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American Antiquarian Society

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The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) has been committed to sharing America's stories for more than 200 years.

We collect, preserve, and make available for study the pre-twentieth-century printed record of what is now the U.S.

10/30/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 30: A gathering where the meal is simply to die for. 🥁

Happy to announce that during the month of November we’ll be sharing historic menu items from the collection. Maybe it will inspire a few culinary experiments/curiosity through the holiday season?

⚰️ This recently acquired menu is pretty unique! The Annual Banquet of the Funeral Directors Association of Ohio met at the Neil House in Columbus, Ohio in June of 1897. Their menu is coffin shaped (complete with oval viewing window pane! 😱) - some items served were:
🥣cream of asparagus,
🥗cucumber salad,
🫛green peas,
🍗 roast Philadelphia chicken,
🥔mashed potatoes,
🍨ice cream,
🍰☕️cake and coffee.

No doubt the attendees knew how to put on the final touches (double 🥁 today!); the menu was printed by the Champlin Printing Company in Columbus, Ohio.

10/29/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 29: It is national cat day! (And just look at this beautiful companion 🐈‍⬛!) The sleeping Hansel and Gretel better be careful or he’ll grab the candy stash!

This image of the ever-famous witch looking over Hansel and Gretel is part of an original artwork archive held at AAS. This pen and ink book illustration was used in Hansel & Grethel published in New York by the McLoughlin Brothers in 1901. The Society maintains a collection of artworks of the McLoughlin firm including watercolors, ink, paste ups and mixed media. We also have many of their corresponding 1,700 picture books, catalogs, games, and paper toys.

As far as superstitions go, the fear of black cats is relatively recent. It emerged in medieval Europe and persisted in the American colonies where the idea that witches could transform themselves into black cats to prowl the streets became part of the popular imagination during the late 17th century. Here we see evidence of it more than two hundred later with the witch and her feline!

10/28/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 28b: Can book labels be for spooky season? I suppose it depends which book it came from! This label for Hannah Sutton was recently featured in our online resource “Seventeenth-Century Book Labels” (read more about it on our blog post, pastispresent.org). And earlier this month we posted a detail of a late 18th century bookplate from the Green family collection, which had plenty of spooky motifs (slide 6). This bookplate was removed from Samuel Willard’s (1640-1707) “The Peril of the Times Displayed,” an item in our collection published in Boston by Benjamin Eliot in 1700. Willard was known as the preacher of orthodoxy in an era of change.

Hannah Sutton (b. 1669) was the daughter of Boston cabinetmaker Bartholomew Sutton and his wife Hannah Pollard Sutton, and she likely commissioned this label. A second copy of it survives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where it remains pasted inside The Christians Exercise by Satan’s Temptations (Boston, 1701). Together, these volumes offer insight into the reading practice of a woman in Boston at the turn of the eighteenth century.

10/28/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 28: Having a hard time parting with the 250th celebration? Maybe stick a flag in your carved pumpkin! 🇺🇸🎃

This photographic print on a stereocard produced by the Union View company in Rochester New York is titled “The Jack-o-lantern” - it is part of the young folks series. The image shows a young boy standing beside the table with his carved jack-o-lantern on it; sticking out of the top is a flag! The image has hand coloring (honestly not sure of the ripeness of this pumpkin).

Jack-o-lanterns in the 19th-century were more of a modified New England agriculture custom. Tradition holds that original Jack-o-lanterns were large turnips hollowed out, carved with a face, and lighted from the inside with a candle. European immigrants found few turnips but numerous fields of pumpkins.

10/27/2026

Join us Thursday, October 29th for a hybrid program “Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution” at 7:00 pm ET with Katherine Grandjean. Register at americanantiquarian.org/programs-events/tale-murder-shadow-american-revolution

10/27/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 27: Still looking for just the right costume inspo? How about one that changes throughout the evening?

Metamorphose by Thomas Clement, published in Boston in 1852 is scary good. This adaptation of Benjamin Sands' Metamorphosis, was the most popular metamorphic picture book in America between the 1780s and 1820. It is a mystical account of human history, beginning with Adam and Eve, and ending with the earthly death of an arrogant wealthy man. Most of the editions of Metamorphosis were illustrated by either metal or wood engravings; however, this one has lithographed images. They add a decidedly mid-19th-century cast to the universal images of Eve, Abel, and the mythical griffin.

10/26/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 26: Oak pulpit is local pickup only though 🚗

Woodcut printed by Ezekiel Russell (1743-1796) who is listed as “next to the corn field” in Boston in the 1770s. This copy was printed in Two sermons preached from Psalm CII in October 1773 by Samuel Stillman (1738-1807).

10/25/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 25: The key! 🗝️

Three weeks ago we posted the keyhole of AAS founder Isaiah Thomas’ (1749-1831) family tomb at Rural Cemetery in Worcester, Massachusetts and we were met with requests about its key! While we have this artifact as part of the family papers, this does not unlock the tomb. Mysterious! Included with the iron key is a small piece of wood taken from Thomas' coffin.

10/24/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 24: Day 24: Wearing only this 💀🎨

This carving of a reclining skeleton appears on the stone for William Sinclear (1676-July 4, 1753) who, according to the inscription, was born in Down county, Ireland and lived in New England. Located in Spencer, Massachusetts, the stone was carved by William Codner (1709-1769) and/or Henry Emmes (1690-1750).

This photograph is part of the Farber gravestone collection which documents early American gravestones from the early and mid-20th century. The stones themselves are treasures of sculpture and sources of historical and genealogical information, but the photography of them makes them even more accessible. More than 1,300 negatives in the collection have been digitized, including works by Harriet Merrifield Forbes, Daniel Farber and his wife, Jessie Lie Farber.

10/23/2026

32 collections in 31 days 🎃👻 🍂🪦

Day 23: Tour time! Get up close with the coffin! ⚰️ From the stone to the gallows to the coffin, there’s much to learn about our printing press (and more!)

This special evening tour will be on Thursday, October 29th at 5:45 pm before the public program. So join us! Our free public tours begin in our introductory gallery and include the Society’s 18th-century printing press, conservation lab, learning lab, library stacks and reading room.

Please let us know if you are coming - link in bio to register

Address

185 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA
01609

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://americanantiquarian.org/

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