It is interesting to me that Sturgis did not cause a new building. Instead, this homestead was purchased intentionally for the library.
When books were purchased with William Sturgis’s endowment, each one was painstakingly hand-entered into a ledger, which, by number, spelled out the author, the title, the place and year of publication, the place from which the volume came (whether it was a donation or an outright purchase) and the cost. In each book, the Library placed a beautiful bookplate, hand-numbered and hand-dated. It mattered to the library that there be a record of when each book was purchased, and in what order.
After poking around a bit with the Library Director, Lucy Loomis, we re-discovered the earliest record of Sturgis’s acquisitions — a leather-bound quarto, the spine separated from the binding, containing ruled pages filled with these inked records. What a find! Now I could surmise — or perhaps imagine — what was in the minds of the people who were entrusted with Sturgis’s small fortune and commissioned to convert commercial paper wealth into food for the imagination.
I always thought that the library began with a donation of books from the estate of William Sturgis, and it’s true that he did give bequeath 1,300 books to the new collection, but these were not the first books officially received or entered into the library’s acquisitions ledger.
The Sturgis Free Library’s first trustees were personally selected by William Sturgis: Samuel Hooper, Lemuel Shaw, and Edward W. Hooper. Their first purchase for the library was the 8th Edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittannica. There was always a strong Anglophile thrust in the early Sturgis acquisitions, and the Brittanica was (and still is) the nec plus ultra compendium of useful information in the English language. This purchase was followed quickly by the New American Cyclopaedia and the American Annual Cyclopaedia, pale cousins of their British counterpart.
The third acquisition listed was another safe choice — a current 1865 edition of Noah Webster’s American Dictionary. This was quickly followed by two atlases: Colton’s General Atlas, and Black’s General Atlas. Founded by an adventurer/entrepreneur and being on the East coast and physically sited among sea captains’ houses, the Sturgis Library immediately took a stand beyond regional parochialism and reached out for knowledge about the rest of the world.
Having made basic purchases in general knowledge, geography, and linguistics, it was time to feed the mind and the spirit. The Sturgis trustees chose the Works of William Shakespeare as their seventh acquisition.
The 8th and 9th choices, I think, were more motivated by personal passion than as choices for the commonweal. The trustees acquired the three-volume Naval Biographical Dictionary, published in London, 1849, by William R. O’Byrne. This was a huge compendium of the lives of every living officer — some 5,000 or so — still serving in Her Majesty’s Navy in 1845.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/00d5fd41-2542-4a80-b119-4886d4b9925f.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.")
