Colonial Living & 19th History Books

Home Life in Colonial Days $6.50 (Out of Print)
Alice Morse Earle
NY: 1933 Reprint of the 1878 edition.
It is rare that a book written three quarters of a century earlier is able to remain the best in its field. But, such is the case with Home Life in Colonial Days which after 25 printings, continues to be the most highly respected account of daily life in the early years of America.
Mrs. Earle, of course, did not live in colonial times any more than do we and her information and insights, has had to depend on research rather than personal experience. Her advantage, though, was that she lived at a time when searches through attic eaves, dairy cellars and old trunks could still yield sufficient authentic evidence of the times about which she was writing. When she placed all the evidence and first hand information alongside the researched information, she had an accurate impression of various facets of colonial living, they made a perfect mosaic of everyday life in colonial times, And, of course , she was able, on occasion, to find someone __perhaps a bit on in years--willing to discuss the times "when we were young."
Home Life in Colonial Days is in no way a political or historical analysis, It was written in a day when good description was thought as much a virtue as bold interpretation. And this is its strength; this is what gives it enduring value.
Here are some of the subjects Alice Morse Earle discusses in  Home Life in Colonial Days:
Homes of the Colonials, The kitchen fireside, The serving of meals, Food, Meat and drink, Flax culture and spinning, Wood culture and spinning, Hand-weaving, Girl's occupations, Dress of the colonials, Travel, Transportation and taverns, Sunday in the colonies, Colonial neighborliness, Old-time flower gardens.
470 pages, hardbound, reading copy, wear on covers. pages in good condition.

Speeches in the Second and Third Sessions of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, and in the Vacation. $75.00
Benjamin F. Thomas.
Boston: Printed by John Wilson and Son, 1863.
The speeches and addresses in this volume cover a period of about fifteen months, including the second and third sessions of the Thirty-seventh Congress and the vacation. T have put them in this form to meet the wishes of a few friends, in justice to myself, that my position may not be misunderstood and in the hope, not very buoyant, that they may do good. I am painfully sensible how fragmentary and defective they are. But the principles they seek to illustrate and defend are just and true, and will weather the storm. They constitute the traditional policy of the country, a return to which is, in my judgment, its only security. That they are unpopular at this moment does not disturb me: the more imperative is the duty of standing by and upholding them. The citizen owes to the country, in the hour of her peril, honest counsel, calmly given, but with the love that casteth out fear." Never were freedom of thought and of the lips and pen so necessary as now. They have become, not only the most precious of rights, but the most religious of duties
In preparing for the printer, I have corrected a few of the errors of style. I have not felt at liberty to make material changes in the thought. In one or two instances (as in the remarks on the Conscription Bill), I have added, from notes, suggestions omitted at the time of delivery. The recurrence of the same idea, and of even the same expression, in different speeches on thee same or kindred topics, could not well be avoided.
From the remarks on the Treat case, I have stricken two or three sentences which were thought to breathe a spirit of vengeance; a spirit the gospel does not permit us to indulge, even against the enemies of our country. Of the expressions of confidence in the conservative views of the President, I can only say, I believed them well grounded when they were made.
The Speeches:
The relation of the "seceded states" (so-called) To the Union, and the Confiscation of Property, and Emancipation of Slaves, and Such States
Confiscation
The Treasury Note Bill
Recognition of Liberia and Haiti
Death of Honorable Goldsmiths F. Bailey
Case of the "Trent"
Speech at the Mass Meaning for Recruiting, on Boston Common
The Army of the Reserve
Speech at Chelsea
Remarks on the Border States
On the Bill "to Raise Additional Soldiers for the Service of the Government"
The Louisiana Election Cases
The Conscription Bill
New England and the Union
217 pages, 6 x 10 hardcover; inscribed by author; overall condition is good, cloth split at top of spine, edges bumped, worn, front and rear endpapers mildewed, former owner’s bookplate; text block edges aged, interior clean. <con>

As We Were - Family Life in America 1850-1900 $9.95
Bellamy Partridge and Otto Bettmann
Whittlesey House 1946.
Great illustrations. This would be a good source for period clipart.
”Our story in words and pictures offers a pageant beginning back on the farm in the beguiling fifties. It ends with the appearance of a cloud of dust caused by people coming home from a spin in the country-side towards the close of the century.
Territorially we have confined ourselves to the eastern part of the United States, vortex of the industrial age, which was later on to expand to the West and eventually to the South, regions with which we may concern ourselves another time.
Though many of the pictures shown here have never been reproduced since their original publication, no attempt has been made to press them into a strict chronological order. Our story tries to recapture the period as a whole. It depicts modes of living that change but slowly—defying the stringent rules of the calendar. Where dates are important as landmarks and guide posts, they are given all possible accuracy. The Authors.”
Table of contents: INTRODUCTION, COUNTRY LIVING, Hay Days of the Old Farm Holidays, The Farmer Goes to Town, THE GREAT DIVIDE: CIVIL WAR Doings on the Home Front Postwar World, LURE OF THE CITY, Street Life and Business Interlude: The Centennial Private Lives, Sports and Amusements, ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATIONS, INDEX
186 pages, 9x12 hardbound, good condition.

In Small Things Forgotten: The Archeology of Early American Life $4.95
James Deetz
Table of contents:
Recalling Things Forgotten: Archaeology and the American Artifact
The Anglo-American Past
All the Earthenware Plain and Flowered Remember Me as You Pass By
I Would Have the Howse Stronge in Timber
Small Things Remembered
Parting Ways
Small Things Forgotten
184 pages, paperback, good condition, some creasing on covers.

Saga America $8.95
A Startling New Theory on the Old World Settlement of America Before Columbus
By Barry Fell
New York: Times Books Revised 1983 edition
     The sequel to America B.C. (From the introduction.) "In America BC issued at the time of the Bicentennial in 1976, I outlined our knowledge of the earliest phases of the settlement by colonists from Europe and North Africa during the first millennium before Christ. This book carries the story through the time of Christ and onto the first millennium after Christ. It also takes some cognizance of the corresponding arrivals on the West Coast of ancient colonists who crossed the Pacific to find a new world.
     The men and women who figure in this sequel were Carthaginians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, and variance, Libyans and Norse men; and on the West Coast, Libyans, Greeks, and Arabs, with traders from China and India. Our history books speak much of the Romans of Rome, the Greeks of Greece and of each of the others named-always in the context of their homeland. But that is not the stuff of which American history was made. Colonists vanish from their homelands, and none remains behind to write their saga....
392 pages, softbound, good condition.

The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation $25.00
By R A Skelton et al
New Haven, Yale University Press, 1965. 3rd printing.
     I've seen this one go for up to $80.00. Is it real or is it a forgery? They are still arguing about this 40 years after publication.
     (from the end flaps) "Because evidence concerning the Viking discovery of North America in the tenth and eleventh centuries is so incomplete, investigation of this area of history will be substantially aided by the discovery of new documents. Such is the claim made for the previously unknown manuscripts here published for the first time. They are two documents copied about 1440 from much earlier originals, now lost. The first is an account of Friar John of Plano Carpini's mission to the Mongols in 1245-47. The second is a world map, including the western ocean, with delineations of Iceland, Greenland, and a land mass named Vinland which represents the North American mainland as known to the medieval Norsemen.
     This map is the earliest known and indisputable cartographic representation of any part of the Americas.
     Thomas E. Marston, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Literature in the Yale University Library, describes the chance circumstances of the discovery of the two documents, which had become separated from a manuscript of Vincent de Beauvais into which they had been originally bound. Mr. Marston establishes the close association of the Vinland Map with the "Tartar Relation"-the account of the Mongols. George D. Painter, Assistant Keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum, who has edited the Tartar account, also analyzes the relationship of the three elements of the original Beauvais manuscript and reconstructs its bibliographical history. R. A. Skelton, Superintendent of the Map Room of the British Museum, describes the Vinland Map and its geography in relation to its sources and analyzes its historical importance.
     As the editors show, the Tartar Relation provides information on Mongol history and legend not to be found in any known source, and a portion of the Map represents the only surviving medieval example based on Norse cartography-a conclusion with far-reaching implications for the history of cartography and of the Viking navigations."
289 pages, 12 x 9 hardbound, dj, worn and chipped on edges and corners.

The Architectural Treasures of Early America, 16 Volume Set $160.00
Originally published 1913-1940, reprinted 1988 by the National Historic Company.
This is a favorite of mine, I have a set in my living room.  This series was done to record colonial architecture before it disappeared. You will find a monograph with lots of photographs and sometimes blueprints on each subject. It is very difficult to find a full set. See descriptions of the volumes below.

Survey of Early American Design Volume I
Historical Introduction to Series
Series Preface
Early Wooden Architecture in Andover, Massachusetts
New England Inns and Taverns
Interior Woodwork in New England During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
A Comparative Study of a Group of Early American Ornamental Cornices, Part One
A Comparative Study of a Group of Early American Ornamental Cornices, Part Two
A Comparative Study of a Group of Early American Windows
Charleston Doorways: Entrance Motives from a South Carolina City
A Group of Eastern Massachusetts Vestibules
Examples of Interior Doors and Doorways from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Some Interior Arched Openings found in Northeastern Colonial Work
Some Low Mantels and Fireplace Enframements Principally of the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
Some New England Paneled Room Ends from the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries ,
Some Examples of Corner Cupboards Generally of Early Design and Construction
Glossary
240 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition

Early Architecture of the South Volume II
Preface
Some Houses of Colonial Maryland
Colonial Architecture of the Eastern Shore of Maryland
Annapolis on the Severn
Domestic Architecture of Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Architectural Inspiration from Northern Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Old Salem, Now a Part of Winston‑Salem, North Carolina
New Bern: "The Athens of North Carolina"
New England Influence on North Carolina Architecture: New Bern, Part Two
The Charm of Old Charleston: A New World City of Old World Memories
236 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition

New England By The Sea Volume III
Preface
Port Towns of Penobscot Bay
Some Old Houses on the Southern Coast of Maine
Portsmouth, New Hampshire: An Early American Metropolis
Old Houses in and Around  Newburyport, Massachusetts
The Early Dwellings of Nantucket
Marblehead: Its Contribution to Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century American Architecture
Old Marblehead, Massachusetts, Part One
Old Marblehead, Massachusetts, Part Two
Old Marblehead, Massachusetts, Part Three
The Cottages of Cape Ann
The Cottage Interiors of Cape Ann
The Later Dwelling Architecture of Cape Ann, Part One
The Later Dwelling Architecture of Cape Ann, Part Two
Cape Ann: Some Earlier Colonial Dwellings in and about Annisquam, Massachusetts
Some Old Houses of Pigeon Cove
248 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition

Colonial Architecture old the Mid-Atlantic Volume IV
Preface
Farmhouses of New Netherlands
Early Dutch Houses of Northern New Jersey
House of John Imlay, Esquire, Allentown, New Jersey
Burlington County Court House at Mount Holly, New Jersey
The Wooden Architecture of the Lower Delaware Valley
Farmhouses of Oley Valley, Berks County, Pennsylvania
Moravian Architecture of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
New Castle, Delaware: An Eighteenth‑Century Town
George Read II House at New Castle, Delaware
The Builder's Companion, Part One Reprint of the 1762 Handbook
The Builder's Companion, Part Two Reprint of the 1762 Handbook
Roofs: The Varieties Commonly Used in the Architecture of the American Colonies and the Early Republic
236 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition

Homes of New York & Connecticut Volume V
Preface
Rensselaerville: An Old Village of the Helderbergs
Cooperstown: In the Days of Our Forefathers
Some Forgotten Farmhouses on Manhattan Island
Settlements on the Eastern End of Long Island
Early Wood‑Built Houses of Central New York
The Greek Revival in Owego and Nearby New York Towns
Old Chatham and Neighboring
Dwellings South of the Berkshires
The Town of Suffield, Connecticut
Historic Houses of Litchfield Farmington, Connecticut
Essex: A Connecticut River Town
The River Towns of Connecticut
The Old Hill Towns of Windham County, Connecticut
Old Canterbury on the Quinnebaug
Old Woodbury and Adjacent Domestic
Architecture of Connecticut
Early Houses of the Connecticut Valley
254 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition

Early Architecture of Rhode Island Volume VI
Preface
Newport, Rhode Island: An Early American Seaport
The Houses of Bristol, Rhode Island, Part One
The Houses of Bristol, Rhode Island, Part Two
Some Old Houses of Warren, Rhode Island, Part One
Some Old Houses of Warren, Rhode Island, Part Two
Little Compton and Tiverton Four Corners
Tiverton, Rhode Island, and Some of Its Early Dwelling
Providence and Its Colonial Homes
The Houses and Villages of North Smithfield, Rhode Island
Dwellings in Northeastern Rhode Island and the Smithfields
Rhode Island Houses Along the Blackstone River Valley
Rhode Island Mill Towns
Some Early "Single‑Room Houses" of Lincoln, Rhode Island
A Providence, Rhode Island Georgian Mansion, Founded by John Brown
339, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition

Early American Southern Homes Volume VI
Preface
Montpelier, The Snowden Long House, Prince George County, Maryland
Wye House, Home of the Lloyds, Talbot County, Maryland
A Pre‑Revolutionary Annapolis House: The Matthias Hammond House, Part One
A Pre‑Revolutionary Annapolis House: The Matthias Hammond House, Part Two
The Colonial Renaissance: Houses of the Middle and Southern Colonies
Gunston Hall, Fairfax County, Virginia
Some Charleston Mansions
An Eastern North Carolina Town House: The Smallwood‑Jones Residence
A Town House of Charleston, South Carolina: The William Gibbes Residence
The Edwards Smyth House, Charleston, South Carolina
236 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition

Village Architecture of New England Volume VIII
Preface
A New England Village
Salem, Massachusetts
Danvers, Massachusetts, Part One
Danvers, Massachusetts, Part Two
Watertown, Massachusetts
Old Deerfield, Massachusetts
Old Concord, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Part One
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Part Two
Late Eighteenth Century Architecture in Western Massachusetts
The Dwellings of Newbury Old Town
Wiscasset, Maine
Dependencies of the Old‑Fashioned House
Fences and Fenceposts
238 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition

The Evolution of Colonial Architecture Volume IX
Preface
Colonial Cottages During the Latter Half of the Seventeenth Century
The Seventeenth Century   Connecticut House
Houses of Bennington, Vermont, and Vicinity C
Early Dwellings in New Hampshire
Small Colonial Houses
New England Colonial Houses of the Early Portion of the Eighteenth Century
Three Story Colonial Houses of New England
Architecture in Massachusetts During the Latter Portion of the Eighteenth Century
Early Brickwork in New England
The Charm of Old San Antonio:A Spanish Settlement of the Southwest
The Interior Details and Furnishings of the Sarah Orne Jewett Dwelling
The Colonel Robert Means House, Amherst, New Hampshire
The Interior Details and Furnishings of the Col. Paul Wentworth Mansion
The Interior Details and Furnishings of the William Haskell Dwelling
The Gardner-White-Pingree House
248 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition, 1/2 inch scratch on spine.

Early American Community Structures Volume X
Preface
Churches in Eight American Colonies
Early Boston Churches
Country Meeting Houses Along the Massachusetts‑New Hampshire Line
Garrison Houses Along the New England Frontier
The Boston Post Road
The Stagecoach Road From Hartford to Litchfield
Early College and Educational Buildings in New England
Colonial Public Buildings of Salem, Massachusetts
Some Examples of Period Windows and Details of their Interior Treatment
Early Interior Doorways in New England
Entrance Halls and Stairways Illustrated by Examples from Massachusetts and Central New England
Some New England Staircases‑1670‑1770
Some Colonial Wall Cabinets and  Kitchen Dressers Principally From Early Massachusetts Settlements
Index
226 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition.

Blueprints for America's Past Volume XI
Preface
A Suburban House and Garage
A House to Cost Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars
A House for the Vacation Season
A Community Center Building
A Roadside Tavern
A Three Teacher Rural School with Teachers Cottage
A Country Church and Sunday School Building with Residents for the Minister
A Rural Library Building
224 Pages, 12 x 9 hardbound, very good condition

The Southern Tradition Volume XII
Old Colonial Work in Virginia and Maryland
Annapolis on the Severn
Colonial Work in the Virginia Borderland
Some Homes of the Washington Family
University Of Virginia
Cape Fear River District, North Carolina
The Matter of Imported Material
A Few Northern and Southern Peculiarities
224 pages, 9 x 12 hardbound, very good condition.
 
Styles of the Emerging Nation Volume XIII
Preface
Colonial Architecture of the United States
Dutch and German 18th-Century Work
Two Old Philadelphia Churches
the Verplanck Homestead, Fishkill, New York
Colonial Work in the Genesee Valley
The Mappa, Trenton, New York
Colonial Work at Sackett's Harbor
223 pages, 9 x 12 hardbound, very good condition.
 
The Grandeur of the South Volume XIV
Preface
Savanna and Parts of the Far South
St. Michael's and St. Philip's Charleston, South Carolina
An Autumn Trip to South Carolina
Some Estates on the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, South Carolina
Milford, in the High Hill of Santee, South Carolina
The De Saussure Homestead, near Camden, South Carolina
Beaufort, South Carolina an Island Capital
French Santee, South Carolina
Romance in the South Carolina Homestead, Charleston, between the Ashley and the Cooper
More Peculiarities of Southern Colonial Architecture
223 pages, 9 x 12 hardbound, very good  condition

The Georgian Heritage Volume XV
Preface
The Relation of Georgian Architecture to Carpentry
Georgian Door Heads in London
The Architecture of the 18th Century in England
A Triad of Georgian Churches in London
Georgian architecture in Dublin
The Men Who Designed the Old Colonial Buildings
The Hotel Cluny of a New England Village
224 pages, 9 x 12 hardbound, very fine condition

Spirit of New England Volume XVI
Preface
Colonial Architecture in Western Massachusetts
Six Hours in Salem, Massachusetts
The Georgian Houses of New England
The Greek Revival and Some Other Things
The Seventh Day Baptist Church at Newport, Rhode Island
The Roof of the Old South Church Meeting House, Boston
The Massachusetts Statehouse
224 pages 9 x 12 hardbound, very good condition.