some of its claims, and situates the findings within the growing body of research in this area. It is the underlying aim of this thesis to foreground the House’s shift from the ‘Romanticism’ of the early-nineteenth century towards the ‘commercialism’ of the mid-nineteenth century, whilst serving as a point of reference for further scholarship on the John Murray Archive during this time period.

Charles Chauncy remains an important transitionary figure between eighteenth century Puritan orthodoxy and nineteenth century liberal Congregationalism. Many historians imagined Chauncy as a figure caught between the revelatory experiences of the Great Awakening and the rational social ethos of the Revolutionary War. This framework has helped historians harmonize Chauncy’s traditional Calvinism and his progressive Universalism, especially as they understand Chauncy’s publications on Universalism: The Mystery Hid From Ages, The Benevolence of the Deity, and Five Dissertations. Read together, these three works comprise a Universalism canon that portrays Chauncy as a theologian compromising between two extremes: reason and revelation. Read separately, however, demands a more nuanced view of Chauncy beyond portrayals of him as a religious innovator or an indecisive theologian. Chauncy’s strict adherence to scripture complicates this paradigm. On the surface, Chauncy’s biblicism illustrates his adherence to Puritan methods of epistemology. A deeper analysis of scriptural authority’s shifting role in Chauncy’s canon demonstrates an individual negotiating his abiblical environment with the texts of scripture . While historians have demonstrated the ways in which hermeneutical decisions arise from the social and political situations faced by individuals like Chauncy, few have investigated the ways in which scripture also facilitates religious transitions, at times even the decline of its influence in social and political contexts. Chauncy’s inclusion and omissions of scripture in his publications demonstrated the ways in which eighteenth century biblical canon struggled to adapt to an eighteenth century context. Recognizing this, Chauncy grounded his Universalism on scripture by appropriating John Taylor’s exegetical approaches to rebut the abiblical Universalism of John Murray or the rationalist of deists like Thomas Paine. But by the nineteenth century, New England Congregationalism demonstrated the fruits of a Chauncy’s labors: a steep decline in reliance upon biblical authority. While Chauncy had demonstrated the possibility of a biblical foundation for his Universalism, he may have also inadvertently diminished the need for it as he compromised on biblical authority in his works on Universalism. These compromises foreshadowed the challenges to scriptural authority in the nineteenth century.

This thesis draws upon the literatures of historical geography, book history, and archival theory to investigate the production of travel narratives by the London publisher John Murray during the second half of the nineteenth century. It traces the processes by which in-the-field experiences of explorers and travellers were translated into a textual and physical object: the published book. By interrogating the practicalities and technicalities of geographical publishing, particularly in relation to travellers’ paratexts, the thesis draws attention to the need for geographers to consider the literary commercialisation of geographical knowledge. The John Murray Archive provides an unusual opportunity to examine geographical publishing across 33 years, 138 titles, and 102 authors. Murray’s extensive correspondence and detailed financial records provide source material for the first comparative study of these books. The structure of the thesis follows Murray’s publication process, from accepting or rejecting manuscripts to textual editing, the shaping of paratexts, production of illustrations, and, ultimately, sales, translations, and further editions of later nineteenth-century books of travel. It places remarkable works of travel Murray published in the later nineteenth century — books by authors including David Livingstone, Paul Du Chaillu, Heinrich Schliemann, and Isabella Bird — in the context of the unexceptional. In conclusion, this thesis furthers academic understanding of a nationally important archival resource, demonstrating the value of a longitudinal survey which accounts for economic as well as epistemic influences upon geographical publishing.

In mid-November, 1775, Lord Dunmore last Royal Governor of Virginia attempted to enlist the support of rebel owned slaves to crush Patriot resistance to Great Britain. This study examines the slaveholders' response to Dunmore's actions. Virginia's slaveholders fought a counter-revolution in order to maintain traditional race relations in the colony. Patriot propaganda portrayed Dunmore as a race traitor, who became symbolically more "black" than white. Slaveholders characterized Dunmore as a rebel, a madman, and a sexual deviant - stereotypes normally given to slaves by their "masters." Since Dunmore threatened to destroy the defining institution of slavery, planters sought to salvage their identities by defending the paternalistic philosophy and racist assumptions upon which slave society was based. Planters overwhelmingly became Patriots to protect slavery. / Department of History

The Quebec City festivals of 1927 and 1928 represent a unique instance of close collaboration between prominent figures in Canadian musical and cultural history, John Murray Gibbon and Marius Barbeau. Based on Anglocentric concerns for a unique Canadian identity and corresponding school of composition, the festivals served as points of contact between many artists and performers, including Juliette Gauthier and Florence Glenn. An analysis of specific performances at the CPR festivals and over the course of Glenn and Gauthier’s respective careers showcase how racialized attitudes towards Indigenous populations, and the static conceptualization of French-Canadian folk culture were navigated to perform “Canadian folksong.”