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 ...
What do a wolverine, sunshine, runaway sailors, weaving, and baseball have in common? These are the titles or subjects of items available at our ninth annual Adopt-a-Book program! Once again our intrepid curators have put together a group of items acquired over the past year or so and put them up for “adoption.” Supporters of ...
The air is starting to change here in Worcester, getting a bit cooler and crisper, and that’s a sure sign that our public programs are about ready to start as well! Here’s a quick rundown of what will be coming to Antiquarian Hall this fall: Friday, September 12, 2014, at 7:00 p.m. Cartographic Innovation in the Early ...
Today is Worcester County’s first-ever online giving challenge, Greater Worcester GIVES, and the American Antiquarian Society is proud to be participating. Please show your support for AAS – and for the community we are part of – by donating to us in the challenge before midnight EST so that we can contribute a strong total ...
Tomorrow night the Society is holding its seventh annual Adopt-a-Book event at Antiquarian Hall from 6:00 to 8:00pm. Come join us for libations and snacks (generously donated this year by Ed Hyder, Panera, and Crown Bakery). Each of the Society's curators has selected material for adoption including paper dolls, ledger books, newspapers, lithographs, and bound ...
This year the American Antiquarian Society will be holding its 7th annual Adopt-a-Book event on Tuesday, May 6th, from 6:00 to 8:00pm. This event has been an entertaining and successful fundraiser for the library’s continued acquisitions of historic material. The money raised helps curators buy more books, pamphlets, prints, newspapers, and manuscripts. On May 6th, participants ...
You may notice that things look a little different around here. Last October, just in time for the bicentennial, we released the new AAS website. Its sleek look and improved navigation have been a success, so we decided to give our blog a similar treatment this fall. To go with the new look, we also have ...
After Antiquarian Hall’s signature copper dome was renovated this summer, five bicentennial banners were installed on the Park Avenue and Salisbury Street facades. Custom-designed hardware will allow the banners to be changed in the future. Four of the banners are on the library stacks, brick walls without windows that provide an excellent backdrop. Each features a ...
Please join us for a special public lecture tomorrow night, Thursday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. "Does History Teach Lessons?" Gordon S. Wood Was George Santayana correct when he said that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it?" Come and find out with Gordon Wood who is the Alva O. Way ...
On Wednesday, March 14, 2012, the print exhibition With a French Accent, French and American Lithography to 1860 will open at the Davis Museum of Wellesley College. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the collection of the American Antiquarian Society and explores the influence of French expertise and design on American popular lithographic print production ...
For those who may have missed David Jaffee's talk on "Learning to Look at Early American Material Culture" when he presented it at AAS this fall (or for those who want to see it again), you're in luck! The program will be airing on C-SPAN 3 this weekend at the following times: Sat. 2/11 @ 11am ...
Each year we present a Baron Lecture as part of the festivities surrounding the Society’s annual meeting. The series is named after Robert C. Baron, president of Fulcrum Publishing and long time AAS member and Council Chairman from 1993-2003. These lectures provide a wonderful opportunity for an AAS member who has written a significant and ...
At 6:30 PM on Friday, September 23, the American Antiquarian Society will take visitors back to the late 1840s, as Jay DiPrima recreates Henry David Thoreau's lecture "Economy." Thoreau originally delivered his lecture, drawn from his early writings on his year at Walden Pond, on Friday, April 20, 1849 at Worcester City Hall. A review ...
Ever wonder if you were born in the wrong century? If so, imagine it is still those halcyon early days when AAS was a new institution. A time when lyceums were considered viable forms of entertainment. When you could subscribe to attend a series of lectures on a topic and feel your ...
On September 23-24, 2011, the American Antiquarian Society will host a symposium titled "The Cosmopolitan Lyceum: Globalism & Lecture Culture in Nineteenth-Century America." This conference was organized by Dr. Tom Wright, of the University of Oxford. So what’s a lyceum, anyway? Throughout the nineteenth century, the lyceum—a scheduled public lecture that was intended to be both ...
