Ads during the Civil War Years

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 ...

This Week in the Civil War: Gettysburg, Hippos, and the French are in Mexico!

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 ...

This Week in the Civil War, Illustrated: “Cash or curses” as payment for foraged food

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 ...

Join us for “Liberty and Justice for All”

This Thursday, May 12, at 7:30 p.m., James O. and Lois E. Horton will present “Liberty and Justice for All: The Civil War as Blacks’ Second American Revolution.” Directions to AAS and further information about this and other public programs are available on the AAS website. Describing the scope of their lecture, Professor ...

New “Almanac” Online

The latest issue of the Almanac has been posted on the AAS website. Highlights include details on our spring lecture series, Adopt-a-Book (back for the fourth year), summer seminars, and the new New England Historic Site Collaborative. Looking ahead, an exciting conference will be held at AAS in November, Before Madison Avenue: Advertising in Early ...

The Acquisitions Table: Game of Pictures from the Civil War

Pictures from the Civil War in North America - Bilder aus dem Bugerkriege in Nordamerica - Des tableaux de la guerre-civile en Amerique du Nord.  Nuremberg: G.W. Faber, [c. 1864] Puzzle blocks in box, with six hand-colored lithographs showing the solutions. This German game was produced for the European and American markets and includes six small ...

Adopt-a-Book 2011, Part 4: Song and Dance Man

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 fourth ...

Finding Abraham Lincoln at AAS

Lincoln Cartoon

Abraham Lincoln is a hot topic these days.  From renowned historians to local students, everyone is interested in learning more about the man who once declared: “I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life.” While Lincoln has been a perennial favorite for researchers at AAS, recently interest in ...

The Acquisitions Table: Fate of the Rebel Flag

Fate of the Rebel Flag. Painted by William Bauly, lithographed by Sarony, Major & Knapp. New York: William Schaus, 1861). Due to the approaching 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, several examples from AAS’s holdings of war images and broadsides will appear in loan exhibitions and as reproductions in upcoming publications. This chromolithograph from a ...

The Civil War, Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society

Currier & Ives lithograph of the capture of Atlanta, Georgia by Sherman

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. Many institutions are planning exhibitions, activities, and publications around the events which tore the United States apart between 1861 and 1865. Some organizations have already contacted AAS regarding the possibility of borrowing or reproducing material from our collections. ...

Baron Lecture Thursday Night

prelude_to_civil_war2

AAS invites you to join us in Antiquarian Hall at 7:30pm on Thursday, October 22nd for the 6th Annual Baron Lecture.  William W. Freehling, the Singletary Professor of the Humanities Emeritus at the University of Kentucky and Senior Fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, will be discussing his 1965 work Prelude to Civil ...

Try tilting your head just slightly…

They represent a type of carnage we can’t even imagine. Today they would cause more than a few gasps. And, yet unable to rewrite this tragedy, we feast on the spoils. Okay, I’m being dramatic. But for archivists and librarians the idea that 600 cartoons were cut from Civil War era newspapers is ...