Cataloging with Bookweight Cat

It's National Library Workers Day! I asked my human to snag a photo of me and my compatriots, but it didn't quite turn out as I hoped. #ladygreycat looks lovely, but you can always count on Secret Agent #00Cat to muck things up. #nlwd16 #mycoworkers

There's something to be said for beautiful handwriting! This inscription commemorates the presentation of this book to a Dr. Monroe. It can be found in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, from the Commandments of the Decalogue, by Emmanuel Swedenborg. William Schlatter, one of the book's presenters, was a leader in Philadelphia's community of Swedenborgians. The book was printed in 1816 by Lydia Bailey, a major female printer in Philadelphia, which is frankly awesome in its own right. #americanantiquarian #femaleprinters #swedenborg

It's #finisfriday and I found this lovely little piece at the end of a volume about a journey through Africa (well, a made-up journey). Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the long weekend while I get up to shenanigans in the empty library! I mean, sit quietly on my desk and contemplate life... #americanantiquarian #rarebooks

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you all one of the first American science fiction novels, featuring the steam man, a steam-powered robot. The novel, originally published in 1868, was republished multiple times by Beadle. Now, is it just me, or does the steam man look like Teddy Roosevelt? #dimenovels #sciencefiction #steampunk #americanantiquarian #robots

The AAS is on Salisbury Street, which is named after a major family in Worcester's history. So imagine how cool it was to spend some time snuggling up to some volumes of Jeremy Taylor's sermons that were owned by Stephen Salisbury, Jr.!!! (Also, check out that lovely handwriting!) #americanantiquarian #worcesterhistory #inscriptions

This one is for all the #startrek fans out there! It's a classic trope of the Original Series that an expendable security officer wearing a #redshirt is the first to die in any situation. Well, turns out it didn't begin with The Enterprise. As can be seen from the chapter heading in this dime novel, a generic character known as Red Shirt meets his quietus. Yup, he dies. #americanantiquarian #bookweightcat #cantmakethisstuffup Briarmead, C.L. King Dick; or, Steel and Shoulder. Hilton's ten cent novels, no. 10. (New York: 1867 or 1868)

After celebrating #CharlesPerrault earlier in the week, I decided to pull out some of my beloved #BrothersGrimm for #fairytalefriday (is that a thing? If not, it should be a thing...) In a quick search of our catalog, I found a volume called Gammer Grethel in our children's lit collection. Most of the tales in it weren't the ones that are popular today. But, it included one of my personal favorites, "The Robber Bridegroom." In the story, a young woman goes to visit the man to whom she is engaged, only to discover that he part of a band that marries young women so they can kill and eat them. The finger of that day's poor victim flies through the air and falls in her lap. After the men fall asleep, the young woman escapes the house without being discovered. At her wedding, everyone is invited to tell a story at the reception. The bride tells her experience, consistently reassuring her husband that it was just a dream. But, she produces the finger at the end as evidence, and her husband and his men are arrested. The story ends by reassuring readers that the band was brought to justice for their crimes, which I personally prefer to "they lived happily ever after." I can't believe Disney hasn't made this one into a movie yet! Gammer Grethel; or German Fairy Tales and Popular Stories. (Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1841) #americanantiquarian #cannibalism #childrensliterature #butmoreforadults

For #marbledmonday, I offer you that moment when you open up a book...and it's not a book. I pulled this item off my cataloging cart expecting it to just be a bound-up pamphlet. Turns out it was three gold conversion tables, pasted to folded boards, that were published as a result of Congress standardizing gold coin conversion rates in 1816. The tables show conversions to the coin of Great Britain and Portugal, France, and Spain and its dominions. Table of gold, according to an act of Congress, April 29, 1816. [United States : s.n. ; 1816] #goldconversion #triptychs #bankinghistory #americanantiquarian

Secret Agent #00Cat has grown suspicious of my tree topper, so she's taken up position on the complete works of Shakespeare to keep an eye on it for me... #weepingangels #dontblink

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from #BookweightCat, #LadyCatGrey, and Secret Agent #00Cat (if you can find her). Wishing you a wonderful season! (Hopefully full of good books 😘) #christmascats #stealthykitty #waitthesepresentsarentmine

#BookweightCat loves finding books with annotations by the authors. In this legal text, the owner not only inked in the errata corrections, but also called the writer out for being flat out wrong. The note Bookweight Cat is looking at says: Erroneous. See stat. We didn't care quite enough to look up the statute in question, though ;) #marginalia #knowitall #iwriteinbookstoo

One final #aliceinwonderland post: a #shelfiesunday of the shelf most of my Alice books live on. It includes two books not featured this week, illustrated editions released for the 150th anniversary, one with art by Salvidor Dali. #BookweightCat, #LadyCatGrey, and Secret Agent #00Cat decided to make themselves comfortable. #aliceturns150

As we wind up Alice week, #LadyCatGrey is here with Alice I Have Been by @melaniebenjamin_author It's not strictly a copy of Alice, but it shows the reach and influence of the novel and it's inspiration, Alice Liddell. The novel presents a fictional account if Alice's life. My copy was a gift from my father, which he kindly got signed for me when I was in grad school at Indiana University (IU). #aliceinwonderland #aliceturns150

Today, the cats and I are featuring the Annotated Alice. Two editions, no less! Secret Agent #00Cat is lying on top of the Definitive Annotated Alice (the third edition). I grew up with my parents' copy the first edition of Martin Gardener's beautiful work, and I felt awesome when I bought a copy that was even more comprehensive than theirs. And then I saw they released a 150th anniversary edition. And I had to have it. (#LadyCatGrey is chilling on that one). My sister asked if I was going to replace my third edition, and I'm just thinking "...no..." Because, of course, I hope to someday hope to inherit my parents first edition, and then I'll have three of the four editions :)

For the actual anniversary of Alice, Secret Agent #00Cat is looking at the far reach@of the book with my foreign language Alice collection: The pink one in the middle is in Russian. I bought it in Moscow when I went to Russia after college graduation. My second one is in Spanish (back left). My sister bought it for me when she visited my brother-in-law's family in Colombia. The Japanese Alice (back right) not only has the most adorable illustrations, but was a gift from one of my college classmates. She was on the Russia trip, and when she went to study in Japan, she went shopping for me :) My sister bought me the Italian copy (top front) in her honeymoon. The Latin edition (bottom front) was a 25th birthday present from my parents. The Russian and Italian copies both include Through the Looking-Glass, bit for the others, well, something to work on ;) #aliceinwonderland #aliceturns150

#LadyCatGrey decided to break open one of today’s books. She’s looking through an early Grosset & Dunlap edition, which helpfully has no publication date :( It’s inscribed Christmas, 1910, and using the awesome cataloging skills I’ve learned workings at @americanantiquarian, I looked up the novels being advertised in the back and discovered that one wasn’t published until 1907. It is officially the oldest Alice in my collection! My aunt bought it used to be a decoration, and passed it along to my mom when she no longer wanted it. I quickly laid claim to it :) The more colorful edition is Robert Sabuda’s pop-up adaptation. It has the dubious honor of having been a gift from an ex-boyfriend. My Alice collection was prominently displayed in my previous apartment, and he knew I really wanted the Sabuda. He bought it while we were dating, but gave it to me in the brief period after we broke up when we were still talking. We are definitely not talking now. All of which is to say that I don’t hold the book responsible for my stupid ex (in fact I love it dearly; it's gorgeous), but it adds to the emotional tapestry of my collection.

For today's Alice post, #BookweightCat decided to highlight some of my non-book Alice materials. The cassettes and the LP set are a dramatization featuring Jane Asher as Alice. Listening to the cassettes was a staple of my childhood, and when I got a turntable and realized that it was originally available on LP, well, I had to have that, too ;) On the right is the Alice in Wonderland Deck and Book Set. The deck's cards feature John Tenniel's illustrations in color and have slots for easy card house construction. The book is is the Alice in Wonderland Puzzle and Game Book by Edward Wakeling. The puzzles and word games are either drawn from or inspired by the novel. #aliceinwonderland #aliceturns150