Cartes de Visite

A photographic phenomenon that was all the rage in the mid-nineteenth century was the carte-de-visite, with sales running into the hundreds of millions (so a lot of them are still around). The American Museum of Photography has a great exhibition on them here:

http://www.photographymuseum.com/worlds.html

I found two images of a "redeemed slave child" named Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence.

This photograph was taken in Brooklyn, New York,

This one was taken in Hartford, Connecticut.

Close to the bone

Yesterday we hosted a lively group of collectors of scrimshaw who were attending the annual scrimshaw collector's weekend hosted by the New Bedford Whaling Museum:

http://www.whalingmuseum.org/prog/scrimshawWeekend.htm

Here is an article on their activities in the New Bedford paper:

http://www.heraldnews.com/entertainment/x529241206/Carving-a-niche

Their visit to the PPL to view our modest collection of scrimshaw was a definite success. While most of our pieces have been photographed and put online, the whole point of this sort of event is to put the items into people's hands, for only then can a deep understanding of the artifact begin.

http://www.provlib.org/ri_image/Whaling%20Collection/Sites/pages/specialcollections/nicholsonwhaling/scrimshaw.htm

The Mathers of New England

One of my favorite bibliographies is a series on the works of the Mather family. Lawrence Wroth gives an admirable summation of the project when he reviewed the bibliography of Cotton Mather published in 1940 in the "Notes for Bibliophiles" column of the New York Herald-Tribune on October 6, 1940 [I've scanned some images from our copy, which was given to us by William G. Mather]:

Some fifteen years ago there was announced a plan for the preparation and eventual publication of a bibliography of the writings of the Mather family of New England. The work was to comprise in six volumes a description of all the titles that came from the pens of Richard, Increase and Cotton Mather, and such of the sons, brothers and cousins of these as might claim to be occasional men of letters. The sponsor of the project was William Gwinn Mather, of Cleveland, owner of the second largest collection of Mather writings in existence; the work of compilation was to be carried through by Mr. Mather's librarian, Thomas J. Holmes, with George Parker Winship as consultant in the planning and execution of the undertaking. Not always are bibliographical projects carried out to the full measure of their original proposals, but in the case of the Mather bibliography it becomes apparent that performance is catching up with promise. In 1931 there was issued in two volumes Mr. Holmes's bibliography of Increase Mather, and now, completing the second stage of the broadly conceived plan, there has appeared in the last month, under Mr. Holmes's editorship, a study in three volumes ($15) from the Harvard University Press entitled "Cotton Mather, a Bibliography of His Works."

In a brief work of 1927, "The Mather Literature," Mr. Holmes presented eloquently a justification of the task to which he had set his hand. The Mathers were the apologists of New England Congregationalism, and that institution was the mold in which were set the life and thought of the Puritan commonwealths. The study of the works of that family of writing men was important to the understanding of New England's contribution to American culture. Upon that basis the Mather bibliographies were conceived.
Those who have made use of Mr. Holmes's "Increase Mather" have come to regard that book almost as the classic example of the manner and degree in which bibliography may serve the study of history. That estimate of its worth, expressed more than once and by many scholars in recent years, may be repeated as a comment upon his newly published bibliography of Increase's son. In its highest employment, bibliography is not a mere listing and describing of titles, but a process in the study of texts. It involves consideration of the history of those texts as expressions of the human spirit, and calls for the minute examination of the forms in which the texts have been transmitted. In purpose and accomplishment the Mather bibliographies fulfill the requirements of this definition to an extent that puts them close to the top in the list of American essays in literary history.

The text of the Cotton Mather bibliography is supported by aids to its use in the form of lists of owners, tables of symbols, tables showing the relative strength of the twenty largest Mather collections, a chronological list of the writings, appendixes, and indexes in several kinds. The bibliographical descriptions of each of the 468 editions and issues of the writings follow the approved method, and the locations of known copies placed after each title rest upon a canvass of eighty-five libraries and private collections of the United States and England. These, of course, are the elements expected in any full-dress bibliography. Here they assume a special character because in recording the features of a book Mr. Holmes has the faculty of giving weight to the minute while avoiding the trivial, and his knowledge of the processes of bookmaking add a special authority to his collections and his analyses of irregularities. The characteristic of his work most to be praised, however, is the vital quality of the annotation with which the entry of each title concludes. The scale upon which his sponsor has planned the bibliographies permits Mr. Holmes space for extended extracts from the books themselves, from the Cotton Mather Diary and from a large number and variety of contemporary and modern sources. By these and by his own reflective comment he seeks to re-create the conditions and circumstances which brought the work into being, to relate it to the life of the community in which it was written and published, and to show its place in the life and development of the author himself. The work thus becomes an entity that stands by itself as a new element in American history.

Not every reader of today appreciates, or wants to learn to appreciate, the importance of the purely religious and ecclesiastical writings of Cotton Mather. Students of his period, however, realize that the attempt in these and similar writings to justify the ways of God to man formed the hard core of New England's intellectual development. It was also an element of relaxation in the lives of the people, the intellectual pastime as well as the serious business of a community which for a time based its political state upon its ecclesiastical and doctrinal system. Cotton Mather made the last stand of the hierarchy against a levelling spirit in the citizens which was slowly creating resentment against ecclesiastical dominance in public affairs, but he recognized that an age of new conceptions in science could not tolerate a state of changelessness in social conditions.He remained an old-fashioned Calvinist, but he saw that religion "had become much more a matter of practical conduct and of tangible results than abstract contemplation of a transcendent divinity." He was ready to cast out the old scholastic logic, but he could not recommend the use of Locke's "Essaye of Humane Understanding." As his grandfathers had done he hated and fought the Arian and Arminian heresies, but he contravened the dearest principles of the older generation by advocating in church practice the free and open communion of all Christian people. An upholder of the older order in matters of doctrine, he not only accepted the new experimentation in science but advanced more than half way to meet it. He uttered no effective protest against the witchcraft madness, but he made smallpox inoculation a common practice of his community in the face of learned opposition. These elements in the complex personality of Cotton Mather are brought by Professor Perry Miller in the note which he has provided for Mr. Holmes's entry of the "Manuductio ad Ministerium" of 1726.

It stands out in Mr. Holmes's annotations of the several titles that the student of American historiography must take into account the contributions of Cotton Mather to the New England record.
The "Magnalia Christi Americana: or the Ecclesiastical History of New England," of 1702, is perhaps the most ambitious American literary production of the Colonial period. One would even call it a great book except that it lacks the quality of magic which inheres in great writing, the quality that sends us back to Fuller's "Worthies of England," an analogous work, simply to taste the flavor of words and to wonder again at the depth of richness the human mind can attain.

Mr. Holmes has been fortunate in his collaborators. Perry Miller's note on the "Manuductio" has already been mentioned. The "Christian Philosopher," which represents "the first extensive use of Newtonian ideas in the American colonies" carries a note on the sources of the book by Theodore Hornberger, of the University of Texas. Kenneth B. Murdock, of Harvard, who has written the life of Increase Mather and is the authority on the biography of the Mathers, evaluates the "Magnalia" and urges, persuasively, greater attention to it as a book to be read for enjoyment. Lloyd A. Brown, curator of maps in the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, comments with the peculiar erudition of "map-men" upon the map of New England that accompanies the "Magnalia." A catalogue of known Cotton Mather manuscripts is supplied, with commentary, by William Sanford Piper; Mather's newspaper contributions have been listed by the late George Francis Dow; and the full indexes of the book made by George W. Robinson.

It has been the intention of this review to imply that the Holmes bibliographies of Increase and Cotton Mather are not far from being the chief monuments of American bibliography. Perhaps it is better that the words should be said forthrightly. Our admiration for the knowledge, skill and noble industry of Mr. Holmes is unbounded. We join him in thanking Mr. Mather for the twenty years of support of the project that has resulted in the two bibliographies, and finally we express our appreciation of the manner in which the Harvard University Press has carried through a difficult and complex piece of bibliographical printing.

Launch of Occasional Nuggets

Dear fellow bibliophiles:

I am pleased to announce the launch of Occasional Nuggets, a modest but gratifying serial publication of bookish interest, each issue of which is intended to “bring to light a gem from the special collections of the Providence Public Library.”

Our first issue (Spring 2009) features a set of four Japanese fairy tales written by Lafcadio Hearn and printed in Tokyo from 1898-1904, on crêpe-paper and bound in silk thread in the Japanese (accordion) fashion. The issue begins with a short introduction on Hearn’s life and career, and a reprinting (including a few scans of the original illustrations) of one of the tales—The Boy Who Drew Cats, in which a young and sensitive boy is saved by his art. Also included is a bibliography of books by Hearn in special collections, and suggestions for further reading.

One of our generous volunteers, Meg Turner (RISD ’08), a graphic designer and an instructor at the AS220 Community Printshop, scanned ornaments from the many specimen books in our Updike Printing Collection to design the cover. Two hundred covers were letterpress printed in red & black at the AS220 Printshop. The internal pages were printed in-house on PPL’s laser printers, and so the work embodies printing technologies from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries.

The cost of the production of this first issue (a scan of the cover is attached) of 200 numbered copies has been borne by the Library, but to continue it for the next three issues we need the support of subscribers. We are offering four (4) issues this year (spring, summer, winter, fall) for a subscription price of $15.00, which will cover only our production costs.

The larger purpose of this publication, of course, is to promote the appreciation and support of the special collections at PPL. To this end, on the final pages of each succeeding issue, we would like to list those who have (during the year of publication) decided to give beyond the subscription price to the following levels of support:

Apprentice printers: $5 to $49
Journeymen printers: $50 to $99
Master printers: $100 to $199
Patrons: $200+

All funds we receive beyond those necessary to produce the Occasional Nuggets will be used solely to acquire for, and to conserve the items within, the D. B. Updike collection on the history of printing.

If you are interested in subscribing to this first year of the Occasional Nuggets, please reply by e-mail to rring@provlib.org with your preferred postal address. Please ALSO indicate if you are willing to donate above the subscription price at any of the aforementioned levels, as this may reduce the number of subscribers we require in order to produce the next three issues.

We are not asking for any money at this time—only an expression of interest in the form of the promise to subscribe and/or donate. If (and only if) we receive enough promised subscriptions—or the equivalent in promised subscriptions & donations—we will send those people a copy of the first issue with an invoice, and proceed with plans to produce the next three issues.

If we do NOT receive enough promised subscriptions (or its equivalent, as stated), we will send copies of the first issue FREE to those who did promise to subscribe, with our thanks for their time and interest. Please write or call if you have any further questions about this offer.

The Special Collections department houses over 40,000 books, posters, pamphlets, photographs, broadsides, manuscripts, and other artifacts which, by virtue of their individual or collective significance, require a higher level of security and interpretive context than other collections in the PPL. Our goal is to preserve, augment, and provide access to these collections to the public in perpetuity. Thank you for your support.

Richard J. Ring
Special Collections Librarian
401.455.8021

Sammelband of Lincolniana

We have some 350 bound volumes containing about 4,000 pamphlets and other printed ephemera related to slavery and the Civil War in the Harris collection.

There are dozens of bound volumes of separately issued pamphlets relating to Abraham Lincoln, many of them sermons and eulogies delivered in the wake of his assassination (he was shot on April 14, and died the morning of April 15, 1865). To give a sense of what is in them, a listing of the contents of ONE of them is below (in order of their binding). Shown here is the bottom of the volume to illustrate the concept of "sammelband" (a bound collection of separately issued items) and the first pamphlet's title-page. Notice the 10th and 12th pamphlets were published in Rhode Island.

1. George Bancroft. Éloge funèbre du Président Abraham Lincoln prononcé en séance solennelle du Congrés des États-Unis D’Amérique . Brussells, 1866.

2. George Bancroft. Abraham Lincoln. A memorial address. Delivered by invitation of Congress . . . February 12, 1866. London, 1866.

3. The Pulpit & Rostrum. Contains an “Oration” by George Bancroft, “The Funeral Ode” by William Cullen Bryant, the text of the “Emancipation Proclamation” and his last inaugural address by Abraham Lincoln, and a portrait of Lincoln. New York: June 1865.

4. Hon. Alex H. Bullock. Abraham Lincoln: The just magistrate, the representative statesman, the practical philanthropist. Worcester (Massachusetts), 1865.

5. Rev. William L. Chaffin. The President’s death and its lessons. A discourse on Sunday Morning, April 23d, 1865, before the Second Unitarian Society of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1865.

6. Rev. James Cooper. The death of President Lincoln. A memorial discourse, delivered in the Berean Baptist Church, West Philadelphia, on Sunday, April 16, 1865. Philadelphia, 1865.

7. Rev. R. S. Cushman. Resolutions and discourse, occasioned by the death of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, who died at Washington City, April 15, 1865. Manchester (Vermont), 1865.

8. Rev. Edward F. Cutter. Eulogy on Abraham Lincoln, delivered at Rockland, Maine, April 19, 1865, by request of the citizens. Boston, 1865.

9. Rev. Henry Darling. Grief and Duty. A Discourse delivered in the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Albany, April 19, 1865, the day of the funeral obsequies of President Lincoln. Albany, 1865.

10. Rev. Sidney Dean. Eulogy on the occasion of the burial of Abraham Lincoln, delivered in the City Hall of Providence, April 19, 1865. Providence, 1865.

11. Minister James DeNormandie. The Lord Reigneth: A few words on Sunday morning, April 16, 1865, after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Portsmouth (New Hampshire), 1865.

12. Rev. Richard B. Duane. A Sermon preached in St. John’s Church, Providence, on Wednesday, April 19, 1865, the day appointed for the funeral obsequies of President Lincoln. Providence, 1865.

13. Rev. David Dyer. Discourse occasioned by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, delivered in the Albany Penitentiary, a military prison of the U.S., Wednesday, April 19, 1865. Albany, 1865.

14. Charles M. Ellis, Esq. The memorial address on Abraham Lincoln, delivered at the Hall of the Mechanic’s Institute, St, John N.B., June 1, 1865. Boston, 1865.

15. Frederick Frelinghuysen, Esq. Obsequies of Abraham Lincoln, in Newark, N.J., April 19, 1865. Newark, 1865.

16. Hon. Leonard Myers. Abraham Lincoln. A memorial address delivered . . . June 15, 1865, before the Union League of the Thirteenth Ward. Philadelphia, 1865.

17. Rev. H. E. Niles. Address . . . on the occasion of President Lincoln’s funeral obsequies in York, PA. York, 1865.

18 & 19 [two issues]. Charles Sumner. The Promises of the Declaration of Independence. Eulogy on Abraham Lincoln, delivered before the municipal authorities of the city of Boston, June 1, 1865. Boston, 1865.

20. Rufus P. Tapley, Esq. Eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States . . . April 19, 1865, at Saco, Maine. Biddeford (Maine), 1865.

21. Hon. Thomas Williams. Eulogy on the life and public services of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, delivered by public request, in Christ M. E. Church, Pittsburgh, Thursday, June 1, 1865. Pittsburgh, 1865.

Passionate collector of Lincolniana

Osborn H. Oldroyd.
The Lincoln Memorial: Album Immortelles.
New York, 1883.

Sergeant Osborn Oldroyd, whose initials spell OHIO, was only nineteen years old when he enlisted with the 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He joined the Union Army at Camp Chase, Ohio, on October 15, 1861, and was mustered out of the same camp on July 19, 1865. During the years he spent in the Union Army, he recorded historical data as well as personal observations of the war. His book, A Soldier's Story of the Siege of Vicksburg, published in 1885, gives a sixty-five day account of the Vicksburg Campaign.

Following the war, Oldroyd returned to Ohio where he was Steward of the National Soldiers' Home in Dayton, Ohio. During this time, Oldroyd began to actively pursue a hobby that he had begun as early as 1860, collecting Abraham Lincoln memorabilia. What started as a simple hobby eventually turned into an all-consuming passion. The volume shown here was published to promote this collecting.

Oldroyd and his family moved to Springfield, Illinois, and soon rented the home of President Lincoln. In 1884, he turned the home into The Lincoln Museum, charging the public to view the Oldroyd Lincoln Memorial Collection. The museum was a successful venture and his collection continued to grow in size. In 1893, after the Lincoln home was donated to the State of Illinois, he moved his mammoth collection to Washington, D. C.—to the Petersen House where Abraham Lincoln died. With the permission of the government, Oldroyd and his family lived in this home rent-free. The price for viewing his Lincoln memorabilia was twenty-five cents. In 1917, he wrote and published The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, detailing the murder and death of his hero. Overnight, the book became one of the best sellers of the time. In 1925, in failing health, Oldroyd sold his entire collection of Lincoln memorabilia, including rare books, photographs, mementos, and Lincoln's original furniture, to the government. After years of offers and counter-offers, the government finally purchased the entire collection for the sum of $50,000.

Ancient law book

While shelving some books today I found a small volume (6 inches high) bound in brown leather with the spine title "Boke of Presidents 1555". Wondering what the heck a 16th century book about presidents was about, it became clear upon opening it that I had an early English law book about precedents, and I was thrilled. I like books which were generated to assist readers in their every day living, and this guide to the laws governing business practices is a great example of an early self-help book. After a quick check of the Dictionary of National Biography in our reference collection, and a scan of the index of Holdsworth's magisterial History of English Law in our Edwards Legal Collection, I discovered the following.

The compiler is Thomas Phayer (or Phaer, ca. 1510-1560), a lawyer, physician, and translator who was educated at Oxford and Lincoln's Inn. The book was intended as a guide to legal precedents for "every man to knowe." In it was "comprehended the very trade of makyng all maner evydence and instrumentes of Practyse."

According to Holdsworth it "was a comprehensive collection of all manner of documents, including, besides conveyances, bills and answers in Chancery, letters of safe conduct, and letters of testimony. With some eloquence and some truth the author sets forth the need which existed in his own day for such collections":

"Every person that can wryte and reade and entendeth to have any thynge to do amonge the common weal must of very neede, for his owne advantage, applie his mind somewhat unto this kynd of learning . . . It shewith the makyng of those thynges, whereupon dependeth the welth and lyvynge of men, without which thynges there can no tylte lawfully be claymed, no landes nor houses purchased, no right recovered agaynste false usuerers, no sufficient testimonye of the actes of our ancestours, finally no man can be sure of his owne livelod without helpe of evidence which, as a trusty anker, holdeth the right of every man's possessions safely and surely agaynst al troubles and stormye tempestes of injuries, not of men only, but of time also the consumer of al."

The Symbolism of the Altar Book, part II

For the great festivals the effect would have been somewhat marred by putting shields upon the large initial letters, and so these have been used on some other letter—at Christmastime for the second collect for Christmas Day, which bears the Latin work for “I rejoice,” which happened to be the heraldic motto of one of the compilers of the book, whose birthday fell on Christmas Eve. For Saint Stephen’s Day there is a stone, emblematic of the manner of his martyrdom, hung upon its shield. For Saint John the Evangelist, his emblem of a cup and serpent. For the Innocent’s Day, a sword. For the Sunday after Christmas Day, the Name of Jesus, which is alluded to for the first time in the Gospel for the Day. For the Circumcision, the monogram, “IHS,” alluding to the first suffering undergone by our Lord for men. For the Epiphany, the Epiphany star; and for the First Sunday after Epiphany, which is in its octave, the same. For the Second Sunday after Epiphany, the three crowns, symbolic of the three kings, who brought their Epiphany offerings to Christ; and for the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, gold in the form of a church, or shrine; frankincense; and the branch of myrrh, being the three Epiphany offerings of the three kings. The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany shows again the Epiphany star; and the next Sunday, which is the third Sunday before Lent, and begins the preparation for it, together with the Second Sunday before Lent and the First Sunday before Lent, have three figures, emblematic of different parts of penitence—prayer, almsgiving, and repentance. The various Sundays of Lent, and the days of Holy Week have the instruments of our Lord’s Passion, while for Good Friday our Lord’s title of “The Lamb of God” is put upon the shield.

For the second Communion of Easter Day are shown the three Marys, while for the Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week the shield bears the Greek terms for “Jesus Christ, Conqueror of Death.” The Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Sunday after Easter bear emblems of immortality, the pelican, butterfly, phoenix and peacock. The Sunday after Ascension-Day has the eagle, who mounts to the sun, and the Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun Week, the Pentecostal flames of fire.

The First Sunday after Trinity, which is in the octave of Trinity Sunday has three intertwined rings, and the twenty-four Sundays after Trinity have upon their shields the three virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity; the four cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude; the gifts and fruits of the Spirit—Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Knowledge, Faith, Fear, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Meekness, etc.; while the final Sundays after Trinity has these virtues summed up in the “Duty toward God” and the “Duty toward our Neighbor” in which all these virtues have their sphere of action.

The collects for the saints’ days have upon their initials the symbols of the saint to which they refer, like the lion for St. Mark, the keys and cock for St. Peter, the Mount of Transfiguration for the festival of the Transfiguration, the scales and dragon for St. Michael.

The Holy Communion has no symbolism of this sort, with the exception of the phrase beneath the picture of the Crucifixion, which reads, “And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto Me.” For the Occasional Offices, at the end, the initials bear scrolls with the various titles of Christ, —for instance, for The Communion of the Sick, “Savior;” for The Visitation of Prisoners, “Redeemer;” for Thanksgiving Day, “Mighty God.” While for the Ordering of Deacons, Priests, and Bishops we have the title of the three-fold ministry of Christ, as “Prophet,” “Priest” and “King.” For the final office, which is for the Consecration of a Church, we have the word, “Emmanuel,” signifying “God with us.” The colophon bears these words, “To the glory of the Most Holy and undivided Trinity, One God, blessed forevermore. Alleluia.” The arms are those of the two makers of the book, and the motto underneath reads, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give the praise.”

The seals on the binding represent the two parts of the sacrament—the Agnus Dei on one side, and the Pelican feeding her young on the other. The motto around the Lamb is as follows: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” That around the Pelican reads, “For whosoever does according to the will of God, he is the son of God.” —D.B.U.