The Bachelors’ Journal

AAS has a strong collection of American periodicals dating back to the 1740s, which often focused on a particular subject or advocacy.  Scattered throughout the stacks are serials focusing on topics such as religion, agriculture, temperance, crafts, abolitionism, vegetarianism, reform, anti-masonry, art, or women. There is one periodical that is unlike any other in the collection, ...

The Acquisitions Table: Fitch’s Geography for Beginners

Fitch's Geography for Beginners, [1850-1858]. This handwritten textbook of geography is something of a mystery.  Heavily illustrated with original drawings and images clipped from publications, the text is divided into lessons with topics such as “About Travelling,” “About the Surface of the Earth,” “About Animals,” and “About Trees and Plants.”  The title, Fitch’s Geography… suggests that ...

How to Impress the Modern Teen, or the Power of Poe

Recently my high-school-aged daughter was working on a final paper for her English class.  She was writing about Edgar Allan Poe, comparing the vault setting of “The Cask of Amontillado" with the quiet library used in the poem “The Raven.”  She asked me to proofread her paper and to check her bibliography (I was a ...

The Acquisitions Table: The Cider Maker’s Manual

Buell, Jonathan S.The Cider Makers’ Manual:a Practical Hand-Book, Which Embodies Treatises on the Apple; Construction of Cider Mills, Cider-Presses, Seed-Washers, and Cider Mill Machinery in General; Cider Making; Fermentation; Improved Processes in Refining Cider, and its Conversion into Wine & Champagne. Revised edition with additions.Buffalo:Published by Haas, Nauert& Co., 1874. Perhaps the best of 19th-century American ...

Thou Shalt Not Miss “Mining for Minerals: The Pull of the West”

On Saturday, June 22, AAS will hold an interactive workshop for educators entitled Mining for Minerals: The Pull of the West that explores the search for gold and silver in the west and the impact that it had on immigration, economic development, the environment, Native Americans and social interactions. Led by Middlebury College professor Kathyrn ...

Picture this!

How can images help make the past more accessible to students? If you are an educator looking for ways to enrich your classroom teaching, consider an upcoming workshop at the American Antiquarian Society—Picture Perfect: Nineteenth-Century Women in Words and Images. The Center for Historic American visual Culture (CHAViC) at AAS is sponsoring a one-day interdisciplinary ...

The Acquisitions Table: Sketches from Nature

Brown, Frances.  Sketches from Nature, for My Juvenile Friends.Cleveland: Mrs. H.F.M. Brown; Cincinnati: Longley Brothers; Boston: Bela Marsh, 1858. This is a remarkable collection of short stories that were clearly the product of the reformist press that flourished in Boston, Cincinnati, and Cleveland shortly before the Civil War.  Although the wood-engraved illustrations look quite conventional--here is ...

AAS’s own “Dr. Phil”

On a sunny Sunday morning in May, Tufts University held its 2012 commencement exercises.   The event was of particular significance to us at AAS because among the recipients of honorary degrees was AAS’s own Philip J. Lampi, who has spent more than four decades compiling early electoral data.  Mostly on his own time and at ...

New Program for the Public a Hit

Take some history buffs, students, teachers, museum professionals, an enthusiastic and well-known scholar, and some wonderful materials from our collections and what do you get? A great inaugural Hands-on History Workshop! Last Saturday we presented “Worcester and the American Revolution,” led by Ray Raphael, to a diverse group of interested, informed, and eager participants. We thought ...

The Acquisitions Table: Trapper’s Last Shot

Booth, T.D. after William T. Ranney. Trapper’s Last Shot. Cincinnati, Ohio: T. D. Booth, for the Western Art Union, 1850. Based on a painting by the American artist William T. Ranney, who was well-known for his images of Texas pioneers, woodland trappers and rugged landscapes, this engraving was originally offered as a members’ premium by ...