New “Almanac” Online

The latest issue of the Almanac has been posted on the AAS website. Highlights include details on our spring lecture series, Adopt-a-Book (back for the fourth year), summer seminars, and the new New England Historic Site Collaborative. Looking ahead, an exciting conference will be held at AAS in November, Before Madison Avenue: Advertising in Early ...

Adopt-a-Book Tomorrow!: Extra Special Treats

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 6 pm, the American Antiquarian Society’s long anticipated Adopt-a-Book event will be held at Antiquarian Hall (185 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA).  While we hope you have enjoyed our recent series of posts previewing some of the items available for adoption, the actual event will be full of extra ...

The Acquisitions Table: Game of Pictures from the Civil War

Pictures from the Civil War in North America - Bilder aus dem Bugerkriege in Nordamerica - Des tableaux de la guerre-civile en Amerique du Nord.  Nuremberg: G.W. Faber, [c. 1864] Puzzle blocks in box, with six hand-colored lithographs showing the solutions. This German game was produced for the European and American markets and includes six small ...

Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 8: Honor AND Adopt!

Today we conclude our second week of a series of posts that we hope will get you even more excited about the Society’s Adopt-a-Book event to be held at 6PM this coming Tuesday, March 29, 2011 in Antiquarian Hall. When we began this fund-raising effort a few years ago, we noticed that our adopters often would ...

Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 7: Newspapers & Periodicals

Today we continue a series of blog posts highlighting items from our upcoming Adopt-a-Book event, slated for Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6PM in Antiquarian Hall. You can read the entire Adopt-a-Book 2011 catalog on the AAS website, where you will find descriptions of all 176 items up for adoption this year. The Society’s ...

Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 5: The Green Family needs your Help!

Today we continue a series of blog posts highlighting items from our upcoming Adopt-a-Book event, slated for Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6PM in Antiquarian Hall.  You can read the entire  Adopt-a-Book 2011 catalog on the AAS website, where you will find descriptions of all 176 items up for adoption this year. Our fifth featured ...

A Stately Pleasure Dome? Fanny Hill at AAS

Past is Present's series of posts on the upcoming Adopt-a-Book event will resume tomorrow.  For today, please enjoy this story of (un)covered literary history. Ungracious then as the task may be, I shall recall to view those scandalous stages of my life… So say the marbled boards** (see further information below) covering AAS’s copy of Jonas Hanway’s ...

Much Revere-d

Past is Present is taking a short break from our series of Adopt-a-Book posts to tell you about our favorite new resource on the AAS website. Some of us at AAS embark upon irrevocable and unusual quests – like creating the “perfect” inventory. While, arguably, it is an impossible task to encompass everyone’s inventory-needs, the Graphic Arts ...

Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 4: Song and Dance Man

Today we continue a series of blog posts highlighting items from our upcoming Adopt-a-Book event, slated for Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6PM in Antiquarian Hall.  You can read the entire  Adopt-a-Book 2011 catalog on the AAS website, where you will find descriptions of all 176 items up for adoption this year. Our fourth ...

Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 3: An Epistolary Children’s Book

Today we continue a series of blog posts highlighting items from our upcoming Adopt-a-Book event, slated for Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6PM in Antiquarian Hall.  You can read the entire  Adopt-a-Book 2011 catalog on the AAS website, where you will find descriptions of all 176 items ...

Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 2: Manifest Destiny on a Hankie

Today we continue a series of blog posts highlighting items from our upcoming Adopt-a-Book event, slated for Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6PM in Antiquarian Hall.  You can read the entire  Adopt-a-Book 2011 catalog on the AAS website, where you will find descriptions of all 176 items up for adoption this year. Our second ...

Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 1: The Really Big Tea Party in Boston

Today we begin a series of blog posts highlighting items from our upcoming Adopt-a-Book event, slated for Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6PM in Antiquarian Hall.  You can read the entire  Adopt-a-Book 2011 catalog on the AAS website, where you will find descriptions of all 176 items up for adoption this year. Our first orphan destined for the ...

Save the Date! Come Adopt!

On Tuesday evening, March 29, 2011, at 6pm, the American Antiquarian Society will hold its fourth annual Adopt-A-Book event in Worcester. At this event you will see recently acquired books, pamphlets, newspapers, prints and ephemera that have been added to the collection by the Society’s curators over the past year.  You can also enjoy drinks ...

From Fashion Plates to Social Reform: The Story Behind Godey’s Lady’s Book

Godey

Leaf through the pages of Glamour or Vogue in mid-March and the inventory will reveal that American fashion designers’ thoughts have turned to the spring line.  Here at the American Antiquarian Society, when our thoughts turn to fashion, they turn to hoopskirts and side curls and to the famed fashion plates of Godey’s Lady’s Book.  ...