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Books & Other Printed Materials

Miscellaneous Collections


Holdings include:


Description of bookplate

Maps:

The Library's rare, unusual and fragile maps have been gathered together in the department. There are more than one hundred printed maps of Maine and of Maine towns and regions, dating from 1794 to 1923, among others.

  • The Atlantic Neptune, vol. 2, 1777, by Joseph F.W. Des Barres, showing the coastal waters of the "Gulph and River of St. Lawrence", "New England", and "From New York Southerly"

  • State of Maine
    • First map of the new state prepared by Moses Greenleaf in 1820
    • Early maps by Osgood Carleton, John G. Warnicke and H.S. Tanner

  • Europe and other parts of the world
    • Russia by Willem Blaeu, undated
    • West Indies by Herman Moll, 1763
    • 'Amerique Angloise, published in Augsburg, eighteenth century

  • Manuscript collections - both printed and manuscript maps may be part of manuscript collections. For example:
    • Hubbard Family Papers (M95)
      • Four manuscript Civil War maps showing Pleasant Hill, Sabine Cross Roads, and the Cane River area with the placement of troops
      • Maps used by John Hubbard during his 1859 to 1861 service as U. S. Commissioner under the Reciprocity Treaty with Great Britain
    • Donald Baxter MacMillan Collection (M118)
      • Charts and maps used by him in his northern explorations

  • College Archives
    • Plan of Kennebec Purchase lands owned by Governor James Bowdoin in Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, and Lisbon, Maine, 1772
    • Copy of the plan of lands owned by the Kennebec Proprietors, dated 1785
    • Plans of land in the townships of Dixmont, Foxcroft, Guilford, and others once owned by the College

Miscellaneous Pamphlet Collection:

Arranged by subject, with some subject cross-referencing; secondary access to this collection by main entry is also available. Major strengths include educational topics and institutions, conservation, political subjects, religious topics and sermons, and World War I.



Newspapers:

A selection of American newspapers, most from the late-eighteenth through late-nineteenth centuries are housed in the department. These include approximately forty titles with multi-year runs and more than two-hundred titles with scattered issues. Most are from Maine and Massachusetts. Among them are:

  • Boston Gazette and Country Journal, five issues from the 1750s, as well as a run from 1771-73.
  • Daily Courier, Portland, (from 1829 through 1832), edited by Seba Smith (Bowd. 1818)
  • Eastern Argus, Portland, (from 1803 through 1859), including weekly, semi-weekly and tri-weekly versions
  • Columbian Centinel, (from 1790 through 1818) from Boston.
  • La Republique, a Lewiston, Maine, French-language paper from the 1880s, three issues.

Other highlights include:

  • A complete run of the abolitionist newspaper Advocate of Freedom.
  • Several Louisiana newspapers of the Confederate era, sent to the Hubbard family of Hallowell, Maine, by John Barrett Hubbard, Captain and Assistant Adjutant in General Weitzel's brigade, then in New Orleans:
    • La Sentinelle de Thibodaux (Louisiana), October 25, 1862, printed on wallpaper
    • Natchitoches Union (Louisiana), April 2 and 4, 1864, printed on ledger sheets.
  • Click here for a listing of our newspaper holdings.
  • Click here for more information on Maine newspaper holdings statewide.

World War I and World War II Posters:

Approximately forty-five World War I posters, including some French, but mostly large-format (up to 28" x 40") cloth-backed American posters issued by or in support of the YWCA, Liberty Loans, American Commission for the Near East, and the Red Cross. Several posters were drawn by notable artists such as Howard Chandler Christy, Joseph Pennell and Jessie Wilcox Smith.

Approximately 170 American World War II posters, most issued by the War Information Office or the Red Cross. These posters were used to encourage conservation, to raise funds for the war effort, to warn against spies and to publicize other domestic propaganda issues or government programs.

World War II Armed Forces Editions:

Nearly fifty titles of these conveniently-sized books published for exclusive distribution to members of the American Armed Forces, including works such as Henry James's Daisy Miller and Other Stories and W. Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence, as well as pocket guides to Alaska, Japan, and the western Pacific; a handbook of American-Japanese conversation; a Russian phrase book; and smaller-sized periodicals such as Newsweek, The New Yorker, and Time.

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Maintained by George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives Staff
Bowdoin College Library, 3000 College Station, Brunswick, Maine 04011-8421
email: scaref@bowdoin.edu / telephone: (207) 725-3288
©Bowdoin College 2004