A few weeks ago, with winter in mind, I posted this picture of tractors on the National Mall during a snowstorm for my weekly “Sneak Peek” feature, highlighting interesting images in our photo archives. My initial research into the image made me realize there was an interesting story these tractors had to tell.

In February of 1979 farmers from the American Agriculture Movement (AAM) organized a tractor rally in Washington, DC in the hopes of driving change in agricultural policy. Thousands of farmers made the trip to Washington in their tractors, traveling across the US at fifteen miles per hour and covering no more than one hundred miles per day. Collecting along highways, they traveled in convoy and descended on the nation’s capitol on February 5, 1979.

The protesting farmers occupied the National Mall for weeks, demanding more pay for crops and lobbying for an increased role in agricultural policy decisions. An unsympathetic Washington billed the farmers as a nuisance that was costing taxpayers an estimated $1 million in tractor damage to the National Mall.

Tides turned on President's Day weekend when a blizzard hit, covering the city in two feet of snow. The farmers, in possession of some of the only vehicles able to move, rose to the occasion and helped dig out DC. They plowed out hundreds of cars and aided stranded citizens. They transported doctors and nurses to hospitals, where the wives of AAM farmers helped cook and clean because regular staff was unable to get to work. Twenty-two inches and a whole lot of goodwill turned these agitators into heroes.

During their weeks on the National Mall, the farmers frequented the Smithsonian museums, taking refuge from the cold winter days and eating lunches in the cafeterias. In 1986, the American Agriculture Movement donated one of the tractors from the 1979 tractorcade to the National Museum of American History. Since those times, AAM plays a key role in agricultural policymaking in Washington, DC.

In this case, a little bit of digging revealed a rich story about why this “tractorcade” was an important part of American history.

On June 1, 1824, someone wrote an anonymous letter to the members of the Columbian Institute, a literary and science institution in Washington, DC, regarding their need for a meeting room in the US Capitol building. Although there is nothing scandalous or mysterious about the contents of the letter, the handwriting is interesting and unique. As a conservation technician at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, my job is to go through each letter mending tears and preparing them for digitization, and while doing so, I have come across several letters from the 6th President of the United States, John Quincy Adams (1825-1829), that might shed light on who wrote the 1824 letter. In honor of President’s Day, I am excited to share with you our collection of letters from John Quincy Adams, and request your help in distinguishing his handwriting!

The Columbian Institute was created in 1816, and was composed of politicians, doctors, and scientists (including Adams), whose ideals of advancing the arts and sciences in the United States culminated in the building of the US Botanical Gardens. The organization dissolved in 1838 due to lack of funding and eventually was absorbed into the National Institute, whose records ended up in the Archives (for more information see the Archives’ finding aid for Record Unit 7051, Columbian Institute Records).

President Adams’ letters to the Columbian Institute were written during a contentious time in our political history, from 1822 through Adams’ term as President (1825–1829). According to the White House’s biography of John Quincy Adams, earlier political tradition would have made Adams the heir to the presidency, since he was Secretary of State. However, 1824 was a turning point in American politics when the country transitioned to electing the President by popular choice. Out of the four candidates that year, which included General Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, William Crawford, and Adams, Jackson won the popular vote. However, since no candidate had a majority of electoral votes, the election was decided by the House of Representatives and Adams won out for a single term.

In order to find out who wrote the unsigned letter during this controversial election year, we can look to the discipline known as forensic document analysis, or the study of handwriting. According to experts, such as the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, it is important to compare many samples of writing from the same author and examine the spacing between certain letters. As discussed in the article “How Forensic Handwriting Works” in Slate Magazine, it is also useful to examine the way letters and words are connected in each document. For example, in the cursive word “of”, how does the “o” connect to the “f”?

For comparison, here are two letters written by John Quincy Adams (click on the letters to enlarge them). The letter dated August 6, 1826 was composed while he was President and visiting his father’s farm in Quincy, Massachusetts, where his father had died one month earlier. In the letter, Adams thanks the members of the Columbian Institute for their kindness while he mourned his father and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom died on July 4, 1826. I couldn’t help but notice John Quincy Adams’ careful penmanship and admire the small loops in the letters. They are unlike any of the other handwriting among the correspondence. The other letter we have from Adams was written in 1822, concerning his promotion to President of the Columbian Institute.

Finally, here is the unsigned letter from June 1, 1824. It is written in a similar striking hand. What do you think? I am interested to hear if you think the handwriting matches.