Howell & Rogers, Ledger [Leicester, Mass.?], 1848-1850. This ledger records the monthly “invoice of goods taken” from a general store over the course of two years, 1848-1850. The entries are occasionally divided into dry goods and hardware, and show a variety of items being sold, including textiles (silk, cashmere, flannel), shoes, boots, candy, coffee, wallets, ...
On the evening of June 26, 1799, a major summer thunderstorm passed through Worcester. One result was that a warehouse that Isaiah Thomas used to store printing materials was struck by lightning, causing damage. Of course something like that was newsworthy and a detailed report appeared in the next issue of Thomas’s paper, the Massachusetts ...
Gill, Augustus.Penmanship Book [1830s]. A new addition to our ever growing Penmanship Book Collection is a volume kept by a student named Augustus Gill, who was probably born in Canton, Massachusetts around 1820. What is most striking about this particular item is its cover, which features an African leopard and the phrase “Be just and fear ...
With all eyes in the media directed towards the new addition to the royal family, we’ve taken a look back to seek out evidence in the historical record of this subject’s proportional popularity. Unsurprisingly, American buzz on the most recent princes and princesses is anything but new. Indeed, everything about Queen Victoria’s life was reported in ...
Here in Central Massachusetts in July, readers and staff at AAS are experiencing our third heat wave of the summer. Mind you, heat waves here in New England cannot compete with those that build in the American Southwest, Texas, or the Deep South, but we suffer all the same. To counter the heat, I decided ...
Van Etten Bros., Manufacturers, Importers and Jobbers of Novelties, Notions, Books, Photographs, Chromos, Stereoscopic Views, and a Full Line of Goods Adapted Especially to the Wants of Canvassing Agents. Chicago: Birnery Hand &Co’s Steam Printing House, 1876. The Van Etten Bros. catalog is like a nineteenth-century SkyMall catalog, only instead of reading it while on ...
The American Antiquarian Society is delighted to welcome Molly O’Hagan Hardy as our new Digital Humanities Curator. Molly will join AAS in September as a 2013 American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Public Fellow, and will be working to promote digital humanities scholarship using the Society’s collections, increase access to the Society's digitized collection materials, ...
Sartain, Samuel after Christian Schussele. Clear the Track! Philadelphia: Samuel Sartain, for the Art Union of Philadelphia, 1854. Founded in 1844, the Art Union of Philadelphia issued six engravings to its subscribing members between 1847 and 1854 in an attempt to promote and disseminate American art in the region. With generous support from the Richard ...
This past year the American Antiquarian Society has been hard at work proving the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to cartoons. AAS holds a comprehensive collection of political cartoons produced in the United States between 1764 and 1876. The separately published American cartoon collection holds ...
New-York Clipper (New York, NY). Apr. 13, 1863 – Apr. 8, 1865. At a recent book fair, AAS was offered two bound volumes of this extremely rare sporting and entertainment periodical. It began in 1853 as a periodical covering sporting events. By the time of the Civil War the New-York Clipper included coverage of the theatrical ...
At the July 4, 1818, anniversary of its founding the New York Typographical Society celebrated with one of its typical ceremonies. Since its establishment in 1809, the Society had commemorated its anniversary every year with an evening of toasts and odes dedicated to the art of printing. Those in attendance at ...
