Take a Tour of the American Antiquarian Society

The last time I was in the library of the American Antiquarian Society I was a member of a summer seminar on the history of the book in early America, taught by Harvard Divinity School’s David D. Hall.  I hope to return again soon, but in the meantime I can experience the library imaginatively through AAS intern Susan Lydon’s piece at Past is Present.

Here is a taste:

…As a new intern here in the readers services department, I joined Elizabeth Pope, Head of Reader Services, last Thursday for a fascinating tour of the library. I thought I would blog about what I learned for the benefit of the readers of Past is Present who are as curious as I was about the library’s history. The tour was specially arranged for a local college history professor and his class of what we hoped were budding young historians. Beginning the tour in the lobby, Elizabeth showed us the portrait of Isaiah Thomas, which hangs above the stairs, informing us that he was a patriot printer who lived during the Revolutionary War. She then led us upstairs to see Isaiah Thomas’s original wooden printing press and the shoulder-height cases where he stored his type.

Read the rest here.

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