 | Yale alumnus Richard E. Mooney has drawn upon the resources of the Yale Library, where many of Nathan Hale's papers are kept, to create an exhibition about the Revolutionary War hero. |
An exhibit marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nathan Hale, Yale Class of 1773, will be on view through the end of July in the Sterling Memorial Library nave.
Hale, who was hanged as a spy by the British during the American Revolution, has become an icon of patriotism. Legend has it that his last words were: "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country."
Born in 1755 in Coventry, Connecticut, Hale was educated by the Reverend Joseph Huntington, Class of 1762, and entered Yale at the age of 14. One of his classmates was James Hillhouse, later a U.S. senator and an advocate of abolition long before the Civil War. Timothy Dwight was one of the college's three teachers at the time and later president of Yale.
Following graduation in 1773 Hale taught in one-room schoolhouses in eastern Connecticut until fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord, at which point he enlisted as an officer and joined the fight for independence. When General George Washington was desperate for someone to spy on the British in New York in September 1776, Hale volunteered. He was caught within two weeks and hanged on Sept. 22.
The exhibit includes letters between Hale and his friends, Hale's college records, Hillhouse's sheepskin diploma and artifacts evocative of the colonial period. One item on display is a lock of hair from Major John André, the British go-between in Benedict Arnold's intended surrender of West Point. André was hanged four years after Hale.
Yale alumnus Richard E. Mooney '47 B.A. is the curator of the exhibit. His work has been supported by staff in Manuscripts and Archives at Sterling Memorial Library and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where many of Hale's papers and items are kept. Mooney, who wrote for the Yale Daily News during his undergraduate years, spent more than 30 years at The New York Times where he was a reporter, foreign correspondent and editor, and served for more than a decade on the paper's editorial board before retiring in 1997. He also served for five years as executive editor of the Hartford Courant in the 1970s.
An article in the Courant sparked Mooney's interest in Nathan Hale. It said that the young spy was hanged at Third Avenue and East 65th Street in Manhattan, around the corner from Mooney's apartment. He arranged for a plaque to mark the spot, with the help of Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the School of Architecture. When Mooney realized that there had been no recent biography of Hale, he started on a book that seeks to unravel the facts and mystique about Hale's short life. Much of Mooney's research incorporates the material that will be on display in the exhibit.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Mooney will present a lecture at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11. In addition, at 2 p.m. on Monday, June 6 -- Hale's birthday -- the Sons of the American Revolution will place a wreath on the patriot's statue in front of Connecticut Hall on Old Campus. Both events are free and open to the public.
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