I received an interesting email from Mr. Henry Beckwith of the NEHGS Committee on heraldry. In his brief explanation of the committee’s history he described…
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The Committee on Heraldry was constituted in 1864 *by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in rebuttal to a comment made in the secessionist legislature in Richmond that the northern states were colonised by riff-raff, all the better people having emigrated to the South. Boston, taking itself seriosly as it ever has done, immediately set up the Committee to expose the lie. The charge of the Committee, as formed, is to collect for the Society all instances of the usage of coats of arms in the United States. This, it continues to do nearly a century and a half later.
Interesting motive.
[joke]Ah well, it was ever thus—the deep-rooted latent insecurity of the social-climbing lower classes![/joke]
Interesting indeed.
Well, as far as connecting with the CoH for collaborations or getting them to think about posting stuff online (as discussed in other threads), I’m not optimistic.
After asking the same gentleman if the committee had any aspirations for the promotion of heraldry or goals for furthering its study (and how individuals might get involved) I received this brief response:
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The work of the Committee is, as I stated, to serve the Society. That is the charge it was given in 1864, and still discharges. It has no further ambitions or goals.
UPDATE: A cursory review of the New England Historic Genealogical Society Annual report also does not mention the CoH at all in their list of committees. The word heraldry appears no where in the report. Neither does Mr. Beckwith’s name appear. It seems heraldry is not even on the radar for the group.
Jeremy Corbally-Hammond;93753 wrote:
Well, as far as connecting with the CoH for collaborations or getting them to think about posting stuff online (as discussed in other threads), I’m not optimistic.
After asking the same gentleman if the committee had any aspirations for the promotion of heraldry or goals for furthering its study (and how individuals might get involved) I received this brief response:
UPDATE: A cursory review of the New England Historic Genealogical Society Annual report also does not mention the CoH at all in their list of committees. The word heraldry appears no where in the report. Neither does Mr. Beckwith’s name appear. It seems heraldry is not even on the radar for the group.
Sad. The CoH could do worse than to open itslef up a bit.
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"The charge of the Committee, as formed, is to collect for the Society all instances of the usage of coats of arms in the United States."
Perhaps they ran out of arms to catalogue. 
Was their remit "time limited"? I mean, only to collect arms used before 1865?
Doug Welsh;93769 wrote:
Was their remit "time limited"? I mean, only to collect arms used before 1865?
I have had my COA at the New England Historic Genealogical Society Committtee on Heraldry since 2008.
Then, I should think they would be more interested in gathering arms currently used by Americans.
Doug Welsh;93801 wrote:
Then, I should think they would be more interested in gathering arms currently used by Americans.
They "gather" arms in the sense that when people send them in to the organization, the arms are added to the rolls. However, as their name implies the primary focus of the organization is genealogical history of New England. Being that it is a volunteer organization, I don’t think one can expect the group to do much more.
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Being that it is a volunteer organization, I don’t think one can expect the group to do much more.
As someone who works in a nonprofit organization, I can attest that volunteers can accomplish quite a bit. Mozilla.org and our very own organization and its productions are examples of that.
However, a volunteer organization will accomplish little if it’s unwilling to organize and utilize existing volunteers.
I don’t actually mean to criticize the CoH or NEHGS. They’re an accomplished organization and have their own priorities. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that they don’t align with ours. I’m merely sharing to help satiate people’s curiosities, as well as provide a context for any of the few existing or future conversations that touch on the subject of working with or employing CoH.
I think you make the point very well Jeremy.
Fairly assessing the suitability of any particular organization to OUR purposes is not neccessarily speaking favorably or unfavorably about it in general… it’s simply helping AHS members determine if it be helpful or hindering for us.
To me this is a value.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead PhD, American cultural anthropologist (1901-1978 )
On a recent trip to Boston, I stumbled across the NEHGS on Newbury Street. I popped in to see what I could find related to heraldry (not much), but reception did provide me with another contact. I sent another email out, and was forwarded to the same Mr. Beckwith - though this time I got a more interesting response regarding the activities of the committee. (Perhaps I had simply caught Mr. Beckwith on a bad day before.)
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I have served on the Committee since 1969 as Secretary, and your query has been referred to me.To the best of my knowlege no one at the Society has any great understanding of heraldry, unfortunately. It is true most of the Heraldry materials are stored in some warehouse, but the Society is choked for space, and genealogy take precedence. Had you turned up in the 60s or 70s, there would have been no more enlightenment, but everything was there at least.
The Committee goes along recording arms, as ever, but, the Internet has changed our world. In the past we’d collect 72 registrations, publish them in the Register, then publish an off-print. Then wait some years till we had another 72. We are having the Roll of Arms put online, and in future there will be no lengthy waits between parts. We will be able to add new registrations and corrections annually. An amazing change for the better.
But, more immediately, I am preparing a volume that will have parts 1-9, and the completed part 10, in it. There is to be a history of the Committee, and many new corrections, and some other matters. But, this is not likely to appear till around the end of the year in my opinion.
As well as the Roll of Arms, the Committee responds to enquiries…mostly about heraldry, some like yours about the Committee. We have been able to help the federal and some state governments, and many individuals and groups over the last century and a half.
Over the years many have helped us in our work by both sending in cases for consideration, and suggesting corrections to the Roll of Arms.
Interesting. Mr. Beckwith mentioned that the 10th edition of the roll of arms would not be published until near the end of the year - though apparently you can buy it now:
http://www.americanancestors.org/Product.aspx?id=27963
I have another email to Mr. Beckwith inquiring. I’ve also asked if it’s possible to arrange a visit to view the Gore Roll of Arms. If this is something you’re interested in doing in person as well, I’d ask you to reply on this thread: http://www.americanheraldry.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7007
Mr Beckwith wrote:
We are having the Roll of Arms put online, and in future there will be no lengthy waits between parts. We will be able to add new registrations and corrections annually. An amazing change for the better.
Wow. From his mouth to God’s ears.
Kyle