[American Civil War] The Lady's Almanac for the Year 1863

Coolidge, George. The Lady's Almanac for the Year 1863. Boston: Issued by George Coolidge, 17 Washington Street. New York: Sold by Henry Dexter, (1862). First Edition. [11984]

Dark green cloth decorated in blind & gilt, the slightest of edge-wear, 11 x 6.5 cm, (4 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches). All page edges gilt. The end paper hinges front and back are partly open. The end papers are full of adverts, including an endorsement by Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher for the Grover & Baker Family Sewing Machine, see description below. Large title page vignette by John Andrew of a woman seated at a writing desk, with another standing and reading a book. There are three additional full-page engravings by Andrew, with additional text illustrations, each month having a headpiece. 127, [1] clean text pages. One leaf of adverts is lacking at the back of the book. The memorandum pages within the almanac are unused. Good. Hardcover.

An unusual item for your collection, especially suitable for Civil War exhibits, African-American research, or for a reenactor's impression of an 1860's Union-supporting mother, wife, or sweetheart.

"Printed by Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 3 Cornhill, Boston."

A scarce American Civil War issue with war news printed chronologically within the Almanac. The latest news is that of July 25, 1862, indicating the approximate date of publication.

The many brief articles and essays are patriotic pro-Union pieces. The titles include

Invocation to Liberty;

Human Brotherhood the Law of Liberty;

Appeal to Patriotic Spirits;

What the Traitors are, and what they seek;

The Guilt of the Free States;

Outraged Liberty avenged in the Slave;

The Woful [sic] Change in Public Sentiment;

The People aroused by Warfare;

The Slave waiting for Justice;

Man's Trust in Himself and Distrust of God;

The Ruling Spirit of the Southern Confederacy ever the same, false and untrustworthy;

The Prize of the Great Contest;

The Martyred blest, the Wounded consoled, the Laboring and Sacrificing Cheered;

The Great Truth of Life Designated.

The anti-slavery articles included here were published about six months before President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1st, 1863.

The almanac also includes recipes, obituaries, articles on health and other family topics.

The adverts are illustrated, and include those for sewing machines (including I. M. Singer & Co.); Mrs. Coy's Pharmakon; Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher (the wife of the celebrated New York preacher) has a three-paragraph endorsement for a sewing machine; a knitting machine; several books including Mme. Demorest's Mirror of Fashions; and one for Hallett & Cumston's Piano-Fortes.

The illustrator is John Andrew (1815-1875), b. Hull, England; d. Boston, Massachusetts. He was in Boston by 1851, when he exhibited a wood engraving at the Annual Fair of the American Institute in New York City. He remained in Boston until his death in 1875, having been a partner in the engraving firms Baker & Andrew (1853-54) and Andrew & Filmer (1858-75). - Groce & Wallace.

The publisher and author of many of the essays is George Coolidge, who, by the 1840s, was publishing in Boston. He published Alice Cary's Poems of Old Age in 1861. "During the 1860s and 1870s...Coolidge published the Lady's Almanac. These annual publications usually featured poems or stories by Alice and Phoebe Cary and Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Coolidge continued printing and publishing into the late 1880s." - David Dzwonkoski, Dictionary of Literary Biography 49, p. 103.