"Aunt Abbie." The Fairy Grotto. [Green Bay, Wisconsin: Advocate Press. Robinson Brothers & Clark, 1877] This charming volume is a true orphan, apparently the sole survivor of its kind. Printed by the local newspaper in Green Bay, Wisconsin, it presumably was meant to be decorated by the purchaser. The hand-done illuminations in this copy are only ...
Month: May 2013
Summer Series of Workshops for K-12 Educators
We’re starting to gear up for our summer series of K-12 professional development workshops! If you’re an educator and haven’t yet had the chance to attend one of our workshops, now is the time to do it. We have some great topics and interesting scholars joining us, not to mention the library materials. For those who ...
Timing Redux
The Past is Present posting for April 8th about timing told of a volume of a periodical that got away from AAS despite the urging of Marcus McCorison. This was the National Magazine published in Richmond, Virginia and Washington D.C. in 1799-1800 by James Lyon. He was a Vermont printer who fled the state. Mr. ...
The Acquisitions Table: Blossom and Fruit
Blossom and Fruit. A Choice Collection of Hebrew Texts for Jewish Public and Private Instruction=Tsits u-Feri. Compiled and published by Julius Katzenberg. New York: Industrial School, Hebrew Orphan Asylum, 1882. AAS certainly has Hebrew texts geared to Christian divinity students, but this text is geared to the needs of Jewish children and youth. AAS has just ...
New Hands-On History Workshop: Worcester and the American Revolution
To study closely a nineteenth-century lithograph or actually touch the impressions of type in the sheets of an eighteenth-century newspaper can be a magical, even transformative, experience. For years I have seen K-12 educators become engrossed and inspired by such activities. However it was only after we conducted a one-day workshop for K-12 educators on ...
The Acquisitions Table: Aristotle’s Master-piece
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 ...
National Nurses Week – a Trip in the Archive
The March 2013 issue of AJN: The American Journal of Nursing featured on its cover a well-known AAS collection item – A Map of the Open country of a Woman’s Heart by “A Lady” published by Kellogg c. 1833–1842. Throughout the month of April, we received queries about this image from nurses around the country. We ...
The Acquisitions Table: Thomas Beal Account Book
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 credits, ...
Creating Historical Theater in an Afternoon
“…you sockdologizing old man-trap!” Stomp. Scream. Panic. “Good, good – now next time, keep the scream going longer and continue the dialogue over it. Let’s see how that works.” This was just one of many exchanges between the group of nine actors practicing a staged reading of the historically-based play Sockdology, and Jeffrey Hatcher, the playwright ...
The Acquisitions Table: Bible Characters
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 ...