Suggestions for interesting & useful collection materials
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. ...
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 ...
In February of 1859, a scandalous event shook Washington D.C., involving two prominent politicians, betrayal and murder most foul. How intriguing! Hon. Daniel E. Sickles, Congressman from New York, shot and killed Philip Barton Key, U.S. District Attorney (and also, interestingly enough, son of famed composer Francis Scott Key), after discovering an affair between Key and ...
Purely physical love for a book can sometimes be a book’s worst enemy. By fingering the books, prints, manuscripts, and newspapers in AAS collections, each reader and researcher contributes to the slow death of our materials. In his novel In the Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco writes that the saliva and dust left behind ...
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 ...
In August and December of 2010, the AAS received additional gifts to supplement the already delectable David Claypoole Johnston Family Collection. (You can see a portrait of the artist and read a short bio as part of the online exhibition of Portraits at the American Antiquarian Society.) Of the material which came (in the form of ...
In April 1836, the future attorney and activist Richard Henry Dana was busy binding books aboard the brig Alert. Yes, binding books, not reading them. Dana might have been reading had a bad case of the measles and an even worse case of myopia not forced him to leave Harvard for a couple of years. ...
Each April here at the American Antiquarian Society, our thoughts turn to Patriots’ Day, a holiday which we celebrated last week here in Massachusetts. Patriots’ Day commemorates the famous battles of Lexington and Concord, the battles that started the American Revolution. We envision minutemen firing muskets on Lexington Green and gun smoke clouding Concord’s North ...
Ever wonder what Susanna was chewing on in Stephen Foster’s famous folk song? Curious about how women occupied their days at home in early America? Interested in learning more about the relationship between early American housewives and their maids? Whether you are interested in the history of American cooking, women’s history, domestic history, or the ...
Today we conclude our second week of a series of posts that we hope will get you even more excited about the Society’s Adopt-a-Book event to be held at 6PM this coming Tuesday, March 29, 2011 in Antiquarian Hall. When we began this fund-raising effort a few years ago, we noticed that our adopters often would ...
Today we continue a series of blog posts highlighting items from our upcoming Adopt-a-Book event, slated for Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6PM in Antiquarian Hall. You can read the entire Adopt-a-Book 2011 catalog on the AAS website, where you will find descriptions of all 176 items up for adoption this year. The Society’s ...
Today our series of blog posts continues with an update on the Society’s Adopt-a-Book event, which will be held at 6pm on Tuesday, March 29, 2011. All of the items pictured in this post are still up for adoption (as of this morning). Those of you who follow the blog know that we have been ...
Today we continue a series of blog posts highlighting items from our upcoming Adopt-a-Book event, slated for Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6PM in Antiquarian Hall. You can read the entire Adopt-a-Book 2011 catalog on the AAS website, where you will find descriptions of all 176 items up for adoption this year. Our fifth featured ...
