It is often hard to find diaries written by young men and boys. So today I’d like to highlight a great diary kept by a young man, Thomas Whitaker, of Waltham, Massachusetts. Thomas began recording daily entries in 1874, when he was 17 years old, and the volume continues through 1878. He filled the entire ...
Browne, Samuel and J. W. S. Browne, Account Book, 1844-1846. J. W. S. Browne was the son of Samuel J Browne, a printer who published the Liberty Hall newspaper in Cincinnati and later the Cincinnati Gazette. J.W.S. Browne and his brother –in-law L.S. Curtiss began publication of the Weekly Commercial in 1843. This account book contains ...
This piece of sheet music in the Society’s collection represents a handful of Confederate imprints published by George Dunn and Company (printer) and written or edited by F.W. (Fitz William) Rosier. Even before official secession, and certainly after, the Confederate States produced their own government documents and publications; there were also religious pieces and education ...
We are going to brave the waters of wartime Christmas. In the next few days, there will be three posts examining Confederate-printed items in the Society’s collection. This season of festivities is also one of commemoration and reflection as we are squarely in the War’s sesquicentennial. A glance over the pages of the nation’s most popular ...
Edgeworth, Maria. Moral Tales for Young People.New York: George Long, 1821. It is always gratifying to discover another edition of Maria Edgeworth’s popular Moral Tales that is new to AAS. George Long (1771?-1843) produced a steady output of textbooks and children’s books, many of which were written by British and European authors, including Miss Edgeworth. Interestingly, ...
When I got my PhD, I never pictured myself calling Jaclyn Penny at the American Antiquarian Society and saying, essentially, “You got any smutty stuff?” The result of my inquiries at AAS and other archives is now out: Such Were My Temptations: Bawdy Americans, 1760-1830. I’m writing about it here, on the AAS blog, because ...
The AAS’s bicentennial gala—a black-tie affair held in the Society’s reading room, complete with a dance floor where scholars usually sit and an Isaiah Thomas made out of marzipan—has come and gone. But well-dressed enthusiasts of America’s printed legacy still want to know: What is the appropriate sartorial observance of the Society’s bicentennial? While our ...
Due to popular demand, more items have been added to our Adopt-a-Gift-Book catalog. Adopt now to avoid disappointment and in order to ensure you receive your gift card in time for Christmas. Or, perhaps consider adopting a gift book as a gift to yourself... and to AAS! Choice selections still remain available for adoption. ...
The Clay Tribune (New York). May 4 – Nov. 2, 1844. 23 issues. This file combined with the issues already owned by AAS gives us one of three known complete files of this campaign newspaper. It was published by Horace Greeley as a separate political issue of the daily and weekly Tribune. Greeley greatly admired Henry ...
Some children would do just about anything to catch a glimpse of the gift-giving St. Nick on Christmas Eve – others have parents who would set up a camera and create a stereographic photograph to capture the whole visit. This image, titled “Santa Claus loaded for business” illustrates just such a scene. A bearded and ...
For the past two years, the American Antiquarian Society has partnered with Mass Humanities to co-host a Worcester edition of the foundation’s interactive program “Reading Frederick Douglass in the Era of Barack Obama” in connection with the Fourth of July. We were therefore very happy to hear that the National Federation of State Humanities Councils ...
Bien, Julius, after John James Audubon. The Birds of America.New York:Roe Lockwood & Son, publishers. Chromolithography by J. Bien.Reissued by John Woodhouse Audubon, 1860. Julius Bien (1826-1909) came to the United States from Germany in 1848 and by 1850 had opened a lithography shop in New York. The Society holds over thirty examples of his prints, ...
Jan 1/1846 A friend how sweet that sacred sound It sheds a heavenly music round Which falls with pleasure on the ear To cheer us while we tarry here. A friend Dedicatory poems like the one quoted above appear in many of the gift books in the American Antiquarian Society's collections. This particular inscription is in AAS's copy of The ...
