Interpreting Coded Messages in Friendship Albums

The Stubbs Collection at the American Antiquarian Society contains hundreds of friendship albums. Friendship albums usually contain messages to the album owners from friends, family members, and schoolmates. Many messages have a "forget me not" theme, or they may be philosophical or humorous. The contents of friendship albums were not private, in that the albums ...

“The Truth of Sunlight:” When the Daguerreotype was the Technological Vanguard

Woodward Daguerreotype

When a new technology comes along, like the iPad or the Kindle, human consumers are naturally fascinated. We admire our colleague’s new-found technological abilities; we test the gadgets in the stores; we read about them in the press.  Some among us predict the end of older technologies.  Others scoff and stick with the tried and ...

Historic Photographs and the Sharp Memory of a Local

Float representing St. Vincent's Hospital, Charity Circus, Worcester, July 15, 1909

Here at AAS we have lots of small collections that are safely tucked away, accessible only due to the knowledge of the reference staff, catalogers, or curators who bump into them occasionally when searching for other things. As we work our way through our holdings we try to increase access to these “lost” collections ...