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The Bibliographical Society of America

The oldest scholarly society in North America dedicated to the study of books and manuscripts as physical objects

The American Language Reprint Series

The American Language Reprint (ALR) series aims to compile the various word-lists, vocabularies and phrase books which were collected in the early years of North American settlement. The series begins with the languages and dialects of the Eastern Woodlands, with a primary emphasis on the Eastern Algonquian and Iroquoian families. We hope to progressively extend the geographical scope of the project to form a comprehensive linguistic record of native North America prior to the advent of modern linguistics.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

Collection Summary Creator: Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864 Title: Papers of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft 1788-1941 (bulk 1820-1856) Size: 25,000 items; 90 containers plus 1 oversize; 28 linear feet; 69 microfilm reels Repository: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Abstract: Author, ethnologist, explorer, geologist, glass manufacturer, and Indian agent. Correspondence, journals, articles, books, manuscripts of magazines, poetry, speeches, government reports, Indian vocabularies, maps, drawings, and other papers reflecting Schoolcraft's career as a glass manufacturer, mineralogist on an exploring expedition in the Ozark Mountains, geologist on the Cass expedition to the Northwest Territory, leader of expeditions throughout the Great Lakes region, member of Michigan's legislative council, Indian agent, superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan, ethnologist, and author of works concerning the Iroquois of New York state and other Indians of North America.

Renaissance Dante in Print (1472-1629)

THIS EXHIBITION presents Renaissance editions of Dante's Divine Comedy from the John A. Zahm, C.S.C., Dante Collection at the University of Notre Dame, together with selected treasures from The Newberry Library. The Zahm collection ranks among the top Dante collections in North America. Purchased for the most part by Zahm in 1902 from the Italian Dantophile Giulio Acquaticci, the 15th- and 16th- century imprints presented here form the heart of Zahm's collection, which totals nearly 3,000 volumes, including rare editions and critical studies from the Renaissance to the present. The nine incunable editions and nearly complete series of 16th-century imprints featured in this exhibit constitute essential primary sources for both the history of Dante's reception during the Renaissance and the early history of the printed book.

Simms, William Gilmore (1806-1870)

William Gilmore Simms: Novelist, Poet, Editor, Biographer, Historian, Orator, Essayist, Letter Writer. Active 1825-1870 in USA, North America—The Literary Encyclopedia

Niagara

Roar, raging torrent! and thou, mighty river!
Pour your white foam on the valley below;
Frown, ye dark mountains! and shadow forever
The deep rocky bed where the wild rapids flow.
The green sunny glade, and the smooth flowing fountain,
Brighten the home of the coward and slave;
The flood and the forest, the rock and the mountain,
Rear on their bosoms the free and the brave.


Nurselings of nature, I mark your bold bearing,
Pride in each aspect and strength in each form;
Hearts of warm impulse and souls of high daring,
Born in the battle and reared in the storm.
The red levin flash and the thunder's dread rattle,
The rock-riven wave, and the war-trumpets breath,
The din of the tempest, the yell of the battle,
Nerve your steeled bosoms to danger and death.


High on the brow of the Alps' snowy towers,
The mountain Swiss measures his rock-breasted moors,
O'er his lone cottage the avalanche lowers,
Round its rude portal the spring torrent pours.
Sweet is his sleep amid peril and danger,
Warm is his greeting to kindred and friends;
Open his hand to the poor and the stranger,
Stern on his foeman his sabre descends.


Lo! where the tempest the dark waters sunder
Slumbers the sailor boy, reckless and brave,
Warmed by the lightning, and lulled by the thunder,
Fanned by the whirlwind and rocked by the wave;
Wildly the winter wind howls round his pillow,
Cold on his bosom the spray showers fall;
Creaks the strained mast at the rush of the billow,
Peaceful he slumbers, regardless of all.


Mark how the cheek of the warrior flushes,
As the battle-drum beats and the war torches glare,
Like a blast of the north to the onset he rushes,
And his wide-waving falchion gleams brightly in air.
Around him the death-shot of foemen are flying,
At his feet friends and comrades are yielding their breath;
He strikes to the groans of the wounded and dying,
But the war-cry he strikes with is "conquest or death!"


Then pour thy broad wave like a flood from the heavens,
Each son that thou rearest, in the battle's wild shock,
When the death-speaking note of the trumpet is given,
Will charge like thy torrent, or stand like thy rock.
Let his roof be the cloud, and the rock be his pillow,
Let him stride the rough mountain, or toss on the foam,
He shall strike fast and well, on the field or the billow,
In triumph and glory, for God and his home!
Joseph Rodman Drake