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Notable Acquisitions, March 2014

Samuel Page Benson, Account Book, 1849-1850.

Samuel Page Benson (1804-1876), in addition to being a lawyer and president of the board of trustees of Bowdin College, was also one of the founders of the Reading and Winthrop Canal and Railroad Company, which chartered and built the Androscoggin & Kennebec Railroad in 1846. This account book, which Benson kept while acting as treasurer of the company, shows the exchange of investments and the delivery of interest to local Maine investors. Part of the volume was later used as a scrapbook. Purchased from Ian Brabner, John T. Lee Fund.

~Tracey Kry and Thomas Knoles

The Caldwell Alligator [1846?]

This handwritten issue of The Caldwell Alligator, though undated, was likely produced in 1846, as it celebrates the 70th anniversary of the American Revolution. The paper begins with a curious note regarding the editor – “The Editor begs leave to

assure the Public that his absence to the Rio Grande on duties connected with the public interest has prevented the publication of his paper but hastens to assure the public of a future continuation.”

Purchased from Peter Luke, John T. Lee Fund.

~Tracey Kry and Thomas Knoles

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The Choctaw Girl. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, ca. 1835.

The Choctaw Girl tells the story of Tewah-hokay, a pious Native American girl who suffered a fall while her family was removing with other Choctaws from Mississippi to their new home in Oklahoma. As a result of her fall, she was bedridden, but steadfastly urged her family to trust in God, before dying in July, 1834. This is a rare image depicting Indian removal appearing in the children’s book. It hauntingly

portrays Choctaws heading out in a Conestoga wagon; they could be easily mistaken for white pioneers, except for their feathered headdresses. Purchased from Gordon Hopkins, Ruth Adomeit Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

Church Decoration: a Practical Manual of Appropriate Ornamentation. New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1875.

An anonymous “Practical Illuminator” is listed as the editor of this

handbook of instructions for the decoration of churches in the Gothic Revival style. Illustrations include 16 plates (12 of which are in color) of symbolic, emblematic, and floral design motifs. These motifs were to be translated from the small written page to the much larger painted spaces of plastered or stone church walls and Gothic arch windows, etc. Painting Biblical verses as a decorative element was encouraged and a suggested list of Scriptures appropriate for all the seasons of the church year is provided at the end. Purchased from Ian Brabner, Harry G. Stoddard Memorial Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

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La Critique (Port of Spain, Trinidad). Nov. 11, 1876, vol. 1, no. 5.

AAS has an important collection of comic newspapers as well as significant holdings of Caribbean newspapers, but this is the first comic paper from the Caribbean in our collection. The subtitle is “A humorous review of local

current events.” It is printed in English and French and is illustrated by two crude woodcuts. It was published Joseph Lewis. Purchased from Timothy Hughes, Marcheta and Harold Miller Fund.

~Vincent Golden

Crihfield’s Christian Family Library, and Journal of Biblical Science / Christian Family Library / Christian Journal (Harrodsburg, Kentucky). Bound volume, Jan. 8, 1842 - Feb. 25, 1843.

This is a bound volume starting with issue # 2 of Crihfield’s

Christian Family Library and continuing through two title changes. The editor, Author Crihfield, believed that the second coming was coming soon. Before this publication, he published another periodical called the Heretic Detector. After the second coming predicted by the Millerites didn’t occur, Crihfield

started another periodical called the Orthodox Preacher. The issues in this volume are unrecorded in any institution. Purchased from Prairie Archives, Harry G. Stoddard Memorial Fund.

~Vincent Golden

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Daily Huntsville Confederate (Marietta, Georgia). Dec. 9, 1863, vol. 1, no. 149.

This newspaper started in Huntsville, Alabama (hence the name), but as Union troops approached, the publisher, J. Withers Clay moved the newspaper to Chattanooga, Tennessee, then to Marietta, Georgia, and finally to Dalton, Georgia, where it finally ceased in 1864. Besides news of the war, it contains advertisements for runaway slaves, list

of captured slaves being held, and names of deserters. Purchased on eBay, Harry G. Stoddard Memorial Fund.

~Vincent Golden Samuel Flagg, Letter, 1850.

This 1850 letter from Samuel Flagg of Worcester to Daniel Chamberlain of Boston carries unfortunate news regarding staff turnover at their company. A Mr. Bellows, “who has had charge of the iron works in our

shop” had decided to leave the company without much explanation. Flagg blames a stay in Boston, where he thinks Bellows was influenced by friends before returning to work in Worcester and demanding $2.00 per day. When his demand was not met and he left the company. Purchased from Stephen Resnick, John T. Lee Fund.

~Tracey Kry and Thomas Knoles

Gilbert Gladwyn, On Papa’s Lap. Boston: American Tract Society, ca. 1872.

This movingly timeless image of a fireman rescuing a little girl from a burning building is taken from a collection of short pieces written in the context of a father explaining various pictures to his daughter. The text explains that the girl was fortunate to be saved by the fireman, but if she had died, her soul would still live with God in Heaven, provided she had been good on earth. Purchased from Kyle Hedrick, Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

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Goff, William. Julia Glenroy: a Narrative of Crime, with a Moral. [Newport]: Published by the author, 1844.

Newport’s first novel, Julia Glenroy, could really more accurately be described as a novella. In only 34 pages, the author manages to pack in a relatively sordid plot, with unsubtle strains of prostitution, drugs, seduction & rape, forlorn love, and a duel. One other copy is recorded, at Brown University. Purchased from Steve Finer, Francis H. Dewey Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

The Good Boy’s Primer. Philadelphia: Moss & Brother, ca. 1849-1857.

This is a fairly early wood-engraved image of a vineyard appearing in a children’s book. Even in

this simple scene, the labor is divided by gender: the man and boy are up on the ladders picking bunches of grapes and delivering them to the women holding baskets. The caption below rings with wholesome exuberance: “I love to see grapes

growing; and when they are ripe I love to make a feast of grapes.” Purchased from Antipodean

Books. Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

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Robert Havell after John James Audubon. Two engravings: Roscoe’s Yellow Throat, and Spotted Sandpiper from Birds of America. London, 1836.

When AAS member and councilor William S. Reese read in the Society’s 2013 annual report

about the donation of an uncolored Audubon engraving from the original Birds of American elephant folio, he was surprised to learn that the Society did not (until then!) possess any actual sheets from the edition. To rectify this, he donated these two plates, one from early in the creation of Audubon’s book, and the second from later in the process. Taken together, these sheets, and the uncolored version donated earlier, offer a unique opportunity to teach printmaking processes (particularly the use of aquatint), as well as the history of one of the most famous publications in the world. Three plates down, 432 to go until AAS has a complete elephant folio Birds of America! Gift of William S. Reese.

~Lauren B. Hewes

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Charles W. Hearn, Hearn's Studies in Artistic Printing: a Complete Manual of Photographic Printing. Philadelphia: Sherman & Co., 1877.

This manual is illustrated with six fine cabinet and promenade portrait studies from negatives made especially for the purpose by Messrs. Rocher, Bigelow, Kent, and Baker. The first four albumen prints depict charming little girls and the remaining two are of young women. Its author Charles Heard parlayed his years of experience as a “photo printer exclusively” into his role as the proprietor of “Hearn's Photographic Printing Institute.” An advertising section at the end of the volume includes pricing information for lessons, retouching, printing and other services. Purchased from Charles B. Wood, III, Isaac Davis Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

Prospectus for The History and Romance of Crime. London: The Grolier Society, between 1870 and 1899.

In an exceedingly rare instance of survival, this book canvassing kit has tucked into it the script -- titled “Canvass on The History” – intended to be used by the door-to-door salesman (or woman, in this case). The History and Romance of Crime is one of a several salesman’s dummies used by Mrs. M.E. Waite of

Worcester. Tucked into the dummies are business correspondence with publishers, subscription slips, and blank forms. Purchased from Daryl Perch, Hugh Amory Memorial Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

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Mary Howitt, Midsummer Flowers. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, ca. 1854. The cover of this collection of stories, essays, and poems written by British author Mary Howitt. includes a splendid gilt design of children preparing to enjoy a picnic. Howitt explains in her preface that the “midsummer flowers refer to her young readers who have been fortunate enough to survive to the “noonday of life.” Indeed, this design reflects

the “noonday” quality of the blooming flowers, abundant

fruit in the basket, and of the young picnickers. Purchased on eBay, Anonymous Fund #2.

~Laura Wasowicz

The Infant’s Illuminated ABC Book. Claremont, New Hampshire.: Manufacturing Co., Simeon Ide, agent, 1848.

This picture alphabet features whimsical wood-engraved letters; the “U” is for the United States, represented by the

images of George Washington and the American flag. This pictorial alphabet is one of nine Manufacturing Co./Ide imprints now held at AAS, and reflects the output of this regional publisher. Purchased from Peter Masi, Ruth Adomeit Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

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J.W. Kingsley, Account Book, 1851-1853.

This account book, kept by J.W. Kingsley from 1851-1853, shows the active life of a student in Massachusetts. Kingsley attended school in Worcester – an entry in 1857 lists $7.00 as “Tuition at

Worcester paid by mother,” and Kingsley pays $1.25 for “Fare to Worcester to school.” Throughout his account book he lists trips to

various towns including Boston, Lowell, Webster and Providence, as well as candy, apples, cakes, haircuts and shampoos, quills, books, and stamps among his expenses. Purchased from R & A. Petrilla, John T. Lee Fund.

~Tracey Kry and Thomas Knoles

Augustus Kollner, Proof plate from Studies of Horses, Philadelphia, 1846-47.

The Society has a strong collection of prints, both etchings and lithographs, by the Philadelphia artist, Augustus Kollner. This proof printing of an etching by Kollner, with graphite additions to the background, hints at his artistic process. The image was made as part of a twelve plate portfolio Studies of Horses in Different Positions, issued by the artist in 1846-47. The final print of this scene of three horses and a pig around a trough is quite different from the proof, with the original sketched ship masts and harbor scene being fully replaced by warehouse structures. Gift of David Doret and Linda Mitchell.

~Lauren B. Hewes

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Lippard, George. The Empire City; or, New York by Night and Day. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson & Brothers, [1864?].

New York City has long been an ideal setting to expose financial inequality, well before the recent rhetoric of the 99%. In the mid-nineteenth century, critiques of new urban environments and economic inequality were highlighted in the “city mystery” genre and George Lippard was one of its leading practitioners. As its subtitle indicates, his novel The Empire City is about New York City -- “its aristocracy and its

dollars.” It followed the same publication pattern of many of

Lippard’s novels: it was first serialized in Lippard's own periodical Quaker City, subsequently published in one volume (Empire City was published in 1850), and republished in later editions in similar paper wrappers, often with gripping pictorial covers. AAS acquired this later edition of Empire City along with a half dozen other Lippard imprints in wrappers, thanks to the eagle eye of Paul Erickson – AAS’s directory of academic

programs and resident city-mystery enthusiast. Purchased on AbeBooks, George Watson Cole Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

Sarah M. Lyon, The Musical Geography: a New and Natural Arrangement of the Names of all the Physical Features of the Globe; the Names of Rivers, Mountains, Lakes, Cities, &c. Troy, New York: Young & Hartt, 1848.

This eminently creative geography textbook, designed to be used with Mitchell's School Atlas or Pelton's Outlines, uses mnemonic devices to aid students’ memories. Thus the author writes:

Old Mississippi, when a girl

Was seen by Jackson on the Pearl.

In Louisiana, New Orleans

To stay by Mississippi means.

Purchased from High Ridge Books, Inc., Roderick Stinehour Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

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Minchin, Henry J. A Trip to Nova Scotia, by Mr. & Mrs. H. J. Minchin in the Summer of ’97. [Beverly, Massachusetts]: H.J. Minchin, printer, [1897?]

This unusual amateur publication was apparently printed by an adult as a keepsake of a summer vacation. The volume is only the size of a 3x5 index card, stab-sewn, and tied up with yarn. The printed text narrates the month-and-a-half trip Henry and Myra Minchin took to Nova Scotia and ends with their return home to Beverly. H.J. Minchin lists himself as printer and displays his printer’s ornament in the colophon. While not the neatest printing

job (he has some trouble justifying lines and punctuation is sometimes inconsistent), Minchin does not entirely disgrace the name of older amateur printers. Purchased from Howard S. Mott, Inc., NEH Challenge Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

Alexander W. Mitchell, Men and Scenes before the Flood. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1848.

The author was a minister who based this book on a series of sermons he had delivered to the children of his congregation. In order to explain the gentleness of beasts before the Fall in the Garden of Eden, he illustrates his sermon with this hieroglyphic version of Isaiah xi. 6: “The

wolf also shall dwell with lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the goat and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Purchased from Michael Burstein, Ruth Adomeit Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

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The Mite (Martinsburg, Virginia [i.e. West Virginia]. Sept. 1849.

Amateur newspapers before the advent of the table-top hobby press in the 1870s are fairly rare. Pre-Civil War amateur newspapers are exceedingly rare. Here is an unrecorded title printed in Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). The title is appropriate because it newspaper is just 3 ½” x 5 ¼” and most

of it set in 8 point type. It is mostly filled with humorous bits such as “Lost! Lost! Lost, Fifty Thousand Dollars, which we

have been unable to accumulate within the last ten years.”

Purchased on eBay, Vincent Kinane Fund.

~Vincent Golden

The Monthly, [Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania] February and July 1866.

These two handwritten issues of The Monthly are the smallest manuscript periodicals in our collection. The covers of these issues are old envelopes, complete with postage stamps. Each issue contains original stories such as “The Lady of Zo; or The Mystery of Woodville”

and “The Thrilling Tale of the Skating Bully, or, Death Race.” Other

features include columns about travel, puzzles, and notes to the editors as well as detailed small illustrations. Purchased from Michael Mead, John T. Lee Fund.

~Tracey Kry and Thomas Knoles

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Mary Jane Derby Peabody (1807-1892), Two lithographs of Nahant, Boston: Pendleton’s

Lithography and Senefelder Lithography, ca. 1827. These two rare ca. 1827 lithographs of a resort hotel outside of Boston were drawn by Mary Jane Derby (later Peabody) of Salem, Massachusetts. An original drawing for one of the views is held in Derby’s scrapbook, preserved at the Boston Athenaeum. Derby was an amateur artist who

produced several lithographic sketches for both Pendleton and Senefelder, early practitioners of the craft in Boston. The pair joins six other prints made by Derby already in the collection. Purchased from Boston Rare Maps, Richard A. Heald Fund.

~Lauren B. Hewes

Post-Office, Portland. The Times of Arrival and Closing of the Mails. Portland, Maine, 1803.

This previously unrecorded 1803 broadside lays out the summer schedule for mail pickup and delivery in Portland, Maine. The five regional offices have variable hours and the postmaster states that none will ever be open on Sundays or at night on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The sheet is evidence of the difficulties of mail delivery in the early Republic as shown by the postmaster’s last

line of advice: “As there are several places in the United States of the same name, it is requested that, in the direction of Letters, the state be mentioned…” Purchased from Steven Resnick, Louisa

Dresser Fund.

~Lauren B. Hewes

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Queer Characters. London & New York: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, ca. 1868.

This trans-Atlantic picture book features marvelous color lithographed plates of anthropomorphic animals. Here is Doctor Donkey conducting a school room with pupils including pert Miss Poll, well-dressed Elephant, and Piggy (sporting a dunce cap). The witty accompanying poem explains that although Donkey is short on formal education, he is long on patience, and it is ultimately his patience that commands his pupils’ attention. Purchased from Helen Younger. Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

Saved! All the Tedious and Tiresome Labor…. [Tennessee, after 1867].

This broadside from Tennessee promotes businessman Robert Armstrong who ran a wool carding machine outside of Knoxville. He clearly and succinctly states the advantages of using his machine over picking wool by hand. As an added incentive, he will conveniently pick up and deliver bundles of wool at various venues around Knoxville. The sheet was printed at the office of the largest newspaper in Knoxville, the Daily Press and Herald. Gift of George E. Webb, Jr.

~Lauren B. Hewes

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Scott’s New Lessons in Reading and Speaking, to Which are Prefixed the Elements of Gesture. Philadelphia: Ambrose Walker, 1816.

This common elocution text has the bonus of a sober lithographed portrait of George Washington, providing us with a mass produced image of the nation’s premier founder within twenty

years of his death. According to the caption, it was initially sold by Philadelphia publisher William Spotswood (1753?-1805), and its appearance in this text on speaking shows the lithograph’s

bibliographic life after Spotswood’s own demise. Purchased from Ed Hoffman via eBay. Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

William H. Simmons after George H. Boughton, Proof of Too Near the War Path. New York, M. Knoedler & Co., 1874.

This proof engraving of a young pioneer couple in peril in a wooded setting was made after a painting by George H. Boughton, who was well-known for his images of pilgrims and settlers of “ye olde

dayes,” all created and exhibited during the turmoil

of the Reconstruction era. Boughton lived and worked in New York City before moving to London in the late 1870s. This engraving was likely made in London (the engraver Simmons was based there), and distributed in the United States by M. Knoedler & Co. Purchased from Grosvenor Prints, Richard A. Heald Fund.

~Lauren B. Hewes

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Spring Blossoms Painting Book. New York: McLoughlin Bros., ca. 1900.

Painting books were the forerunner of coloring books, and they were a staple of the McLoughlin Bros.’ publishing

business by the late nineteenth century. Here is an image of two children dancing the minuet; the fully chromolithographed picture appears on the right, serving as a model for the outline version on the left, which has been painted by an aspiring young artist. Purchased from Willis Monie, Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

H.S. Tanner, An Authentic Map of the World on the Globular Projection (Philadelphia, Tanner, Vallance, Kearny & Co., 1819).

This map of the world was engraved by Henry S. Tanner, a partner in a Philadelphia firm known for quality engraved book illustrations, letterheads, trade cards and framing prints. The map is designed on a globular projection, a form that emphasizes the roundness of the earth. Tanner has omitted Antarctica completely. The continent, although suspected, would not be officially sighted until 1820. This 1819 map was

recently cataloged and digitized under a project to catalog all of the Society’s pre-1820 cartographic sheets. The project is supported by several generous AAS members and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Purchased from Bill Hutchinson, Harry G. Stoddard Memorial Fund.

~Lauren B. Hewes

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Isaac Watts, The Young Child’s Catechism to Begin at Three or Four Fears Old. Norwich [Conn.]: Green and Spooner, 1777.

Thanks to AAS council chair Sid Lapidus’ generous funding, we

were able to buy what is possibly the only known complete copy of the 1777 Green and Spooner edition of Watts’ The Young Child’s

Catechism. Sid has instituted a fund to purchase seventeenth- and eighteenth century editions not already in the AAS collection. This humble catechism reveals the earliest printed religious instruction deemed appropriate for Protestant children living in the eighteenth-century transatlantic world. Purchased from New England Book Auctions, Sid Lapidus Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

The Western Humorist (Cincinnati, Ohio). May 25, 1839, vol. 1, no. 1.

Starting in the 1830s a number of humor newspapers and periodicals began to spring up around the country. This is the first issue of one of the first humor periodicals printed in Cincinnati. The editor, he writes, “Here is the first number of our Semi-Monthly periodical in all its plumage. ‘Brevity is the soul of

wit,’ and we shall be as short as a fresh landed

Dutchman’s coat tail.” Purchased on eBay, Harry G. Stoddard Memorial Fund.

~Vincent Golden

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Wild Animals. New York: McLoughlin Bros., ca. 1886.

At the height of its success as a mass producer of chromolithographed picture books, McLoughlin Brothers issued Wild Animals as part of its Bird and Animal Series. This stunning image of elephant-riding hunters stalking a wily Bengal tiger reveals a great deal about imperial colonialism (note that elephant drivers are turbaned East Indians, while the rifle-bearing hunters are white men wearing pith helmets). It also speaks volumes about human conceptions at the time about the animal hierarchy: elephants could be docile beasts of burden, while tigers are forever savage and perennially hunted. Purchased from Willis Monie, Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

Charles Williams, Child’s Natural History of Beasts. New Haven: Durrie and Peck; Philadelphia: Smith and Peck, ca. 1841-1846.

This stunning gilt image of an elephant is taken from an encyclopedic compendium of wild animals, which is all the more appealing given the book’s near-miniature height of 3 inches. The text describes the elephant as both strong and intelligent, but highly vulnerable to human hunters, noting, that this remarkable animal “is hunted for his tusks, which are

ivory, and few live the natural term of their life.”

Purchased from Antipodean Books, Emma Forbes Waite Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

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The Women of ’76. Molly Pitcher the Heroine of Monmouth. (New York: Nathaniel Currier, 1850).

AAS has strong holdings of the prints made by Nathaniel Currier before Charles Ives joined the famous lithographic firm in 1857. Our focus has been on images of current events and historical scenes, like this lithograph of Molly Pitcher loading a cannon at the 1778 battle of Monmouth. Currier issued several prints commemorating events of the Revolutionary War. This may have been intended as a series – The Women of ’76 – but it appears that only the Pitcher print was ever issued, once in 1848 and this 1850 edition with four lines of poetry added in the lower margin. AAS member and Currier & Ives collector John Zak provided the funds for this purchase. Purchased from John Rudisill, Various Gifts for Graphic Arts Fund.

~Lauren B. Hewes

The Yankee Pedlar, vol. 1, no. 3, 1842.

This handwritten newspaper is a welcome addition to our collection. According to the masthead, the title was “published every Saturday Morning at 31 Broad St.” The

cover features a piece titled “The contents of the little Tin

Box with a hole on the top” as well as a woodcut portrait of

Shakespeare. Regarding this portrait, the authors write “Our

artist shows genius, and may some day or other become a great Engraver…We are told that he has a turn for almost

everything, as Painting, scetching [sic], carpentering, and shoe making, we hope he’ll flourish and make a better man

than his father.” Purchased on eBay, Henry F. DePuy Fund.

~Tracey Kry and Thomas Knoles