Collecting and Compiling

As a research center, the American Antiquarian Society supports systematic bibliography. This case includes material donated by author/collectors who published bibliographies or catalogs for the use of future scholars.

Because his wife was from New Orleans, Edward Larocque Tinker was fascinated by that region’s history and built an important library of Louisiana imprints. In 1933 he published a bibliography of French language newspapers of Louisiana. Frank J. Metcalf was interested in American hymnology, collected hymnals, and compiled a bibliography of religious tune books.  Waldo Lincoln served as AAS president for twenty years. In the 1920s he collected and wrote about Caribbean newspapers. He was also was a collector of American cookbooks and published Bibliography of American Cookery Books, 1742-1860 (AAS, 1929), which remains the standard guide.

Although they were not bibliographers, Thomas Ollive Mabbott and Michael Papantonio also produced useful works. Mabbott was an Edgar Allan Poe scholar and was interested in American periodicals. He also collected newspapers, especially racy ones. Papantonio was a book dealer who in the 1940s defined the field of early American bookbinding studies.