Periodicals
With an outstanding collection of early
American periodicals,
the Society offers researchers many opportunities for studying the
thought, culture, and life of North America through contemporary
eyes. As with many of the Society's collections, Isaiah Thomas's
personal library formed the basis of the Society's holdings of
periodicals, now numbering around 6,000 titles in 55,000 volumes.
A scholar can find periodicals published in the United States,
Canada, Great Britain, or in Turkey by American missionaries.
Although the holdings are generally limited to titles published
before 1876, the cutoff date is extended, as it is in the newspaper
collection for those parts of the United States in which printing
commenced at a later period. The Society continues to acquire
periodicals published in this period through purchase and gifts.
It also subscribes to about 680 current periodicals issued by
state, county, and local historical associations, as well as by
institutions and publishers on American history, culture, and the
arts.
Nearly all the eighteenth-century American and Canadian periodicals
are represented, as well as a very large percentage of
those titles issued before 1820; also available are extensive files
of ephemeral and important journals from 1821 to 1876. Unusual and
short-lived magazines can be found in the Society's collection
along with better-known titles with long runs: one of the first
American periodicals, Benjamin Franklin's 1741 General Magazine;
the first Massachusetts periodical, The Boston Weekly Magazine of
1743; or the first American children's periodical, The Children's
Magazine of 1789. Among the ethnic publications that are found in
the Society's collection are the Sioux missionary publication,
Iapi Oaye, of the 1870s; L'Album Litteraire, issued in New
Orleans in 1843 by young French-speaking black men; and the Welsh
Y Cyfaill published in Utica, New York, dating from 1843.
The collection covers a multitude of subjects: anthropology,
antislavery, archaeology, education, fashion, literature, medicine,
music, photography, printing, prison reform, religion, science,
sport, and temperance. The best run of The Home Journal, the
predecessor to the present day Town and Country, is on the
Society's shelves, as well as issues of The New Orleans Medical
and Surgical Journal (1845-76), the feminist Revolution (1868-
72), and the notorious Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly (1870-76).
The holdings contain the first English-language periodical in
Canada, The Nova Scotia Magazine (1791-92) and British magazines
such as Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1817-1904). A special
group of religious periodicals are those published by the
Adventists, considered one of the better collections outside
Adventist institutions.
Information about periodical holdings at AAS is found in the
Society's copy of the Union List of Serials, annotated with up-
to-date acquisitions data. There is at present no card catalogue
for periodicals, although titles shelved with the material on
learned societies, local history, and institutions have cards in
the main catalogue. The holdings of current journals can also be
found in the visible index, a daily record of incoming issues. AAS
holdings for current subscriptions have been entered into OCLC and
RLIN. The Society keeps RLIN up-to-date and is cataloging its
early titles online.
The "Worcester Area Union List of Serials" is available online.
The Directory of State and Local History
Periodicals (Chicago, 1977) is also annotated each time a title is
added to the collection.
Another means of locating periodicals in the Society's
collection is through in-house checklists such as the "Checklist of
American Temperance Periodicals" and the "Checklist of American
Children's Periodicals." Some published subject bibliographies are
also annotated with AAS holdings. Among these are James Danky's
Women's Periodicals and Newspapers from the Eighteenth Century to
1981 (Boston, 1982) and his Native American Periodicals and
Newspapers, 1828-1952 (Westport, Conn., 1984). All important
subject bibliographies are in the Society's reference collection,
including Arndt and Olson's The German Language Press in the
Americas (Munich, 1980), and Eugene Willging and Herta Hatzfeld's
Catholic Serials of the Nineteenth Century in the United States
(Georgetown, D.C. 1968).
Although the bulk of the Society's periodicals is shelved in
one part of the stacks, periodicals for local history, learned
societies, and institutions are shelved with other materials of the
same type. Those in newspaper format are placed with newspapers.
An inventory of the collection is being constructed that will
provide a card catalogue that indicates the location of each title
and provides detailed holdings information.
The Society acquires all periodical indexes relevant to its
collection. One of the major indexes is the "Early American
Periodical Index, 1743-1850," compiled by the WPA and now available
on Readex Microprint cards. It is made up of several indexes for
authors, subjects, titles, poetry, and book reviews in articles
found in 370 titles. Another is the ongoing Index to American
Periodicals of the 1700s and 1800s (Indianapolis, 1986-). The
Society's microfilm collection of periodicals is small but does
include the American Periodical Series for 1741-1825 (Ann Arbor,
1979). AAS microform holdings are listed in a card file, with
master negatives also entered into RLIN.
- Joyce A. Tracy, former Curator of Newspapers and
Periodicals, and Audrey T. Zook, former periodicals assistant
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The Monthly family
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For current information on the cataloging status of this and
other AAS collections, choose "Collection Access" below.
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