AAS intern Katrina Ireland (Simmons College GSLIS program) recently came across a wonderful letter as she was processing our collection of Isaac Shepard Papers. Shepard (1816-1889) was a Harvard graduate and a commander of the 52nd US Infantry during the Civil War. In addition to his military life, Shepard was also a poet, author, and a ...
This weekend bibliophiles from all over will be converging in Boston, and those of us at AAS will be among the first in line. Join us this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Boston Book Fair. Friday (11/11): 5pm-9pm Saturday (11/12): 12pm-7pm Sunday (11/13): 12pm-5pm There will be a number of fair activities, including a collectors' roundtable and tips on ...
A very rare self-published collection of poems by Holmes, a farmer in Greene County, OH east of Dayton. Most of the poems are short and predominantly religious in theme. Preceding these is Holmes’s 20-page “Dialogue on Slavery,” which offers an unusual poetic recapitulation of the religious, economic, and political arguments for and against slavery. Firmly ...
Recently, I was catching up on cataloging the nineteenth-century editions of Isaac Watts’ Divine Songs given to us by the great collector of early American and English children’s books Wilbur Macey Stone (1862-1941). One of them, a well-worn edition issued by New York publisher Mahlon Day in 1830, contains a mutilated frontispiece depicting this interesting ...
Looking for something new to read? Listed below are some suggestions, just a sampling of the most recent books to come across our desk that were researched here at AAS. If you have recently published a work based on research at the Society, let us know so we can add it to our list. Information on ...
This mathematic exercise book belonged bears the name of Samuel Geer, who was probably from Groton, Connecticut. The book is filled with mathematical calculations and problems, as well as solutions, written in a very neat hand. Questions involve liquid, cubic, long and square measurements, time (“How many minutes since the creation of the world...”), percentages, ...
This large, colorful broadside was probably printed in two different locations. The red-printed border, which includes advertising slogans suitable for dry goods merchants (and a cartoon of a horse-drawn mail wagon and train with caption “Clear the tracks!!”), bears the Philadelphia imprint of John Duross. The bordered blank sheets were presumably sold to merchants across ...
Last week, Henry left us, and his mother, hanging. His regiment encountered a skirmish, and although he was not harmed, Henry could not share the details until a few days later. On Sunday, October 27th, he tells his mother about the encounter, and his swim to safety. Below are some highlights. You can read the ...
A few weeks ago, I shared a letter from Henry Joslin, a Civil War Corporal from Fitchburg, Massachusetts. On October 20th, 1861, Henry was again writing home to his mother. Below are some excerpts from the letter. You can read the full transcription here. I suppose that before you get this you will have received the ...
Each year we present a Baron Lecture as part of the festivities surrounding the Society’s annual meeting. The series is named after Robert C. Baron, president of Fulcrum Publishing and long time AAS member and Council Chairman from 1993-2003. These lectures provide a wonderful opportunity for an AAS member who has written a significant and ...
The frontispiece to this elocution text features a rare illustration of a young lady doing physical exercise along with her male colleagues to prepare for speaking. By 1867, female reformers like Lucy Stone had blazed new trails for women as public speakers before mixed audiences of men and women. To reflect this change in social ...
AAS has few newspapers from Delaware County, NY and, until this spring, only two issues from the town of Deposit. Six years ago we were the underbidder at auction on a lot of the Deposit Courier. The person who won it was a Californian, John Aiello, who had grown up in Deposit. Mr. Aiello promised ...
And now for some concluding thoughts from Jeanne McDougall about her encounter with Hannah Weld. If you've missed the previous two posts about Hannah and her mother Mary, click here to get caught up. What can you say after experiencing such an extraordinary epistle? My reading for the day came to a full stop; any day ...
Aston Gonzalez, Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Jay and Deborah Last Fellowship: "Kneeling and Fighting: African American Artists' Depiction of Black Humanity" My project at the American Antiquarian Society investigates how African American visual artists produced work that acted as counternarratives to the racist messages contained in popular literature, images printed in ...
AAS member (and publisher’s cloth binding expert) Steve Beare regularly alerts us to interesting bindings he spots on eBay. Thanks to his deeply appreciated referrals, over the past two years we have added many unusual bindings to the AAS collection. Perhaps the most remarkable of Steve’s finds is this gift book binding of fine-ribbed white ...
