In this post I want to show you just a couple of the interesting rare books that will be part of the Littlejohn Collection.
I'll start with the younger of the two items: The History of the American Indians, by James Adair. This particular volume was published in 1775 (coincidentally a conspicuous year in American history), and is sometimes referred to as "Adair's Indians." The first image here is the title page, which contains the very long but period-appropriate full title.
This work by Adair was one of the first anthropological or "scientific" works considering Native Americans.
Below is the table of contents, and below that image is a detail from that page.
Detail:
You will note the heading I have focused on: "Observations, and arguments, in proof of the American Indians being descended from the Jews." This was a very trendy theory of the time, and is yet another excellent example of European colonists attempting to incorporate the existence of these aboriginal people into their world view. (The most illustrative example of this practice is, of course, Columbus calling the natives he encountered "Indians," a usage meant to buttress his claim that he had found a western passage to India.)
Adair, with rhetorical flourish typical of his era, argues his theory in page after page -- almost 200 in all -- before moving on to other observations of the Native Americans of the Southeast.
Those readers familiar with religious history will note that this Indian-Jewish hypothesis is similar to that asserted by Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormonism, and ostensible author of the Book of Mormon. It is not too far of a leap to guess that Smith got some of his ideas regarding the Native Americans from Adair's book, or one similar to it. (For more on this, check out this list of books about Native Americans pre-dating the Book of Mormon. It is from a website authored by former members of the LDS Church.)
This well-cared for tome also includes a very nice fold-out map depicting the American continent as it was then understood.
Let's move on to an even older book: The Anatomy of Plants with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants, by Nehemjah Grew, M.D. This item was published in 1682, nearly one hundred years before "Adair's Indians." Below is an image of the title page:
You may have noticed a very distinct feature of this book (which was also present in the Adair images). Often, in words that you'd expect to contain a lower-case 's,' there will be a letter that looks quite similar to a lower-case 'f.'
Look at these details of the words 'History' and 'pass':
These are variants of the same phenomenon. This letter is known as the "long s," and would have looked totally unremarkable to a 17th or 18th century reader, although by that time it was in its (relatively) last days. The long 's' is a remnant of the switch-over from handwriting to printing. (Gutenberg invented the printing press in the mid-1400's; the long 's' was out of use in the U.S. after the 1820's.) For those who are confused by the rules of use for the long 's' (as I often am), check out this informative blog post: "The Rules for the Long S."
Here are a few images of the "dedication" pages of the book, in which you notice prolific use of the long 's':
This dedication also serves as something of a summary of the book. Now, I'm no biologist, but if you give it a quick read I'd imagine that we'd agree that Doctor Grew's terms (and spellings) are quite unlike those we use today.
In closing, let me share with you an image (and its detail) from the appendix this book. The illustrations are marvelous in their detail and painstaking clarity.
Detail of image above:
As I said, this is just a small sample of the books that will be in the collection -- we expect to have at least 1000 books of great diversity in the collection.
No doubt very helpful for the readers! Most of the posts in the blog sparks some great knowledge... Thanks for the information!
Posted by: UK Essays | February 24, 2009 at 11:58 PM