I sold one very special book today on Ebay, and listed two more. This is all for work, so it's not like I benefit outright, but I do take a certain pride in it.
The book that sold was an oversized Bible printed in Cincinnati in 1852, and it had an older family register sewn into it. Hand-penned records of the births and deaths of the Smith family covered 1756 to 1901.
That's pretty special.
The Memoir of Elder William Conrad was printed in 1884, and never reprinted. He was born in 1797 when we were barely a nation. But he wasn't too old to autograph and write an inscription in his memoir by the time it was published. This Baptist travelled all over the Midwest and what he called the Far West- the western territories before they attained statehood. He founded a church in Kentucky, and a lot of people trace their ancestry back to him. So I hope this book goes to someone with a personal interest in it.
The other book was a copy of Civic Biology by George William Hunter. At a glance, it's just an old high school textbook. However, it is the 1914 textbook that started the 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial" by putting evolution in the curriculum. We were descended from monkeys?? No way! It was the media circus of its day, lots of celebrities involved, spawned a play I had to read for high school lit, etc. Wikipedia has the details.
Interestingly enough, the post-trial printings of the book removed all references to evolution (and included an expanded chapter on eugenics, which is a whole different nasty topic). But this is the 1st edition, just as John Scopes would have taught it. If you're a science geek, kind of cool.
The book that sold was an oversized Bible printed in Cincinnati in 1852, and it had an older family register sewn into it. Hand-penned records of the births and deaths of the Smith family covered 1756 to 1901.
That's pretty special.
The Memoir of Elder William Conrad was printed in 1884, and never reprinted. He was born in 1797 when we were barely a nation. But he wasn't too old to autograph and write an inscription in his memoir by the time it was published. This Baptist travelled all over the Midwest and what he called the Far West- the western territories before they attained statehood. He founded a church in Kentucky, and a lot of people trace their ancestry back to him. So I hope this book goes to someone with a personal interest in it.
The other book was a copy of Civic Biology by George William Hunter. At a glance, it's just an old high school textbook. However, it is the 1914 textbook that started the 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial" by putting evolution in the curriculum. We were descended from monkeys?? No way! It was the media circus of its day, lots of celebrities involved, spawned a play I had to read for high school lit, etc. Wikipedia has the details.
Interestingly enough, the post-trial printings of the book removed all references to evolution (and included an expanded chapter on eugenics, which is a whole different nasty topic). But this is the 1st edition, just as John Scopes would have taught it. If you're a science geek, kind of cool.
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