A Review of the Society's Publications Program
Historical Background
Isaiah Thomas, quite appropriately, established a touchstone
for all of the publications of the American Antiquarian Society
with his The History of Printing in America, first published in
1810. He defined both the value of and the audience for such an
endeavor in his introductory remark that `the art which is the
preserver of all arts, is worthy of the attention of the learned
and the curious.' Indeed, it was Thomas's conviction that
detailing the history of printing in America to the time of the
Revolution, a field in which he himself had half a century's ex-
perience to draw upon, would serve an enduring national purpose.
He stated in the preface to the History of Printing that his
chronicle could serve to `convey to posterity a correct account of
the manner in which we have grown to be an independent people, and
can delineate the progress of the useful and polite arts among us
with a degree of certainty which cannot be attained by the nations
of the old world.' This conviction accorded well with Thomas's
larger patriotic endeavor, the founding of the American Antiquarian
Society as a library that would both preserve America's heritage
and provide new perspectives on that national history. Through its
publications, the Society continues to fulfill that ideal.
Among the earliest publications by the Society were the
records of the annual meetings. The first "Account of the American
Antiquarian Society" was printed in 1813. It included a petition
to the Massachusetts legislature to establish the Society, the act
of incorporation, the laws of the Society, and the record of that
first meeting. Subsequent sporadic publication of the records of
meetings essentially consisted of votes passed and elections of
officers and members; occasionally, activities of the meetings
appeared in newspapers rather than as Society-sponsored
publications. In 1843, there was a serious effort to issue the
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society in a regular
series, and two numbers were printed. However, consecutive
publication of the formally titled Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian Society was not firmly established until 1849.
The Society did not ignore scholarly research, however. The
efforts of the Committee on Publication in 1819 led to the establishment
of the series The Transactions and Collections of the
American Antiquarian Society. This series bore the subtitle
Archaeologia Americana, a reflection of the journal published by
the Society of Antiquaries of London, the organization that had
been the model for the founders of the American Antiquarian
Society. Volume I, printed in 1820, contained accounts of the
discovery of the Mississippi and "Conjectures Respecting the Ancient
Inhabitants of North America." Volume II appeared in 1836
and presented studies of the Indian tribes in North America by
Albert Gallatin and Daniel Gookin. Volume III concerned itself
with colonial American history and included the Records of the
Colony of Massachusetts Bay and the diaries of John Hull, Thomas
Winthrop, and Thomas Lechford. Later volumes reprinted the diaries
of Christopher Columbus Baldwin and Isaiah Thomas. This series
also reprinted Thomas's "History of Printing" in two volumes in
1874. In all, twelve volumes appeared intermittently until 1911.
The Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
continued to appear alongside the "Transactions," although much
more regularly. In part, increasing publishing costs spelled the
demise of the Transactions after 1911. After 1849 the
Proceedings were published twice each year, keyed to the October
and April meetings of the Society, and collected as an annual
volume. In 1880, a "new series" of the Proceedings began. With
this series the "Proceedings" became primarily a learned journal,
a change derived in part from the nature of the lectures delivered
at the annual meetings of the Society. An index to each volume
appears at the back of part 2 each year. Former librarian and
director Clifford K. Shipton compiled a cumulative index to the
"Proceedings," 1812-1961, which AAS published in 1978.
Publications Today
The Proceedings continues to fulfill the founders'
goal by publishing the fruits of scholarly research. The
journal is
now less an account of the meetings of the Society, although
these
transactions are published in each issue, than a continuing
record
of the scholarly endeavors of the Society's members, staff,
fellows,
and other researchers. The "Proceedings" accepts articles in
the
general field of American history and culture through the year
1876,
with particular emphasis on bibliographies, primary sources,
and
basic research tools. In 1990, the subtitle "A Journal of
American
History and Culture Through 1876" was added to the
Proceedings in order to clarify the scope of the
publication
and its openness to contributions from scholars not affiliated
with
the Society. The Society routinely issues
"Proceedings" articles as
separate offprints. Offprints are available either directly
from the
Society or, in selected instances, from the Society's book
distributor, Oak Knoll Books.
Books published by the Society tend to deal with the
printed
record of the United States, and include bibliographies,
source
documents, and other materials that serve as tools for
researchers.
A number of these books have become the standard
bibliographies in
their fields. The Society has published the two-volume
History
and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820, by
Clarence
S. Brigham (1947), volume 13 of Evans's American
Bibliography, by Clifford K. Shipton (1955), Vermont
Imprints, 1778-1820, by Marcus A. McCorison (1963), A
Descriptive Checklist of Book Catalogues Separately Printed in
America, 1693-1800, by Robert B. Winans (1981), A
Bibliography of American Children's Books Printed Prior to
1821,
by d'Alte A. Welch (1972), A Bibliography of American
Cookery
Books, 1742-1860, by Eleanor Lowenstein (1972), A
Dictionary
of Colonial American Printers' Ornaments and
Illustrations, by
Elizabeth Carroll Reilly (1975), and American Sacred Music
Imprints, 1698-1810: A Bibliography, by Allen P. Britton,
Irving
Lowens, and Richard Crawford (1990). This tradition continues with the
publication of A History and Bibliography of American
Religious
Newspapers and Periodicals Through 1830 by Gaylord
Albaugh
(1994), A Checklist of American Newspaper Carriers'
Addresses,
1720-1820, compiled by Gerald D. McDonald, Stuart
C. Sherman,
and Mary T. Russo (1999), and Freemasonry, Anti-Masonry
and
Illuminism in the United States, 1734-1850: A
Bibliography by
Kent Logan Walgren (2003). Two publications that
highlight the Society's
collections of early American bookbindings are: Bookbinding
in Early
America: Seven Essays on Masters and Methods, by Hannah D.
French (1986) and the revised edition of the 1972 exhibition
catalogue Early American Bookbindings from the Collection
of
Michael Papantonio (1986). In addition, the Society has
published collections of monographs in areas relating to the
history
of the book in American culture. Among these are The Press
and
the American Revolution (1980), Printing and Society in
Early
America (1983), and Needs and Opportunities in the
History of
the Book: America, 1639-1876 (1987). A useful handbook for
understanding
money values is John J. McCusker's How Much Is That In
Real
Money? A Historical Commodity Price Index for Use as a
Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States
(second edition, revised and enlarged, 2001).
While the Society stocks its publications for sale at the
library, most orders for books are handled through the
Society's
book distributor,
Oak Knoll Books,
310 Delaware Street, New Castle, DE 19720
(302) 328-7232.
Subscriptions to the Proceedings may be entered directly
with the Society;
libraries may subscribe through their usual subscription
agencies.
Recent back issues of the Proceedings may be ordered from the
Society.
A list of the Society's publications in print is available on this
website.
- Marcus A. McCorison, President Emeritus, and John B. Hench,
Vice-President for Collections
and Programs; revised by Caroline Sloat, Director of Scholarly Programs
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