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American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) has been committed to sharing America's stories for more than 200 years.

We collect, preserve, and make available for study the pre-twentieth-century printed record of what is now the U.S.

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦Day 14: Do you ever just want to boop that little heart for the skull’s nose!? 🖤🥹This ima...
10/14/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 14: Do you ever just want to boop that little heart for the skull’s nose!? 🖤🥹

This image could actually be a boop-fest. It also makes a great or (or widdle-nose-Wednesday?)

Skulls like these were used to decorate and embellish all sorts of memento mori motifs - including broadsides, elegies, funeral sermons and even bookplates!

[Edit to add this is a detail of the John Green, Jr. (1763-1808) bookplate (of the Worcester Greens). Green listed himself as a physician, dentist surgery, apothecary and man-midwife. There are other juicy bits, but we might save the whole bookplate for a post of its own!! 😱 - still confirming the date, but likely late 18th century!]

Join us this Thursday, October 15th from 7:00-8:00 pm for a hybrid public program “Playing Indian Revisited” the Robert ...
10/13/2026

Join us this Thursday, October 15th from 7:00-8:00 pm for a hybrid public program “Playing Indian Revisited” the Robert C. Baron lecture by Philip J. Deloria. In person and virtual viewing options available. Register at americanantiquarian.org/programs-events/playing-indian-revisited

Day 13: Nothing to help you get a jump on your Tuesday like a warning alphabet 😙Aunt Pippin’s Warning ABC for All Little...
10/13/2026

Day 13: Nothing to help you get a jump on your Tuesday like a warning alphabet 😙

Aunt Pippin’s Warning ABC for All Little Children Who Desire to Be Good was printed in London and Toronto around 1861, with illustrations by George Cruikshank (1792-1878). This pictorial cautionary alphabet teaches little ones how to be good, one letter at a time.
It starts with “A is an ass, a poor, dull, ill-used beast; His reward is a stick, and a bramble his feast.” "B is a Beauty, all cheerful and gay; But her beauty soon fades like a flower in May." "C is a Cock--up betimes in the morning; To idle young sluggards a very good warning."

Only 23 letters to go! Behave yourselves, ye children!

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦Day 12: The Society is closed on Monday, October 12, in observance of Indigenous Peoples’...
10/12/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 12: The Society is closed on Monday, October 12, in observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Did you know that conservation materials smell like pumpkin spice? ☕️ Just kidding.

Though the image looks mysterious it just shows some preventative care. The photograph features a member of the conservation team performing surface cleaning and tear repair on an 18th-century newspaper. The role of the conservation department at AAS is to ensure the continued existence of the Society's collections.

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦Day 11: Tending the Baby 🖤👶🏼🧡�Having trouble containing all that October excitement? Try ...
10/11/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 11: Tending the Baby 🖤👶🏼🧡
�Having trouble containing all that October excitement? Try the baby tender which is suited to a variety of ages. Dr. Brown’s patented baby tender was a device beyond all description (so to get the full effect, it could be seen in person at their offices in New York).

Advertisements for the baby tender describe its beginning as being inspired by “a delightful little tyrant at our house, and it was once a pleasant task, but a real labor, to keep her amused and satisfied” - this color lithograph, produced by Ed Valois shows the complete and useful invention:

From a charming Spring Cradle it is easily and almost instantly converted into either of the following articles, namely: A RECLINING COUCH, for children too young to sit alone;
A SPRING CHAIR;
A BABY-WALKER, attractive and useful;
AN OTTOMAN, for the parlor or dining-room;
A HOBBY-HORSE, for children under five years;
A BABY-JUMPER, for security, exercise, and amusement;
A BABY-HORSE; or, when elevated, A HIGH CHAIR, for the table;
A NURSERY CHAIR.

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦Day 10: Saturday storms brewing 🌩️ In this wood engraving, Robinson Crusoe (properly dres...
10/10/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 10: Saturday storms brewing 🌩️

In this wood engraving, Robinson Crusoe (properly dressed in a nineteenth-century frock coat) is seen running to take cover from an impending thunderstorm. The image is from Joachim Heinrich Campe’s El Nuevo Robinson, a Spanish-language children’s edition of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with the text written as a didactic dialogue between children and adults. It was published in Filadelfia by Compañia Estereotipográfica de la América del Norte in 1843.�

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦Day 9: Fungi Friday! 🍄🍄‍🟫This keepsake-style volume, titled A Century of illustrative fun...
10/09/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 9: Fungi Friday! 🍄🍄‍🟫

This keepsake-style volume, titled A Century of illustrative fungi with generic synopses of the basidiomycetes and myxomycetes, was prepared by botanist Lucien Marcus Underwood (1853-1907) and botanist-entomologist Orator Fuller Cook (1867-1949).

The cards and envelopes for specimens were designed to help the user with classification; they were printed in Syracuse, New York in 1889. To aid with recording, they have the sample name, place usually found in nature, date and location. The two samples we’ve chosen include the “Polyporus Sanguineus,” a bright orange fungus (the item’s time in the archive hasn’t diminished it’s striking color! 🟠) as well as the “Lycogala epidendrum,” commonly known as wolf's milk 🐺 (technically a slime)!

Hoping you have a spore-tacular weekend!

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦Day 8: Poe’s Poe-ms 🐦‍⬛This edition of the poetical works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) ...
10/08/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 8: Poe’s Poe-ms 🐦‍⬛
This edition of the poetical works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was published in London and Newcastle by Walter Scott in 1885. The binding (and gold typeface!) are a lovely fit for the spine title! The brown bound leather copy with blind tooling and gold tooling is part of our first editions collection.

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦Day 7: The colors of this binding 🖤🧡This recent acquisition is a book of nursery rhymes p...
10/07/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 7: The colors of this binding 🖤🧡
This recent acquisition is a book of nursery rhymes put to music which includes songs in English, French and German. Titled the Baby's bouquet : a fresh bunch of old rhymes and tunes, was written as a companion to the Baby's opera by Walter Crane (1845-1915). The square binding of printed boards and decorated papers in black, gold and orange was published in London and New York in 1878.

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