HAPPY PI DAY

Today is March 14 - also known as 3/14 - also known as 3.14 - also known as pi.

We couldn't let this day go by without putting in a plug for all of these math and engineering books on the shelves here in the Bullis Collection.   Several generations of Bullises used these books in their professions, and it's interesting to speculate how they applied the knowledge they gleaned from these volumes.

You are invited to stop by anytime (it doesn't have to be pi day) and spend some time with these volumes.  (And for those of you with a special interest in pi, you might even find out how far pi was carried out in the days before calculators and computers.)

CELEBRATING WOMEN

Around the globe International Women's Day is recognized in many different ways. Those of us who are privileged to work with the Bullis collection celebrate this day quietly in two ways. First, we again acknowledge (and thank) Nettie Bullis for her generosity to this community. And second, we review the collection's books on great women. We've already posted information on this blog about most of these books; thus we're listing below the posts for your reference.

Please link to our posts on:

March 26, 2009, "Women's History Month," for Bullis books on everyday women who have achieved great accomplishments;

August 19, 2009, "Women's Equality," for Bullis books on Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton;

November 5, 2009, "Women's Sufferage," for Bullis books on Susan B. Anthony;

and

September 10, 2011, "Two Amazing Women," for Bullis books on Sojourer Truth.

March is Women's History Month. We invite you to stop by the Bullis Room during the month to learn more about women's accomplishments and contributions to our society.

VERMONT and the BULLIS FAMILY

Vermont became our fourteenth state on March 4, 1791, two years to the day after the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York.

The Bullis family's connection to that great (and beautiful) state is through Charles Bullis, who was born in 1723 in Greenwich, Connecticut and later moved to Manchester, Vermont. He served in the Revolutionary War in Captain Gideon Brownson's Company, Warner Regiment, Vermont Militia. Charles' descendants came to Macedon from Vermont in 1837 and bought the property on Canandaigua Road in 1839. Sometime after that they started the collection that fills the Bullis Room today.

The Bullises were obviously interested in their home state, because there are two books on Vermont in the collection, both worth your time to look through. They are:

The Green Mountain boys; 
a historical tale of the early settlement of Vermont,

written by Daniel B. Thompson
and published in 189? by A. L. Burt of New York.

and

Ethan Allen and the Green-Mountain heroes of '76:

with a sketch of the early history of Vermont,

written by Henry W. De Puy 

and published in 1860 by Phinney, Blakeman & Mason, New York.

We'd like to show (show off?) these books to you. Hope you'll stop by the Bullis Room the next time you're in the library.

CENSUS BOOKS

On March 1, 1790 President George Washington signed a measure authorizing the first U.S. census.  (Prior to that date "...a census was taken in Virginia, and people were counted in nearly all of the British colonies that became the United States." (Wikipedia article, "United States Census")  Since 1790 a census has been conducted every ten years in this country, with the last one completed in 2010.

While the census statistics are used by the government in various ways, they can be of use to private citizens also. Those of us who are into genealogy usually find them quite helpful. In fact, census reports may be one of the first sources we go to when researching family trees.

The Bullis Collection has many books that may be of interest to those of you researching your ancestors.  We're describing three of them in this post. Two of these books cover the New York state census, which we've been told were conducted every ten years from 1825-1875, in 1892, and then again from 1905-1925.

1. United States life tables, 1910,

published by the Washington Govt. Printing Office, 1916,

65 pages including tables

2.  Census of the state of New York, for 1865: taken in pursuance

of article third of the constitution of the state, and of chapter

sixty-four of the laws of 1865,

published in Albany: printed by C. Van Benthuysen & Sons, 1867, 743 pages

3. A Gazetteer of the state of New York: comprising its topography, geology,

mineralogical resources, civil divisions, canals, railroad and public institutions,

together with general statistics, the whole alphabetically arranged; also, statistical

tables, including the census of 1840, and tables of distances: with a new township map of the

state, engraved on steel, by J. Disturnell, 1842, 479 pages, 2 leaves of plates, map

(Wow! We challenge you to read that last title in one breath!)

These books (and a lot of others--most of which have shorter titles) are in the Bullis Room for your use. If you're interested in using them to aid in your family tree search (or for any other research), please call the library and arrange for a time to meet with one of us volunteers.

HISTORY OF CANADA

Yesterday was Flag Day in Canada, and in honor of that special day we wanted to let you know of a couple of items in the Bullis Collection that have to do with our good neighbor to the north.

First, there's a copy of  Montreal: Canada Railway News Co. Ltd. It was published sometime in the 1880s, and is listed in the data base as "Souvenir of Quebec." This single folded sheet contains 12 leaves of plates.  We're all curious about how it came to be a part of the collection. Did a Bullis family member bring it home as a souvenir of a trip to Montreal? Once again, we wish these items in the collection could talk.

Another Canada item is the book A History of Canada, written by Charles George Douglas Roberts and published in Toronto in 1902. According to the website "Queen's University Archives," Douglas was a talented poet and prose writer who was born in New Brunswick in 1860.  His literary talents were recognized with his award of the 1926 Lorne Pierce medal and with knighthood in 1935. Prior to that, the Royal Society of Canada elected him a fellow in 1890. Douglas died in 1943 in Toronto, leaving a huge volume of poetry and prose that is still read and appreciated today.

One more thing - We'd like to extend a special invitation to our Canadian neighbors: when you travel south of your border, please stop in the Bullis Room and say hello to us. It would make our day...no, our week...even our year!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY (again)

This week our search for "Valentine's Day" in the Bullis data base resulted in these two hits:

Laboratory Manual of Biology

by George W. Hunter

and

American Politics (non-partisan) from the

beginning date...; also a complete Federal blue book....

by Thomas V. Cooper

At this point, we have no idea what these books have to do with Valentine's Day! (When we have a chance to look them over, we'll let you know.) In the meantime, we are including a link to our 2010 post which we think does a proper job of wishing you the best on this February holiday.

http://bullisbookchronicles.blogspot.com/2010/02/happy-valentines-day.html

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY

This past week we took a close look at this book in the collection: History of New York City from the Discovery to the Present Day (written by William Leete Stone and published in New York by Virtue and Yorston in 1872).

If you are looking for information about NYC's current present day, you'll need to continue your search. But if you're interested in the city's history from its discovery to 1872 (the author's "present day"), this is the book for you.

The volume is divided into three parts. The first part covers the period from 1508 to 1674; the second from 1674 to 1783. The third part covers the years 1783  to 1872 and includes information about these topics:

Publishing Houses

Banking Capital Invested

Schools of Art, Painting and Sculpting

The visit of the Russian Duke

Dickens Dinner

Also included are 38 pages of plates as well as illustrations and maps. You're welcome to stop by and take a look.