A Donation Highlights Jewish Contributions to Commerce in Early America

20 Monday Nov 2017

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abolitionism, advertisement, America, American, army, Bank of the United States, broker, Charleston, commerce, Congregation Mikveh Israel, Congress, Cornwallis, delegates, donation, Dr. Ronald Rubin, Dunlap's American Daily Advertiser, duty, England, financier, Frankfurt, George Washington, Germany, Haym Salomon, Isaac Franks, Jewish, levy, Levy Department Store, newspapers, Nones and Cohen, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, Solomon Lyons, South Carolina, Southern Union, stock brokers, The Charleston Mercury, The Independent Gazetteer, The Pennyslvania Packet

Dr. Ronald Rubin has donated four issues of early American newspapers highlighting Jewish contributions to commerce.

The Pennsylvania Packet, Philadelphia, October 9, 1781, features an advertisement by Haym Salomon, broker, considered the Financier of the American Revolution.

In the news that day, a report on the war from September 28:

“Gen. Washington sent in a flag to lord Cornwallis directing him not to destroy his shipping or warlike stores, as he would answer it at his peril. The early capture of the out-posts will greatly accelerate the future operations of our army.”

The Independent Gazetteer, or the Chronicle of Freedom, Philadelphia, February 4, 1783, contains an advertisement by Philadelphia stock brokers Isaac Franks, and Nones and Cohen.

In the news that day, a letter from the editor regarding vesting “power to Congress to levy, for the use of the United States, a duty of 5 per cent…on all goods, wares, and merchandise, of foreign growth and manufacture, etc….” to which the author against Rhode Island’s demurs: “If the Congress of America was a body of individual permanency, there might just cause of jealousy; but, when it is considered, that every member is annually nominated by assemblies, who are themselves also annually chosen by the people, I cannot perceive the least ground of danger; nay, I believe in most of the states, the delegates to Congress are revocable at pleasure: so that evil of misapplied power may be check as soon as it appears.”

Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, May 9, 1791, features an advertisement by Solomon Lyons, a prominent Colonial-era broker and financier. Lyons was born in 1760 in Frankfurt, Germany and died in 1812 in Philadelphia, having raised a family of six children and being an active participant with Congregation Mikveh Israel.

In the news that day, an observation from a correspondent:

“The Bank of the United States may justly be considered as a proposition made to the monied interest, foreign and domestic — & in fact, appears to both in a very favourable point of light – the latter, from every information, are making great preparations to subscribe, and the terms are so advantages that no equal object of speculation is perhaps presented in any quarter of the globe to the former.

The Charleston Mercury, Charleston, South Carolina, February 13, 1856, contains a front page illustration of Levy Department Store.

In the news that day, a piece on abolitionism:

“…the Southern States shall become strong. Then, like the barons of England in similar circumstances, that they be able to demand their rights under the magna charta of the land, or, failing to secure these, to dissolve their connection with a hostile and lawless section. Glorious, indeed, according to our view, would be the result of Southern Union…”

Thank you, Dr. Rubin, for years of your wonderful gifts!

A fine piece of early Americana and a very fine gift

20 Tuesday Dec 2016

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almanac, American, American Antiquarian Society, American Revolution, Americana, battles, Benjamin Franklin, bibles, bindery, books, bookstores, Boston, broadsides, Caleb Alexander, Charles River, collector, Concord, dictionaries, Dr. Ronald Rubin, English, Greek, Greek New Testament, history, independence, Isaiah Thomas, John Mill, Lexington, literature, London, Maryland, Massachusetts, medicine, music, Newburyport, newspaper, Nova Scotia, Oxford, pamphlets, paper mill, printer, printing history, rare books, Ronald Rubin, sedition, Vermont, Virgil, war, Worcester, Yale University

HE KAINE DIATHEKE, NOVUM TESTAMENTUM
Wigorniae, Massachusettensi: excudebat Isaias Thomas, Jun, 1800
Editio Prima Americana

This is the first American printing of the Greek New Testament, considered a milestone in American printing history.

Isaiah Thomas’ printing shop was dubbed “the sedition factory,” during the American Revolution. Thomas moved his press from Boston across the Charles River to Worcester in order to avoid confiscation by British troupes. His press reassembled, Thomas remained in Worcester for the rest of his life, printing the first reports of the battles of Lexington and Concord (“Americans! – – – Liberty or Death! – – – Join or Die!”) and continuing to print until he sold his business in 1802.

Isaiah Thomas was born in Boston in 1749. Thomas was apprenticed to a printer, at the age of six, after the death of his father. He stayed for ten years, then broke his bond and headed to London, much as Benjamin Franklin had done earlier. Thomas got as far as Nova Scotia, where he stayed to print a newspaper. After six months, he was sent packing because of his anti-Stamp Act actions. After another foray, this time to the south, Thomas returned to Boston to set up his own newspaper, The Massachusetts Spy. At the same time, he began what would become a lucrative printing business, which included an almanac and the Royal American Magazine, in 1774.

After the war for independence was won, Thomas built his press into an enterprise that included a bindery, a paper mill and bookstores from Vermont to Maryland. In 1773, he established the first press in Newburyport, Massachusetts, at the request of some of its citizens. He printed books on medicine, music, history, and literature; and printed spellers, dictionaries, and bibles. Caleb Alexander (1755-1828), a graduate of Yale University, worked with Thomas as editor for his first American editions of Virgil and other works in Greek, including He kaine diatheke. Alexander based his edition on a 1707 Oxford edition by English scholar John Mill (1645-1707).

Thomas retired around 1802, about two years after his printing of He kaine diatheke. He spent the rest of his life collecting printed American works – books, pamphlets, broadsides, almanacs, and newspapers. He used these as primary sources for his History of Printing in America, published in 1810. He donated his collection to the American Antiquarian Society, an institution he organized in order to provide a home for print material from early American history.

This is the most recent of numerous gifts throughout the years from Dr. Ronald Rubin, a collector, like Isaiah Thomas, of early Americana and a very fine friend of Rare Books. Thank you, Dr. Rubin!

A donation helps lift the fog — Thank you, Dr. Rubin!

03 Thursday Mar 2016

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American Indian, Arctic, aurora borealis, Back River, Canada, canoe, Dr. Ronald Rubin, England, expedition, Fort Resolution, geology, George Back, Great Fish River, Great Slave Lake, John Franklin, John Murray, John Ross, London, Maufelly, Montreal, Northwest Passage, Royal Geographical Society, Royal Navy, Spottiswoode, travel, travel narrative

“When the mind has been made up to encounter disasters and reverses, and has fixed a point as the zero of its scale, however for the time it may be depressed by doubts and difficulties, it will mount up again with the first gleam of hope for the future; but, in this instance, there was no expedient by which we could overcome the obstacles before us: every resource was exhausted, and it was vain to expect that any efforts, however strenuous, could avail against the close-wedged ice, and the constant fogs which enveloped every thing in impenetrable obscurity.”

Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition…
George Back (1796-1878)
London: A. Spottiswoode for John Murray, 1836
First edition, octavo

In 1833, George Back set out to find John Ross, who had departed in the summer of 1829 on an expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Ross had not been heard from since. Back, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, had sailed to the Arctic under John Franklin in 1819-22 and again in 1824-26. Back volunteered to lead his own expedition to find Ross.

While the Back expedition was en route, the Ross expedition arrived home in 1834. Back continued his expedition, traveling overland through central Canada from Montreal to Fort Resolution on the Great Slave Lake. The group of five, including an American Indian guide named Maufelly, used canoes to explore the Great Fish River, seeking and finding its source.

Back mapped the Arctic coast westwards, as they portaged around lakes, negotiated rapids, and made their way through dense forests. Upon his return, Back was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. The Great Fish River was renamed the Back River in his honor. In all, the expedition traveled nearly 7,500 miles, eventually making its way to the Arctic Coast before returning home to England.

Back documented his observations on geology, plant and animal life, the weather, (noting the aurora borealis in an appendix to this publication), and indigenous peoples; and added his own illustrations. In the year of its publication, Back traveled to the Arctic again. While Back was accused by some of being an ineffective leader, his writing was clear, detailed, even lyrical. His story is considered one of the finest travel narratives of the nineteenth century.

University of Utah copy gift of Dr. Ronald Rubin.

Rare Books receives donation of historic issue of Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser

13 Wednesday Jan 2016

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abolition, American, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Boston, citizens, congregation, Court-house, December, donation, Dr. Ronald Rubin, Ebenezer Rhoades, eulogy, Farewell Address, freedom, George Washington, gift, Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser, pastor, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, President, Printing-House, proprietor, rare books, Richard Allen, Ronald Rubin, sermon, slaves, Sunday, The University of Utah, Underground Railroad, Whipple

THE INDEPENDENT CHRONICLE AND THE UNIVERSAL ADVERTISER
Boston: Ebenezer Rhoades (for the proprietor) at the Printing-Office opposite the Court-House, Court-Street, vol. XXXII, number 1964, Monday, January 13 to Thursday, January 16, 1800

The front page of this issue begins with a eulogy for George Washington by the Rev. Richard Allen, pastor of the Bethel (Pennsylvania) African Methodist Episcopal Church. This church, founded by Allen and others in 1797, was the first Methodist church in the United States opened specifically for African Americans. Richard Allen was born into slavery in 1760. Benjamin Chew, a Quaker attorney, owned the Allen family, then sold the family to Stokeley Sturgis, a planter in Delaware. Allen was converted to Methodism by an itinerant preacher. Sturgis, apparently influenced by Allen, also became a Methodist. After his conversion, Sturgis offered to let his slaves buy their freedom. After working odd jobs for five years, in 1783, Allen purchased his own freedom for $2000. Through Methodist connections, he was invited to Philadelphia in 1786, where he joined a church and became active in teaching and preaching. A growing congregation of African Americans caused the white congregation so much discomfort that they began segregating seating and services. Allen and several others formed their own church in 1787. Allen opened a day school for African Americans and worked actively for abolition of slavery. His home was a stop in the Underground Railroad. Allen died in 1831. In his eulogy for George Washington, believed to be the first by a black minister for an American president, Allen wrote, “We, my friends, have a peculiar case to bemoan our loss. To us he has been the sympathizing friend and tender father. He has watched over us, and viewed our degraded and afflicted state with compassion and pity – his heart was not insensible to our sufferings.” This was part of a sermon he delivered on Sunday, December 29, 1799. Allen referred to the fact that Washington freed his slaves and asked that his congregation adhere to the “laws of the land” as Washington asked of United States citizens in his Farewell Address, “Your observance…will…greatly promote the cause of the oppressed…” Our copy inscribed by “Col. Whipple.” University of Utah copy gift of Dr. Ronald Rubin.

Book of the Week/ Donation – Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser

16 Monday Feb 2015

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"Light-Horse Harry" Lee, A. C. Hanson, Baltimore Federal Republican, Boston, Cambridge, Confederate, Congress, Continental Army, Dr. Ronald Rubin, Ebenezer Rhoades, George Washington, Henry Lee, Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser, John Adams, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Robert E. Lee, Salem, The Essex Gazette, The New-England Chronicle, Uniform Monday Holiday Act, United States, University of Utah, War of 1812, Whiskey Rebellion

Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser
Boston: Ebenezer Rhoades, 1800

“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life: pious, just, humane, temperate and sincere; uniform, dignified and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting.”

George Washington’s death, late in 1799, evoked hundreds of funeral orations from all over the United States. Of these, that of Henry Lee, delivered before Congress on December 26, 1799 in Philadelphia, is the most memorable. His eulogy was re-printed in newspapers throughout the nation, and in pamphlets printed on the continent and overseas. The eulogy covered nearly the entire front page of newspapers.

As in many newspapers, this issue included “A Proclamation” signed by then-President John Adams setting aside February 22, Washington’s birthday, for the public to “testify their grief for the death of General George Washington.” In 1885, February 22 was declared a federal holiday. The date was changed to the third Monday of February in 1971 following Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

“Light-Horse Harry” Lee had been summoned by Washington in 1776 to join the Continental Army. In 1778, Washington promoted Lee to the rank of major and gave him command of a small corps of irregulars. Lee’s leadership of these troops earned him his nickname. In 1794 Washington sent him to command the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. From 1799 to 1801 he served in Congress.

Lee helped his friend A.C. Hanson, editor of the Baltimore Federal Republican which opposed the War of 1812, resist a mob attack. In the melee he received injuries from which he never recovered. Lee served a year in debtor’s prison. He was the father of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The Independent Chronicle (1776-1840) originated in 1768 as The Essex Gazette in Salem and The New-England Chronicle in Cambridge which joined forces in Boston. In 1820 it had the distinction of being Boston’s oldest running newspaper.

University of Utah copy gift of Dr. Ronald Rubin.

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~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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A Donation Highlights Jewish Contributions to Commerce in Early America

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