Here at AAS, we’ve always enjoyed Valentine’s Day. From various blog posts to our online exhibit on Victorian Valentines, we have fun promoting the holiday. This year, we thought we’d go in a different direction and look at what could happen when love doesn’t go as planned. Breach of promise lawsuits occurred when a person, usually ...
Maggie Panteli is pursuing a BA degree in History and is graduating May 2020 from Clark University. During the summer of 2019, she worked part-time as a Readers’ Services Page and as an assistant in the Graphic Arts Department cataloging stereographs. Her favorite cataloging job was working with the McLoughlin illustrations. Her time at AAS ...
What comes to mind when you hear “Sleepy Hollow”? A dark, windy night, a mysterious horseman who just happens to have no head, a terrified Ichabod Crane fleeing for his life—no matter in what form you first come to know “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” there are certain dramatic elements the story always seems to ...
This week, AAS was fortunate to receive a hand-made, circa 1830, valentine as a donation. Society member George K. Fox of California presented the valentine to AAS President Ellen Dunlap at an event at the San Francisco Book Club celebrating the Society’s receipt of the National Humanities Medal. The Society has a large and representative collection ...
Graefenberg Gazette (New York, NY), August 1847. The first thing that should grab your attention about this advertisement sheet is that it is printed in red ink. This was a marketing trick by the Graefenberg Company that put out a wide variety of pills and elixirs. This particular sheet promoted their vegetable pills, sarsaparilla compounds, eye ...
New-York Clipper (New York, NY). Apr. 13, 1863 – Apr. 8, 1865. At a recent book fair, AAS was offered two bound volumes of this extremely rare sporting and entertainment periodical. It began in 1853 as a periodical covering sporting events. By the time of the Civil War the New-York Clipper included coverage of the theatrical ...
Captain Gregg and His Dog.Providence: H.H. Brown, 1831. This is a scarce copy of an adventure story about an injured soldier and his loyal dog who survive the perils of the American Revolution in upstate New York. I was able to successfully bid on this book at a recent Swann auction through the kind assistance of ...
The Clay Tribune (New York). May 4 – Nov. 2, 1844. 23 issues. This file combined with the issues already owned by AAS gives us one of three known complete files of this campaign newspaper. It was published by Horace Greeley as a separate political issue of the daily and weekly Tribune. Greeley greatly admired Henry ...
This month Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010 opened at the Bard Graduate Center Galleries in New York (September 12, 2012 to February 3, 2013). You can learn more about the exhibition here. Two former AAS fellows, Matthew Wittmann and Brett Mizelle, contributed essays to the related (and very substantial) publication, The American Circus (New ...
Special exhibition to mark the Society’s bicentennial, at the Grolier Club, New York, September 12 through November 17, 2012. As most readers of this blog already know, the American Antiquarian Society was founded two hundred years ago, in 1812 in Worcester, Massachusetts, by the patriot, printer and publisher Isaiah Thomas. In fact, Thomas’s personal ...
No license. A question to be settled in the State of New York. New York: Journal of the American Temperance Union, 1846. On linen. This textile broadside was issued as an extra to the Journal of the American Temperance Union during the 1846 elections in New York State. That year, every one of the 800+ towns ...
Don't let the name fool you -- Adopt-a-Book is for newsies too. AAS's fifth annual Adopt-A-Book event is coming up this Tuesday, April 3, at 6 p.m. Browse the 2012 Adopt-A-Book Catalog to view the 150 items up for adoption. Here are a few highlights of New York newspapers still available for adoption. ...
Update: This item has already been adopted, but you can browse the 2012 Adopt-A-Book Catalog to search among the 150 items up for adoption. Or join us for the fifth annual Adopt-A-Book event will be held on Tuesday, April 3, at 6 p.m. when there will be 50 new items up for adoption! The Queen ...
