New Acquisitions in Rare Americana (Catalogue 216, William Reese Company). A 181 item long collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides, imprints, photographs and other forms of materials dealing with all aspects of rare and antiquarian Americana, organized alphabetically by author. This is the only catalogue in this series whose theme is essentially Americana, generally speaking, rather than a specific subject under the Americana rubric. It is in this sense a general inventory catalogue, but with Reese even general inventory catalogues are specialty items because of the care and knowledge that Reese and his staff put into them. An introductory note to the catalogue reads:
“This catalogue covers a broad spectrum of recently acquired Americana which has not appeared in previous catalogues. Because we produced a spate of catalogues devoted to very specific themes, a variety of unusual pieces which have not fallen into those genres have not yet been offered. The result is the eclectic mix in this more general grouping. This includes a first edition of Lewis and Clark, an important early edition of Utopia, a book from Thomas Jefferson’s library, an Eakins photograph of Walt Whitman, a presentation of the first edition of Democracy in America, and important Americana from the earliest era of discovery through the close of the 19th century.”
