1861 PETERSON'S MAGAZINE
COMPLETE YEAR
This book is a hard bound edition of Peterson's Ladies Magazine for the year 1861. One previous owner, "Laura P. Fitch" penciled her name on one of the blank pages, I can find no other marks. Contrary to popular belief these magazines were seldom collected by an individual and taken to the local book binder (I said seldom, not never). Rather, all of the major publishers offered each year as a bound annual, some even offered "extras" such as having your name embossed on the spine, gift bindings, etc. You won't always find that info in the bound book but you will often see it in the individual monthly magazines. Let's talk about this book now.
This book is the complete year for 1861, the most relevant year to all sides as fashion magazines were very low priority when filling the hold of a blockade runner. Parthenia Hague wrote in here journal that they did not see a new ladies magazine in central Alabama for the duration of the war.
The corners of the boards are bumped but still in good condition. The leather spine is cracked at the hinges but intact. I have owned this book for several years and have treated the leather annually. I think the hinges will hold just fine as long as you use a book cradle. Never lay a book this large or this old flat. You will find one very minor page tear. All pages are present and accounted for. Foxing is light and the pages are tight.
This book contains 10 fashion plates with their descriptions. I will include modern prints of the 2 missing fashion plates so you will have them all. Each month has a song sheet and at least one pattern. The number of black and white prints numbers in the gazillions. There are also a few color prints that are not fashion plates but often illustrations of sewing, crochet or knitting projects. Poems, lots of poems as with all period publications. Some short stories but more often serial stories (tune in next month to find out if Suzy really does jump off the cliff!). I like to joke but actually several very popular works that you would recognize today first ran as serials in C.W. period mags. Several columns which ran every month, "Health Department", "Household Corner" and recipe after recipe with advice on just about everything related to entertaining guest. Lots of suggestions on how to entertain the children with projects for them to do and of course fashion, fashion and more fashion. What to wear, what not to wear.
I've always preferred Peterson's over Godey's. It's just a personal preference but I think that most of the information offered is more detailed and written in a manner that is easier to understand without re-reading a paragraph several times over. The fashion plates are about the same in either with both being better than most French mags. I can not think of a single source which will offer you more information on a larger variety of subjects relevant to the American Civil War experience than Peterson's.
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1858 LIFE THOUGHTS BY HENRY W. BEECHER
If your impression is that of a pro-abolition Union soldier this would be a great living history piece for your camp.
This book once belonged to S. P. Statlem from Bedford Pa. He penned his name in the book several times with brown ink. Overall condition is sound. All the pages are tight. The spine has a few problems but nothing that would keep you from using the book.
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HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE
JUNE THRU NOVEMBER 1861
Harpers is much like any of the other magazines of the day. Their content had to please the entire household so you will find articles written expressly for the ladies as well as for the gentlemen with some small content for the young ones. As with most magazines of the day stories from history were very popular. Stories from the Americas and from Europe, the American Revolution was always a popular subject as was the French Revolution. Contemporary topics of politics here and abroad are regular fare. Exotic tales of far off places and mucho humor. Here in the states Harper's cartoons and satires are second only to those of Vanity Fair or to those of the magazine "Punch" in England.
Of most interest to our military friends will probably be the reoccurring article, "MONTHLY RECORDS OF CURRENT EVENTS", with all the latest war news. This volume contains a great map of the battle lines at Manassas.
Of most interest to our lady friends may be the Fashion plates (one example is shown above). Even though the plates found here are not "colored" they do have one thing that Godey's lacked. All articles shown in these plates are drawn from actual articles! Not from an artist conception as with other magazines. All articles found here were available for purchase at the esteemed house of Mr. G. Brodie located at 300 Canal Street, New York. All are drawn by the artist, Voigt who has a remarkable eye for detail. Rouching is easily distinguished from pleats etc. etc. Of course this book is invaluable to the historian but you may be surprised as to it's literary value. It never fails that when I pick one of these books up to "only" find a fact or two. I end up reading the complete article or two. It is as entertaining today as it was then.
The condition of this book is sound. As you can see from the photo above I have rebound this copy as it had no cover when it came into my possession. I recycled a cover from an old novel which was bound for the pits of used book hell, never to be purchased nor read again. So at least some good will come from it. The quality of the paper used by Harper's was marginal at best. Dog earing a page is out of the question. Some water stains can be found on the blank outer pages but none on a printed page. There is NO foxing and very little if any darkening of the pages. All pages are present and tightly bound. The only tear I can find is shown in the fashion plate photo above and to a one blank page. You will not have to handle this book as gently as an original bound copy but care should be used to insure it's longevity.
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HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE JUNE THRU NOV. 1855
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YANKEE FROM OLYMPUS, JUSTICE HOLMES
and HIS FAMILY
OFFICAL RECORDS VOLUME 28 PART II
SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA & FLORIDA
Now with that said on to the good stuff. This particular book came from the Virginia Theological Seminary. It covers, and I quote, "Correspondence, orders, and returns relating to operations on the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, and in Middle and East Florida, from June 12 to December 31, 1863." A wealth of information you can not get anywhere else. If you are interested in the movements of the armies in any of the afore mentioned areas this is the book. Straight from the horses mouth.
No loose, torn or damaged pages.
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