Splitting Paper in the AAS Conservation Lab

During my internship this summer in the conservation lab at AAS, Chief Conservator Babette Gehnrich and I worked through several treatments one often sees in a paper conservation lab: mending, washing, pulp fills, and backing removals, among others. However, we also took a deep dive into the science and craft of a less frequently encountered ...

Breach of Promise: Seeking Compensation for a Broken Heart

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 ...

Nimrod, Newspapers, and the Apocalypse of 1812

"I saw the gathering tempest and heard its dreadful roarings, which seemed to me the roaring and burstings of ten thousand canons at once. Then I saw the trees of the forest torn by the violence of the winds, and dashed against each other, and against everything that stood before them, and houses and rocks ...

The Acquistions Table: Chronicles of New England

Chronciles

Chronicles of New England. Chap. 1000. [United States: s.n., 1826-7?] Two copies of the earlier Chapter 999 have been traced (one of which was already at AAS), but this appears to be the only copy of Chapter 1000. When it appeared at auction this fall, we had to have it. A satire written in Biblical style, ...

Adventures in Cataloging: Some Sleuthing Required (Part III)

Dr. Asa M. Stackhouse’s notes about Dr. Samuel Jackson, which proved to be the key to disentangling the identities of the doctors Jackson.

This week, the series ends by correcting a case of mistaken identity. And if you missed the first two parts, be sure to check them out: Part I, Part II. 3. The Doctors Jackson We like to trace provenance information in our records when we can. This allows one to find former owners, virtually reconstruct an ...

Adventures in Cataloging: Some Sleuthing Required (Part II)

Title page of A Real Object of Charity (Walpole, N.H., 1806).

Last week, in Part I, Amy discovered the title and date of a pamphlet missing a title page by scouring the newspapers. Now, she puts a name to a remarkable but unidentified woman. 2. The life of Ms. Sally (or Sarah) Rogers Sometimes, I catalog a book or pamphlet and a person appears whom we know ...

Adventures in Cataloging: Some Sleuthing Required (Part I)

Our 25 miles of shelves hold many mysteries for the intrepid cataloger to unravel.

One of the neat things about working as a cataloger at the American Antiquarian Society is solving the puzzles that come across my desk. I work exclusively on books and pamphlets published in the early nineteenth century, and over the course of 200 years title pages are lost, authors are forgotten, and people disappear into ...