Beschreibung:

The American Museum, Or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces, Prose, and Poetical . Philadelphia: 1787-1792. Imprints as follows: Vols. 1-6: Printed by Mathew Carey, 1787-1789; Vols. 7-10: Carey, Stewart and Co., 1790-1791; Vols. 11-12: From the Press of M. Carey, 1792. First editions thus. Twelve volumes, each containing six numbers plus appendices and indices. Tan library cloth with lettering labels (vol. IX in a in a differing cloth). 7 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches (19.5 x 11 cm). Paginations as per Sabin: Vol. I, 576 pp., xvi (general title and subscriber's list bound where issued before no. 6; Vol. II, List of subscribers, 600 pp., 22 pp.; Vol. III, xvi, 603 pp. (1); Vol. IV, Extract of a letter from his Excellency George Washington, xvi, 592 pp.; Vol. V, (Sabin records this volume titled as the subsequent volumes and with the later Carey, Stewart imprint but this issue would seem to have priority), xvi, 628 pp., 2 folding plates; Vol. VI, 492 pp., Proceedings of Congress 46 pp., index (6 pp.); Vol. VII, this volume (and the balance of the set) with altered title The American Museum, or Universal Magazine..., 344 pp., 44 pp., 44 pp., 44 pp., 40 pp., (4 pp.); Vol. VIII, 288 pp., 40 pp., 80 pp., 20 pp., 52 pp.; Vol. IX, 344 pp., 48 pp., 40 pp., 48 pp.; Vol X, 308 pp., 36 pp., 48 pp., 44 pp.; Vol. XI, 308 pp., 36 pp., 92 pp., 58 pp., (4 pp.); Vol. XII, 352 pp., 36 pp., 44 pp., 40 pp. Vols. 5-12 without separate titles (likely as issued as pagination is undisturbed), stamps to several first title pages and versos, lacks separate title for Vol. I no. 3 and Vol. II no. 1 and the general title for Vol. II, some occasional stains and small repairs, foxing to prelims of Vol. IV including the Washington letter and intermittent throughout the set, some leaves in Vols. VI & VII trimmed close with some loss of text along bottom, one vol. with an ownership signature, creases to some leaves in final vol. overall a clean and desirable set. Rarely encountered as a twelve-volume run, Carey's American Museum was the most substantial American periodical of the 18th century, printing important political tracts, foreign correspondence, poetry, and other items of interest. The periodical earned praise in its day from George Washington, who wrote "That a more useful literary plan has never been undertaken in America, or one deserving of public encouragement" (vol. IV). Of note is a periodical printing of the Constitution and an early printing of the Federalist essays. The question of slavery is hotly debated throughout the volumes and vol. V contains the first American appearance of a Plan of an African Ship's Lower Deck, a haunting folding plate illustration of the interior of a slave ship. The same volume contains A Chart of the Gulf Stream with a description by Benjamin Franklin Volume IX reprints Moses Seixas Address of the Hebrew Congregation in Newport to the President of the United States of America, August 17, 1790, a seminal text on freedom of religion. Of the work, Carey would write in his autobiography, "I was much attached to this work, and had great reluctance to abandon it, unproductive and vexatious as was the management of it; but at length I sang its requiem, at the close of the year 1792. That it had considerable merit is universally acknowledged; and there is no vanity in the declaration, as the work did not contain a single essay of my own. The whole of my labour consisted in the selection of its contents, and the addition occasionally of a few notes, of little importance." Rare at auction; ABPC reports only one twelve-volume set sold. Sabin 1162; ESTC P5460. C The New York City Bar Association