It’s time for another Report from the Bunker! This time highlighting a small selection from the uncataloged 19th century books that we’ve recently begun exploring.
Among many things we’ve found in the first 54 boxes is a large and exciting cashe of children’s literature, adding to our already strong holdings. There are both the ephemeral (and extremely didactic) early century books and the later, fanciful and highly illustrated books, like the above Puss in Boots.
Even greater excitement followed the discovery of a significant number of travel, exploration and ethnography books (replete with all the problematic depictions and ideas that make this genre so rich for analysis). These will join our already substantial holdings in this area. There are a particularly large number of books on Africa and the Arctic.
Amherst has strong holdings in what, for lack of a better word, could be called 19th century self-help books – the guides to morals, health and comportment that were so popular. Here too, the bunker has added a goodly number of new titles.
Among the other intriguing finds, is this manual of phonography,
this Hieroglyphical Bible,
a book of counsel for emigrants to the United States and Canada from 1835,
and a number of books on magic, illusions and other diversions for the home.
Images of these and additional books can be found on the Amherst Archives flickr page.
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