FREDERICK DOUGLAS

As February comes to a close, we again focus on Black History books in the collection. Last year we recommended for your reading an 1858 publication compiled from authentic materials by W. O. Blake and titled The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade, Ancient and Modern....

(Please refer to our posting of February 19, 2009.)

This year we suggest Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself (Park Publishing, Hartford, CN, 1882). This book covers "his early life as a slave, his escape from bondage, and his complete history to the present time, including his connection with the anti-slavery movement." A general note states: "Enlarged from the author's My Bondage and My Freedom, New York, 1855."

We have frequently seen and heard Mr. Douglass's name in the press recently. Now we have an opportunity to get better acquainted with him through his own words in this 1882 edition that is on the shelves here in the Bullis Room.

MARK TWAIN

On this date in 1885, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published for the first time in this country. One hundred and fifteen years later people of all ages are still enjoying Huck's tale along with the many other works by this prolific writer.

A few of Twain's books in the Bullis Collection are pictured here. You can find the complete list of these vintage books by going to http://www.pls-net.org/, first clicking on OWWL catalog and then on Advanced Search (found under and to the left of the regular search box). Next fill in the following boxes:

Author: Mark Twain

Library: Macedon Public Library

Location: Bullis Collection

Then we suggest you make a list of your favorites and bring it to the Bullis Room so we can show you the awesome illustrations in these century-old books.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

From Nettie Bullis's vintage postcard collection

WHAT HAVE YOU "RED" LATELY?

You may think you're "seeing red" when you look at the display case outside the Bullis Room. Well, you are--books with red covers from this collection. Here are the titles:

Life of Mary Jemison, by James Seaver, 1910

New York Commonwealth, by Ellis H. Roberts, New York: 1904

A Man's Value to Society, by Newell Dwight Hills, 1904

Bridgewater Treatises, by William Whewell, DD, 1852

Pictures Every Child Should Know, by Delores Bacon, 1913

The Spectator, by Henry Morely, London: 1902

Anecdotes from Ancient History, author unknown, New York: 1847

Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin--Record of a Family of Engineers,

by Robert Louis Stevenson, New York: 1925

Biography of American Military Heroes, Vol. I,

by Thomas Wilson, New York: 1821

If you haven't read these red-covered books, perhaps you'd like to add two or three to your list.

BEAUCHAMP TOWER, continued

This week we spent more time with this intriguing pamphlet. Here are a few inscriptions from the Beauchamp Tower walls that caught our eyes:

"A passage perillus maketh a port pleasant. 1568, Arthur Poole."

"No hope is hard or vayne that happ doth us attain. 1568" (probably left by Arthur Poole or his brother Edmund)

"Unhappie is that man whose actes doth procuer the miseri of this hous in prison to endure. 1576, T.C. " (probably Thomas Clarke)

"Hit is the poynt of a wise man to try and then truste; for happy is he whome fyndeth one that is just. 1578, T.C." (probably Thomas Clarke)

"As vertue maketh life; so sin cawseth death. July 1585, Thomas Bawdewin"

And this anonymous inscription, which probably reflected thoughts of all the tower's inhabitants through the ages, as they awaited their punishments for conspiracy or other charges:

"O unhappy man that I think myself to be."

We have a new display in the case outside the Bullis Room. Next week we'll post a list of the (red-covered) books in "What Have You Red Lately?"

BEAUCHAMP TOWER

The next time you're in the library, ask a volunteer to show you this booklet located here in the Bullis Room

The reddish cover is faded and worn but the contents are fresh to those of us who have carefully turned its brittle pages. Sold by the Warders at the Tower for a sixpence, it was "...offered for the inspection of the Public, as an abridgment of one lately published by W. R. Dick."

Here's an opportunity to actually hear walls talk from pages a century or so old. Next week we'll share some of those inscriptions with you.

Note: We cannot find a copyright or publication date anywhere in the booklet, although Bemrose & Sons Limited, Derby & London, are listed as publishers. If you have information that would help us identify and confirm these dates, please let us hear from you.

QUINN-DEX

The photo above shows the Quinn-Dex, a mechanical "movie" in the form of a small book containing over 600 separate pictures that show the correct movement of wrists, hands and fingers at a piano keyboard. By fanning through the sequenced pages, the fingers appear to move from one position to another.

The Quinn-Dex was copyrighted in 1922 by Dr. Marcus Lucius Quinn and used as a part of a How to Learn Piano correspondence course offered through his Conservatory of Music in the Social Union Building, Boston, Massachusetts. The Bullis Room's Quinn-Dex is stored in a small brown cardboard mailing box bearing Nettie Bullis's name and address, stamped "4 cents postage, Permit No. 924," and mailed from the Colonial Road Uphams Corner Station, Boston.

Several questions come to mind as we look at this piece of Bullis history: Did Nettie Bullis take Dr. Quinn's correspondence course? And if so, where did she practice? (We have no record of the Bullis family owning a piano or organ.) Did she visit the Conservatory or perhaps study on the Boston campus?

We will continue our search for more information about Dr. Quinn, his Quinn-Dex, and Nettie Bullis's involvement in music and will keep you informed of our progress. In the meantime, can you answer any of our questions or tell us more about this unique method of learning to play piano?