To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, American Antiquarian Society curators created an online gallery of AAS collection materials related to the American Revolution. The featured materials include documents, newspapers, prints, maps, and books that reflect the wide-ranging opinions and positions surrounding the path to independence. Among gallery highlights are: ...
In celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday, the American Antiquarian Society’s new online gallery showcases printings of the Declaration of Independence produced between 1776 to 1876. The selection includes the Declaration’s first appearance in a newspaper, broadsides printed in the summer of 1776, official facsimiles, and commemorative printings for the centennial. While the original handwritten ...
Newspapers in early America were an essential part of connecting communities with the latest news from Europe and other colonies. They “enabled readers to imagine themselves as part of a shared culture of ideas, investments and events that spread beyond their local world,”[1] helping to unite the distinct geographic regions that would later become the ...
Who and what springs to mind when you reflect on early Worcester history? Isaiah Thomas & his printing press? Major Taylor & his bicycle? Esther Howland & her Valentines? These classic Worcester historical figures will all be represented at AAS’s upcoming Chat with a Curator open house this Wednesday, but we hope many of the materials ...
In his October 1983 report to the Council, former AAS President Marcus A. McCorison outlined the founding of the Program in the History of the Book (PHBAC), an ambitious initiative that set out to unite four areas of the Society's work: collections, scholarship, fellowships, and publications. In the same 1983 report, John Hench, then assistant director ...
The fall edition of the AAS newsletter, the Almanac, is now up on the website and showcases some of the exciting things going on at AAS! Some items featured include the opening of the Paul Revere exhibition at New-York Historical Society last month; a pictorial look at how we are utilizing our new Learning Lab and ...
We've finally reached the point in our major expansion and renovation project where everything is all construction all the time. The finish line is in sight, and we can't wait to share it with everyone! In the meantime, this issue of Almanac was an opportunity for us to reflect on the construction at AAS, past and ...
The newest issue of Almanac really has us energized about everything happening at the Society this year! Here are some of the highlights:
A closer look at the new multipurpose room that will be housed on the ground floor of the Antiquarian Hall addition
A thorough evaluation of all of our programming initiatives
Updates on construction ...
At the end of August 2018, long-time Marcus A. McCorison Librarian and Curator of Manuscripts Thomas G. Knoles will be retiring from AAS. After almost twenty-nine years at the Society, we wanted to be sure to tap Tom’s long institutional knowledge and his experiences in the library world. There was none better to do this ...
We're always looking forward to the next exciting thing happening here at the Society (especially with a soon-to-be-completed building addition in the works!). But as archivists and historians we also know how important it is to take a look back. This past year's annual report serves to remind us how strong our core functions have ...
Jeremy Dibbell is the director of communications and outreach at Rare Book School and the volunteer head of the Legacy Libraries and Libraries of Early America projects for LibraryThing. He is always happy to receive information on American book lists/inventories/catalogs of any size, particularly for the colonial period.
In July 1812, Isaiah Thomas presented a large ...
Progress on the new addition to Antiquarian Hall has been moving steadily over the past few months. Collections have been moved for protection, windows abutting the new addition have been boarded for safety, and these days you may even see staff and readers with ear plugs in the reading room, still hard at work despite ...
After months of preparation that included shifting stacks, boxing up objects, and countless meetings about architectural plans, the ground has finally been broken—both figuratively and literally—on the expansion and renovation of Antiquarian Hall.
The Preparation
As with any major building project, much of the time in the months preceding the actual construction was spent on refining and ...
The spring issue of the AAS newsletter, Almanac, is fresh off the press and ready for your perusal. Here are some highlights from this issue:
The first part of a three-part series about the expansion and renovation of Antiquarian Hall focusing on the HVAC upgrades
An "AAS Heritage" piece about the various HVAC issues the Society has ...
A few weeks ago, a post shared the final cut of a short film depicting a young Isaiah Thomas learning about the legal indenture that bound him to his apprenticeship. As explained in the post, that film is part of a larger project that aims to create an interactive educational website inspired by AAS’s one-man ...
