Join us as we explore the intriguing history of The Whole Book of Psalms, the earliest edition of which dates to 1640. Known as the Bay Psalm Book, it was the first book printed in British North America and an early acquisition made by AAS's founder Isaiah Thomas. This modest volume of metered psalms, meant to be sung during worship services, had many subsequent editions. In 2014, the Society was able to acquire a copy of the also exceedingly rare fourteenth edition, printed in 1709. That edition featured musical notations, making it the earliest example of printed music in the Society's collections. As the volume arrived in a perilous state, too damaged to be handled safely, extensive conservation was undertaken by AAS conservators the following year.
This virtual program features an engaging discussion between scholar J.P. Ascher; Nancy Fresella-Lee, conservation assistant; Babette Gehnrich, chief conservator; and Elizabeth Watts Pope, curator of books. Each will share their perspectives on the Bay Psalm Book, drawing from their own areas of expertise.
Related reading:
Learn more about AAS's 1709 edition of The Whole Book of Psalms--including its extensive conservation treatment--in two blog posts, from May 12, 2014 and January 5, 2016, and in the March 2014 issue of the Almanac.
Nancy Fresella-Lee, conservation assistant at AAS, received a master’s degree in art history from the University of Pennsylvania, completed additional graduate studies in art history at the University of Cambridge, and graduated from the bookbinding program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. Her affiliation with the Society began while a student at North Bennet, when she undertook an internship in the Conservation Lab with Chief Conservator Babette Gehnrich. A member of the Concord Historical Commission, Fresella-Lee is also working on a project to house the Concord Museum’s book collection, following conservation practices learned at AAS.
Babette Gehnrich has been the Society’s Chief Conservator since 1989. In that capacity, she is responsible for managing a comprehensive preservation program for the library's collections. She received her formal training in book and paper conservation and hand bookbinding in Berlin, Germany, and the Centro del bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland. Prior to joining the AAS staff, she held the position of assistant book conservator at Yale University Libraries.
Elizabeth Watts Pope is curator of books and digitized collections at the American Antiquarian Society. She works closely with digitization partners to make AAS collection material as widely available as possible. She has also served as head of readers' services and in acquisitions at AAS, as well as in the archives at the Dodd Center at the University of Connecticut. She has a master's degree in history from the University of Connecticut.
J.P. Ascher (University of Edinburgh) is Research Fellow for the history of global mathematics and its cross-historical influences in the history of science and the history of knowledge. Broadly he studies bibliographical methods along with early-modern to digital knowledge dissemination by examining paperwork history, the history of books in society, and the technology of printing and digital transmission. Among other projects, he is currently putting together a bibliographic census of known copies of pre-1800 reprints of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book.