Behind the Scenes at the American Antiquarian Society, or What I Learned from a Tour of the Library

Did you know that a patriot printer named Isaiah Thomas founded the American Antiquarian Society in 1812? Did you know that the terms uppercase, lowercase, and stereotype originated from terms used in relation to early printing presses? Did you know that early printers needed to read backwards and upside down? Do you know why the ...

A Place of Reading: Three Centuries of Reading in America

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A Place of Reading.  That phrase defines Antiquarian Hall.  Reading is an everyday occupation for those of us in Antiquarian Hall whether staff or, yes, readers.  But it is also part of the title for the newest online exhibition posted on the AAS website.  How did this one come to pass? It started over twenty ...

Dispatch from an AAS Intern: 19th-Century Children’s Letterwriting

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These days you would be more likely to encounter a young child e-mailing or texting than writing a letter to a family correspondent. Many believe that letter writing is a lost art in the digital age. It is certainly romanticized in films and books but in the 19th century household correspondence was an ...