Tanned, rested, and ready for the 21st Century: John Quincy Adams photographed in 1843.
The sixth POTUS —John Quincy Adams— has signed up —and not a moment too soon— on Twitter. He will be posting daily entries from his diaries.
As Jeannie Nuss reports for AP, there’s no question they’re Twitter-ready:
His updates are concise enough to put Twitter experts to shame: “Thick fog. Scanty Wind. On George’s Bank. Lat: 42-34. Read Massillon’s Careme Sermons 2 & 3. Ladies are Sick.” (This one, from Aug. 6, 1809, comes in at 109 characters, well under Twitter’s 140-character limit.)
The Aug. 31 entry was even tighter, at only 91 characters: “Calm and light winds. Pleasant weather. Lat: 59-23. Long: 17-15. Cimon and Lucullus. Cards.”
His 95-character line showed Aug. 15, to be more eventful: “Weather fine- wind scanty. Lat: 44-13. Long: 53-40. This afternoon I found the Caboose on fire.”
The diaries’ Twitter-friendly format was commented on by a high school student touring the JQA archives at the Massachusetts Historical Society; and, starting today, the Society will be posting each day’s appropriate entry. Tweets will be accompanied by links to contextual supplements — including maps tracing Adams’ journeys and locating places he mentions. One interesting, if cryptic entry, reads: “Thomas Jefferson is BFF with Sally Hemings OMG.”
The complete diaries are also available from the MHS.