Catalogue of rare Americana, principally early Pennsylvania imprints; from the Franklin, Ephrata, Germantown, Philadelphia, Lancaster and other early Pennsylvania presses
3 v. fronts. (2 col.; v.1: port.) illus., plates, facsims. (part double) 25 cm.
Notes
Colophon of vol. III: This work originated with Paul Leicester Ford, was edited by Mrs. Roswell Skeel junior, and printed by Richmond Mayo-Smith, all of one family.
Two hundred copies of vol. I and three hundred copies of vols. II-III have been printed by the Plimpton press of Norwood, Mass. LCHS copy is no. 154.
Most of the letters are addressed to Mathew Carey.
"Books ... periodicals ... newspapers consulted": vol. I, p. 345-385.
Mason Locke Weems, American clergyman, itinerant book agent, and fabricator of the story of George Washington’s chopping down the cherry tree. This fiction was inserted into the fifth edition (1806) of Weems’s book The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington (1800). Weems was ordained in the Anglican church in 1784 and served as a pastor in Maryland until 1792. From 1794 he hawked books throughout the country as an agent for the publisher Mathew Carey. Weems also wrote a biography (1809) of General Francis Marion that, like that of Washington, was more noted for its apocryphal anecdotes and readability than its accuracy.[from Britanica.com]
The only known copy, held by the American Antiquarian Society, lacks title page. Title taken from caption title.
Rice and Co. were booksellers in Philadelphia from Oct. 4, 1787 to Dec. 1, 1792. Page [19] of this catalogue lists "Picture of England 1790." Bristol suggests 1791 as the date of publication.
Signatures: A-Eⶠ(E6 missigned F).
Apparently from the personal library of Yeates.
Yeates's signature at top of title page.
Book number 1035 not assigned by Yeates.
Bristol, R.P. Supplement to Charles Evans' American bibliography,
Shipton, C.K. National index of American imprints through 1800,
Winans, R.B. Descriptive checklist of book catalogues separately printed in America, 1693-1800,
