Trade List of Books Published by Grigg, Elliot & Co….Philadelphia, s.n., 1847. This broadside listing titles for sale by the Philadelphia book publisher Grigg, Elliot & Co., includes details about their stock of poetry, medical texts, and school books. The Society has a large collection of Philadelphia bookseller and book publisher catalogues and sale …
Fitch’s Geography for Beginners, ca. 1850-1858. This handwritten textbook of geography is something of a mystery. Heavily illustrated with original drawings and images clipped from publications, the text is divided into lessons with topics such as “About Travelling,” “About the Surface of the Earth,” “About Animals,” and “About Trees and Plants.” The title, Fitch’s Geography… … Continue reading The Acquisitions Table: Fitch’s Geography for Beginners
Poolesville Jan. 4th, 1862 Mother, I have received the last letter you wrote also the aprons and cake which was a very acceptable new year’s present. I also received the same night a turkey and a peril [?] of pickles I suppose from Mr. Cookes folks as they were done up in a paper with … Continue reading Henry Joslin January 4th, 1862
This large, colorful broadside was probably printed in two different locations. The red-printed border, which includes advertising slogans suitable for dry goods merchants (and a cartoon of a horse-drawn mail wagon and train with caption “Clear the tracks!!”), bears the Philadelphia imprint of John Duross. The bordered blank sheets were presumably sold to merchants across … Continue reading The Acquisitions Table: Great Excitement at Fredonia, KY
AAS has few newspapers from Delaware County, NY and, until this spring, only two issues from the town of Deposit. Six years ago we were the underbidder at auction on a lot of the Deposit Courier. The person who won it was a Californian, John Aiello, who had grown up in Deposit. Mr. Aiello promised … Continue reading The Acquisitions Table: The Deposit Courier
And now for some concluding thoughts from Jeanne McDougall about her encounter with Hannah Weld. If you’ve missed the previous two posts about Hannah and her mother Mary, click here to get caught up. What can you say after experiencing such an extraordinary epistle? My reading for the day came to a full stop; any … Continue reading Hannah Weld Part III
Last week, AAS reader Jeanne McDougall introduced us to the Weld family. Today, she continues exploring the mother and daughter pair, and examines their relationship and personalities through Hannah’s letter. During the closing days of February 1799, Hannah would have had every reason to wish her daughter back home with her in Boston rather than … Continue reading I Love Hannah Weld: Part II
Over the winter, AAS reader Jeanne McDougall spent some time with our Isaiah Thomas manuscript collection. While searching through the correspondence, she stumbled upon a letter from Hannah Weld to her daughter Mary Weld, who married Isaiah Thomas Jr. Below, Jeanne describes her encounter with Hannah and Mary. Jeanne’s experience certainly demonstrates the serendipitous nature … Continue reading I Love Hannah Weld
In 1849, the Cayuga Joint Stock Company of Auburn, NY set sail for California. The company of men had their sights set on California’s gold, and established their joint stock company “to engage in mining, trading and such other business in the territory of California” according to the company by-laws. For a nominal fee of … Continue reading Log Book + Diary = Story of a Voyage
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. … Continue reading Two Years Before the Book
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 … Continue reading Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 8: Honor AND Adopt!
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 … Continue reading Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 6: An Update
Historians of American life and culture have studied and argued about Mark Twain’s use of dialect in his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn since the novel’s U.S. publication on this date in February 1885. Censors and bowdlerizers have made efforts to prevent students and others from reading the novel with its dialect intact. From early …
Collection of amateur newspapers. One of our new members, Stan Oliner, is very active in the field of amateur journalism through collecting, writing articles, and serving in national organizations. A while ago, he mailed AAS a large gift of amateur newspapers that we are eagerly going through, selecting many issues for our collection. Illustrated here … Continue reading The Acquisitions Table: Amateur Newspapers
With Election Day fast approaching, it seemed like a good time to have a look at the Society’s holdings of American election ballots. This is a collection of around 700 mostly New England imprints, dating from about 1815 to the 1880s. Most of the ballots are small in size and are arranged by political party, … Continue reading Ballots at AAS
