Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Monthly Bulletin Published monthly, except in August and September, by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pa. President, S. H. Church, Carnegie Library, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue; Secretary, J. D. Hailman; Treasurer, James H. Reed, 1027 Carnegie Building; Director, John H. Leete, Carnegie Library, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue. Subscription 50 cents a year. Vol. 26 November 1921 No. 9 The Celebration of Thanksgiving Day No very clear conception exists in the minds of most people as to when and how our celebration of Thanksgiving Day originated. From a book by W. DeLoss Love, Jr., entitled "The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England," some passages which throw light on this subject are quoted here: The present national custom may be said to be the appointment of an annual harvest thanksgiving, and such special fast or thanksgiving days as the circumstances of sorrow or joy may seem to warrant. If we speak of the thanksgiving day as a national institution, it dates back to the Revolution, and the first was December 18, 1777; but if we have in mind the annual harvest thanksgiving day, it became nationalized through the adoption of it by the several States, and the first appointment was by Abraham Lincoln, the 26th of November, 1863... It is difficult to trace the history of a custom, for it is developed gradually. The annual harvest thanksgiving is no exception. Its be ginning cannot be set at any particular date. At first the exceptional harvest called it forth. Every year of blessings encouraged it. The religious and social advantages of the day grew in favor. So it was after a time generally accepted. In Plymouth it may have retained longer the community character which their ecclesiastical traditions had given to it; in Massachusetts it may have been less prominent because of their Puritan heritage; in Connecticut it may have taken on earlier the continuity of a civil institution; but in all these colonies, settled by the same people and in constant intercourse with one another, the custom was very much the same in its practical observance within the meeting-house and in the home. And, making all allowance for unrecovered facts, this institution, now national, can be traced back to a general adoption about forty years after the memorable harvest feast of the Pilgrims... The earliest manner of appointing these days was by a simple order, briefly stating the causes, which was in writing, and signed by the secretary of the colony. This was transmitted to the minister of each town, often by a special messenger, and by him was read to the people. In remote districts the notice was passed from one to another, the minister finding some mode of communication. There are instances on record where all he received was hearsay information, and sometimes this was too late to secure a general keeping of the day. In such a case he would appoint a day the week following. Some excused themselves, if the day was unpopular, on the ground that they had no notice. The fast in Connecticut, April 18, 1771, was not observed in Fairfield County because the post-rider, knowing, we suspect, what they were, did not deliver the proclamations, on which account he was brought into court. The later colonial proclamation was longer than the early order, being an expansion of the causes by some minister or pious layman. Therefore, as it was at first comparatively brief, as the occasions were frequent, and printing expensive and slow, there was no demand for putting them in print, even though there was a printingpress at Cambridge. But after forty years had passed, the number of towns in Massachusetts was greatly increased, and the labor of making copies for all the clergymen was considerable. Then a necessity arose for the use of the printing-press. Copies of the early printed proclamations of a thanksgiving are rare. This is but natural since they were usually printed in broadside form, on a single sheet of paper, and were extremely convenient for subsequent use as wrapping paper. The earliest thanksgiving broadside known is one from 471 THE CELEBRATION OF THANKSGIVING DAY Massachusetts, which is to be found-or at least was at the time Mr. Love wrote "Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England" in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The wording of this broadside is reproduced here: At A Held at Charlestown, June the 20th, 1676 The holy God having by a long and Continued Series of his Afflictive dispensations in & by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this Land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard: reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatned, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to our selves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time. of pressing Afflictions: The COUNCIL have thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th. day of this Instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of Gods Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering praise and thereby glorifying him; The Council doth Commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly. and seriously to keep the same. Beseeching that being perswaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our Bodies and Souls as a living and Acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ. By the Council, Edward Rawson Secr. Books for Christmas Gifts So many people would like to give books as Christmas gifts but in the rush of Christmas shopping feel at a loss in selecting, that the Bulletin publishes this brief list compiled by the Adult Lending Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in the hope that it may prove helpful. The books named in this list are all comparatively recent and they are all books which the demand has proved are interesting to the general reader. The Library makes no claim that these are the best of the recent books; it simply suggests them as books which have some value and general interest. Crowding Memories. By Mrs. Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Autobiography. By Andrew Carnegie. The Dame School of Experience, and Other Papers. In Berkshire Fields. By Walter Prichard Eaton. The Brimming Cup. By Samuel By Agnes Ed By Mrs. Dorothea Canfield Fisher. By Walter Lionel George. The Life of Joseph Hodges Choate. By Edward Sandford Martin. The Man in the Street. By Meredith Nicholson. Mystic Isles of the South Seas. By Frederick O'Brien. English Ways and By-Ways. By Leighton Parks. By Ambrose Petrocokino. Cashmere; Three Weeks in a Houseboat. Star Points; Songs of Joy, Faith, and Promise from the Present-Day Poets. By Mrs. Gertrude Moore Richards. Everyday Adventures. By Samuel Scoville, Jr. Ellen Levis. By Elsie Singmaster. By Lytton Strachey. Loafing Down Long Island. By Charles Hanson Towne. An Exhibition of Illustrated Books for Children An unusual collection of illustrated books for children, ranging in time of publication from 1600 to 1921 was on exhibition in the Central Lending Room of the Library for three weeks during late October and early November. Seventy of these books, including some which are very rare, were lent by Mr. Wilbur Macy Stone of New York. Mr. Stone also lent ten cards showing colored illustrations taken from English children's books of the period from 1830 to 1840. Other interesting old books were lent by the Carnegie Library School and these collections were supplemented by a representative selection of more recent books to show modern developments in illustration. The greater number of the books were of English or American origin; but France, Italy, and other countries were also represented in the collection. Thomas Bewick and his brother John, William Blake, George Cruikshank, Arthur Hughes, and the trio of nursery artists-Greenaway, Caldecott, and Crane-who introduced the modern era of picturebooks, were among those whose work was shown. The earliest book in the exhibition was a collection of fables, which was quite fitting since fables are of remote antiquity and were familiar to children in the days when children's books as we now have them were unknown. This book was from the press of Christopher Plantin, one of the best known of the early printers, and was illustrated with excellent woodcuts. Another book of special interest was a 1777 edition of the famous "Orbis Pictus" of John Amos Comenius which was originally written in High Dutch and Latin and was first translated into English in 1658. It is usually spoken of as the child's first picture-book. The author's purpose was to entice witty children so that the scarecrows might be taken out of wisdom's gardens, and he was apparently successful for the book was widely popular for one hundred fifty years or more and went through many editions. James Greenwood's |