American history, A to Z
J. Franklin Jameson’s reference, revised in 1931 and published in Philadelphia, gives short entries on the people, institutions and events of the United States, in a decorative binding.
The story
In the early twentieth century, a student or teacher who needed a quick answer about American history, whether a name, an institution or an event, could turn to a single-volume dictionary like this one. J. Franklin Jameson’s dictionary was revised for this edition under the supervision of Albert E. McKinley and issued by the Historical Publishing Company.
Read today, it is less a final authority than a snapshot. It shows which people and events an American reference book of 1931 thought deserved an entry, and how it described them, and that makes it a document of how the country’s history was taught at the time as much as a guide to the history itself.
This copy is in the publisher’s dark green cloth, decorated in gilt and blind, with the gilt largely intact and the edges of the boards and spine rubbed. The page edges are coloured in a marbled pattern, the paper is mildly toned, and the binding is sound. The text and any maps have not yet been checked through for completeness.
Details
- Date
- 1931
- Publisher
- Historical Publishing Company, Philadelphia
- Edition
- Rev. ed., edited under the supervision of Albert E. McKinley
- Binding
- cloth: Dark green decorative publisher's cloth with gilt title and blind tooling
- Condition
- Original decorated dark-green cloth with rubbed board/spine edges, gilt largely intact, marbled-looking colored page edges, mild interior toning. Endpapers blank; binding appears sound; full range unchecked.
