Holmes, Moses B., Excelsior Writing Book. Moses B. Holmes (1837-1894) lived in Campton, New Hampshire. He married Ann M. Bartlett (1839-1914) and the couple had two children, Willie B. Holmes and Lewis Holmes. Moses was young when he began writing in this writing book, which was manufactured by Norton and Crawford in Concord, New Hampshire; some ...
Arms, A.D. Copy Book, 1870-1877 (with stylus and carbon papers). A new addition to the Society’s Penmanship Collection is this copy book, with stylus and copy paper still intact. The copied letters are all signed by an A.D. Arms, and most are written to recipients in Montpelier, so he was likely from the town, or close ...
Kimball, Moses. Journal, 1850-1851. Moses Kimball (1809-1895) was an active citizen of Boston throughout the 19th century. After failed attempts at the newspaper and printing business, Kimball succeeded in the museum business, purchasing and expanding the New England Museum (which had been established by Ethan Allen Greenwood) in 1838, and opening the Boston Museum in ...
Howell & Rogers, Ledger [Leicester, Mass.?], 1848-1850. This ledger records the monthly “invoice of goods taken” from a general store over the course of two years, 1848-1850. The entries are occasionally divided into dry goods and hardware, and show a variety of items being sold, including textiles (silk, cashmere, flannel), shoes, boots, candy, coffee, wallets, ...
Fitch's Geography for Beginners, [1850-1858]. This handwritten textbook of geography is something of a mystery. Heavily illustrated with original drawings and images clipped from publications, the text is divided into lessons with topics such as “About Travelling,” “About the Surface of the Earth,” “About Animals,” and “About Trees and Plants.” The title, Fitch’s Geography… suggests that ...
Haynes, Lemuel, “A Sermon Delivered at Rutlan West Parish in Vermont June 1805.” Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833) was a highly influential religious and anti-slavery leader. Among Haynes’s many firsts, he was the first African-American to be ordained to the Christian ministry and the first African-American to receive a college degree (an M.A. from Middlebury in 1804). After ...
Former AAS intern Melissa Lydston worked in our Manuscript Department, processing a collection of family papers. The Warfield Family resided in Providence, Rhode Island in the mid-nineteenth century. The patriarch of the family, Daniel Warfield, was a soap maker and dye maker. The collection proved to have more than just letters. Read below for her ...
Over the past few weeks, we've been featuring posts by former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson (Smith College) about her experience identifying an unidentified diary (Part I, Part II, and Part III). This week she shares her concluding thoughts. Researching the Martin family proved mysterious and frustrating. And still, as I researched the lives Henry’s family lived ...
Downer, David R., “Notes in College,” 1827-1828. David Robinson Downer (1808-1841) was born in Westfield, New Jersey. He attended Yale College, graduating in 1828, and then entered the Auburn Seminary, eventually becoming minister of the West Presbyterian Church in New York City. This volume consists of theological notes made by Downer during his senior year at ...
Last week, former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson brought us through some of Henry Martin's (a previously unidentified diarist) daily routines. Read on to learn about his experience as a soldier in the Civil War, and a miner in a goldmine. After working as a farmhand in his teenage years, Henry served in the Civil War. He ...
Ballou, Levi, Commonplace Book, 1831-1840. Levi Ballou (1806-1865) was born in Halifax, Vermont. After studying theology with his brother William S. Ballou, Levi became a minister in Orange, Massachusetts in 1843. These fascicles contain poems and prose extracts, almost all of which appear to have been copied by Levi Ballou from a variety of sources. The majority ...
Last week we featured a post by former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson (Smith College) about her journey into an unidentified diary. Read on to learn more about the diarist's day to day life as he recorded it in his diary. During 1867, when he kept this diary, Henry made his living by selling pictures and books, ...
Former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson (Smith College) worked with a manuscript collection of unidentified diaries. Her charge? Identify the diarist. Lucia was very successful with one particular volume, which she discovered belonged to a young man named Henry Martin. Although no last name was listed anywhere in the volume, a poem from the diarist’s sweetheart ...
It is often hard to find diaries written by young men and boys. So today I’d like to highlight a great diary kept by a young man, Thomas Whitaker, of Waltham, Massachusetts. Thomas began recording daily entries in 1874, when he was 17 years old, and the volume continues through 1878. He filled the entire ...
Browne, Samuel and J. W. S. Browne, Account Book, 1844-1846. J. W. S. Browne was the son of Samuel J Browne, a printer who published the Liberty Hall newspaper in Cincinnati and later the Cincinnati Gazette. J.W.S. Browne and his brother –in-law L.S. Curtiss began publication of the Weekly Commercial in 1843. This account book contains ...
