American Museum of Fly Fishing’s Top 50 Objects, Part 6: #5

For more than 50 years, the American Museum of Fly Fishing has been preserving the history of fly fishing across two physical locations—in Manchester, Vermont, and Springfield, Missouri—and through their award-winning quarterly journal, The American Fly Fisher. This year, AMFF and MidCurrent have teamed up to count down the 50 most interesting objects in the museum’s permanent collection, which currently includes more than 25,000 objects in total. Each month will feature a variety of historically significant items, with brief descriptions from AMFF curator Jim Schottenham.

We’re down to the final five objects and we’ll be featuring one each month, revealing the top object in December. If you missed the first five installments, be sure to check them out (Part 1: #50—#36,  Part 2: #35—#26, Part 3: #25-#16, Part 4: #15-#11 and Part 5:#10-#6).

That’s Jim in the video above, giving even more in-depth info on this month’s object. Start the video, and then scroll through the images below, allowing Jim to serve as your guide.

Fly Book owned by John Quincy Adams, c. 1825-29
AMFF permanent collection (2007.016.015)

Son of the second president, Adams (1767–1848) spent most of his life in preparation for public life. After serving in Congress, he became secretary of state to James Monroe and was a major architect of the Monroe Doctrine. He became president in 1825, serving one term. In 1831, he was reelected to Congress, where he made himself known as an individual voice working toward the abolition of slavery. When his fly book was donated to the museum, it was found to have loose tobacco sprinkled among the pages—most likely to act as an insect repellent.