Suggestions for interesting & useful collection materials
What we have for you today is the story of a remarkable African American woman and her community. The story was told by Rev. Lewis C. Lockwood, self-described as the “First Missionary to the Freedmen at Fortress Monroe, 1862,” in a book titled: Mary S. Peake, the Colored Teacher at Fortress Monroe. (The full text ...
In March 1827, Rev. Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm co-founded Freedom’s Journal in New York City. It served as the first African-American newspaper in the United States and commemorated the 50th anniversary-year of the first American anti-slavery statutes in the 1777 Vermont Constitution. One of their primary objectives in starting Freedom’s Journal was to combat ...
Civil War era newspapers were more than just sources of information regarding current events. In the Boston Daily Advertiser, for example, nearly half of any given issue was devoted to advertising. It was certainly not alone in this, though it was at least honest enough to include the word “advertiser” in its name. Goods and ...
While sorting through a recent donation, I came upon an interesting item. "Memorandum of a Dream" as it's titled, recounts a dream of a woman from Maryland in 1799. What is so interesting about this piece is not only the dream itself, but the mystery behind it. Manuscripts can prove to be difficult, but at the ...
In the United States today July, 1863 is remembered primarily as the month of the Battle of Gettysburg. For Americans at the time, however, there was plenty of other news to think about. Readers of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, a weekly publication from New York, learned about the battle in the July 11th edition of ...
In 1842, Charles Dickens made his first of two visits to America. He took a sweeping tour of the country, meeting with dignitaries such as Longfellow, Poe, and President John Tyler. He visited Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri. While in New York City, he was welcomed with a ...
Today we present a story in two parts, part of which you probably already know and part of which you probably didn't know before. PART I is a summary of the story of John Brown, Harper's Ferry, and American Anti-Slavery from AAS volunteer Colin Fitzgerald: For three days in October 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown conducted ...
In honor of Independence Day, I thought I'd take a look into AAS's manuscript collection to see how folks observed the holiday in the past. Sure, it's all about barbeques and fireworks now, but closer to our independence the holiday probably meant something different to those who lived through the Revolution. Elnathan Scofield (1773 - 1841) ...
With the publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773) [AAS online catalog record], Phillis Wheatley became the first published African American poet. Because of her status as a house slave in Boston, Massachusetts, she achieved high literary recognition in the years following publication. Prominent political figures like George Washington and Thomas ...
As was mentioned in a post last week, Americans will be marking the 150th anniversaries of the great events of the Civil War over the next four years. Many of the battles, commanders and regiments of that conflict have become legends, and the narrative of a nation split apart, brother fighting against brother, remains compelling. ...
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 ...
As AAS gears up for the most momentous occasion of its bicentennial in 2012, I thought it would be fitting to take a look back in the AAS archives to see how we celebrated the first 100 years. In 1912, the Society had just moved into its new (and now current) home at 185 Salisbury ...
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 ...
Ever wonder what people were reading in the 19th century? A great way to see what the most popular books were at a particular time is to look at account books from publishing firms and booksellers. Now, even more interestingly, ever wonder what people were reading on ships in the 19th century? How about looking ...
With wedding season upon us, and love and relationships at the forefront of many minds this time of the year, it's fun to wonder what courting, love, and relationships were like, and how they've evolved over the past couple hundred years. We all have ideas in our minds, probably placed there through novels and films. ...
