Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
Of these only three have illustrated American history in any
degree,—those devoted to the voyages of Hulsius and Thévenot, and to
the Jesuit Relations (Canada).[72]
The only rival of the Lenox is the library of the late John Carter
Brown, of Providence, gathered largely under the supervision of
John Russell Bartlett; and since Mr. Brown’s death it has been more
particularly under the same oversight.[73] It differs from the Lenox
Library in that it is exclusively American, or nearly so,[74] and
still more in that we have access to a thorough catalogue of its
resources, made by Mr. Bartlett himself, and sumptuously printed.[75]
It was originally issued as _Bibliotheca Americana: A Catalogue of
books relating to North and South America in the Library of John
Carter Brown of Providence, with notes by John Russell Bartlett_, in
three volumes,—vol. i., 1493-1600, in 1865 (302 entries); vol. ii.,
1601-1700, in 1866 (1,160 entries); vol. iii., 1701-1800, in two parts,
in 1870-1871 (4,173 entries).
In 1875 vol. i. was reprinted with fuller titles, covering the
years 1482[76]-1601, with 600 entries, doubling the extent of that
portion.[77] Numerous facsimiles of titles and maps add much to its
value. A second and similarly extended edition of vol. ii. (1600-1700)
was printed in 1882, showing 1,642 entries. The _Carter-Brown
Catalogue_, as it is ordinarily cited, is the most extensive printed
list of all Americana previous to 1800, more especially anterior to
1700, which now exists.[78]
Of the other important American catalogues, the first place is to be
assigned to that of the collection formed at Hartford by Mr. George
Brinley, the sale of which since his death[79] has been undertaken
under the direction of Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull,[80] who has prepared
the catalogue, and who claims—not without warrant—that it embraces
“a greater number of volumes remarkable for their rarity, value, and
interest to special collectors and to book-lovers in general, than were
ever before brought together in an American sale-room.”[81]
The library of William Menzies, of New York, was sold in 1875,
from a catalogue made by Joseph Sabin.[82] The library of Edward
A. Crowninshield, of Boston, was catalogued in Boston in 1859, but
withdrawn from public sale, and sold to Henry Stevens, who took a
portion of it to London. It was not large,—the catalogue shows less
than 1,200 titles,—and was not exclusively American; but it was rich in
some of the rarest of such books, particularly in regard to the English
Colonies.[83]
The sale of John Allan’s collection in New York, in 1864, was a
noteworthy one. Americana, however, were but a portion of the
collection.[84] An English-American flavor of far less fineness, but
represented in a catalogue showing a very large collection of books and
pamphlets,[85] was sold in New York in May, 1870, as the property of
Mr. E. P. Boon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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