Artifact Inventory of a Children's Manual for Instruction on the Treatment of Animals

Research Project Artifact Inventory                                             LIT 6396 Scholar: Blake Vives

My Artifact:

Trimmer, Sarah.  Fabulous Histories, Designed for the Amusement & Instruction of Young Persons. Philadelphia: Gibbons, 1794. Print

The modern editions of my novel exist in these forms:

Trimmer, Sarah and Legh Richmond. Fabulous Histories. 1786. New York: Garland, 177. Print.  This edition has a preface by Ruth Perry and includes the story The Dairyman's Daughter, by Legh Richmond with a preface by Gillian Avery.

Demers, Patricia, and R G. Moyles. From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of
Children's Literature to 1850. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1982. Print.

 -WoldCat does not indicate which edition of Fabulous Histories they took their excerpt from for this anthology:
Trimmer, Sarah. Fabulous Histories. Farmington Hills, Mich: Gale, 2005. Web.

o    GALE offers the 1786, 1791, 1798 editions in an online format.

·     My text is not in the Project Gutenberg Database, however, I did find a Google Books link to the 10th edition published in London in 1815:

http://books.google.com/books?id=kzYCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA73#v=onepage&q&f=false

 ·         During a check for my text in Shaw-Shoemaker I found the Boston 1822 and 1827 editions that were listed on WorldCat.  I also discovered that Trimmer wrote a text designed to teach Protestant Episcopal Sunday School and a History of England (both were reprinted many times).

·         A search of the APS Database revealed: (I realized that “fabulous histories” was a common phrase in early America.)

o    In 1820 the Ladies Port Folio published an article about Trimmer’s life and accomplishments.

o    In 1807 my text was listed as a new publication by the Christian Observer, a Boston newspaper.

o    I found a positive review of the 1822 Boston edition of my text.  The review was published in 1826 in the American Journal of Education.

o    In Children's Literature of the Last Century, which was published in 1869, Trimmer is hailed for her ability to write a story that actually entertains children.  The author speculates that she was inspired by Rousseau, and calls her the parent of your literature in England.

o    In reviews or book lists the text is listed as “18 mo.” This might mean it was published in monthly increments over 18 months.  

o    In the American Publishers' Circular and Literary Gazette (1855-1862); Jan 19, 1856; it is listed with “126 boards” and “1s” next to it.  I have no idea what this means.

o    The Christian Register and Boston Observer notes in 1835 Trimmer’s contribution to the improvement in children’s Sunday school education.

Q: When, where, and by whom was your artifact first printed? 

A: Printed and sold in Philadelphia in 1794 by William Gibbons.

Title page of the London edition.

 I believe William Gibbons was a major (or at least we now would consider him an important) publisher and book vendor because among sermons and other books he published:

• The writings, of Thomas Paine, secretary for foreign affairs to the Congress of the United States of America, in the late war. Containing, Common sense, The crisis, Public good, Letter to Abbe Raynal, Letter to Earl Shelborne, Letter to Sir Guy Carlton, Letter to the authors of the Republican, a French paper, Letter to Abbe Syeyes, Rights of man, part I. Rights of man, part II. Letter to Mr. Dundass [sic]

• A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on moral and political subjects. By Mary Woolstonecraft [sic].

 Many of the books that he published are re-prints from London.  This could be indicative of America’s continued exchange of ideas with Britain, but also that more books were simply written overseas than in American at this time. 

Because he lived in Philadelphia in the 1790s it is likely that Gibbons was a Quaker.  He also published this Quaker text, which had an advertisement at the end for a different Quaker text also published by Gibbons.

The means, nature, properties and effects of true faith considered. A discourse delivered in a public assembly of the people called Quakers. By Thomas Story. (Evans 46881)

Q: Did your artifact appear in print at any time in the 18^th or 19^th centuries? 

A: Yes. Here are the reprints listed by WorldCat:

London printings: 1786, 1788, 1791, 1793, 1798, 1802, 1807, 1808, 1811, 1815, 1817, 1818, 1819, 1821, 1822, 1826, 1830, 1831, 1833, 1834, 1838, 1844, 1845, 1847, 1848, 1850, 1852, 1853, 1855, ~1860, 1862, 1864, 1867, 1870, 1875, 1877, 1878, 1880, 1897

Dublin printings: 1786, 1794, 1800, 1808, 1819

France printings: 1789, 1799

Germany Printings: 1788, 1845

Philadelphia printings: 1794, 1795, 1869

Boston printings: 1822, 1827, 1901                                                                                     

1818 London edition.

What speculations can I make from such a long print history? Well, the text I have is one of six American editions.  The text was obviously popular in London; I was amazed that it was in print for about one hundred years in London.  Perhaps, the influence of this story is evident in British culture today.  The major differences between the texts seem to be the dedication and introductory material.  However it is interesting that the modern reprints were in New York and Toronto. So, it must have made a lasting impression in the new world to.  The fewer early American print dates do not necessarily mean the book was not popular because in early American book culture it was popular to circulate one copy of a book amongst many people.

Q: What was the actual size of your artifact in inches or centimeters?  What information can you find about its physical presence, binding, etc.?  Do you think it was expensive or inexpensive?  Can you see a price? 

A: The measurement of my artifact given by Evans is 16 cm and the bindings are described as “quarter bindings” and “marbled papers (bindings).”

On the website alibris.com I found a glossary of book terms and these definitions:

“Marbled paper - Colored paper with a veined, mottled, or swirling pattern, in imitation of marble, which is used with paper-covered boards and as end papers in books. The use of marbled papers was especially popular during the Victorian era.”

“Quarter-bound - A book with a leather spine and with the sides bound in paper or cloth.”

Definitions from: http://www.alibris.com/glossary/glossary-books

Even though I cannot see a price on the digital copy, by taking into account the marbled paper and leather spine binding I believe the book would have been expensive. 

Q: View the original title page using the digital database or microfilm.  What is included there?

A: Here are the exact words of all of the information listed on the title page:

FABULOUS HISTORIES,

DESIGNED FOR THE,

Amusement & Instruction

OF YOUNG PERSONS.

BY MRS. TRIMMER.

PHILADELPHIA

PRINTED AND SOLD BY WILLIAM GIBBONS.

1794

 The title page is quite barren compared to the usual scrolling titles for this time in American.  It could be that the London style used shorter title pages, and because this book was printed in London first, the style was kept the same for the American edition.  Sadly, because the book has such a short title page I cannot derive any significant cultural clues from it.  However, in some later editions the title is changed to The Story of the Robins, The History of the Robins, and finally simply The Robins. It is interesting that the robin family in the book eventually become a synecdoche for the entire novel.  This makes me think that they were so memorable it was common to shorten the title and readers would recognize the book.

 Also, even later editions added the phrase, “For the instruction of children on their treatment of animals,” or the phrase “Fabulous histories designed for the instruction of children, respecting their treatment of animals”.  It seems that publishers wanted to highlight the proper treatment of animals in the later editions, possibly reflecting a shift towards greater concern for animal welfare, meaning if it was culturally more important to treat animals well then more books would sell with a title calling attention to this feature of the book.

Q: If there is more than one edition, compare the title pages.  Note any differences here and keep PDFs of these pages, if possible.

A: For the two available American editions available on Evans the book seems exactly the same, with the exception that the later edition is missing the title page and many pages are torn.  Maybe the later edition being torn and worse-for-the-wear shows that it was widely read and circulated. It is not until years later that engravings and pictures are added to the title page. 

Q: What miscellaneous front matter exists?  Describe it:

A:            Frontispiece: sadly, there is no frontispiece to this edition.

Engravings: none.  There are chapter engravings in later editions that I found on Google Books.

Preface: The preface is written and signed by Trimmer explaining that the idea to write an instructive story with talking animals came from her children, who insisted that animals talked to them.  She says that she hopes to save innocent animals from the abuses of children with her book.  Because she writes the preface herself (instead of a man) I believe that she had a lot of authority as a writer in London. 

Dedication: The dedication is “to Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia.” Apparently the book was presented to the Princess Sophia when she was a child and Trimmer says that she will gain honor by presenting the book for her to learn from.  I found Princess Sophia on Wikipedia and learned that she was a born in 1777 to King George III and Queen Charlotte which means when the book was first published in 1786 she was eleven years old.  This dedication could explain that Trimmer’s authority as a writer comes from her connection with the royal family.

Q: How long is your text?  How is it subdivided (chapters? Volumes?)  Is the print large and easy to read or dense, with many words on each page and lines close together?

 A: My text is 214 pages long and divided into 25 chapters.  The print is small and dense, and it is smudged or faint in certain places, which makes it quite difficult to read.  For such a nice marbled bound book the print quality is not what I expected.  This might mean that at this time even the print quality of nice books was not good.

Q: What back matter exists (following the end of a text, usually signified by the word “finis”)?  Sometimes lists of subscribers or other works from this printer or bookseller are mentioned here.

A: There is no back matter and there are no subscribers because the publisher basically copied the book from the London edition.  He would most likely not have needed upfront funding for a book that he knew would be popular because it was an already popular book from London.

Q: Are there other texts like yours, and how can you tell? 

A: I searched for Sarah Trimmer in Evans and found a text called: An easy introduction to the knowledge of nature. Adapted to the capacities of children. By Mrs. Trimmer. Revised, corrected, and greatly augmented; and adapted to the United States of America. Because this was edited especially for American audiences and printed in Boston two years after the first edition of Fabulous Histories, I think Trimmer’s first book must have been extremely popular for her to write an American edition of another book.  If the Boston printer saw that Fabulous Histories was selling well in Philadelphia he might have seen an opportunity to profit and contacted Trimmer and proposed she write the new edition to her other book.

Q.  What is the relationship between your artifact and structures of power in early American culture (and how can you tell)? 

A: I currently believe that my book was acceptable to the power structures in early America because it was printed many times and other books by Trimmer were also printed in America (including a Sunday school manual with pictures).  However, I believe that some people might have taken offense to Trimmer’s “naked” presence in the book; what I mean is that she had no male sponsors to endorse her in the frontmatter in the London edition that was reprinted in America.  I assume this because the changes made to her other book (printed in Boston as a special “American” edition) were essentially to add a third-person preface describing how the content was approved by a “Dr. Watts.”  There is no name signed to this, but it does stand in stark contrast to her earlier book that included her dedication to Princess Sophia and her message to the readers. 

 Also, I ran across this article which I plan to read later:

Grenby, M.O. “‘A Conservative Woman Doing Radical Things’: Sarah Trimmer and The Guardian of

Education.” Culturing the Child, 1690–1914. Ed. Donelle Ruwe. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow P, 2005. ISBN 0-8108-5182-2.

~Blake