Aristotle’s Master-piece, Completed. In Two Parts.The First Containing the Secrets of Generation… The Second Part being a Private Looking-Glass for the Female Sex. New-York: Printed for the Company of Flying Stationers, 1812. Aristotle’s Masterpiece is a fascinating hybrid text. It used the veneer of a supposed classical author (Aristotle really had about as much to [...]
Beal, Thomas.Account Book, 1809-1810. Thomas Prince Beal (1785-1852), son of David Beal and Lydia Prince, was a lawyer in the coastal town of Kingston, Massachusetts. He married Betsy Sampson, and the couple had seven children. His account book, although short, reflects his professional life from 1809 through 1810. Arranged by customer and listing debts and [...]
Bible Characters, Instructive and Entertaining Compiled for the use of Young Children (3rded) on a sheet with History of Haman and Mordecai compiled by a Friend to Youth. New York: Mahlon Day, 1837. This single sheet printing shows the way in which multiple-page books were laid out (or composed) during the nineteenth century. Such sheets [...]
Archive of American Publishers’ Ephemera, 1840-1900, 216 pieces. The American Antiquarian Society’s collection of American ephemera includes much material related to the book and printing trades, including bookplates, binders’ tickets, and trade cards for printers and publishers. A recent donation in honor of long time ephemera dealer and collector Joseph Freedman (who passed away in [...]
Captain Gregg and His Dog.Providence: H.H. Brown, 1831. This is a scarce copy of an adventure story about an injured soldier and his loyal dog who survive the perils of the American Revolution in upstate New York. I was able to successfully bid on this book at a recent Swann auction through the kind assistance [...]
Group of 100 pieces of American ephemera, 1830-1900. In order to mark the Society’s 200th birthday, AAS member and collector Lisa Baskin took the unique approach of donating 100 pieces of American ephemera, including the examples shown here. The collection includes labels, trade cards, and tickets, and features a variety of printing styles, including letter [...]
Leonard Deming booksellers’ stamp. In Jonathan Edward’s The Salvation of All Men Strictly Examined.Boston: Published by C. Ewer, and T. Bedlington, 1824. Leonard Deming is best known to scholars today for being (along with Nathaniel Coverly) the other important purveyor of folk ballads and street literature in early nineteenth-century Boston and a prolific publisher of [...]
Haynes, Lemuel, “A Sermon Delivered at Rutlan West Parish in Vermont June 1805.” Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833) was a highly influential religious and anti-slavery leader. Among Haynes’s many firsts, he was the first African-American to be ordained to the Christian ministry and the first African-American to receive a college degree (an M.A. from Middlebury in 1804). [...]
Aspinwall Courier. Aspinwall, Panama. In the 1850s, Aspinwall (today known as Cólon) was founded as one of the end points of the Panama Railroad, which spanned the isthmus for and provided part of the route to and from the California gold rush regions. This paper was edited by Frederic E. Foster and printed in English [...]
Bargue, Charles after Alfred de Dreux, Atalanta, Paris, Berlin, New York: Goupil and Knoedler, 1860. Another beautiful example of transatlantic lithographic printing from France, this image of the horse Atalanta from a series of prints of driving and saddle horses was the bicentennial gift of AAS member George Fox. Named for a Greek goddess of [...]
Abbott, Jacob. Juno on a Journey.The Juno Stories.New York: Dodd & Mead, ca. 1870. Jacob Abbott’s Juno was among the first female African American protagonists of a children’s book series. In this book, Juno is enlisted to take a little white boy named Georgie on a train journey by the boy’s father. During this early [...]
Atlas of Bergen County, New Jersey.[Reading, Pa.]: Published by C.C. Pease, successor to A.H. Walker, [1876]. According to the bookseller’s description, this Bergen County atlas is the most elaborate and attractive of all New Jersey county atlases of the 1870s. It is also one of the most difficult to find, as many copies have fallen victim [...]
Hall, William. The Encyclopaedia of English Grammar: Designed for the Use of Schools. Wheeling, Va.: John B. Wolff, 1849. Like newspapers, textbooks were frequently among the earliest imprints issued in regional outposts like Wheeling, Virginia (later West Virginia). Such is the case with William Hall’s Encyclopaedia of English Grammar, which was first copyrighted in nearby [...]
Downer, David R., “Notes in College,” 1827-1828. David Robinson Downer (1808-1841) was born in Westfield, New Jersey. He attended Yale College, graduating in 1828, and then entered the Auburn Seminary, eventually becoming minister of the West Presbyterian Church in New York City. This volume consists of theological notes made by Downer during his senior year [...]
Currier & Ives after William Ranney, Marion’s Brigade Crossing the Pedee River, S.C., 1778, on Their Way to Attack the British Forces under Tarleton. New York: Currier & Ives, between 1872 and 1874. Although founded in the 1830s, the firm of Currier & Ives continually produced historical subjects, printing images of the American Revolution and [...]
Ballou, Levi, Commonplace Book, 1831-1840. Levi Ballou (1806-1865) was born in Halifax, Vermont. After studying theology with his brother William S. Ballou, Levi became a minister in Orange, Massachusetts in 1843. These fascicles contain poems and prose extracts, almost all of which appear to have been copied by Levi Ballou from a variety of sources. [...]
Grandmamma Easy’s Joseph and His Brethren. Albany: William B. Sprague, Jr., ca. 1840-1860. This picture book history of the Old Testament hero Joseph gives the modern reader a precious glance into popular mid-nineteenth-century American iconography portraying the Middle East. Jacob’s family is seen here nestled among palm trees, pyramids, and obelisks, with camels in tow. [...]
The National Pathfinder (Nashville, Tennessee). Mar. 5, 1860. This appears to be mainly an advertising paper with small bits of news and poetry. Even some of the news items are really puff pieces for local businesses. According to a Nashville directory from 1860 it was published in the office of the Nashville Patriot which had [...]
Dreka’s Dictionary Blotter; or, Combination of Word-Book with a Blotting-Case. Philadelphia: Louis Dreka, [1873?] This book/blotter’s decorative binding and striking fuchsia silk endpaper (seemingly still as bright as the day it was attached to the boards) look too glamorous to mark up, but apparently its previous owner disagreed. The ink stains inside prove it was [...]
Camp of the Duryea’s Zouaves Federal Hill Baltimore, Md. Looking North. Baltimore: E. Sachse& Co., 1861. This hand colored lithograph is one of six prints of Civil War encampments by E. Sachse& Co. given to the Society by member David Doret. The publisher, Edward Sachse (1804-1873), had just opened at a new location on South [...]
Schoolmarm, 1870
