|
 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 |

 |
The Power of Maps and the Politics of Borders: Papers from the conference held at the American Philosophical Society, October 2019: Transactions, APS (Vol. 110, Part 4)
|
|
Benjamin Franklin, Swimmer: An Illustrated History (Transactions Vol 110, Part 1
|
|
|
|
|
Some papers include: Unpacking the Meaning of Maps, Power, and Boundaries; The Legacy of Major Sebastian Bauman’s Map of the Siege of Yorktown; Mapping Old and New Empires in the Early U.S.; Cherokee Boundaries Above, Below, and Beyond; Cherokee Territoriality, Anglo-American Surveying, and the Creation of Borders in the Early 19th-Century West; Chickasaw and Cherokee Resistance to American Colonization, 1785-1816; Hydrography, Natural History, and the Sea in the 19th Century; William Darby’s “A Map of the State of Louisiana” and the Extension of American Sovereignty over the “Neutral Ground” in the Louisiana-Texas Borderland, 1806-1819; Initiating the World’s Longest Unfortified Boundary; Mapping Inequality, Resistance, and Solutions in Early National Philadelphia. Illus.
|
The
story of Benjamin Franklin’s lifelong delight in swimming and his
influence in making swimming popular in the western world has never been
told. This book uses Franklin’s love of swimming to examine the
founder’s life, times, and strong, inventive personality through a lens
that historians have previously overlooked. Franklin’s personality
emerges through the lens of swimming. We see him clearly as a leader,
an inventor, and a strong, proud man. As he was in many fields, he was
self-taught. He interacted with family, friends, and acquaintances
through swimming. Swimming also offered him an entrée into British
society.
Franklin discusses swimming in his Letters and in his Autobiography. Friends
and family also comment on his swimming. Primary sources for this book
include Franklin’s writing, that of his contemporaries, and other
artistic and archaeological sources. When Franklin’s grandson Benjamin
Franklin Bache was in his care in France he swam in the Seine. Bache’s Journal constitutes
another important primary source for this book. The escapades of this
engaging literate teenager in France with his grandfather never before
have been published.
In
1968 the International Swimming Hall of Fame honored Franklin with
membership. The citation mentions his various inventions that made
swimming more efficient and his own feats as a swimmer, but most of all
his success in promoting swimming as an essential part of any education.
Benjamin Franklin’s advice about water safety and his conviction that
everyone should learn to swim because it promotes health, hygiene, and safety is still relevant. Swimming has always been “useful knowledge.”
Sarah B. Pomeroy is Distinguished
Professor of Classics and History, Emerita, at Hunter College and the
Graduate School, CUNY. She is also Lady Joan Reid Author in Residence
at Benjamin Franklin House, London, and a
Member of the American Philosophical Society. Widely recognized as a
pioneer in the fields of women’s history and classical studies, she uses
not only textual sources but also artistic and archaeological evidence
in order to reconstruct the past. Her publications include Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (1975, 1995); Women in Hellenistic Egypt from Alexander to Cleopatra (1984, 1990); Spartan Women (2002); The Murder of Regilla. a Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity (2007); and Pythagorean Women: Their Lives and Their Writings (2013). Her most recent book is Maria Sibylla Merian, Artist, Scientist, Adventurer (2017). Her
books have been translated into Italian, Spanish, German, and Chinese.
Professor Pomeroy received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the
Guggenheim Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment
for the Humanities, and she is an Honorary Fellow of St. Hilda’s
College, the University of Oxford. Like Ben Franklin, she likes to play
the harpsichord and to swim.
|
|
Optical Magic in the Late Renaissance: Giambattista Della Porta's De Refractione of 1593: Transactions, APS (Vol. 107, Part 1)
|
|
Five Hundred African Voices: A Catalog of Published Accounts by Africans Enslaved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1586-1936
|
|
|
|
|
|
The importance of published accounts by African slave ship survivors is well-known but not their existence in large numbers. Fogleman and Hanserd catalog nearly five hundred discrete accounts and more than 2,500 printings of them over four centuries in numerous Atlantic languages. Short biographies of each African, print histories of the complete or partial life story. Five Hundred African Voices an invaluable resource for scholars, teachers, students, and others wishing to study transatlantic slavery using African Voices.
|
|
Spreading the Word: Scottish Publishers and English Literature 1750-1900: Transactions, APS (Vol. 109, Part 2)
|
|
The House of Barnes: The Man, The Collection, The Controversy (Memoir Vol. 266)
|
|
|
|
|
A disproportionate number of the great publishing houses of the English-speaking world - -Blackie, Blackwood, Collins, Constable, Macmillan, Millar, Murray, Nelson, Smith and Elder, Strahan -- were founded after the Treaty of Union in 1707, by men, often of humble origin, from “north of the border” (Scotland). Many of the now classic English writers of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries were personally encouraged by the men running these companies, nearly all of whom were also committed, for cultural as well as commercial reasons, to making literature in English accessible to all. This essay offers a comprehensive, yet short overview of this remarkable Scottish contribution to English literary history. 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.
|
|
|
 |

Today's Super Deal! |
|

Other Presidency: Thomas Jefferson
|
Our Price: $15.00 Sale Price: $10.00 You save $5.00!
|
|
|
The Other Presidency: Thomas Jefferson and the American Philosophical Society, by Patrick Spero, With research assistance by Abigail Shelton and John Kenney.
|
|
|
|
 |



|