Exploring Manumissions in the AAS Collections: A Summer Page’s Experience

Recently, I had the privilege of making a display that is now exhibited in the American Antiquarian Society reading room, as you enter through the main glass doors of Antiquarian Hall. My exhibit focuses on manumissions in 1800s America. Originally, I planned to highlight the freedom suit as a legal means of resistance to slavery. I had a hard time finding enough primary-source materials for display, and I mostly found secondary sources covering the topic in the AAS catalog. So, I decided to broaden my search to look at the different ways that enslaved people could free themselves. Enslaved people had three main ways of obtaining their freedom: escape, manumission, and freedom suits. Since I was having a hard time finding material related to the latter, I decided to look for manumissions and related documents instead. I found that in AAS’s “Slavery in the United States Collection,” AAS has a few manumissions that have quite intriguing stories.  

(Amanda Holmes manumission from the Slavery in the United States Collection.)

One manumission involves a woman named Amanda Holmes, who was enslaved by William G. Elliot, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri. The document states that she was manumitted for “good and sufficient reasons.”  This document, dated 7 July 1845, gave Holmes her freedom one year before Dred Scott first filed his freedom suit in 1846 in the state of Missouri. Scott’s case would not be decided until 1857, in the notorious Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Also of note about Holmes’s story is that five years after she gained freedom, she purchased her husband’s freedom for thirty dollars. The bill of sale for his purchase is dated 29 January 1850 — for the sale of “one negro named William Holmes” — and transfers ownership from Colonel Adam D. Stewart and wife Mary to Amanda Holmes, now a free woman of color. Continue reading Exploring Manumissions in the AAS Collections: A Summer Page’s Experience

New to AAS: William B. Sprague. The Tribute of a Mourning Husband, 1821.

Has bound with it: Alfred Ely, A Sermon, Occasioned by the Late Death of Mrs. Charlotte Sprague (Hartford, 1821) and Absalom Peters, Memoir of Mrs. Charlotte E. Sprague (New Haven, 1821).

(Cover of A Tribute. Catalog Record)

Although the original leather and gilt binding has been worn down by much handling over the years, this bespoke volume provides a physical tribute to the memory of Mrs. C. E. Sprague. It joins many other tribute volumes in the AAS collections that often memorialize people who would otherwise be forgotten today, and demonstrate how printing and books have been used over the centuries as part of the mourning process. In this instance, the volume was presented by one mourner to another, Mrs. Sprague’s husband to their daughter. It is inscribed: “For my beloved child, Charlotte Adeline Sprague, as a memorial of her departed mother. WBS.” Inside are three printed tributes. The gift of Tanya S. Tellman, 2024.

 

~ Elizabeth Pope, Curator of Books and Digital Collections

New to AAS: Bi-Metallic Mining Company album. Granite, Montana, between 1887 and 1893. Photograph album with 101 photographic prints.

Now a ghost town, Granite, Montana, was once  a thriving mining town after the discovery of  silver in the 1870s. The Bi-Metallic Mining Company operated there from 1887 until 1893, when the Sherman Silver Purchase Act made the price of silver so low that the mines were abandoned.

(Image from the Bi-Metallic Mining Company album. Catalog Record)

This album contains numerous photographs including cyanotypes, Kodak prints, and albumen prints suggesting that many of the photos were taken by those working for the mining company. Included are group portraits of miners, views of the equipment, buildings and downtown, women and children, and some modern snapshots from the 1990s showing the abandoned town.

~ Christine Morris, Associate Curator of Graphic Arts and Registrar

New to AAS: Sir Tom & Lady Thumb. New York: Solomon King, ca. 1822

Tom Thumb takes center stage as both a sword-wielding hero and object of royal curiosity in this early nineteenth-century picture book. Although this rhymed tale is set in the early Medieval court of King Arthur, the ladies and gentlemen of the court are dressed in Regency Era attire that would have been familiar to the young readers.

(Excerpt from Sir Tom & Lady Thumb, ca. 1822. Catalog Record)

New York publisher Solomon King (1791-1832) was a prolific picture book publisher in the early American Republic, and the Society is thrilled to acquire such a fine example of his output.

~ Laura Wasowicz, Curator of Children’s Literature

The Language of Flowers: A Victorian Fascination

This summer, I had the pleasure of curating a reading room display on the language of flowers. As a cataloger, recently much of my work has focused on enhancing biographic records, but with spring and summer in full bloom outside my window I found myself captivated by the beautiful illustrations featured in many books about the language of flowers. I had the opportunity to explore the Society’s collection of annually issued periodicals and select items for the reading room display. Along with the annuals, I included a few variations on the typical Language of Flowers books, such as a book on flower fortune-telling, a flower calendar with a different meaning for each day of the year, and a young girl’s manuscript filled with notes on flowers and their meanings.  Continue reading The Language of Flowers: A Victorian Fascination

New to AAS: 2 Issues of Roll Call (Washington, DC), 1864

At least these two issues of the Roll Call newspaper from the Civil War were edited by “Three Ladies. Two of the War, and One of the Treasury Departments.” There is only one other known issue of this title, which may have begun in February 1864. It was apparently published during one of the many fairs held throughout the war to raise money for various causes – in this case the fair was held at the Patent Office.

(Front page of the March 3, 1864 edition of Roll Call. Catalog Record)

The two issues recently acquired by AAS are filled with poetry, advertisements of local business, and articles that might be of interest to those who had family members serving.

~Vincent Golden, Curator of Newspapers and Periodicals

Adventures in Amateur Newspaper Cataloging: The Acorn

As I work through cataloging the American Antiquarian Society’s collection of amateur newspapers,  I’m often amused by both the content of the material and the stories of the people who published them. The Acorn (Catalog Record), published in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, by Fannie Hamilton, delights on both accounts.

Hamilton published the first issue of the Acorn on January 1, 1878. In it, she included poetry, fiction, puzzles, and an “improvised primer” which has been cut out of the AAS copy. She captioned her articles to fit with her acorn theme: “Splinters” gave notes on other amateur journalists and “Oak Leaves” contained little tidbits of wisdom. Continue reading Adventures in Amateur Newspaper Cataloging: The Acorn

New to AAS: Boston, Massachusetts, Papers addition, 1710

Almanacs, pregnancy, and dodging fines are all contained in this one-page testimony to the Court of General Sessions of Massachusetts from 1710.

(Excerpt from the testimony to the Court of General Sessions of Massachusetts, 1710. Catalog Record)

Unmarried Ruth Copeland became pregnant with a child by a man named Samuel Hayden, who promised to marry her after finding out she was to have his child. Samuel subsequently rescinded his offer after reading an almanac, saying to her, “Ruth, you won’t lye in untill next March, tis a devilish while to it.” As it turns out, Samuel was buying time so he could deny his fatherhood and avoid paying the fine for bastardy that was required in eighteenth-century Massachusetts.

~Ashley Cataldo, Curator of Manuscripts

New to AAS: Juan de Grijalva [Grixalva]. Historia del Glorioso San Guillermo Duque de Aquitania. Mexico: Juan de Alcaçar, 1620.

This 1620 Mexican imprint – once in the library of AAS member and prominent Mexican bibliographer Joaquin García Icazbalceta (1825-1894) – arrived at AAS just in time to cause a stir among the students in the 2024 History of the Book in America summer seminar on multilingual cultures of print.

(Front page of the Historia del Glorioso San Guillermo Duque de Aquitania. Catalog Record)

Printed well before there was even a printing press in what would become the United States, it is now the fourth earliest item at AAS printed in North America, after three sixteenth-century Mexican imprints. The author of this biography of William X of Aquitaine was a fellow Augustinian, Juan de Grixalva, who lived his entire life in Mexico.

(Detail of Icazbalceta’s engraved bookplate. Catalog Record)

This copy is one of only a handful of printed books outside of Mexico that survive with Icazbalceta’s engraved bookplate, and he presumably employed the book in his extensive bibliographical work on Mexico presses.

~Elizabeth Pope, Curator of Books and Digital Collections

Reminiscing on the Moments of the Past: My Time at the American Antiquarian Society

It’s not every day that one gets the opportunity to move across state lines to experience the workings of a new career. Throughout my undergraduate years at Virginia Commonwealth University, I juggled with the possibilities of the future and where it would ultimately take me. I have always been attracted to the ways history can tell such personal stories. Because of this, I knew that it was my dream to always be surrounded by history. Being offered the Nadia Sophie Seiler Library Internship at the American Antiquarian Society opened pathways I would have never thought about otherwise. Throughout my internship, I was able to thoroughly explore AAS from behind the scenes. Surrounded by the Society’s collection of millions of historical objects, my mission was to soak up as much as possible.  Continue reading Reminiscing on the Moments of the Past: My Time at the American Antiquarian Society

New to AAS: John Cameron. Longfellow. Hand-colored lithograph. Currier & Ives, 1871.

The thoroughbred racehorse Longfellow was known as the “king of the turf” and won nearly every contest he ran in the 1870s. The horse was born in 1867 in Kentucky and began racing as a four-year-old. His jockey was the young John Samples (d. 1912) who was born to enslaved parents in Midway, Kentucky, around 1857.

(Image of Longfellow and jockey John Samples. Catalog Record)

Samples appears in nearly every print of Longfellow but he is never identified by name. Black jockeys and handlers were common in the racing industry as early as the colonial period. Longfellow’s trainer was a Black man recorded only as Mose. Samples rode until around 1880 when he left jockeying and became a police officer in Cincinnati, Ohio. This print was one in a group of forty-six Currier & Ives sporting prints and trade cards recently donated to the Society. The gift of Roger Stelle.

~ Lauren B. Hewes, Vice President for Collections and Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts

New to AAS: Ann Taylor. My Mother. New York: Solomon King, ca. 1832

Although Ann Taylor’s poem begins with the line, “Who fed me from her gentle breast …,” very few American illustrated editions show a mother actually breastfeeding her child, due to modesty concerns, making this image published in an edition issued by New York publisher Solomon King (1791-1832) a great find.

(Front page of My Mother. Catalog Record)

Several scholars have recently used the AAS collections to unearth visual examples of breastfeeding, so this edition will be put to immediate use.

~ Laura Wasowicz, Curator of Children’s Literature

New to AAS: Anti-Slavery True Witness (New-Concord, OH), Feb. 20, 1850

Typically, curators purchase collection material from dealers, auctions, and bookfairs. Less common is the unsolicited offer from someone who found something in their house. Early this past summer [2024], a woman from West Virginia called AAS – on the recommendation of a dealer she had consulted – about a newspaper she found among other old papers. She provided a nice description of the Anti-Slavery True Witness, which appeared to be unrecorded. No one had a copy. After she sought a third-party appraisal, she offered to sell it to AAS at an agreed price.

(Front page of the February 20, 1850, issue of the Anti-Slavery True Witness. Catalog Record)

The Anti-Slavery True Witness is an abolitionist newspaper from the south-eastern part of Ohio, near Zanesville, where even today the population is under 2,500. It succeeded the Concord Free Press, whose previous proprietor had financial problems and sold it to M. Wilkins at the end of 1849. Wilkins had less luck, and the paper folded in just under a year. This issue contains several articles written exclusively for this paper including a description of a Black school in Fairview, OH, the kidnapping of a formerly enslaved person back to Georgia, and an anti-slavery meeting in West Liberty, OH. AAS serials cataloger Alicia Murphy uncovered information about the paper while creating the catalog record. Acquiring unrecorded titles is a high priority for the newspaper collection. Doing so adds to the rich picture of newspaper history and bibliography and creates access for researchers.

~ Vincent Golden, Curator of Newspapers and Periodicals

History of Conserving History: The Evolution of Paper Conservation in Libraries

In the summer of 2024, I spent eight weeks at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) for my first paper conservation internship as part of my master’s program in conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Under the guidance of Chief Conservator Babette Gehnrich — who has dedicated over 35 years to stewarding this remarkable collection — I had the privilege of engaging in various conservation projects. Through this internship, I came to appreciate how AAS’s vast collection, comprising over four million items, embodies American history not only through its texts and imagery but also through traces of use, repair, and past conservation efforts. In this blog post, I will share my experiences from three major projects I participated in. Continue reading History of Conserving History: The Evolution of Paper Conservation in Libraries