Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History Through Early Bestsellers

What better way to understand a people than to look at the books they consumed most, the ones they returned to repeatedly, with questions about everything from spelling to social mobility to sex? In this conversation, Jess McHugh will discuss her new book, Americanon, which explores the true history of thirteen of the nation’s most popular books. Overlooked for centuries, our simple dictionaries, spellers, almanacs, and how-to manuals are the unexamined touchstones for American cultures and customs.

Authors in Chief: The Untold History of Our Presidents as Writers

In this conversation, Craig Fehrman will share fresh details and behind-the-scenes stories from his groundbreaking book on our presidents as authors, Author in Chief. You'll see new sides of even well-known figures like John Adams, John F. Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln, among others. But Fehrman will also go behind the scenes on his own book, showing how and why he spent ten years working on Author in Chief. This program, which will be richly illustrated, will delight history buffs and book lovers alike.

Recovering the Lost Years of John Peters and Phillis Wheatley Peters

Though the early years of Phillis Wheatley’s life are well-established, the details of her life after she became Phillis Peters upon her marriage to John Peters, a free Black shopkeeper in Boston, have been more difficult to discern. In this conversation, Henry Louis Gates Jr. will discuss with Cornelia Dayton her groundbreaking article, recently published in the New England Quarterly, which uses a cache of Essex County legal papers to shed light on this period of Wheatley Peters’s life.

Jane Pomeroy on wood engraver Alexander Anderson, WHC-TV5, West Hartford, CT

This video was filmed in the 1990s for West Hartford Cable TV. AAS member Jane Pomeroy and children’s book collector/founder of the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection Billie M. Levy discuss the career of illustrator/engraver Alexander Anderson (1775-1870) and Anderson’s impact on nineteenth-century children’s book illustration. 

Making Marbling: A Beginner's Guide to the History and Practice of the Art

This program is intended for a general audience. Participants will be provided with a materials list prior to the workshop in case they choose to follow along. Digitized versions of collection material examined during the workshop and other resources will also be shared at the time of the program. Opportunities for direct interaction between presenters and participants will occur throughout the program.

Perspectives from the Collection: The Bay Psalm Book

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.

Bancroft Heights: Catching the Spirit of the Place

Join us as we launch the newly published book, Living at the City’s Green Edge: Bancroft Heights, A Planned Neighborhood in Worcester, Massachusetts, by Susan McDaniel Ceccacci. This book describes the neighborhood surrounding Antiquarian Hall as it explores the architecture, land use, and social history of the people who have lived in in the area. This program will feature those who first planted the seed for this publication and from those who made it a reality.

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