Here is a roundup of a few blogs that have recently mentioned Past is Present. One of our recent posts -- "City Living" was referenced a couple of times. Two Nerdy History Girls had a post "Big Bad City Tempts Young Men, 1849" in which Susan provides a wonderful set-up to introduce our earlier post: "Just ...
There has been much interest in the Civil War of late. The increased coverage makes sense given that next few years mark 150 years since the conflict that divided our United States. Here at Past is Present, we would like to highlight another side of the war years. Rather than focusing on the battles or ...
It must have been personal interest that drew my eye to this one item on the shelf, "The Temptations of City Life: A Voice to Young Men Seeking a Home and Fortune, in Large Towns and Cities," Tracts for the Cities -- No. 3 (New York, 1849) [AAS online catalog record]. While I am not ...
Dear Past is Present readers, Anyone who has an email account is by now all too familiar with the forwarded email, as well as the accompanying guilt-laden demands to keep forwarding it. The promise: just forward this email to 20 of your closest friends and you will be happy, or rich, or blessed. The threat: vague but ominous ...
Tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 6 pm, the American Antiquarian Society’s long anticipated Adopt-a-Book event will be held at Antiquarian Hall (185 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA). While we hope you have enjoyed our recent series of posts previewing some of the items available for adoption, the actual event will be full of extra ...
We are kicking off Fraud Week on Past is Present with a big one: forgeries of George Washington's handwriting. The choice of subject is particularly apropos since today is Washington's birthday and, not surprisingly, the American Antiquarian Society has many Washington-related items, including: over 2,600 books, pamphlets, periodicals, and graphics related to George Washington listed in ...
Discovery Channel may have cornered the market on Shark Week, but here at Past is Present we are instituting our own Fraud Week to explore the seamier underside of the archive. Or perhaps we will discover that there is another side to fakes, forgeries, and frauds, in a similar manner to how Shark Week ...
Abraham Lincoln is a hot topic these days. From renowned historians to local students, everyone is interested in learning more about the man who once declared: “I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life.” While Lincoln has been a perennial favorite for researchers at AAS, recently interest in ...
Here is a fun anecdote from Graphic Arts curator Lauren Hewes that highlights both the value of AAS's online illustrated inventories and how our online resources can help to put new items on The Acquisitions Table: One day this past year a dentist in Alabama was on Google searching for more information about a pastel he ...
It is perhaps not surprising that we can be a little obsessive about our paper here at AAS. However, a recent influx of interns reminded me how strange all the paper shuffling that goes on at the desk can appear to an outsider. People new to doing research at AAS, upon being asked ...
We began the new year with a teaser post on "Love and the Library" that introduced our new line-a-day subject, Nathan Beekley. We are now proud to debut the site based on Beekley's diary for 1849, Clerk and the City . Beekley's daily blog posts will appear in the sidebar on Past is Present, but ...
To mark the start of a new year, in the 18th and 19th centuries it was traditional for newspapers to issue new years' addresses, or carrier's addresses. (Click here to see AAS's online catalog records for over 1,300 of these addresses.) This extra supplement to the paper usually consisted of verses written in the ...
This Tuesday, November 16, at 7:30 p.m., John B. Hench will be presenting the twenty-seventh Annual James Russell Wiggins Lecture in the Program in the History of the Book in American Culture at the American Antiquarian Society. John B. Hench is the retired vice president for collections and programs at AAS. His talk, "Random Notes from ...
Thursday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. Reflections on A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich The Seventh Annual Robert C. Baron Lecture The book A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 quickly became a model of social history when it was published in 1990. The book examines the life of one Maine ...
Sarah Arndt, PhD Candidate in History at Trinity College, Dublin, describes one of the treasures she found during her recent fellowship at AAS. Have you ever wondered what your shopping receipts say about you? What sort of conclusions would someone make about you by examining the sorts of food, clothing or books you purchased? Recently, I ...
