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 ...
In summer of 2025, I was fortunate and delighted to assist as a graduate intern in the conservation lab at the American Antiquarian Society. My experiences at AAS piqued my interest in serving a research collection, and I am eager to apply the techniques I learned and refined with the insight and support of Chief ...
Did you ever wish to visit the American Antiquarian Society but have no clue where to start? Have you ever felt intimidated by the marble columns and brick building, thinking that the library is just for professors or scholars? Did you ever go on a public tour on a Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. and want ...
While most library collections are printed or written on paper, hundreds of historic objects at the American Antiquarian Society -- including broadsides, children's books, and ribbon badges -- were printed onto cloth. Often produced as keepsakes, souvenirs, commemorative objects, or teaching tools, cloth printings in the AAS collection include texts and images printed onto silk, ...
Rachel Wall (née Schmidt) was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on October 1, 1760. She was 29 years old on October 8, 1789, when she was executed by hanging on the Boston Common. According to some accounts, Wall may have been America’s first female pirate; it is certain that she was the last woman to be ...
As a cataloger at the American Antiquarian Society, one of my current projects involves updating bibliographic catalog records for American women of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. AAS prioritizes cataloging for marginalized groups through the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) initiative, and I find it rewarding to contribute to a more inclusive and diverse ...
Publishers of amateur newspapers devoted a significant amount of their limited space to critiquing other amateur papers -- sometimes constructively, but often not. Two amateur publishers from Dassel, Minnesota, Allison C. Brokaw and Reno L. Hayford, grew tired of the critical nature of amateur journalism and wanted publishers to focus their efforts on literary pursuits. ...
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. ...
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). 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 ...
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. This album contains numerous photographs including cyanotypes, Kodak ...
This summer, I had the pleasure of curating a reading room display on the language of flowers. As a cataloger, much of my recent work has been focused on enhancing bibliographic records, but with spring and summer in full bloom outside my window, I found myself captivated by the beautiful illustrations featured in many books ...
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 ...
This account book, kept on an unidentified Georgia plantation in the mid-1860s, features accounts for over fifty Black sharecroppers. Sharecropping families were frequently trapped in a cycle of debt due to laws restricting sale of sharecropped goods on former plantations and unethical practices by southern planters. On this specific Georgia plantation, Black laborers are recorded ...
In January 2025, staff at the American Antiquarian Society attended a workshop on African American print culture taught by Dr. Derrick Spires, associate professor of English at the University of Delaware (and an AAS member and councilor), generously sponsored by the Nadia Sophie Seiler Family Fund. Dr. Spires shared how Black people used African American ...
In the summer of 2023, while completing my MA in book conservation at West Dean College in Chichester, England, I undertook a 10-week internship at the American Antiquarian Society, working alongside Chief Conservator Babette Gehnrich and Library and Archives Conservator Marissa Maynard. In between my time spent writing a thesis, attending a week-long course on ...
