Archive of 19th Century Americana

January 23, 2008 9:08 PM

Cornell University and the University of Michigan collaboratively present two sites on the "Making of America" (Cornell Site; Michigan Site), together including over one million pages of 19th Century American books and periodicals online. At this Cornell page you can browse or search some well-known, full-text periodicals including: The Atlantic Monthly 1857-1901; Harper's 1850-1899; Scientific American 1846-1869; Putnam's 1853-1870; and The Manufacturer and Builder 1869-1894. From Michigan, you can browse less well-known journals, including American Jewess 1895-1899; Ladies Repository 1846-1871; and the Journal of the United States Association of Charcoal Iron Workers 1880-1891. warning: frames abound

I'll probably get no work done for the rest of the month, at least not until I have ingested such gems as:
The Woman Who Talks
The Ill-Bred Girl
A Man in the Kitchen
Life in Danbury
The Ladies Medical Guide (1865)
The Ladies Handbook to Etiquette and Politeness
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
A novel application of electricity
A practical guide for making post-mortem examinations, and for the study of morbid anatomy, with directions for embalming the dead, and for the preservation of specimens of morbid anatomy (1873)
A magician's tour, up and down and round about the earth. Being the life and adventures of the American Nostradamus (1890)
Oh what the hell, just browse everything...... and everything else

posted by Rumple (8 comments total)

Also, I propose this as the official guide for MetaTalk: The meaning of words: analysed into words and unverbal things, and unverbal things classified into intellections, sensations, and emotions. (1862)
posted by Rumple at 9:12 PM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Boy. This is a thin post.

(I wish more FPPs were this thin, this good.)
posted by From Bklyn at 10:21 PM on January 23, 2008

Thanks Rumple for going to such trouble.
posted by peacay at 3:52 AM on January 24, 2008

Fantastic, thanks.
posted by Miko at 6:20 AM on January 24, 2008

Bless the Rumple!

(Thank you very much)
posted by Jody Tresidder at 9:17 AM on January 24, 2008

I could spend the rest of my life reading old back issues of Scientific American. Oh holy shit it's searchable.

*writes off rest of day as total loss*
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:32 AM on January 24, 2008

Oh, wow. Just....wow. Thanks so much for finding this and putting it together.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 11:08 AM on January 24, 2008

I liked Athletic sports for boys: a repository of graceful recreations for youth.

The Tricks and Feats of Gymnastics starts on page 52
posted by tiburon at 12:24 PM on January 25, 2008