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 America. This issue also has notes on K-12 teacher workshops, book recommendations from AAS fellows, and news from near and far.
On the last page, we reflect on the origins of the Civil War collection at AAS and a photograph of Samuel Foster Haven, Jr., the only child of AAS librarian Samuel Foster Haven, who served in that role from 1838 to 1881. Recognizing the importance of the conflict, Samuel Foster Haven began collecting, arranging, and preserving documents and newspapers early in the Civil War. His son, a physician and a member of the 15th Massachusetts Regiment, was killed on the battlefield at Fredericksburg in 1862.
Another member of the same regiment is pictured in this issue: Lt. John William Grout, known as Willie, who was killed in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff in 1861. His death inspired a popular Civil War song, “The Vacant Chair,” written by Henry S. Washburn with music by George F. Root. The carte-de-visite showing Grout in his uniform is included in an upcoming exhibition at the Worcester Historical Museum, To Arms: Worcester County Answers the Call.
Back issues of the Almanac are also available online.
