The Acquisitions Table: Portrait of Nathaniel Bowditch

Harding, Chester, attr. Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838). Oil on canvas, [ca. 1830] Salem navigator and mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch was also the author of several atlases and scientific publications which can be found in the AAS collection. Bowditch is perhaps most famous for his 1802 publication, The New American Practical Navigator, which went through several editions in ...

Bibliothanatography

About two years ago, I found myself looking at an 1892 Bibliobroadsheet. It advertised the Bronson, Michigan, store of J. Francis Ruggles, the most unusual bibliopole ever working in Bronson, for sure. Michael Winship, professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and an editor of the recently published five-volume series A History ...

The Acquisitions Table: Calathumpian Advocate

Calathumpian Advocate (Concord, NH).  June 19, 1850. This interesting political periodical could be described as rabble rousing. The term “calathumpian” is probably a colloquial Americanism relating to a society of social reformers, especially those that disrupt political events. This particular issue includes a report of the Calathumpian Fusiliers disrupting an election in Concord, ending with a ...

Some things never change

Recently I’ve been going through some newly acquired diaries in our manuscript collection.  Randomly reading diary entries can prove to be very entertaining.  Sure, you could end up reading page after page of daily weather, or recaps of Sunday sermons, but once in a while you’ll find a gem.  Because so many diaries are straightforward ...

National Award and Standing Ovation for AAS’s Philip Lampi

The first ever Chairman's Commendation from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) was awarded to AAS staff member Philip J. Lampi in a ceremony yesterday afternoon.  Local politicians, current and former AAS staff, and some of Lampi's many friends and colleagues gathered to honor his lifetime of research into early American election returns. Learn more by reading: the front ...

‘Chasing the Dumpster’ for historic newspapers

Who knew the skill set for a successful curator of newspapers included dumpster diving abilities? While this may not always be literally true, figuratively speaking at least AAS's curator of newspapers has rescued some of the collection's treasures from pretty precarious situations. Vincent Golden recently gave a talk on his "Chasing the Dumpster" activities, which ...

The Acquisitions Table: The Boys’ and Girls’ American Annual

The Boys’ and Girls’ American Annual: A Christmas and New Year’s Present for Young People. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1861. This utterly charming chromolithographed winter scene of a boy feeding deer is the frontispiece to our newly acquired copy of The Boys’ and Girls’ American Annual. It is unabashedly devoted to leisure reading. The ...

On the Radio: “The Mother of the Valentine”

As a special Valentine's Day treat, our curator of graphic arts, Lauren Hewes, was on Boston's NPR news station (90.9 WBUR) to talk about Worcester's own Esther Howland and her valentines. A transcript of "The Mother of the Valentine" is up on WBUR's website or you can click on the "Listen Now" button to ...

TV for lovers of history, art, furniture, and more

For those who may have missed David Jaffee's talk on "Learning to Look at Early American Material Culture" when he presented it at AAS this fall (or for those who want to see it again), you're in luck! The program will be airing on C-SPAN 3 this weekend at the following times: Sat. 2/11 @ 11am ...

The Acquisitions Table: Treatise on the Imposition of Forms

Bidwell, George, d. 1885. Treatise on the imposition of forms … also, tables of signatures, etc., useful to compositors, pressmen, and publishers. New York: Raymond & Caulon, 1865. Rare first edition of one of the few dedicated handbooks for printers on “imposition,” that is, the arrangement of text pages in the “forme” placed on the bed ...

Piling On! Football in the archive

The items featured in this post were originally intended to be on display in the Reading Room of Antiquarian Hall by way of noting the Super Bowl. But the Curator of Graphic Arts instead installed archival items relating to the upcoming Leap Year in February. This is probably more fitting as, statistically speaking, Leap Year ...

It’s a Leap Year!

Here in New England, we are often glad that February is the shortest month, even in a leap year.  Back in 45 B.C., the Julian calendar codified the tradition of adding a day to February every four years, and the Gregorian calendar followed suit.  The practice, of course, continues today and helps align the seasons ...