In today’s episode we’re talking about a first edition copy of Nathanial Hawthorne’s Famous Old People, a book for young readers about American historical figures. The book was published in 1841 on Boston’s West Street—just a few doors down from where the Brattle stands today—by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, a fascinating historical figure in her own right. The first woman publisher in the United States and an early champion of Hawthorne’s work, Peabody ran a book shop and lending library at 13 West Street, where her salons became an important meeting place for the transcendentalist and early feminist movements. Although it tells the stories of New England puritans and political leaders, Famous Old People is also a reminder of Boston’s rich literary history, in which the Brattle is honored to play a small ongoing role.
Brattlecast #167 - Historic Photo Albums
Today we’re talking about another surprising Brattle find: a fairly nondescript album that turned out to contain photos of prominent 1800s abolitionists. The collection includes small, sepia-toned portraits of Charles Sumner, Phillips Brooks, and even Sojourner Truth. We’ll also discuss other historical photos that have arrived at the shop, and the way that studio photography democratized image-making during the Civil War era, offering life-like portraits for a fraction of the cost of a commissioned painting. It all comes into focus on a flashy new #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #80 - Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
An antique publicity photograph of ‘Young Ladies’ Baseball Club No. 1’ serves as a jumping off point for our look at the rugged, revolutionary women athletes of the late 1800’s. Decades before A League of Their Own, professional women’s baseball teams, in controversial uniforms and against the prevailing medical advice of the times, played for crowds of thousands. In this episode we celebrate these often overlooked sporting pioneers, and attempt to answer the age old question: is there crying in baseball?
Bonus Brattlecast - Social Distancing in the Brattle’s Basement
Like many of us, Ken is spending some time doing some long-delayed housekeeping and organizing: finding things he’d forgotten he has, and things he thought he’d lost. But, unlike many of us, he’s tidying up a basement in which 40 years of boxes containing possibly rare books have accumulated. We’ll talk about some of the treasures he’s unearthed during his Covid cleanup, and about his hopes for his most frequent customers: now that they’ve been forced to stop shopping for books, maybe they can stay home and read some of the books they already have.
