| |
Welcome.
 |
Be the first to hear about our weekly specials, publication highlights and new government reports on our blog |
 |
Receive the latest updates by following us on Twitter |
|
|
|
Of Elephants & Roses: French Natural History, 1790-1830: Memoir 267
|
|
The House of Barnes: The Man, The Collection, The Controversy (Memoir Vol. 266)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This award-winning illustrated book explores the fascinating history of the natural sciences in the turbulent years of post-revolutionary and Restoration France, from Empress Josephine’s black swans and rare Franklinia tree to a giraffe that walked 480 miles across France to greet the king. It is the catalogue for an international loan exhibition held in 2011 at the APS Museum in Philadelphia and the record of an associated interdisciplinary symposium held at the American Philosophical Society (APS) on December 1-3, 2011. The essays, commentaries, and discussions present new perspectives on French natural history, its influence on French culture, and its ties to the natural sciences in North America. Contributors include art historians, historians of science, and scholars of French literature, history, and culture. Illus.
|
The House of Barnes: The Man, The Collection, The Controversy is a beautifully written study of the extraordinary art collector and volatile personality Albert C. Barnes. The book places him in the context of his own era, shedding new light on the ideas and movements (about art collecting, education, and aesthetics) that shaped so much of his thinking.
The Barnes’ major holdings of largely post-impressionist art include more than 800 paintings, with a strong focus on Renoir (181 canvases), Cézanne (69), Matisse (59), and Picasso (46 paintings and drawings). In its entirety, it is the greatest single collection of such art that has remained intact.
The last chapters of the book address the controversial events surrounding the Barnes Foundation’s move to Philadelphia, including vehement opposition—as well as strong support. There is an analysis of the Foundation’s financial plight, a review of the major court cases over the decades, and a characterization of the fervent reactions following the court’s decision to allow the move to take place.
The monograph is recommended for a broad audience, including those interested in art and art collecting, the role of art in education, and the development of cultural institutions.
|
|
|
|
Petroglyphs of the Northern Ute Indian Reservation as Interpreted by Clifford Duncan (American Philosophical Society Transactions 105 Part 5)
|
|
Letters of Rowland Whyte (1595-1608) : Memoir 268
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
People must be educated about the rock art. That’s how it will be protected. —Clifford Duncan
Clifford Duncan, a Northern Ute elder, believed in educating the public to know and understand the meaning of Ute petroglyphs. By doing this, he believed it would help to preserve and protect them. Over the course of eight years, Clifford and the author visited and revisited all of these sites, discussing what they might represent. Clifford’s father was an Uncompahgre Ute and wanted Clifford to know the traditional homelands of the Uncompahgres in western Colorado. Clifford made special trips all through the Uncompahgre Plateau (by car, on foot, and on horseback), seeking out any Ute petroglyphs and cultural sites. Later in his life, he and the author visited many of the petroglyphs on the Uintah–Ouray Reservation, along Hill Creek and Willow Creek. These petroglyphs were authored by the Uncompahgre and White River Utes.
The interpretations of the petroglyphs of western Colorado and the Uintah– Ouray Reservation are supplemented with cultural and political history to provide a background context to Clifford’s interpretations. In addition, ethnographic information from other scholars provides readers with a deep appreciation as to what makes Ute petroglyphs so unique and fascinating.
Anthropologist Carol Patterson was Adjunct Professor for Colorado Mesa University and Metropolitan State University, Colorado. She is principal investigator for Urraca Archaeology, Montrose, Colorado. Recent publications include Shavano Valley Petroglyph Guide (2015) and “Concepts of Spirt in Rock Art According to Clifford Duncan, Ute Spiritual Elder,” in Sacred Landscapes, One World Archaeology Series (2014). Dr. Patterson’s earlier publications include Petroglyphs and Pueblo Myths of the Rio Grande and On the Trail of Spiderwoman, Pictographs and Petroglyphs of the Southwest (1997).
|
Provides the first complete edition, annotated and with modernized spelling, of these important late-Elizabethan letters, written by Rowland Whyte as the personal agent and advisor at court of Robert Sidney, Viscount Lisle and first Earl of Leicester. His series of 292 surviving letters to Sidney, written between September 1595 and December 1602, were partly intended as intelligence documents, keeping Sidney fully briefed on court affairs and gossip. This edition also includes a shorter sequence of Whyte’s surviving letters to Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, concerning the marriage of Talbot’s daughter, Lady Mary, to Robert Sidney’s rich and increasingly powerful nephew, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. A useful resource for the last years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Illus.
|
|
|
|
The Tower of the Winds in Athens: Greeks, Romans, Christians, and Muslims: Two Millennia of Continual Use: Memoirs, APS (Vol. 270)
|
|
Transformational Journeys: An Ethnologist’s Memoir: Transactions, APS (Vol. 106, Part 5)
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Tower of the Winds has stood in the shadow of the Acropolis in
Athens for more than 2,100 years. This tall octagonal building, one of
the best preserved monuments from the classical period, was built by the
architect-astronomer Andronikos of Kyrrhos
as a horologion for keeping time. Almost all its features have been
attributed to the period of construction by the Greeks or renovations
made by the Romans. The building, however, was in use almost
continuously for two millennia, which includes Byzantine
and Ottoman phases. Pamela Webb, a classical archaeologist, examines
the Tower throughout its entire functional existence. A series of
appendices helps to put the Tower in broader context for the
post-classical periods. Winner of the 2016 John Frederick Lewis
Award. Illus.
|
This is the professional memoir of an ethnologist, who studies the cultures and languages of ethnic groups, in the present and in the past. Victoria R. Bricker’s journeys -- from Hong Kong to Shanghai during World War II, to the U.S. after the war, to Germany, Harvard, southeastern Mexico, and eventually to New Orleans -- influenced her choice of ethnology as a career and shaped that career over 50 years. Ethnology served as the stepping stone for intellectual forays into other related fields, such as linguistics, ethnohistory, epigraphy, and astronomy, all focused on the Maya people of southern Mexico and Central America. Bricker, a Professor Emerita who holds several other positions, is the author, with her husband, Harvey M. Bricker (1940-2017), of “Astronomy in the Maya Codices.” Illus.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today's Super Deal! |
|
|
|
The Cabinetmaker’s Account
|
|
|
|
|
English joiner John Head (1688–1754) immigrated to Philadelphia in 1717 and became one of its most successful artisans and merchants. However, his prominence was lost to history until the discovery of his account book at the Library of the American Philosophical Society.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
