601. [Narragansett Bay.] The favorite seaside resorts of America. Volume 1, no. 1. Providence: Frazier & Whiting, 1884.
$400
Folio, pp. 40; text in triple column; illustrated with wood engravings and a large double page folding map of Narragansett Bay; also illustrated advertisements; contemporary black cloth-backed marbled boards, gilt lettered spine; the double-page map with neat, professional repair at the central fold, and the sheet loose from the text block, perhaps on purpose to facilitate the unfolding of the map; very good.
The text is mostly concentrated on Narragansett Bay, but it also contains sections on New Bedford (including Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard) and Portland, Maine (including Casco Bay and Mount Desert).
R.I. Historical only in OCLC.
602. Narragansett Club Wigwam. Mooshaussick, Paponakeefwush: 1865.
$50
Bifolium (approx. 8½" x 6½"), sample page printed in red and black; the whole a little soiled and miscreased; good.
A prospectus offering the first volume of the club, Key into the Language of America, by Roger Williams. The edition will be strictly limited to 250 copies, of which 200 will be issued to subscribers at $5 per volume.
"Netop: The Narragansett Club, an association of gentlemen interested in the preservation and dissemination of an early literature not easily accessible to general readers, propose to reprint several of the rare books relating to Rhode Island and other parts of New England..."
603. [Narragansett Indians.] First [- fourth] Report of the commissioner on the Narragansett tribe of Indians, made to the General Assembly at its January session, 1858, [1882, 1883, 1884]. Providence: Knowles, Anthony & Co., state printers; E. L. Freeman, 1858-84.
SOLD
4 volumes, 8vo, pp. 7, 16, 21, 35; the first in self-wrappers, the balance in printed gray or tan wrappers; generally fine.
At the time of the first report the Narragansetts were reduced to 147 in number, not one of them of pure blood. No more were published after the fourth volume.
Not in Parks. Sabin 70646.
604. [Narragansett Indians.] Report of the commissioner on the Narragansett tribe of Indians, made to the General Assembly at its January session, 1858. Providence: Knowles, Anthony & Co., state printers, 1858.
$50
First edition, 8vo, pp. 7, [1]; self-wrappers; fine.
At the time of the report the Narragansetts were reduced to 147 in number, not one of them of pure blood.
Not in Bartlett or Parks. Sabin 70646.
605. [Narragansett.] South County studies on some eighteenth century persons, places & conditions in that portion of Rhode Island called Narragansett ... With an introduction by Caroline Hazard compiled largely from letters now first published by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston: printed for the subscribers [by D. B. Updike at the Merrymount Press], 1924.
$50
Edition limited to 750 copies, 8vo, pp. xv, [1], 296, [2]; gravure frontispiece; original blue cloth-backed gray paper-covered boards lettered in gilt on spine, t.e.g.; very good, sound copy.
BAL 9069; Parks 1279; Smith-Bianchi 601.
606. [Narragansett.] Picturesque Narragansett, sea and shore, with Illustrated Providence and Newport [wrapper title]. The past and the present. Narragansett sea and shore. An illustrated guide to Providence, Newport, Narragansett Pier, Block Island, Watch Hill, Rocky Point, Silver Spring, and all the famous sea-side resorts of Rhode Island, with a map of Narragansett Bay. Providence: J. A. & R. A. Reid, printers, publishers and engravers, 1879.
$300
8vo, pp. [12] ads, 88, [12] ads; double-page map of the state, numerous wood engravings throughout and the ads too are mostly illustrated; original pictorial wrappers bound in contemporary half-green morocco over marbled boards, gilt-lettered direct on spine; some rubbing, especially at the joints; overall very good and internally fine.
607. Man. A discourse, before the United Brothers' Society of Brown University. Providence: Knowles, Vose & Company, 1838.
$60
First edition, 8vo, pp. [2], 25, [1]; removed from binding, wrappers wanting; very good.
BAL 14888; Sabin 52161.
608. [Newport Historical Society.] Diary relating to the Newport Historical Society. Newport: November 28, 1921 to December 21, 1927.
$450
Two quarto manuscript notebooks in ink, (approx.10¼" x 8¼"), 447 pages in all; quarter red calf, spines perished and tip damage to both volumes; bindings are sound and the textblock clean and legible.
These record books or diaries were most likely kept by Lloyd Minturn Mayer who was the librarian of the Society during the time period. The books detail the weather, the day's activities, and events and work that took place at the Newport Historical Society. For example: "Monday. July 26, 1926. Therm. 70. A perfect day... sky clear... Had a wonderful weekend sailing Ogay (?) and Bert took dinghy yesterday... Lloyd went to Providence 6 p.m. bus. Dr. Terry came at 11-15 and we had a pleasant chat. Brought up the Community Centre question again. Answer to letter from Arthur Leland. Miss Stevens came and brought description of the Wanton Hazard House of which copies are to be made. Got letter from Capt. D.W. Knox, U.S.N., retired--Naval records and Library, Washington, about Perry letter. Sailed down to Verona in evening with Philip Fouck, Riddle's nephew..."
Dr. Roderick Terry was then the President of the Newport Historical Society and Maud Lyman Stevens ("Miss Stevens") was corresponding secretary. There are many references to the meetings of various organizations that met in the Society's rooms and also to meetings of the Newport Historical Society's board. "Mr. Sturgis" is often referenced: Frank Knight Sturgis (1847-1932) was a noted financier, President of the New York Stock Exchange, and sportsman, a member of the Union, Knickerbocker, and New York Yacht Clubs and a founder and president of the Metropolitan Club of New York. He kept his yacht, Palmer, at Newport where he was president of the Newport Casino, a director of the Redwood Library, and President of the Newport Historical Society.
Ogden Nash (1902-71), the American poet, was in Newport at the time and there are a number of references of activities with him: "July 25, 1927: Ogden Nash went to New York by boat last night" and "Lloyd sailed 'Verona' with Walter and Nash in Lightship." A graduate of St. George's school in Newport, Nash often summered there and his biographer writes: "Ogden had many friends and acquaintances in the Newport set, people who did not have to consider how much it cost to operate their yachts. So he took a long weekends to go to Newport and he renewed acquaintance with the monied" (The Life and Rhymes of Ogden Nash: A Biography, by David Stuart).
Lloyd Minturn Mayer was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1850 of Edward and Agatha Barclay (Minturn) Mayer. His wife was Evelyn May Sherwood Sidney whom he married in 1890. They had a son Lloyd Edward Minturn Mayer, a Yale graduate, who was a member of the Navy, and it is this son "Lloyd" to whom we believe the notes refer. Mayer, Sr. died in 1936 and the Society remembered him with a proclamation:
"WHEREAS, Lloyd M. Mayer, for nineteen years Recording Secretary, Librarian, and Assistant Treasurer of the Newport Historical Society, departed this life on Friday, April tenth, 1936; AND WHEREAS, his services to the Newport Historical Society during that period were of the most devoted nature, etc."
609. [Newport Jazz Festivals.] [Programs for:] 14 Newport Jazz Festivals, as below. [Newport & New York]: 1954-70.
$1,600
All 4to, all in pictorial wrappers and all illustrated throughout. Includes nos. 1-3 (1954-56); 5-7 (1958-60); 9-14 (1962-67); 16-17 (1969-70). Generally fine throughout.
Headliners in 1954 included Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Dizzie Gillespie Quintet, and Ella Fitzgerald. In 1962 headlining were the Charles Mingus Sextet, Louis Armstrong, the Thelonius Monk Quartet, and Duke Ellington; and by 1970 we still have Louis Armstrong, and also the Elvin Jones Quartet, Nina Simone, the Herbie Mann Quintet, the Roberta Flack Trio, and the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. The 1958 program has inserted, as issued, a vinyl 45 rpm featuring "My Funny Valentine" by Manny Albam, and "Scrapple from the Apple," by Tony Scott and his Jazz Greats.
Accompanied by: Newport Jazz Festival the Illustrated History, pictures and text by Burt Gloldblatt. N.Y.: Dial Press, [1977]. First edition, oblong 8vo, pp. xxix, [1], 287, [1]; illustrated throughout; fine copy in dust jacket.
Accompanied by: The Newport Jazz Festival: Rhode Island 1954-1971: A Bibliography, Discography and Filmography. Edited by Anthony J. Agostinelli, Providence, 1977. Printed from typescript, various paginations, original printed blue wrappers; fine.
610. [Newport.] Fitz Poodle at Newport; an incident of the season. Cambridge: printed at the Riverside Press, 1869.
$50
12mo, pp. 55, [1]; pages ruled in red throughout; frontispiece and 3 wood-engravings in the text (1 full--page); original brown cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover; small hole in front free endpaper, 2 small pressure stamps on first and last pages of text, spine sunned and spine ends chipped, else very good.
Bookplate of Roderick Terry.
A satire in verse on the social-register crowd summering in Newport. Brewerton was born in Newport and raised throughout the Northeast as the family followed his father who was a Brigadier General and who, from 1845 to 1852, was superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He became best known as a painter of western landscapes.
611. [Newport.] The controversy touching the Old Stone Mill in the town of Newport, Rhode-Island. With remarks introductory and conclusive. Newport: Charles E. Hammett, Jr.; [Mason & Pratt, printers], 1851.
$100
12mo, pp. 91, [1]; wood-engraved frontispiece, 2 wood engravings in the text (1 full-page); original printed tan wrappers; soiled, apparently removed from a binding; ink reference on front wrapper in biro; good or better.
For years thought to be evidence of the Norsemen having been in Newport before Columbus's first voyage, recent carbon dating and a careful study of printed and manuscript records suggests that the mill was built sometime before 1677 by Rhode Island's first governor, Benedict Arnold.
BAL 1374; Bartlett, p. 44; Hammett, p. 27; Sabin 8342.
612. [Newport.] A hand-book of Newport, and Rhode Island by the author of "Pen and Ink Sketches" .... Newport: C. E. Hammett, Jr,, 1852.
$450
First edition, 12mo, pp. xii, [1], 14-170, [2], [12] ads for Newport businesses; wood-engraved frontispiece (in the pagination), 5 wood-engravings in the text (3 full-page); original blue blindstamped cloth lettered in gilt on upper cover; lightly rubbed, a few small spots on cover; all else very good.
With the early ownership signature on the front free endpaper and title page of Richard Stebbins, Newport 1853-4.
"George Spencer Phillips, who was known in Newport only as John Ross Dix, was from Bristol, England and was connected for a time with one of the leading New York papers. He came to Newport as the friend and guest of Rev. John O. Choules, and while here he wrote his Handbook of Newport, bringing it to the publisher with an offer to dispose of the manuscript at a certain price with the privilege of a day or two for examination. He returned within an hour demanding an immediate purchase at a very great reduction from his first offer, with the alternative of its acceptance, or destruction of the manuscript. His proposal was accepted and the book sent to New York and published in about a week. It proved a very good venture, the whole edition selling in a short time. It has long been out of print" (Hammett).
Bartlett, p. 111; Hammett, p. 54.
613. [Newport.] Sestina of the Newport tricentenary and other Newport poems. Newport: printed by Remington Ward, 1939.
$50
4to, pp. 54, [4]; later blue cloth with original front wrapper laid down; very good.
Signed and dated in the year of publication by the author on the front flyleaf.
Many of these poems first appeared in the Newport Herald.
614. [Newport.] Trinity Church in Newport, Rhode Island. A history of the fabric. Boston: printed for the subscribers, 1936.
SOLD
First edition, 4to, pp. xi, [1], 111, [1]; 33 illustrations, a number full-page; original black cloth-backed paper-covered boards stamped in gilt on upper cover and spine; spine slightly dull, else near fine.
Handsomely printed and designed by D. B. Updike at the Merrymount Press.
Trinity Church began as a congregation of Anglicans in 1698. The church itself was designed by Richard Munday and was completed in 1726.
Smith-Bianchi 804.
615. [Newport.] Old Newport. Illustrations by Vernon Howe Bailey. .
SOLD
8vo, pp. 542-553 [i.e.12 pages]; 11 illustrations; extracted from vol. 62 of Scribner's Magazine and laid into a fine unsigned paneled binding in black morocco with red calf onlays, the whole stamped in gilt, silk moiré endpapers.
Bookplate of Roderick Terry.
Laid in is a letter from La Farge to Terry in which we learn she is the binder: "It seems wicked to send a bill ... but as some of it is going in ... savings stamps when I have paid my debts perhaps it is not so bad. My bill is fifty-five for the book and then there is five dollars for the little solander case I made this winter..."
Margaret La Farge was the wife of the American painter John La Farge, and the granddaughter of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.
Dr. Roderick Terry (1849-1933), who served as president of the Board of the Redwood Library between 1916 and 1933, was a well-known collector of books and manuscripts. He graduated from Yale in 1870, the Union Theological Seminary in 1875 and was awarded an LL.D from Princeton in 1881. Although the major part of Mr. Terry's collection was sold after his death (it bought $270,000 at three sales in 1934 and 1935) his son kept several thousand items which were left to the Library at his death.
616. [Newport.] Historic Newport. Newport: Newport Chamber of Commerce, 1933.
$25
First edition, 8vo, pp. 61, [1]; illustrated throughout primarily photographically (some full-page), plus 8 woodcut plates by Lloyd A. Robson; previous owner's bookplate; near fine.
617. [Newport.] Newport illustrated. In a series of pen & pencil sketches. By the editor of the Newport Mercury. Engravings by Whitney, Jocelyn & Annin, N.Y.. New York: D. Appleton & Co., n.d., [1854].
$225
First edition, 12mo, pp. 110; pictorial title page, 9 wood-engraved plates plus other wood engravings in the text; original blindstamped brown cloth lettered in gilt on upper cover; very good and internally clean.
Bartlett, p. 182; Hammett, p. 91; Sabin 45443.
618. [Newport.] Annals of Trinity Church Newport, Rhode Island, 1698-1821. Newport: George C. Mason, 1891.
$150
Small 4to, pp. [7], 10-358; portrait frontispiece of Rev. James Honyman, 4 plates and illustrations in the text, including may facsimile signatures; plates a bit foxed and spotted and spine a little dull, but generally very good and sound in original terracotta cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover and spine.
Accompanied by: Mason, G. C. Annals of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, 1821-1892. Second series. Newport: V. Mott Francis, M.D., 1894. Edition limited to 300 copies, small 4to, pp. [11], 10-463, [1]; frontispiece portrait of George Champlin Mason, and 5 plates; original terracotta cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover and spine; top and outer corner of upper cover dampstained, else very good.
619. [Newport.] Reminiscences of Newport. Newport: published by Charles E. Hammett, Jr., 1884.
$100
First edition, small 4to, pp. 407, [1]; frontispiece, vignette title page, 7 plates and other illustrations in the text; original green cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and upper cover; previous owner's bookplate; very good.
With an inscription on p. 3: "Wm. Dehon King's book, May 1st, 1899 at Clover Parch, Narragansett Avenue, Newport, R.I.", and a further inscription at the top of p. 191 making an extended comment on the illustration of the King House on Pelham St., mentioning various forebears.
620. [Newport.] Newport, and how to see it, with list of residents. Newport: Davis & Pitman, [1871].
$150
16mo, pp. 58, [2] tables of distances, [14] local ads; 12 full-page wood-engraved plates, a few smaller wood engravings in the text; original limp brown cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover; very good and sound.
Nice copy of this guidebook which was issued annually between 1869 and 1873. The illustrations depict a number of private homes as well as the Redwood Library.
621. [Newport.] On the borders of the ocean. Newport. Munich & New York: Obpacher Brothers, publishers, .
$175
8vo (approx. 6¾" x 4¾"), 8 leaves; 7 soft-tone chromolithographs, plus 2 other chromolithographs on the stiff card covers; a.e.g.; fine and attractive.
At the base of the title page: Series No. 1735.
A gift book, attractively illustrated (2 of the illustrations are from Bristol), punctuated with verse.
There were several iterations of the book, one published in New Bedford by the Peirce Furnishing Company; a second published in Louisville by Colgan & McAfee, promoting their chewing gum. In both cases only 6 chromolithographs were included, whereas here there are 7 plus 2 more on the wrappers.
Just two handfuls of titles issued by the Obpacher Brothers in OCLC, many of them similar in nature and format featuring the St. Lawrence River, Lake George, Hudson River, and the Mystic River. This edition not in OCLC.
622. [Newport.] Newport in flower. A history of Newport's horticultural heritage. Newport: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1979.
$50
First edition, 4to, pp. 153, [1]; 70 color plates; fine copy in a slightly soiled dust jacket.
This copy inscribed by the author and dated 1979.
623. [Newport.] Souvenir of Newport. "The city by the sea" [cover title]. Newport: published by Walter Sherman for J. F. Murphy O.C. Depot, Boston, Mass. n.d., ca. mid 1890s.
$85
Square 12mo (approx. 5¾" x 5"), accordion fold with 16 photo-lithograph panels showing waterfronts, beaches, mansions, etc. map on rear pastedown; original decorative maroon cloth stamped in gilt and black; edges worn, spine partially cracked and chipped; internally fine.
624. [Newport.] Newport a lively experiment 1639-1996. [Newport]: Redwood Library and Athenaeum, [2006].
$65
First edition, large 4to, pp. xvii, [1], 510; illustrated in color and black & white throughout; original blue cloth stamped in gilt on spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine.
"Lessons learned in Newport over the centuries - religious tolerance, political freedom, artistic experimentation, architectural grandeur - helped transform the nation at every phase of its development." Six-page press release laid in.
625. [Newport.] Newport. New York: J[ulius] Bien, 1875.
$2,800
Photo-lithograph title leaf and 19 lithograph plates of Newport scenes, unbound, as issued, but without the publisher's portfolio; image size 10¼" x 6¾" on thick paper 22" x 16½" overall; images clear but title leaf soiled, occasional foxing, mild tidemark runs through them all, several plates with short tears at the margins, but in all a good set or better of a rare set of photo-lithograph views by J. Bien. Contained in a new green cloth clamshell box.
Not in NUC or OCLC. Hammett, p. 123; The Boston Museum of Fine Arts copy contains only 14 views.
626. [Newport.] Newport: our social capital. Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1905.
$500
First edition limited to 347 copies, large 8vo, pp. 401, [1]; title page printed in red and black, hand-colored frontispiece by Henry Hutt, 2 folding maps in back cover pocket, and "many illustrations in photogravure and double-tone and from drawings by Edward Stratton Holloway," original tan buckram-backed red cloth, upper cover stamped in blue and gilt, spine in gilt only, t.e.g.; light wear at extremities, some rubbing on the covers, previous owner's bookplate; very good and sound.
Insider's glimpse into the history of Newport, its famous mansions and the social registers at the turn of the century.
627. [Newport.] Views of Newport, R.I. and the neighbourhood [cover title]. London, Edinburgh, & New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, n.d., [ca. 1870].
SOLD
A series of 11 color wood engravings (1 folding) in a pictorial chromolithograph sleeve, approx. 6¾" x 4¾", together with a 16-page self-wrappered pamphlet descriptive of the plates; sleeve torn and worn at the edges, plates with light spotting and an occasional small tear; a good example.
Views include: a folding view of Newport; The Beach; Redwood Library; Old Mill Lawton's Valley; The Boathouse Landing; The Old Stone Mill; The Avenue & Ocean House Hotel; Washington Square; Purgatory [Hill]; The Pond, Lawton's Valley; and The Glen. Text references the Old Colony & Newport Railway, which operated under that name from 1863 to 1872.
628. [Newport.] The history of Newport from 1639 to 1800. N.p., n.d. [New York?]: ca. 1885.].
$450
4to, 247-page unpublished manuscript in a neat and legible hand, pages ruled in red; bound in quarter black calf over black cloth, "Newport" in gilt on the upper cover; spine quite rubbed and flakey, but the binding remains sound.
Yarrington's (1862-1934) name does not appear in Parks. OCLC credits him with England's Commercial Restraints on the American Colonies, 1651-1763, apparently a doctoral thesis at Cornell from whence he graduated in 1892. He received his Masters from Columbia in 1902.
This history may have been done in connection with his studies at Columbia as an old pencil note on the front pastedown reads: "Thesis." For many years he was a teacher of history at the Manual Training High School, Seventh Avenue and Fourth Street, Brooklyn.
629. [Newspaper - American Revolution.] The American Journal; and General Advertiser. Thursday, April 22, 1779. Vol. 1, no. 6. Providence: Southwick and Wheeler, 1779.
$175
Folio bifolium, pp. 4; text in triple column beneath the running head; bottom corners of both leaves damaged, with loss of perhaps 2-3 dozen words; previous folds; the loss notwithstanding, very good.
Rare newspaper with news of the war, including a letter from General Putnam submitted to Congress by General Washington, describing the battle that began in New Rochelle and finished at Horseneck. Included is a list of prisoners taken at Horseneck, as well as news about the troops and ships, and an advertisement for a runaway slave named Cato.
630. [Newspaper.] Emergency Edition - Emergency Edition - Emergency Edition. The Bristol Phoenix. Bristol: Friday, September 23, 1938.
$45
Folio, 6 mimeograph leaves stapled at the top; near fine.
"With its power cut off, the Bristol Phoenix lives up to newspaper tradition by going to 'press' through the medium of a mimeographed paper. This emergency edition, mimeographed through the co-operation of the school department, keeps intact this paper's record of never missing an edition. Limited in size because of the emergency, this issue is devoted to several news stories on the hurricane and tidal wave that swept the town last Wednesday night, emergency measures and official Probate Court notices."
631. [Newspaper.] The Guardian of Liberty ... Volume I, number 14. Newport (Rhode-Island): Saturday, January 3, 1801.
$125
Folio, pp. 4; text in quadruple column; lovely woodcut of the American eagle at the top. A few short breaks at the folds; paper toned; all else very good.
Includes 4 columns on the doings of the American Congress, a column on the "Latest Foreign Intelligence," local news, letters to the editor, advertisements, etc.
This newspaper lasted but a year, beginning with no. 1 Oct. 3, 1800, and ending with no. 52, Sept. 26, 1801.
Hammett, p. 109 citing only a single issue.
632. [Newspaper.] The London Gazette. Number 2173. Published by authority. [London]: printed by Tho: Newcomb in the Savoy, 13-16 September 1686.
$375
Small folio broadsheet (approx. 11" X 7"), text in double column beneath the running head; removed; near fine.
A short (less than 100 words) but important announcement from the King via the London Gazette. This proclamation served to announce the notice of acceptance, or surrender, by the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to join the Dominion of New England in America, in accordance with the decree of King James II of England.
"Windsor, Sept. 13. His Majesty has graciously received the address of the Colony of Rhode Island, and Providence Plantation in New-England, humbly representing, that upon the signification of a writ of Quo Warrento against their charter, they had resolved, in a General Assembly, not to stand suit with His Majesty, but wholly submit to His Royal Pleasure themselves and their charter; whereof His Majesty has thought fit to accept the surrender."
Until this proclamation, Rhode Island, 50 years into its existence, was acting as if an independent entity.
633. [Newspaper.] Bristol Gazette. Open to all - Influenced by none. Volume I, No. 9 . Bristol: W. H. S. Bayley, printer, Saturday morning, November 9, 1833.
$175
Large folio bifolium, text in 5 columns beneath the running head, previous folds, some spotting, and toning; good or better.
Contains news from the General Assembly and the House of Representatives, an account of a beached whale discovered by two girls, a screed against "ardent spirits" deemed "morally wrong," death notices, ships' arrivals and departures, classified ads (some with cuts), poetry, and assorted tidbits and anecdotes.
The Bristol Gazette was Bristol's third newspaper preceded by the Mount Hope Eagle and the Northern Star, both weeklies. The Gazette was also a weekly which in the following year morphed into the Bristol Gazette and Family Companion under W. H. S. Bayley, which in turn became the Bristol Phenix in 1837 - the same Bristol Phoenix that exists today.
634. [Newspaper.] The Telegraph. Warren, R.I.: Wednesday morning March 6, 1825.
$150
Royal 4to, (approx. 12" x 9½"), 4 pages; sheet uniformly toned with mild dampstains, margins worn with small loss (affecting "h" in Telegraph and several words on verso); tiny holes along horizontal fold, several other pinprick-sized holes with negligible loss; imprint faded, but legible.
No. 2(?) of a total of 52 weekly issues under this title: the paper ran from Feb. 23, 1825 to Feb. 15, 1826. It was continued for four years as the Northern Star, and Warren and Bristol Gazette (Feb. 26, 1826-Feb. 13, 1830). Two thirds of the front page here comprises an account, "Simon Bolivar," but part of the second page and all of the third is taken up with Rhode Island news (including slate of Republican nominees for state office), and the last page contains a number of ads for local merchants.
Gregory, American Newspapers locates 4 miniscule holdings, at LC, AAS, Duke, and Warren Public Library. Not found in OCLC.
635. [Newspapers.] Supplement to the American Journal. No 3. "To John Carter, Esquire, Postmaster, Providence...". [Providence]: Southwick and Wheeler, April 3, 1779.
$750
Folio broadsheet (approx. 16" x 10"), text in triple column beneath the running head; lower outside corners eroded with loss to the beginnings and/or ends of about ten lines (about 20-25 words, mostly on the recto); all else very good.
With the ink signature of Theodore Foster (1752-1828), U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (1790-1803).
Solomon Southwick had published the Mercury, a newspaper in Newport, until that town was occupied by the British in 1778. Southwick then buried his printing press and types and eventually sought safety in Providence. Once in Providence Southwick decided to continue to print, however, the only way he could supply himself with materials was through John Carter the owner of the Providence Gazette. Apparently there was a dispute between Carter and Southwick as to who would get to purchase the printing press and types left by the recently deceased John Waterman. This was the only printing press and type available because the British had seized all the printing materials that had been previously ordered. Apparently Carter purchased the press and sold it to Southwick on the condition that the press "should not be set up in town, or used to oppose a friend in business who had served him in distress."
At first Southwick started his business in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, but secured a one-half interest in printing for the state of Rhode Island. In March of 1779, in company with Bennett Wheeler, he began to publish, in Providence, The American Journal and General Advertiser, using the Updike house next to John Carter for their office. There was much bad feeling displayed by Carter at Southwick's alleged treachery, and Carter printed a story in the Providence Gazette about the incident, and Southwick printed a response to Carter. Carter soon printed his rebuttal to the charges that Southwick made and once again Southwick printed his answer. This rare printing was Southwick's answer to Carter's rebuttal. It takes up the entire front side of this broadsheet and one-and-one-half columns on the back.
Also included on this rare broadsheet is a Full Pardon offered by General George Washington to all the deserters in the Army that wanted to come back but feared to do so because they thought that they would be severely punished. There is also news from Charleston about Colonel Campbell's expedition from Savannah to Augusta, Georgia.
Not found in OCLC; but apparently there are copies at Brown University and the R.I. Historical Society.
.
636. [North Kingston.] An historical sketch of North Kingstown, delivered at Wickford July 4th, 1876. Providence: E. A. Johnson & Company, book and job printers, 1876.
$100
First edition, 8vo, pp. 26, [2]; original printed tan wrappers; small library sticker at the lower left corner of the upper wrapper, a couple of minor chips; very good.
Parks 2493.
637. The acts of the elders, commonly called the Book of Abraham; containing a revelation made to him at a protracted meeting to which is appended a chapter from the Book of Religious Errors, with notes of explanation and commentation, from commencement to termination. Calculated for the median of Rhode Island; but will answer for the New England States. Written by himself. Providence: published for the purchaser, 1842.
$275
First edition, 12mo, pp. 160; original black cloth-backed printed paper-covered boards; very good. Chapter I, verse 1: "Now it came to pass that Harrison was dead, and Tyler was made President in his stead over all the United States of America..."
"This curious book relates to the dissensions among various religious denominations in Rhode Island. It is written in scriptural language and divided into chapters and verses."
Not in American Imprints; Bartlett, p. 6; Sabin 148 (authorship unattributed); Sabin 55932 (later editions with Norwood the attributed author).
638. [Numismatics.] A brief account of emissions of paper money, made by the Colony of Rhode Island. Providence: John E. Brown, 1837.
$450
First edition, 8vo, pp. 48; tables in the text; later half black morocco over marbled boards, gilt lettering direct on spine; very good.
American Imprints 46375; not found in Bartlett.
639. [Numismatics.] Counterfeiting in colonial Rhode Island. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1960.
$25
First edition, 8vo, pp. viii, [2], 74; 5 plates; spine a little sunned else near fine in original red cloth, gilt title on upper cover and spine.
640. [Nursing.] Historical sketch of the Rhode Island Hospital Training School for Nurses. Providence: Rhode Island Hospital Nurses Alumnae Association, n.d., [ca. 1932].
$35
First edition, slim 8vo, pp. 62; numerous black & white photographic illustrations; lightly toned, else a near fine copy in original paper-covered boards with gilt-stamped supralibros on upper cover.
641. [Nursing.] The Providence District Nursing Association. Incorporated 1902. Fourth annual report, October, 1905. Providence: Snow & Farnham Co., 1905.
$35
12mo, pp. 40; original grey-brown printed wrappers, very good; ex-Rhode Island Library of the Medical Society with usual markings, interior mostly fine.
With a printed bifolium letter from the Association "circulated in order that its aims and methods be more widely known."
642. [Nursing.] The Providence District Nursing Association. Incorporated, 1902. Third annual report, October, 1904. Providence: Snow & Farnham, 1904.
$25
12mo, pp. 32; original orange printed wrappers, very good; ex-Rhode Island Library of the Medical Society with usual markings, interior mostly fine.
643. Three-page autograph manuscript petition to the General Assembly of the Colony of Rhode Island commanding an action of trespass against Thomas Whipple. Providence: June 10, 1766.
$750
4to (approx. 7¼" x 6¼"), on integral leaves, extensive docket on the verso of the second leaf; lightly toned but generally fine.
Interesting lawsuit involving two of Rhode Island's famous families. Olney (1737-1814), a naval captain during the American Revolution, and Thomas Whipple (1725-1777), who are related by marriage, are disputing who has rights to lumber a certain parcel in North Providence. Whipple commenced an action against Olney "for hindering the said Thomas for cutting timber and wood on a certain woodlands" owned by Olney, and also for "carrying away a considerable quantity of ye petitioner's Indian corn" for which Olney was awarded six shillings. Olney was "dissatisfied" with the verdict, and here appeals to the Supreme Court explaining that he "expected large damages and costs would be found due to him."
The court determined that Olney "should have one shilling damages" and he was "saddled ... with all the costs of that suit." Olney notes here that the verdict has "not been made agreeable to the submission and rule of Court, and therefore void; that the manner of delivering in said report prima facie shews partiality, and as ye petitioner has had no opportunity to object to and set aside said report, he humbly prays that ye Honor would interpose ... [so] that justice may be done."
This is followed by a note from the clerk of the court: "Resolved, that this petition be referred to next Session of Assembly," and attested to by Henry Ward, secretary. The docket on the verso of the second leaf, signed by Olney, notes that the petition has been filed, and it is docketed again September 11, 1766 noting that it is to be referred to the next General Assembly, and a third docket, October 31, 1766 noting "This Petition is voted out."
644. Calidore; a legendary poem ... Pronounced before the Society of United Brothers, of Brown University; on the day preceding commencement, September 3, 1839.... Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb [Knowles & Vose, printers, Providence], 1839.
$225
First edition, slim 8vo, pp. 48; original brown paper-covered boards, printed paper label on spine; the spine a bit flaked, else a very good, sound copy.
Inscribed by Pabodie to "Hon. Job Durfee, with the respects of the author."
Durfee was the Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, himself a poet, and the jurist who first called the Dorr Rebellion illegal and treasonable.
American Imprints 57752; not in Bartlett.
645. [Pacific Congregational Church.] A candid statement of facts relative to the difficulties between the Pacific Congregational Church, in Providence, R.I. and those brethren who withdrew, and were formed into a separate church, with the documents which passed between the two parties, on the subject of a mutual council. Drawn up by a committee of said church. Providence: printed by Barnum Field, 1823.
$150
First edition, 12mo, pp. 23, [1]; removed from binding, wrappers wanting; trimmed close at the top with the pagination in the top margin often cropped; all else very good.
Concerning the controversy over the retention of Willard Preston as pastor of the Pacific Congregational Church. The church formed by Preston's opponents was called the Calvinist Congregational Church.
Six in OCLC: AAS, Huntington, NY Historical, Boston College, Kent State, and Brown. Not in American Imprints; Bartlett, p. 198; Sabin 58080.
646. An oration, delivered in the College-Hall, at Providence, August 13, 1788, on the death of Mr. Nathan Merrick. Providence: printed by Bennett Wheeler, n.d., [1788].
$250
8vo, pp. 16; corners cut on the curve; original drab wrappers; a few short tears in the fore-margins (no loss), otherwise very good.
With the ownership signature on the first page of text of Carlos Daggett, possibly Carlos Daggett (1793-1870) the farmer and laborer in East Sudbury, Massachusetts.
Merrick was also a member of the Junior Class who in July of 1788 was accidentally drowned in the waters off Fox Point in Providence.
Alden 1127; Bartlett, p. 51; Evans 21357; Sabin 58637.
647. A lecture, on the connexion and reciprocal influence, between the brain and stomach; delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at Providence, 1840. Providence: B. Cranston & Co. & Lea, 1841.
$85
8vo, pp. 16; original brown printed wrappers; front wrap nearly separated, light foxing.
A surgeon in the U.S. Navy who brilliantly served the sick and wounded under Oliver Hazard Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie, he was thus sprung into great prominence for his surgical work. He was later professor of anatomy and surgery at Brown University, and married Mary Jackson Holmes, making him the brother-in-law of Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Boston physician, poet and essayist.
Parsons was a prolific writer, with 56 titles to his credit. His biographer, Spalding, says "it would be difficult to find a man of greater merit in American medicine, for he gave of his entire mind for over fifty years to the advance of medical science."
American Imprints 4037; Cordasco 40-1050.
648. The Rhode Island dictionary ... Illustrated by Don Bousquet. [N. Attleboro, Mass.: Covered Bridge Press, 1993.].
$25
First edition, 4to, pp. [102]; numerous cartoon illustrations; original pictorial blue paper wrappers; previous owner's inscription inside front cover else very good. "From Glawsta to Blah-Kyelin: How to talk Roe Dyelin like a native."
649. [Pawtucket Imprint.] The bridal token: or, a hint to husbands. Pawtucket: R. W. Potter, 12 Mill St., 1846.
SOLD
16mo, pp. [3]-92; original printed tan wrappers; near fine.
"Well worthy [of] the candid attention of all classes and conditions of men."
American Imprints 1064 notes a Pawtucket edition of the same year with 92 pages, but published by Smith and Stanley. OCLC locates yet another Pawtucket edition, same year, published by B.W. Pearce, also 92 pages. Likely a case of a business being sold, or of inventory changing hands.
Of this edition OCLC locates 5 copies: Texas, Brown, AAS, Library Company, and Columbia.
650. [Pawtucket.] North Providence centennial. A report of the celebration at Pawtucket, North Providence, of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, June 24, 1865. With an address containing matters of local interest. Printed and published under the direction of the committee of arrangements. Pawtucket: Robert Sherman, printer, Main Street, 1865.
$225
First edition, 8vo, pp. 91, [1]; includes a "Centennial Address" by Massena Goodrich, p. [13]-52; Parks 2556; Sabin 55727.
Bound with: Goodrich, Massena, Rev. Historical Sketch of the Town of Pawtucket, Pawtucket: Nickerson, Sibley & Co., 1876; pp. 189, [1]; Parks 259.
Bound with: Bartlett, John Russell, A History of the Destruction of His Britannic Majesty's Schooner Gaspee, in Narragansett Bay, on the 10th June, 1772; accompanied by Correspondence Connected Therewith; the Action of the General Assembly Thereon, and the Official Journal of the Proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry Appointed by King George the Third... Providence: A. Crawford Green, printer to the state, 1861, edition limited to 125 copies printed for private distribution, pp. 139, [1]; Bartlett, p. 30; Howes B-199; Sabin 3740.
Original printed front wrapper for each of the three titles bound in at the back; 19th-century half roan, spine abraded, top 2" of spine chipped away, front joint cracked; 19th-century bookplate of Howard Willis Preston, ex-R.I. State Library with their bookplate, and "no longer the property of Rhode Island State Library," as made known by a dozen or so rubberstamps on the front endpapers; internally fine but in a scruffy binding.
651. [Pawtucket.] The Deborah Cook Sayles Public Library Pawtucket Rhode Island. [Providence: Standard Printing Company, 1903], 1902.
$150
Large 8vo, pp. [5]-102; vignette title page printed in red and black; 16 plates, 2 facsimiles; original gray cloth stamped in white on upper cover and spine; a bit of flaking to the white stamping, else near fine.
Laid in is an engraved presentation card to F. G. Holden, Esq. from the Director, Frank F. Tingley. Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson were the architects of the building.
Columbia and Canadian Centre of Architecture only in OCLC.
652. Constitution of the Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations Peace Society, as amended September 6, 1824. N.p., n.d. [Providence?: 1821.].
$750
Broadside (approx. 9¾" x 7¾"), text in double column beneath the running head; left margin a little ragged, previous fold; all else near fine.
"Founded in 1818 as the "Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations Peace Society," later called the Rhode Island Peace Society. Following the founding of the Massachusetts Peace Society in 1815, and influenced by Noah Worcester's tract The Solemn Review of the Custom of War, Moses Brown and George Benson initiated the movement which led to the founding of the Rhode Island Peace Society. Brown was a Quaker, but doubted the wisdom of having Quakers in control of the proposed Society. The Rhode Island Peace Society declined after 1825 following the deaths of its charter members, though records indicate its existence up to 1860" (Swarthmore College Peace Collection).
"In order to forestall any immediately divisive doctrinal disputes, the constitution was very carefully worded to state the purpose of the organization as being "united in solemnly protesting against all offensive wars of aggression and conquest as sinful and unchristian." Membership peaked early. In spite of considerable propagandizing, the Society went into a period of decline after 1825 and by 1837 had nearly lapsed into non-existence. Never robust, the Society did nevertheless experience some spells of activity--notable during the European War of 1914-1918. In 1973 the Rhode Island Peace Society formally disbanded" (from the R.I. Historical Society website).
Not in OCLC, NUC or American Imprints.
653. Madge. [Providence, RI: privately printed, 1882].
$200
Small 4to, pp. 12; contemporary half green calf over marbled boards; covers loose, spine perished, last leaf loose, shallow chips on foreedge, pages brittle, fair and rare.
A privately printed reminisence of the family horse, Madge, whom the author credits with carrying his then future wife into his life. It is attributed to John. C. Pegram of Providence. He served in the Union Navy during the Civil War, and after had a career as a lawyer.
Brown only in OCLC, with a note that only 12 copies were printed.
654. [Pembroke College.] The Women's College in Brown University. Providence: [Merrymount Press], 1917.
$60
8vo, pp. 13, [3]; illustrated title page and 7 full-page photo illustrations; fine in original printed wrappers.
Designed by D. B. Updike and printed at The Merrymount Press. Laid in is a tri-fold leaflet on Courses of Instruction at the Women's College for the School Year 1919-1920; and, another tri-fold, Statement concerning the Halls of Residence. Founded in 1891 as a coordinate school. Pembroke College merged with Brown in 1971.
655. Memorial of the centennial exercises of the First Baptist Church of South Kingston, R.I., with the proceedings, addresses, papers, sermons and poems. Held in the Meeting-house of the church in Wakefield, May 13th-16th, 1881. Providence: Providence Press Company, printers, 1881.
$35
8vo, pp. 91, [1]; wood-engraved frontispiece; original brown cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover; near fine.
Parks 3875.
656. Fifty dollars reward. Some person or persons entered the subscribers' house between Saturday and Monday morning, and stole the following articles.... Pawtucket, Mass.: April 11, 1833.
$375
Oblong folio broadside (approx. 10" x 15"), previous folds, some tears in the margins, ink editorial marks and doodles, small piece missing from one corner (no loss of letterpress), good.
Among the stolen articles: "1 miniature gold setting; 1 gold curved chain ... 1 pair filigree ear-rings ... 1 gold jet bosom pin ... 1 red pocket book containing $32 ... 1 wood colored oval box, with $55 in specie, principally American half dollars and ten cent pieces ... Fifty dollars reward will be given on the arrest of the thief..."
Pawtucket, Massachusetts did not become Pawtucket, Rhode Island until 1862 after a prolonged border dispute between the two states.
Not in OCLC, not in American Imprints.
657. Charles D'Wolf of Guadeloupe, his ancestors and descendants. Being a complete genealogy of the 'Rhode Island D'Wolfs,' the descendants of Simon DeWolf, with their common descent from Balthasar de Wolf, of Lyme, Conn. (1668). With a biographical introduction and appendices on the Nova Scotian de Wolfs and other allied families with a preface by Bradford Colt de Wolf. New York: Press of T. A. Wright, 1902.
$500
8vo, pp. [7], 10-324, [2]; frontispiece and 70 plates, primarily portraits; original red cloth, gilt-stamped spine; very good.
Laid in are 7 autograph letters totaling 38 pages, from the author to various members of the family on dates, family relations and connections, the D'Wolf name and its origins, religious backgrounds, and discussion about the publishing of the book - all of them undated as to year but all but one apparently preceding the publication of the book.
Also laid in is a 3-page letter from Samuel S. Drury to Calbraith Perry, dated Bristol, April 2, 1902 recording the personal effects of Mark Anthony D'Wolf, which included "1 negro man named Pompey / 1 ditto woman named Sukey / 6 mahogany chairs / 1 Davidson's quadrant / 2 punch bowls / 2 great silver spoons."
This copy once that of Dr. Herman Doring of Rio, Virginia whose name has been affixed to the front pastedown. On the flyleaf he notes: "This work of no value other than stunning discernments of Mark Anthony DeWolf, all the most foolish speculation and assumption." Several other pencil annotations in the text also taking issue with Perry's research.
At the front pasted to a flyleaf is a long newspaper account of the trial of the Rev. Calbraith Perry dated Sept 25, 1888 on "charges of the gravest character ... originated with boys connected with the service of the church."
658. The Perrys of Rhode Island and tales of Silver Creek; the Bosworth-Bourn-Perry homestead.... New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1913.
$275
First edition, 8vo, pp. [2], 115, [1]; frontispiece portrait of Oliver Hazard Perry and 126 portraits and illustrations on plates; original red cloth stamped in gilt on spine, t.e.g.; bookplate of previous owner; spine slightly dull else very good and sound.
Influential R.I. family, with much on Commodores Matthew Calbraith Perry and Oliver Hazard Perry. The book is "revised and enlarged from a lecture before the Ondawa Chapter of the D.A.R. and their guests of the S.A.R., at the public library, Cambridge, N.Y., April 13, 1909."
659. Perry's victory. Providence: printed and sold at no. 42 North Main Street ... where are kept for sale 100 other kinds, n.d., [ca. 1814?].
$950
Broadside (approx. 10" x 7¼"), text in double column beneath the running head; the paper toned and lightly foxed; all else very good.
Eleven octets, beginning "Ye tars of Columbia give ear to my story."
Two other editions are listed in OCLC but not this. Not in American Imprints.
660. Items of interest concerning Oliver Hazard Perry in Newport and Newport in the War of 1812. Newport: Newport Historical Society, Mercury Publishing Company, 1913.
$35
8vo, pp. 32; frontispiece portrait and 8 plates; original printed tan wrappers; some soiling, old library sticker at the lower corner of the front wrapper; all else very good.
661. [Pettaquamscutt Lodge.] Charter and by-laws of the Pettaquamscutt Lodge, North Kingston, R.I.. Newport: printed at the Herald Office, 1894.
$150
16mo, pp. 14, [2]; pages ruled in red throughout; original limp green cloth stamped in orange; some dullness to the cloth, else fine.
The first publication of the Lodge issued in its first year of incorporation. The Lodge was "for literary, social, and benevolent purposes." Includes a list of the officers and membership.
Not found in OCLC.
662. [Phi Beta Kappa .] The influence of scientific discovery and invention on social and political progress. Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Brown University ... on Commencement Day, September 6, 1843. Providence: B. Cranston and Company, 1843.
$150
First edition, 8vo, pp. 52; removed from binding, wrappers wanting; very good.
Durfee here propounds the theory that "the recent revolutionary development of steam power was not merely an instance of man making progress, it was a revelation of the divine 'law of progress' and of a 'higher destiny' planned by God himself for the new age" (Schneider, History of American Philosophy). These ideas were adumbrated by Durfee in The Panidea; Or, An Omnipresent Reason Considered as the Creative and Sustaining Logos (1846), "a pretentious work that nobody read" (DAB). More charitable comments are made by Joseph Blau in his collection of American Philosophic Addresses, 1700 to 1900 (page 381 ff) where the Oration is reprinted in full.
An important aspect of Durfee's deterministic theory of history is that "there is no absolute, undefinable popular sovereignty, which can, in a manner its own, and at any moment, carry a certain supposed natural equality into social and political life, and thereby elevate poor human nature, however rude and degraded in condition, at once, as by a sort of magic, into a state of supreme and absolute perfection" (quoted by Blau). This is because the advances of science and technology impose conditions upon society which democracy cannot control, and to which it must adapt. Blau notes that Durfee's views were influenced by German transcendentalism, as mediated by Coleridge and Cousin. Not surprisingly, given his skepticism on the efficacy of popular sovereignty, Durfee, as Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, played a prominent role in opposition to the Dorr forces.
Not in American Imprints, Bartlett or Parks; Sabin 21427, note.
663. [Phi Beta Kappa.] More than a century of scholars. Rhode Island Alpha of Phi Beta Kappa 1830-1954. Providence: [Phi Beta Kappa Society, printed by the William Byrd Press Inc., Richmond, VA], 1955.
$35
First edition, 8vo, pp. vii, [3], 249, [1]; partially unopened; original gray cloth, gilt lettered spine; near fine.
This copy with a special presentation leaf giving this copy to Stuart C. Sherman, long-time librarian at the Providence Public Library, and later at the John Hay Library at Brown, and an expert on whaling logs and Herman Melville. The presentation slip is signed by James Eastham and Andrew J, Sabol, president and secretary respectively of the R.I. Alpha chapter. This leaf, once glued in, is now loose and there is some resulting glue residue on the half-title.
664. [Phi Beta Kappa.] The state. An oration before the Rhode Island Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Brown University, September 2, 1862. Providence: Sidney S. Rider, 17 Westminster Street, 1862.
$50
8vo, pp. 30; original printed green wrappers; vertical crease, light toning at the edges; very good.
Thayer's "State" is not the State of Rhode Island, but rather the "State" in political science, set against the backdrop of the Civil War.
A Century of Scholars, p. 42; not in Bartlett.
665. [Philermenian Society.] An address to the Philermenian Society of Brown University, or the moral character of the literature of the last and present century. Delivered at Providence, R.I., Sept. 4, 1837 ... Published by request. Providence: printed by Knowles, Vose & Co.,, 1837.
$45
First edition, 8vo, pp. 54, [2]; removed from binding; wrappers wanting; very good.
"The Philermenian Society was called the 'Misokosmian Society' when it was first organized by eighteen students in 1794. The object of the association was the promotion of social intercourse and improvement in forensic dispute. The constitution limited membership to twenty [later 45], and every inductee had to pledge himself to secrecy about the doings of the society, which would be discussion of appointed questions, either by prepared compositions or extemporaneous speaking" (Mitchell, Encyclopedia Brunoniana).
Not in Bartlett or Parks. American Imprints 44214; Sabin 23237.
666. [Photograph - Providence.] Albumen print of downtown Providence: "Dorrance St. looking from City Hall.". N.p., n.d. [Providence?: ca. mid-1880s].
$50
Image size approx. 6" x 8" on a mount 7" x 9½", bird's-eye view looking down Dorrance, with horse-drawn trams, pedestrians, and what appears to be a sleepy city-scape.
667. [Photography - Providence.] Photograph of the stature of General Ambrose Burnside in Providence. N.p., n.d. [Providence: ca. 1890s.].
$45
Platinum print approx. 4½" x 6¼", on a mount approx. 7" x 4½" showing the statue of Burnside by Launt Thompson in what is now known as Burnside Park in downtown Providence; very good.
668. Two-page autograph letter signed to John Carter, Jun. in Providence. Philadelphia, Department of State: April 2, 1799.
$2,250
4to, approx. 42 lines and approx. 375 words; previous folds, light stains, integral leaf attached.
"Sir, An act passed in the last session of Congress directs me to so publish the laws of the United States ... in at least one news-paper in each of the States. I have chosen yours for their promulgation in the State of Rhode Island ... By devoting one half sheet weekly to the publication of the laws, disposed in octavo pages, each of your subscribers will, with the current news, receive a complete copy of the laws of the United States, in a form to be folded into a pamphlet ... Presuming it will be agreeable to make this publication in Rhode-Island, I have enclosed the first half sheet of Mr. Craft's Trenton paper [not present], which begins with the first laws of the last Session of Congress. To shew your authority to print the laws, you will print on the back of the title page your appointment in the words prescribed to Mr. Craft, inserting your own name instead of his..."
At the time Pickering was serving as Secretary of State under John Adams, and John Carter, who had been a printing apprentice to Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, was the publisher of the Providence Gazette.
669. [Pocket Map.] Map of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Philadelphia: Charles Desilver, 1859.
$425
Hand-colored folding pocket map approx. 13¼" x 16½" showing the two states, with an inset of Boston and a population statistical table. Very good, no breaks at the folds.
Boston Public, AAS, and Harvard only in OCLC.
670. [Police Force - Providence.] Two manuscripts regarding the establishment of a police force in the city of Providence. Providence: June 2, 1826.
SOLD
The first document, 4 pages on 4 leaves, appears to be a draft of a "by-law, to provide and maintain a police-office" (approx. 13" x 8"), including "An Act for the better ordering of the Police of the Town of Providence, and of the Work-House, in said Town." The second document (approx. 13¾" x 8½") is a 2-page report to "The Committee, to whom were referred, at the last April Meeting, sundry papers relative to the establishment of a Police-Office..." signed by "Wm. E. Richmond, Thomas Burgess, and Charles F. Tillinghast, Committee." Previous folds, light edge-ware and chipping, a few small stains. Both documents in ink and legible; very good.
As the town of Providence grew so did crime and the need to establish an effective system of police protection. These documents include a proposed by-law to maintain police offices in Providence, to be paid for and maintained by treasury funds. The freemen of the town met in June of 1826 to procure the enactment of a law to authorize the town to pay all the Justices of the Peace employed as police magistrates.
A race riot had taken place in October of 1824 in a neighborhood known as "Hardscrabble," started when some blacks refused to move off the sidewalk when approached by a group of whites. During the riot the white mob destroyed approximately 20 houses and there was only a system of night watchmen charged with keeping the peace.
The last three pages constitute a report which states that "the peace and quiet of our citizens have been so much affected, within the last four or five years, and which are, now, a subject of general complaint, are occasioned by by a rapidly increasing population ... among which are ... immigrants from from foreign countries and from other places in our own, who manifest a disorderly and mutinous spirit, without any other respect for the good order of Society..."
A committee, composed of Wm. E. Richmond, Thomas Burgess, and Charles F. Tillinghast, studied the situation, and proposed the selection of a central police office, selection of a police magistrate by the freemen with salary, a legislative provision to pay salaries, and extend the jurisdiction of Town Council of Judges and Justices under the Bridewell law. The proposals appeared to languish until 1831 however, when the Snow Town or Olney's Lane riots could not be quelled by watchmen and required the assistance of the militia. These proposals from 1826 finally led to the establishment of a City Marshall in 1832.
Considerably later, in 1864, a force resembling the modern police department was put into place under Mayor Thomas A. Doyle [see: Our Police: a History of the Providence Force from the First Watchman, edited by Henry Mann, 1889).
671. An address delivered before the Rhode Island Historical Society, on the evening of February nineteenth, 1851 ... Published at the request of the Society. Providence: George H. Whitney, 1851.
$85
First edition, 8vo, pp. 27, [1]; original printed brown wrappers; near fine.
At the back is printed the Society's Constitution, adopted in 1848.
Bartlett, p. 208; Parks 788: "History of education in R.I."
672. An address to the freemen of the state of Rhode-Island... . Newport: printed by Rousmaniere & Hauser, n.d., [1810].
$150
First edition, 8vo, pp. 23, [1]; title a little toned; library boards; very good.
Potter was one of Rhode Island's representatives in Congress. This is one of his early addresses to his constituents in Rhode Island regarding the expenses and excesses of the federal government in Washington. Apparently Potter's first book - none is listed earlier in Bartlett.
American Imprints 21126; Bartlett, p. 206; Sabin 64629.
673. [Potter, Israel.] One-and-a-half-page letter signed to Washington D.C. lawyer E. W. Whitaker, Esq. regarding pensions for soldiers from Rhode Island at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Washington, D.C.: Oct. 26, 1875.
$450
Quarto bifolium on pre-printed Dept. of the Interior stationery, approx. 30 lines and 375 words; previous folds; fine.
Atkinson refers to a letter from William J. Miller of Bristol, R.I. which notes that Nelson Miller from Warren and Israel Potter from Cranston took part in the action at Bunker Hill, but were no so credited. Atkinson details the careers of each of the soldiers. Nelson Miller, a drummer boy who enlisted "in April or May 1775 in the Company of Capt. Josiah Martindale" who marched from Warren to Jamaica Plain in early 1776, and took part in the Battle of White Plains near New York, but, according to Atkinson, he did not take part in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Israel Potter, for his part, "made an application for a pension in Aug. 1823 ... [He] enlisted as a private in the Co. of Capt. Edmund Johnson ... soon after the fight at Lexington" and then "marching to Boston where rendering services until Dec. 1775 when he was permitted to enlist as a marine on board the public armed vessel Washington, Capt. Sion Martindale, sailing from Plymouth on a cruize [sic], but soon captured by the British ship Fey, carried to Boston, then to England where he remained a prisoner until 1783 - On the passage to England a portion of the prisoners ... made an unsuccessful attempt to get possession of the vessel ... and Mr. Potter was put in irons for his complicity in the mutiny. He makes no mention of the Battle of Bunker Hill or that he was in any engagement during his land service in the army..."
674. A sermon preached at the ordination of the Reverend Mr. Henry Wight, to the pastoral care of the Catholic Congregational Society, in Bristol, state of Rhode-Island, January 5, 1785. [Providence: printed by Bennett Wheeler, [1785].
SOLD
First edition, 8vo, pp. 26, [2]; uncut; edges curled, moderate staining on the first leaf; all else very good.
Inscribed at the top of the first leaf: "Phoebe Wardwell / her book given her / by [?] Samuel / June 20, 1785." The inscription is somewhat faint, but mostly legible. Phoebe Wardwell was born in Bristol in 1720, the daughter of Deacon Samuel Howland and Abigail Howland, and was married to John Wardwell. She died in 1794 and is buried in Bristol.
Alden 1016; Bennett, p. 209; Evans 19198; Sabin 65106.
675. [Printing.] Printers and printing in Providence 1762-1907. Prepared by a committee of Providence Typographical Union Number thirty-three as a souvenir of the fiftieth anniversary of its institution. [Providence: Providence Printing Co., 1907.].
$35
8vo, pp. 212, xcviii; illustrated throughout; original green cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover ands spine; front free endpaper loose (but present), title page browned, the whole a bit shaken; extremities rubbed; good.
An excellent reference with much biographical information, even of the journeymen printers.
676. [Prison Reform.] Prison reform in the United States. Proceedings of a conference held at Newport, Rhode Island, August 1st and 2d, 1877. New York: National Printing Company, 13 Chambers Street, 1877.
$75
First edition, 8vo, pp. 56, [2]; complimentary slip of Dr. Wines, one of the two instigators of the conference, tipped in at the title page; near fine in original printed gray wrappers.
677. [Providence Athenaeum.] Forty-seventh annual report of the directors of the Providence Athenaeum to the proprietors submitted September 25, 1882. Providence: E. L. Freeman & Son, printers to the state, 1882.
$65
8vo, pp. 24, [1], 316-340 (List of Books added to the Providence Athenaeum during the year September 1, 1881 - August 31, 1882); fine in original printed pale green wrappers.
678. [Providence Athenaeum.] The Providence Athenaeum: a brief history 1739-1939. [Providence]: printed for the Athenaeum, 1940.
$15
Second issue limited to 1000 copies printed by the Ackerman-Standard Co., Providence; 12mo, pp. 60, [4]; frontispiece of the library building; fine in original salmon wrappers.
679. Report made to the Providence Athenaeum... Five annual reports for 1870-73, 1884 and 1888. Providence: Hammond, Angell & Co., printers [and E. L Freeman & Co. [and] Snow & Farnum, 1870-88.
$125
5 volumes, pp. 129, [1]; 143, [1]; 157, [1]; 173, [1]; 24, [1], [371]-418, 9, [1]; 24, [507]-545, 5; original printed tan or gray wrappers; near fine.
"The Providence Athenæum as we know it was founded and incorporated in 1836 after a previous Providence Athenæum (est. 1831) and the Providence Library Company (est. 1753) could not agree on terms for a merger. Both organizations dissolved and formed a new library, which included the collections of both earlier institutions. This new organization, known initially as simply The Athenæum, would later change its name to the Providence Athenæum in 1850" (from the Athenaeum website).
Each of these reports includes a catalogue of the books acquired over the previous year.
680. [Providence Charter.] Charter of the city of Providence, and the act of the General Assembly for organizing the government under the same, passed at October session, 1831. Together with a list of the city officers for the year 1832. Also, the mayor's address to the city council, delivered at the organization of the city government, June 4, 1832. Printed by order of the city council. Providence: William Marshall and Co., printers, 1832.
$225
First edition, 8vo, pp. 36; stitched, as issued; uncut; lightly foxed and with a few stains; all else very good.
Not in Bartlett; American Imprints 14415; Sabin 66249.
681. [Providence Charter.] City charter, proposed for the adoption of the freemen of Providence, at a town meeting, to be holden April 29th, 1829 [wrapper title]. [Providence]: printed for the use of the Freeman, by order of the town, 1829.
$375
8vo, pp. 12; self-wrappers, stitched, as issued; lightly toned, else fine.
U.S. Senator's Theodore Francis Green's copy, with his lightly penciled ownership signature at the top of the first leaf. At the time the oldest serving member of the Senate, Green (1867-1966) was Governor of R.I. 1933-37, and U.S. Senator 1937-61.
Together with: City Charter, proposed for the adoption of the freemen of Providence, at a town meeting to be holden October 22, 1831. Providence, R.I.: Cranston & Hammond, printers, 1831. pp.16; self-wrappers, stitched, as issued; moderate worming but sense remains clear.
A crucial period for the formation of city government, a period when city politics were marked by racial strife and factional fighting. In 1829 Providence had grown to a population of 16,000 and the town meeting agreed to hand over control over city government to elected municipal officials. The freemen approved this charter proposal by a vote of 312 to 222. It was believed elected officials would be better able to spend large amounts of public money.
However, the transition from town meeting to municipal government was not smooth. The period between these two charters was marked by rioting and racial unrest. In September 1831, a number of sailors looked to start trouble in the black "Olney's Lane" section of town. After the sailors had harassed local inhabitants, one sailor was shot and killed by a black man. The following day, a huge mob assembled in Olney's Lane to dismantle houses in defiance of the First Light Infantry sent by the Governor to quell unrest. On September 23, the mob reassembled, and on the 24th several houses on Smith Street were attacked. After the Governor's troops had read the riot act and called for peace, the mob continued to throw stones at houses and at the soldiers. Eventually, the troops fired on the crowd, killing four.
The town committee appointed to investigate the rioting concluded that inefficient city government had been chiefly to blame for the incidents. On October 5 a town meeting voted unanimously to draw up another city charter for municipal government. But at the meeting on October, the freemen of Providence rejected the new charter, which would have given the General Assembly power to grant the new city charter.
Conflicts between different sections of the town were eventually resolved, and Providence's first city government was elected in April 1832.
American Imprints 40192 & 8897; Bartlett, p. 214.
682. [Providence General Store.] General store ledger. Providence: 1810-16; 1832; 1841.
SOLD
Folio, 111 neat, manuscript pages of accounts (7 leaves excised, including the first); contemporary full reversed calf; at the back of the volume a quantity of pages have been excised, likely once blank and repurposed.
This is the ledger account of a Providence general store from the early nineteenth century. Entries are organized in columns listing the customer's name, the date of the transaction, the items purchased, and the cost of the items. Typical merchandise the store sold included sugar, flour, tobacco, whiskey, cheese, and other sundries. The ledger provides an excellent look into an urban market. While the entries are interesting in themselves, what is more notable is the vast number of prominent Rhode Islanders who maintained accounts at the store.
Included among these customers is Nicholas Brown, namesake of the university. Brown came from a long line of merchants and was the co-founder of Brown & Ives, one of New England's largest mercantile firms. Another customer, Ephraim Bowen, made his mark on Rhode Island history by participating in the burning of the British sloop-of-war Gaspee, in 1772. Oziel Wilkinson also held an account at the general store. Wilkinson ran an early textile mill on the banks of the Blackstone River. Wilkinson is also of note for having boarded Samuel Slater upon his arrival in Rhode Island. Slater is widely credited as the father of the American industrial revolution. Sullivan Dorr, the father of Thomas Dorr, also frequented the store. Thomas Dorr achieved fame for leading a popular uprising with the goal of implementing a state constitution that would grant all males the right to vote. Sullivan Dorr fought against his son in this struggle, and was present at the arsenal in Providence when the rebel forces attempted to overtake it.
Several businesses and corporations held accounts at the store, including the city of Providence itself. Among the businesses was Almy & Brown, operators of the first cotton mill in the United States. This volume provides insight not only into early markets and values but also into the lives of several prominent Providence men and businesses.
683. Providence Illustrated. Providence: H. S. Inman, 1886.
$1,250
Large 4to, consisting of a title leaf, table of contents, and 100 fine heliogravures, each appropriately captioned; publisher's heavy full blindstamped black morocco, double gilt rules on covers enclosing the title in gilt, gilt-lettered direct on gilt-decorated spine, a.e.g., silk moiré endpapers; some moderate rubbing; very good.
Also published in 20 parts by the Lithotype Print. and Pub. Co. in Gardner, Massachusetts.
684. [Providence Insurance Company.] The President of the United States of America to the Marshall of said district, or to his deputy. Greeting... . Providence: October 12, 1801.
$1,250
Pro-forma broadside document (approx. 7¾" x 12¾") accomplished in ink. Official state seal and notations on verso: "Writ Head & Amory vs. A.M. Atwell."
The Providence Insurance Company was founded in 1799 as the first insurance company in Providence. Its business was exclusively marine insurance, in merchant ships engaged mostly in the coastal, European, West Indies, and China trades. The company merged with the Washington Insurance Company (established 1800) in 1815 to become the Providence Washington Insurance Company, which remains a successful Providence institution.
This writ commands the marshall, W. Peck, to summon Amos Maine Atwell (1765-1815), president of the Providence Insurance Co., and John Mason, late president of the company, to answer a complaint lodged by Joseph Head and Jonathan Amory of Boston, merchants trading under the name of Head & Amory. They claimed the recovery of twenty thousand dollars on an insurance policy and said the insurance company had not made good on its promise to pay. W. Peck noted on the verso that he has served the summons. The verso is also signed by David Leonard Barnes, as attorney
The case is still cited in contract and corporation law today as "Head & Amory v. The Providence Insurance Company, Cranch II, 127: "An individual, has an original capacity to contract and bind himself in such manner as he pleases. He who acts by another, acts by himself. He who authorizes another to make a writing for him, makes it himself; but with these bodies, which have only a legal existence, it is otherwise. The act of incorporation is to them, an enabling act. It gives them all the power they possess." (See also Roelker & Collins, One Hundred Fifty Years of the Providence Washington Insurance Company, 1799–1949 (Providence, 1949).
685. [Providence Libraries.] A series of five volumes [all published] on the libraries of Providence, as below. Providence: privately printed by [Eugene A. Clauss at the Ackerman-Standard Co.], [1936-40.].
$150
All small 8vo, all with gravure frontispieces, all but the last in original glassine, all generally fine in original bindings:
The John Carter Brown Library in Brown University, by Lawrence C. Wroth, librarian. Edition limited to 450 copies, pp. [6], 9-35, [3]; 1936;
The Providence Public Library an Experiment in Enlightenment, by Clarence E. Sherman, librarian. Edition limited to 650 copies pp. 57, [3]; 1937;
Brown University Library. The Library of the College or University in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England in America 1767-1782, by Henry Bartlett Van Hoesen. Edition limited to 675 copies, pp. [8], 11-96, [4]; 1938;
The Providence Athenaeum a Brief History 1753-1939, [by Grace F. Leonard, librarian, and Chesley Worthington, Board of Directors.] Edition limited to 750 copies pp. 60, [4], 1939;
The Annmary Brown Memorial, Margaret Bingham Stillwell, curator. Edition limited to 600 copies pp. 26, [2]; 1940; presentation note from Eugene Clauss laid in.
686. Providence of to-day. Its commerce, trade and industries with biographical sketches and portraits. Providence: Telegram Publishing Co., 1893.
$250
Oblong folio, pp. 99, [1]; illustrated throughout; numerous advertisements interspersed, also often illustrated; original brown cloth lettered in gilt on the upper cover; near fine.
687. [Providence Regatta.] City of Providence Regatta. July 4, 1860. [Providence]: Cooke & Danielson, printers, Evening Press Office, [1860]..
$150
Broadside (approx. 7¾" x 5¼") on card; small crease at the lower right corner, else very good.
Detailing three races in all, one for single scull lapstreak wherries, one for double scull boats, and one for four- and six-oared boats; crews listed come from Brown University, Yale, Jamaica Pond, Boston, and Hartford Navy, among others; and the names of each of the rowers.
This is likely the same broadside offered by Ernest Wessen in his Midland Notes in 1955 for $5. Not in OCLC.
688. [Providence Sestercentennial.] Programme of the municipal observance of the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Providence, June 23 & 24, 1886. Providence: engraved and printed by Farmer, Girsch & Co., 1886.
$100
8vo (approx. 9½" x 6"), 10 leaves tabular-bound in pictorial card wrappers with black cord at the top; fine, in the original mailing envelope which is torn.
Includes a fine emblematic engraving of Roger Williams greeting the Narragansetts beneath Clio (goddess of history) atop a globe, schedule of events for both days of the celebration, 2 wood-engravings, an engraving of city hall, and the order of the trades procession.
AAS & N.Y. Public only in OCLC.
689. [Providence Sestercentennial.] Two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Providence, June 23 and 24, 1886. Providence: printed by authority of the City Council, 1887.
$125
4to, pp. viii, 236; engraved frontispiece, vignette title page printed in red and black, 1 other plate, many pages of printed music; original gilt-stamped brown cloth; spine a little spotted, else near fine.
Includes program of events, various resolutions by the City Council, addresses by the mayor, and an historical discourse by the Hon. Thomas Durfee.
690. [Providence Steam-Boat Company.] At a special meeting of the Providence Steam-Boat Company, holden at the Hall of the Washington Hotel, on the 2d day of February inst. a Committee was appointed, consisting of E. S. Williams, H. R. Greene, W. Paine, jun., Nathaniel Bishop and John Pettes, empowered to sell the Steam-Boat Providence to the New York and Boston Transportation Company; and notice is hereby given to the Stockholders, that said Committee have effected the sale of said Boat and Furniture for the sum of $70,000. Providence: February 18, 1836.
$350
Quarto bifolium (approx. 7½" x 9"), printed in italic and roman type on p. [1] only, the others blank except for Borden's return address and the address to Mr. William R. Bowers of Providence in ink on the verso of the integral leaf, together with a red wax seal; previous folds from mailing, else fine.
In the 1830s Providence was the principal stop on the route between New York and Boston. Steamers ran between Providence and New York while connecting stage lines, later railroad trains, traveling between Providence and Boston. According to J.H. Morrison, History of Steam Navigation (1903), a cooperative arrangement was made between the Boston and New Transportation Co. (as it was more commonly known) and the Providence Steam Boat Company in 1836. "This was the first step in the formation of the noted Transportation Company that subsequently held such power in the water transportation on the Long Island Sound. It was at first an association or partnership known as the Boston and New York Transportation Company, but afterwards became a corporation known as the 'New Jersey Steam Navigation Company." The chief competition on this route came from a line owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt and, in particular, from his boat Lexington. Initially allied with the railroads, steamship lines gradually declined as the ridership on railroads grew in the 1840s.
According to records at the Rhode Island Historical Society, the addressee, William Read Bowers (1800-1841), was a sea captain and ship owner of Providence. He was the son of Asa Bowers and Candace Hoppin; his mother was a member of one of the leading merchant families of the city. By 1832, William was the owner of at least three ships: the Abeona (Samuel Read, master), Almira (Ephraim Eldredge, master) and the Phebe (William Davis, master). He was also principal partner in a ships' chandlery business at 114 South Water Street in Providence from the early 1830s onward.
The Providence, about 400 tons, was built in 1832 by Bell & Brown of New York. She had a single beam engine built by the West Point Foundry in New York. The sellers reserved "the right of free passage in said Boat to such as are now entitled to that privilege, by paying to the said Transportation Company the sum of Fifty Dollars yearly. And it is further expected that such of the Stockholders as wish to retain the right, will make it known by the first day of March next, at which time the said Boat is to be delivered to the purchasers. Signed in type: J. Borden, Sec'y.
Not in OCLC or American Imprints.
691. A list of persons assessed in the town tax of forty thousand dollars, voted by the freemen of Providence, June 1827, with the amount of the valuation and tax of each. Providence: published by Hutchens & Cory, Miller & Hammond, printers. September, 1827.
$225
First edition, small 8vo, pp. 40; original printed tan wrappers; skillfully rebacked; near fine.
More than 1600 taxpayers are listed, with columns for real estate taxes, personal taxes, and total taxes paid for each, including some non-residents. The back wrapper contains ads for Hutchens & Cory, the publishers, and the printers, Miller & Hammond. Also an ad for Webster's Dictionary for which Hutchens & Cory were taking subscriptions.
American Imprints 30379; OCLC locates only the AAS, N.Y. Historical and Boston Athenaeum copies.
692. Directory No. 3. January 1, 1882. Providence: printed by the Providence Press Company, 1881.
$1,500
Tall 8vo (8¾" x 4"), pp. xi, [1], 54, [2]; original printed brown wrappers; light chipping of the wrappers and spine worn and cracked; slight abrasion on the back wrapper obscuring a line of text (but the sense remains clear); otherwise very good.
Greg Sargeant on Dennis Markham's website, ClassicRotaryPhones, provides the following information on the Providence Telephone Company, "which was formed out of the consolidation of two smaller interests, one Bell and one Western Union." The Bell concern was the Providence Telephone Exchange Company. They issued a directory of subscribers on October 29, 1879 in which they announced a new office in the Brownell Bldg. In 1880 they published an Official Directory of the Providence Telephone Exchange Company.
The Western Union concern was the Providence District Telephone Company. In 1879 they issued a Prospectus and had offices on the 3rd floor of the Butler Exchange Building. In 1880 the company was chartered by an act of the General Assembly in association with the Western Union/Edison interests.
Thus, these two individual companies were consolidated as the Providence Telephone Company in 1880. On January 1, 1881 they published this List of Subscribers. It is unnumbered, and there is no indication that another List preceded it. On January 1, 1882, Directory No. 3 (as here) was published. And by 1885 Directory no. 9 was published, so these were not published annually.
Includes a few words to subscribers, directions for using the telephone, terms of rental, line rates, telegraph rates, interstate calls, and a list of customers in the Providence, Nayatt, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Bristol, Warren, Pascoag, East Greenwich, Attleboro and North Attleboro exchanges.
Rare. Not found in NUC; Sutro Library (!) only in OCLC.
693. List of subscribers. January 1, 1881 [wrapper title]. Providence: printed by the Providence Press Company, 1881.
$1,800
Tall 8vo (8¾" x 4"), pp. vii, [1], 34, [2]; original printed yellow wrappers; supplemental list of subscribers printed on yellow paper tipped-in prior to the title page; light chipping of the wrappers and a mild waterstain pervades most of the text; otherwise very good. Rare.
Greg Sargeant on Dennis Markham's website, ClassicRotaryPhones, provides the following information on the Providence Telephone Company, "which was formed out of the consolidation of two smaller interests, one Bell and one Western Union." The Bell concern was the Providence Telephone Exchange Company. They issued a directory of subscribers on October 29, 1879 in which they announced a new office in the Brownell Bldg. In 1880 they published an Official Directory of the Providence Telephone Exchange Company.
The Western Union concern was the Providence District Telephone Company. In 1879 they issued a Prospectus and had offices on the 3rd floor of the Butler Exchange Building. In 1880 the company was chartered by an act of the General Assembly in association with the Western Union/Edison interests.
Thus, these two individual companies were consolidated as the Providence Telephone Company in 1880. On January 1, 1881 they published this List of Subscribers. It is unnumbered, and there is no indication that another List preceded it. On January 1, 1882, Directory No. 3 was published. And by 1885 Directory no. 9 was published, so these were not published annually. We believe this is the first Providence Telephone Company Directory, and preceded only by the Providence Telephone Exchange Company's directories of 1879 and 1880.
Includes a few words on courtesies of phone calling, directions for using the telephone, terms of rental, line rates, and a list of customers in the Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Bristol, East Greenwich, and North Attleboro exchanges.
Not found in NUC or OCLC.
694. Official directory of the Providence Telephone Exchange Company. [Providence]: published by Kellogg, printer, [1880].
$2,500
8vo (8½" x 6"), pp. 48; bifolium letter from the company regarding "extra-territorial" service tipped in before the title page; additional tall folding folio broadsheet with "extra subscribers" tipped in after the penultimate leaf; many advertisements for local businesses throughout (with an index to advertisers and a classified business directory at the back); original pictorial gray wrappers; wrappers chipped at extremities (no loss of letterpress); mild dampstaining throughout; otherwise very good.
Rhode Island's first bound telephone directory. OCLC notes: "Undated but apparently the first year of telephone service in Providence." "Less than a year ago the idea of establishing a telephone exchange in Providence was ridiculed by many ..." (p. 5).
Includes "Directions for Using the Telephone," subscribers for both the Providence and Pawtucket Exchanges, and also a few names for the Woonsocket, Franklin, and Nayatt exchanges. A note on p. 43 concerns messengers, and telegrams, and presages the pending consolidation of the Providence Telephone Exchange Company and the Providence District Telephone Company.
Greg Sargeant on Dennis Markham's website, ClassicRotaryPhones, provides the following information on what became the Providence Telephone Company, "which was formed out of the consolidation of two smaller interests, one Bell and one Western Union." The Bell concern was the Providence Telephone Exchange Company. They issued a directory of subscribers on October 29, 1879 in broadside form, in which they announced a new office in the Brownell Bldg. In 1880 they published an Official Directory of the Providence Telephone Exchange Company (as here).
The Western Union concern was the Providence District Telephone Company. In 1879 they issued a Prospectus and had offices on the 3rd floor of the Butler Exchange Building. In 1880 the company was chartered by an act of the General Assembly in association with the Western Union/Edison interests.
Thus, these two individual companies were consolidated as the Providence Telephone Company in 1880. On January 1, 1881 they published this List of Subscribers. It is unnumbered, and there is no indication that another List preceded it. On January 1, 1882, Directory No. 3 was published. And by 1885 Directory no. 9 was published, so these were not published annually.
Rare. Not found in NUC; RI Historical only in OCLC.
695. Providence Theatre. For the benefit of Mr. Conway and his last appearance here, this season.... [Providence?: 1824.].
$750
Folio broadside (approx. 14" x 10"), previous folds, slight wrinkling; near fine.
William Augustus Conway (1789-1828) was an English tragedian, and himself a tragic figure. Conway went to America after his performances were panned in the U.K. Nor did America warm to his acting. Conway then purportedly secluded himself in Newport to study and to take Holy Orders. In 1828, despondent and thin-skinned, Conway committed suicide on a voyage from New York to Charleston. After his death Conway was scandalized by love letters written to him by a then eighty year old Hester Thrale Piozzi, which were published in the 1840s.
This 1824 broadside also mentions a performance of Mrs. H[enry] A[ugusta] Williams. Mrs. Williams was soon divorced from her English-born husband, and she was the expectant mother of Augusta Maywood (1825-1876). Augusta Maywood is considered to be America's first native-born ballerina and was a childhood dance sensation. Augusta's mother eventually married actor and theatre manager Robert Maywood.
Not in OCLC or American Imprints. See, Tearle, et al., Mrs. Piozzi's Tall Young Beau, William Augustus Conway (1991); and, Willard, History of the Providence Stage (1891).
696. [Providence Views.] Art work of Providence. Published in nine parts. Chicago: The W. H. Parish Publishing Co., 1896.
$850
9 volumes, folio, 13 leaves of text printed on rectos only; 57 photogravure plates (some composite); original printed pictorial brown wrappers; wrappers on first and last parts slightly chipped, but in all this is a near fine, complete set.
Photomechanical reproductions of residences, public buildings, urban and rural views, etc., with accompanying historical text, "Providence, R.I." Contained in a brown cloth clamshell box.
Yale, Clements, Brown, RISD, Columbia and the Canadian Centre for Architecture in OCLC.
697. [Providence.] The civic and architectural development of Providence 1636 - 1950. Providence: The Book Shop, 1957.
$100
First edition, 4to, pp. [16], 320; 2 full-page maps; illustrated throughout; fine copy in original blue cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover and spine.
698. [Providence.] Tax lists of the town of Providence during the administration of Sir Edmund Andros and his council 1686-1689. Together with a list of names of all males sixteen years of age and upwards residing in the town of Providence in August 1688 and liable for a poll tax. Providence: Howard W. Preston, 1895.
$40
Edition limited to 250 copies initialed by the publisher, 8vo, pp. 63, [1]; original blue cloth stamped in gilt on the upper cover; previous owner's rubberstamps on title page, else fine.
699. [Providence.] Illustrated hand-book of the city of Providence, R.I. [drop title]. [Providence: J.C. Thompson, 1876].
$100
8vo, pp. ii-xxiv (ads), 136, xxv-xxxv (ads); apparently lacking the printed title page; folding hand-colored map of Providence (one short tear entering from the stub), folding map of Narragansett Bay, 2 steel-engraved plates, 1 wood-engraved portrait, wood-engraved illustrations in the text (several full-page); very good copy in original green cloth lettered in gilt on the upper cover.
700. [Providence.] Providence in colonial times ... with an introduction by J. Franklin Jameson, LL.D.. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1912.
$125
First edition limited to 550 numbered copies (this, no. 221), 8vo, pp. xxi, [1], 392; frontispiece, 47 illustrations on 46 plates; extra spine label tipped in at the back; original blue paper-covered boards, printed paper spine label; near fine.
Parks 3167.