Christopher Columbus Baldwin

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FB&C readers will be pleased to learn that the new edition of Baldwin's diary is now available (it was excerpted in our spring issue). Titled A Place in My Chronicle: A New Edition of the Diary of Christopher Columbus Baldwin, 1829-1835, it is a diary of the American Antiquarian Society's first librarian. This edition includes more than 160 illustrations. In a blog post last week announcing the publication, co-editor Caroline Sloat wrote, "Baldwin took up his appointment as AAS librarian on April 1, 1832, and thereafter followed his passions for books, history, and collecting. He admired scholars such as the young Jared Sparks who was embarking on an edition of George Washington's papers. He happily labored in 90 degree temperatures in a smelly Boston oil warehouse to pack pamphlets and a missing volume of Cotton Mather's diary that would fill a wagon, only to be deflated when he returned to Worcester by the dismissive reaction of the Council to his treasure. (They later changed their minds.)"

This book is the first publication in honor of AAS's 2012 bicentennial. It can be purchased online at AAS or through Oak Knoll Books.