Books

Item Description

American History seen anew:  this package from the Yale University Library and the Yale University Art Gallery provides new views of early America through maps and art:
Barnet Schecter: George Washington's America: A Biography Through His Maps; and American Art: 1750–1800, Towards Independence
Schecter's book presents a new view of America through the eyes of George Washington-- the vision allows us to see the land that he traveled as well as the land that helped him build dreams and a new nation. These clear lens allow us to see no western border for many of the first 13 states, a promise of nation building for the future. Many who live in the east can still travel on roads, rivers, and streams that are on the maps drawn by Washington. The book provides a fresh look at things that we often take for granted.
George Washington is one of those figures whose importance assures that his place in history will constantly be appreciated and reanalyzed, and that new biographies, even though all the original source documents have been well ploughed through, will always be forthcoming.
Washington had over ninety maps and atlases at Mount Vernon, many of which he had used over the years. Since Washington's life, Schecter writes, "was from his early years until his death intimately bound up with the land, the maps tell a great deal about the man and his times." There are many elaborate maps, but one of the most charming is one far simpler. It shows a compass rose in which is an irregular quadrilateral, labeled with latitude and longitude. It bears the heading, handwritten, "A Plan of Major Lawr. Washington's Turnip Field as Surveyed by me, This 27 Day of February 1747. GW."  Price $75.
American Art: 1750–1800, Towards Independence
more than 250 black-and-white and color illustrations; A catalogue of the exhibition, organized by Charles F. Montgomery, presented at the Yale University Art Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London with essays by Montgomery, J. H. Plumb, Neil Harris, Jules David Prown, and Frank H. Sommer. 
This wide-ranging book accompanied an ambitious exhibition that coincided with the United States bicentennial, featuring objects loaned by Her Majesty the Queen, among others. Thoughtful essays examine the rise of an American national identity on the world stage, while the extensively annotated illustrations document the concomitant development of styles in fine and applied arts.  Price $125

Item Special Note

Also included are Library notecards and a Yale University Library book bag.

Shipping NOT included

Special thanks to the Yale University Libraries and to NHFPL Patrons Board members Ed Bottomley and Amanda Patrick.

Mardi Gras Gala: Preservation Hall