Creating a world of books, friends and flowers: gift books in America, 1825-1860
Date
1995
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Books have long been considered appropriate presents. From 1825 to 1860, book publishers in England and America formally acknowledged such a tradition when they published a genre of books known as literary annuals or gift books. Elegantly-bound collections of prose, poetry, and illustrations, gift books appeared in bookstores each year in anticipation of Christmas and New Year's. ☐ As an object-driven study, this thesis explores the contexts in which these volumes of literature and art became gifts. The discussion begins in the publisher's realm, where gift books were physically created, with a general description of gift books and the components that made them appropriate presents in antebellum American society. Turning to the private world of the giver and recipient, this study, through a survey of gift book inscriptions, uncovers the various ways in which givers invested neatly-packaged, commercial expressions of sentiment and refinement with personal meanings of commemoration and remembrance. Beyond the formality of the presentation, gift books acquired further associations in yet another realm, that of the recipient. A close examination of a copy of one gift book, The Floral Forget Me Not, demonstrates that gift books were objects that, when read as well as admired, helped to shape an individual's identity in her own world of books, friends, and flowers.