Princeton University Library received the gift of the double elephant folio Birds of America [(Ex) Oversize 8880.134.1860e] from Alexander van Rensselaer, Class of 1871 (1855-1933), during the academic year 1928-29. We believe he inherited the copy from his uncle, Stephen van Rensselaer IV, Class of 1808 (1789-1868). The wealthy van Rensselaer family is the only one I have found who bought two copies of Audubon’s massive publication. The second was purchased by Stephen’s cousin Dr. Jeremias “Jeremiah” Van Rensselaer (1793-1871), who graduated from Yale.

Most American subscribers to Audubon’s Birds of America were convinced to join during his second trip back to the United States in 1831, when Audubon spent considerable time in New York during 1833. Both Jeremias and Stephen IV were born at the sprawling 1,200-square-mile van Rensselaer estate near Albany, New York, but lived during the 1830s in New York City.

Stephen’s father and Alexander’s grandfather, Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764-1839), was among the richest men in America and when he died, Stephen IV left New York City to live in the “West Manor” of the Rensselaer estate. Jeremiah’s medical practice remained in New York City, where he was also corresponding secretary of the X.Y. Lyceum of Natural History, with a great love for the natural sciences. He retired in 1852, traveled, and died in New York City in 1871. The whereabouts of his copy of Audubon’s Birds of America is not known.

Stephen III was an active businessman who owned several New York properties and in 1816, built a modest two-story house on Mulberry Street (originally no. 153 moved to no. 149) where the family could live while in town. The Federalist structure, which survived flood, fire, and a bomb, has a façade of Flemish bond brick and a Dutch-style gambrel roof, punctured by two tall dormers.

Around the time, Stephen IV moved back to Albany, the family sold the house and it has had various owners since then. http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-1816-van-rensselaer-house-no-149.html

In the 1890s, Helen Louisa Stokes (1846-1930), wife of Anson Phelps Stokes (1838–1913) purchased the house and converted it to The Free Italian Library and Reading-Rooms, which opened in 1894.

“The free Italian library and reading rooms established chiefly by Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, in a house formerly used by [an] Italian, as a cheese factory at 149 Mulberry street, was open for inspection yesterday from 2 to 10 P. M. The guests were welcomed by the Rev. Antonio Arrighi. pastor of the Italian church at 123 Worth Street. The library has more than 200 volume, which will be added to by books now being bound, it contains books of history, poetry, science, travel, natural history, and novels. –New York Times, July 23, 1894

See our colleague’s research: Alexandra Deluise, “Mission work, Conversion and the Italian Immigrant in Turn-of-the-Century New York City: the Story of the Anson Phelps Stokes Italian Free Library” (2015). CUNY Academic Works. http://academicworks.cuny.edu/lacuny_events/3

Interesting that her father’s family company, Phelps, Dodge & Company was the organization that helps to preserve the Audubon printing plates when Mrs. Lucy Audubon was forced to sell her family estate.

Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, 1898 (?). Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bird bath in the front yard

In 1915, Samuel Goldman (1882–1969) constructed and then carved reliefs into the exterior of his stucco home at 143 School Street, in the North Stelton neighborhood of Piscataway Township, New Jersey. The symbols reflect his Marxist beliefs and membership in the Francisco Ferrer Association, founded in 1901 by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.

The Ferrer Colony was a libertarian community where, among many programs, they established the progressive Modern School, an alternative to public schooling and traditional living arrangements. At its largest, the Stelton Colony included 90 houses, although most residents only occupied their homes on the weekend.

Thanks to the generous donations of Donald Farren, Class of 1958, the Graphic Arts Collection holds a nearly complete run of The Modern School: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Libertarian Ideas in Education, edited by Carl Zigrosser and printed by Joseph Ishill.

The magazine includes linocuts (primarily) by many contemporary printmakers, such as William Zorach, Man Ray, and Rockwell Kent, who designed its logo and chapter initials. Man Ray was also one of the first adult students to attend night classes at the Modern School, while it was still in New York City.

On Friday afternoon, October 27, 2017, the Friends of the Modern School hold their 45th annual meeting at Alexander Library, Rutgers University, also the home of the Modern School archives.

For more information, see:
http://friendsofthemodernschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/FMS-2017-Meeting-Announcement.pdf

For more photographs, see: http://www.talkinghistory.org/stelton/modschoolmag.html

The Modern School. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2009-2180N and 2015-0579N

Travels of Robinson Crusoe. Written by himself (Worcester (Massachusetts): Printed by Isaiah Thomas, and sold at his book-store, MDCCLXXXVI: where may be had a variety of little books for children., [1786]). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PR3403 .A2 1786s

Defoe’s Adventures of Robinson Crusoe was first published on April 25, 1719, and before the end of the year had run through four editions. An abridged children’s version was published ca. 1784 in Boston, printed and sold by N. Coverly, price three pence.

Two years later Isaiah Thomas (1661?-1731) printed and sold the novel from his bookshop in Worcester, Massachusetts, as “Travels of Robinson Crusoe.” The book was as big a success for Thomas in the United States as it had been in England.

Here are plates from the 1786 and 1795 editions. Note that Crusoe is not only taller in 1795 but he has a new hat and loses his shoes between the editions.

Daniel Defoe (1661?-1731), The Most Surprising Adventures, and Wonderful Life of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: containing a full and particular account how his ship was lost in a storm, and all his companions were drowned, and he only was cast upon the shore by the wreck and how he lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island, on the coast of America, &c. With a true relation how he was at last miraculously preserved by pirates, &c. &c. &c. (Worcester, Mass,: Printed [by Isaiah Thomas] and sold at the Worcester bookstore, 1795). 15 cm. Contains a woodcut frontispiece and 12 (one repeated) woodcuts in the text. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 163

See also: Daniel Defoe (1661?-1731) The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe : being the second and last part of his life, and of the strange surprizing accounts of his travels round three parts of the globe / written by himself (London: Printed for W. Taylor …, 1719). Princeton copies 1-3: First edition, first issue; copies 4-5: first edition, second issue. Rare Books (Ex) PR3404 .xF37 1719

1786
1795

‘Twas in this ship, which fail’d from Hull,
That Crusoe did embark;
Which did him vex, and much perplex,
And broke his parents heart.