Bound Volume Collecting Various Issues of The Western Farmer's Magazine Almanac; Loomis' Magazine Almanac; Farmers' and Mechanics' Almanac; Fanklin Magazine Almanac from 1828-1849

Rebound hardcover book collecting various antique American almanacs from the years 1828-49. The contents vary from poor to good condition. Heavy toning/staining to many of the interior pages. Some pages are torn, chipped or missing. Owned by W. W. Burton of Alliance, Ohio and contains his signature to the front fixed end page. Previous owner's name penned to some leaves. Contains many wonderful woodcut illustrations. A unique offering. A tradition of almanacs published for the purposes of North America began in New England in the 17th century. A New World's dwelling would seldom be found without the latest print of North American almanac and The Pilgrim's Progress. The earliest almanac published for New England appeared in Cambridge, Massachusetts as early as 1639, by William Pierce. It was the second work printed in the English colonies of America altogether (the first being The Oath of a Free-man, printed earlier in the same year). The earliest New England almanac of which an extant copy survives in the Library of Congress was published by Zechariah Brigden in Cambridge in 1659. Harvard College became the first center for the annual publication of almanacs with various editors including Samuel Danforth, Oakes, Cheever, Chauncey, Dudley, Foster, et alia. An almanac maker going under the pseudonym of Poor Richard, Knight of the Burnt Island began to publish Poor Robin's Almanack one of the first comic almanacs that parodied these horoscopes in its 1664 issue, saying "This month we may expect to hear of the Death of some Man, Woman, or Child, either in Kent or Christendom." Other noteworthy comic almanacs include those published from 1687-1702 by John Tully of Saybrook, Connecticut. The Boston ephemeris was an early almanac published in Boston during the 1680s. The most important early American almanacs were made from 1726-1775 by Nathaniel Ames of Dedham, Massachusetts. Many colonists sewed blank pages into their almanacs to keep a daily journal. Daily journal entries consisted of buildings being built, debt and spending, the death of neighbors, personal diaries, earthquakes, and weather. A few years later James Franklin began publishing the Rhode-Island Almanack beginning in 1728. Five years later his brother Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack from 1733-1758. Benjamin Banneker improved on the Almanac from 1792-1797.