哈利法克斯大爆炸

当亨利·亚当斯, 在波士顿金融中心工作的人, had access to more current and accurate information than many people who recorded their reaction to the tragedy, 他日记里的描述并不完全准确. 两艘船 国际海事组织 和 Mt. 布兰科在哈利法克斯港相撞，正如他所描述的，但只有 Mt. 布兰科 装满了炸药. 她的主要货物不是TNT, 他想, 而是成千上万吨苦味酸, 一种威力更大，更不稳定的炸药. 毁灭 Mt. 布兰科—the ship dissolved into molten fragments some of which fell miles from the site of the explosion—was accompanied by a blinding light, 巨大的冲击波, and a mushroom cloud—man-made destruction of unparalleled violence until the onset of the nuclear age.

拯救马萨诸塞州

哈利法克斯爆炸发生在上午9点过后几分钟.m. 1917年12月6日. 一小时后，消息通过电报传到波士顿, 11点就到了马萨诸塞州州长塞缪尔·麦考尔手里.m. 尽管麦考尔得到的信息只是零碎的, 他回了电报, "麻萨诸塞州 stands ready to go the limit in rendering every assistance you may be in need of,，并立即召开了国家公共安全委员会会议. In some respects 麻萨诸塞州 was well prepared for an emergency: the United States had been at war since April 1917, 和re had been broad local support for military and civilian preparedness even before the declaration of war. 另一方面, 州国民警卫队和波士顿地区医院的许多工作人员, 本州训练有素的急救人员, 我们在去哪里的路上, 或者已经到了法国. 然而，到了晚上10点.m. on 6 December—the same evening—the first relief train loaded with medical personnel and supplies left Boston for Halifax.

救援列车的旅程本身就成了一部史诗. 尽管火车被暴风雪停了下来, as news along the line from Halifax became more clear—and dire—the 麻萨诸塞州 relief party wired for additional supplies even before reaching the disaster site. 哈利法克斯大爆炸 took place at the beginning of a harsh winter and emergency housing turned out to be of vital importance. A large number of people had been injured or blinded by glass fragments and it appeared to the rescuers that every pane of glass in the city needed to be replaced. While generous assistance came from across Canada and elsewhere in New England 和 United States, 快速, 正在进行的, and—most crucially--practical assistance of Boston-based government and voluntary organizations fixed the association of 麻萨诸塞州 with the rescue effort in the minds of Haligonians (inhabitants of Halifax).

日记

Diary entries can be frustratingly incomplete or uninformative about matters of interest to present-day researchers. Henry Adams begins his entry for 6 December 1917 not with an account of the Halifax Explosion but of an ear examination and hearing test. Adams's diary entry runs the gamut of his concerns—from weather to his own health to current events 和 正在进行的 European War. 虽然他已经四十多岁了, Adams had been an active participant in war preparedness training—the Plattsburgh preparedness movement—and was very anxious for military service. 如果他的听力没有改善，他就没有资格服现役. His matter-of-fact statement that the news of the Halifax Explosion "had a depressing effect on stocks" reflects not cold-heartedness but his work as the family financial manager.

Other diary accounts of the explosion in the 马萨诸塞州历史学会's collection contain the same mix of horrified reaction to the news and more mundane concerns. 玛丽安·劳伦斯·皮博迪称之为“可怕的灾难”," but public sympathy for the survivors would undermine her fundraising on behalf of the YWCA. 政府改革家乔治. Nutter was so deeply involved in the heated Boston mayoral race that he had no time or space in his diary for more than passing comment on this news from afar. 弗雷明汉高中教师罗伯特. Streeter noted mass meetings for the support of the disaster victims as opportunities to escape to the city on weekends. And there was much other national and especially international news to digest: an armistice in Russia; a German-Austrian offensive in Italy; the tank-led British offensive at Cambrai on the Western Front; 和 capture of Jerusalem by forces of the British Empire all competed for people's notice and comment.

亨利·亚当斯是谁??

亨利亚当斯(或“亨利亚当斯”), 2nd,这是为了把他和他著名的叔叔区别开来, 历史学家亨利·布鲁克斯·亚当斯(Henry Brooks Adams) 1875年出生于昆西, 麻萨诸塞州, 在能看到他曾曾祖父住所的地方, 约翰·亚当斯总统.  亨利和他的孪生兄弟约翰是小查尔斯·弗朗西斯·亚当斯的儿子.玛丽·奥格登·亚当斯. Both brothers attended Harvard College 和n were sent by their father to oversee the family's extensive landholdings and real estate speculations in the Pacific Northwest. 亨利的弟弟约翰很快就搬到了堪萨斯城, 但亨利把时间都花在了西北和波士顿之间. After his father's death in 1915, Henry returned to take charge of family finances in 麻萨诸塞州. He worked in Boston and lived in Lincoln, 麻萨诸塞州, where his family had moved in 1893.

尽管他的听力受损, in the summer of 1918 Adams travelled to France as a Red Cross volunteer working near Verdun where troops from 麻萨诸塞州 served—and continuing to record his observations and reflections in his diary. 停战后, 他开始了一场更有异国情调的冒险, again serving with the Red Cross for more than a year in southern Russia 和 Crimea during the Russian Civil War. 他迂回曲折地回到了美国, 环球之旅的计划, arriving back in Boston after an absence of almost three years and long after victory celebrations had ended. 他回忆说，他掸掉桌子上的灰尘，然后继续工作，就好像他“没有离开过”一样."

在接下来的30年里, 亚当斯是亚当斯手稿信托基金的受托人, 存放在马萨诸塞州历史学会的家族档案, 他在哪里监督对家族文件的严格限制. 亨利·亚当斯于1951年去世, not long before the Adams Family Papers were donated to the 马萨诸塞州历史学会.