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Strait Through: Magellan to Cook & the Pacific (An Illustrated History)
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William Lewis, Esquire: Enlightened Statesman, Profound Lawyer, and Useful Citizen
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This beautifully-designed book documents the story and the drama of the unfolding exploration of the Pacific Ocean that followed the discovery of the Strait of Magellan. In rare historic maps, many in full-color, and the original printed narratives of the main European explorers, the volume traces 250 years (1520s-1770s) of both national and personal maritime achievements, as the map of the Pacific slowly developed into its present shape. Chronological maps of the Magellan Strait, Pacific Ocean, and Spice Islands (Moluccas) form the backdrop to the narratives of individual explorers and explorer-pairs: Ferdinand Magellan (d. 1521), Alvaro de Mendaña de Neira (1542?-1595) and Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (d. 1615), Sir Francis Drake (1540?-1596), and many others.
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Lewis (1752-1819) was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, Federalist and abolitionist. His descendant Esther Ann McFarland spent years locating records by and about Lewis and compiling this study. “History buffs will be fascinated by this authentic account of the role a leading Phila. lawyer played in shaping the character of our nation while we transitioned from colonial to post-revolutionary times. As an advisor to our Founding Fathers, a champion of individual rights, a strong advocate for abolition of slavery, a state legislator, an inaugural officer of the Phila. Bar Assoc. and Pennsylvania’s first U.S. Attorney and second fed. judge, William Lewis had a major impact on the development of our laws and the balance achieved by our fed. and state governments.” Illus.
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Wright's Ferry Mansion, 2 Volume Set: Volume 1: The House; Volume 2: The Collection
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Some Architects’ Portraits in Nineteenth-Century America: Personifying the Evolving Profession: Transactions, APS (Volume 103, Part 4)
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A jewel of early 18th-century house museums, Wright’s Ferry Mansion is also Pennsylvania’s best-kept secret, tucked away along the banks of the Susquehanna River in Columbia, PA. Built in 1738 for the dynamic English Quaker Susanna Wright, the house has been restored and furnished by The von Hess Foundation. These beautiful volumes tell the fascinating history of the house and its original owner Susanna Wright, who was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and other luminaries of early Pennsylvania. It is the only Pennsylvania English Quaker house furnished exclusively to the first half of the 18th century. The collection includes important Philadelphia William and Mary and Queen Anne furniture and English ceramics, metals, glass, and needlework, all pre-dating 1750. The appendix contains the original text of numerous letters, wills, inventories, poems, and two treatises by Susanna Wright and her brother James. Author and art historian Elizabeth Meg Schaefer has been curator of the mansion since 1982. 2-volume hardcover set in slipcase. Vol. 1 describes the house and furnishings; Vol. 1 describes each item in detail. Color photos.
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This is the first study devoted to the portraits of nineteenth-century American architects. It is an examination of the way the iconography of such images changed over time to reflect the changing social status of the architect as the profession evolved during the century. Portraits in oil on canvas, drawings, and photography in the text range from Charles Willson Peale’s image of William Buckland in the late eighteenth century to John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Richard Morris Hunt in the late 1890s. The book has been praised as “a unique use of visual resources, supported by formidable primary research and a thorough analysis of secondary literature.” Illustrations.
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Speaking in Tongues: APS, Transactions (Vol. 106, Part 4) 2016
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Dean and the Historian: Their Lives and Times through Letters
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Raised in a Lebanese mountain village, Fedwa Malti-Douglas came to America at the age of 13. After a rich academic career, Professor Malti-Douglas turned her attention to other muses, publishing a novel (Hisland, SUNY Press) in 1998, and poetry (including a chapbook of visual poetry). Fedwa’s honors include the 1997 Kuwait Prize in Arts and letters, and the National Humanities Medal for 2014, presented in 2015 by President Barack Obama. This volume tells the story of a family torn apart by divorce, death, and exile, and reunited by an inherited form of muscular dystrophy. It has been praised as “a memoir of unpitying clarity,” “deeply moving and arresting,” which “crosses landscapes of sadness, of happiness, of pain and peace, of alienation and acceptance, toward a healing enlargement of the soul.” Color photos.
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William S. Middleton, a graduate of the Univ. of PA School of Med., taught thousands of students during his 63 years at the Univ. of Wisconsin (UW) School of Med. One of his most important decisions was to establish a medical history dep’t. and appoint as its first chair, Erwin Ackerknecht, the pioneering medical historian. The correspondence between the dean and the historian began in 1947 and continued until 1974. Both men fought for causes they believed in: Middleton for improved veterans’ healthcare, better training of physicians, and the establishment of medical libraries; and Ackernecht for a social view of medicine and rejection of fascism in education. The letters show how these two outstanding men viewed the world and viewed themselves, as they discuss their daily lives and concerns, and above all, their friendship. Illus.
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Today's Super Deal! |
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The Cabinetmaker’s Account
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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.
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