While the reading room was closed due to construction, other library
activities, including acquisitions, continued unabated. One of the most
exciting new arrivals is a collection of five account books kept between
1806 and 1836 by the Leicester, Massachusetts, bookbinder John
Whittemore. Records of bookbinders are rare, and we are especially
fortunate to have Whittemore's records because both Isaiah Thomas and
Isaiah Thomas, Jr., were among his customers.
Whittemore's accounts of binding for Isaiah Thomas in 1809, shown here,
include a charge of $3.00 for binding 50 copies of Aaron Bancroft's An
Essay on the Life of George Washington (Worcester: Thomas and
Sturtevant, October, 1809). Thanks to the John Whittemore account books,
we now know that Whittemore may well have bound our copy of this book.
Purchased with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities
Challenge Grant for Acquisitions and with funds from the Gladys Brooks
Foundation.
While the reading room was closed due to construction, other library
activities, including acquisitions, continued unabated. One of the most
exciting new arrivals is a collection of five account books kept between
1806 and 1836 by the Leicester, Massachusetts, bookbinder John
Whittemore. Records of bookbinders are rare, and we are especially
fortunate to have Whittemore's records because both Isaiah Thomas and
Isaiah Thomas, Jr., were among his customers.
