As a special Valentine's Day treat, our curator of graphic arts, Lauren Hewes, was on Boston's NPR news station (90.9 WBUR) to talk about Worcester's own Esther Howland and her valentines. A transcript of "The Mother of the Valentine" is up on WBUR's website or you can click on the "Listen Now" button to ...
Year: 2012
Cooking the Old Colony Cake
So the Old Colony Cake didn’t turn out too bad! While the ingredients were identical to traditional cake recipes, the ratios were a bit different. The result was very thick batter and a dense cake, but the lemon added a much needed bright flavor. Not sure which way to add the lemon, I added both ...
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The Acquisitions Table: Treatise on the Imposition of Forms
Bidwell, George, d. 1885. Treatise on the imposition of forms … also, tables of signatures, etc., useful to compositors, pressmen, and publishers. New York: Raymond & Caulon, 1865. Rare first edition of one of the few dedicated handbooks for printers on “imposition,” that is, the arrangement of text pages in the “forme” placed on the bed ...
Piling On! Football in the archive
The items featured in this post were originally intended to be on display in the Reading Room of Antiquarian Hall by way of noting the Super Bowl. But the Curator of Graphic Arts instead installed archival items relating to the upcoming Leap Year in February. This is probably more fitting as, statistically speaking, Leap Year ...
It’s a Leap Year!
Here in New England, we are often glad that February is the shortest month, even in a leap year. Back in 45 B.C., the Julian calendar codified the tradition of adding a day to February every four years, and the Gregorian calendar followed suit. The practice, of course, continues today and helps align the seasons ...
A return to historic cooking, manuscript style
With winter upon us, and snow (finally!) on the ground, I thought it would be a good time to fire up the old hearth, so to speak, and return to some historic recipes. This time around, I decided to explore our manuscript cookbook collection. These handwritten recipes include as much variety as one would find ...
NCA Public Address Division: A Conversation with the Zborays
We are delighted to republish a piece from the Public Address Division of the National Communication Association. The article that appears below is the first of their series of scholarly conversations they are calling Vibrant Voices of Public Address. This first conversation is with Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray -- both ...
The Acquisitions Table: Waterman Journals
Waterman, Martha Elizabeth and Walter. Journals, 1854-1880. Martha Elizabeth Drew was born in 1839 in Kingston, RI. She married Walter Waterman of Bridgewater, MA. This collection consists of three journals written by Martha, and one by Walter. Martha’s journal entries detail daily weather and daily activities such as calling on friends, and attending singing school and ...
A Giant Hoax
In 1869, a giant was uncovered, and along with it, a giant hoax. The 10 foot statue of what was thought to be a petrified man was unearthed at a farm in Cardiff, NY. The Cardiff Giant, as it quickly became known, confounded scientists, historians, and the general population. Was this a statue made to ...
A Defense of Pottery
Of all the artifacts AAS has held on to over two centuries, the hardest one to explain is the collection of Staffordshire pottery. It's not because it is a stretch really, but more because of the never-ending layers to unpack when the question comes up. How is it that a library that is devoted unwaveringly ...
The Acquisitions Table: Manuscript Music Book
Music Book, 1819. A new addition to the Music Book Collection, this volume contains handwritten bars of both religious and secular music with no corresponding lyrics. Most songs are German hymns, and are simple compositions. Occasionally throughout the volume, the owner of this book transcribed more complicated pieces of music (Rondo Allegro, Trio, and Sonatina, for ...
Manhood in Civil War Cartoons
The Civil War Cartoon collection at AAS was donated by Dr. Samuel B. Woodward in 1934. It consists of over 600 newspaper clippings each containing a cartoon about any and all aspects of the Civil War. Because the cartoons were delivered to the Antiquarian Society as clippings, many of them are out of context and often ...
New Year’s on the Potomac
The Acquisitions Table: Carrier’s Address to the Patrons of the Bridgeton Chronicle
Carrier’s address to the patrons of the Bridgeton Chronicle, January 1, 1864. Bridgeton, NJ: James M. Seymour & Matthew Newell, 1863. This carrier’s address came to AAS with a large group of New Jersey newspapers. Written at the end of 1863, the central poem, topped by a cut of a U.S. Mail train, focuses on ...