Book Inventory Revelations!
For the last few months interns Torrance Thomas and Yyonette Fogg have been unpacking, cataloguing, photographing and re-housing over 3,000 books currently in storage in the garage building at Tudor Place. No one really knew what they would find when they started the project, as these books had been sitting in storage for years. What they discovered was a very diverse collection ranging from Bibles to books about the constellations. Below are some of their more interesting finds: (though our Archivist would yell at me for using the word “find.” “We have always known where they were,” she says):
Holy Bible, Containing The Old and New Testaments, with Copious Marginal References (1814)
Inscribed: Beverly Kennon Peter from his Grandmother/This Bible belonged to his Great Grandmother Martha Custis Peter.
Colton, J.H. Coltons’ Map of Virginia (1861) Drawn before there was a West Virginia!
Burrit, Elijah H. Atlas, Designed to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens (1835)
Swift, Jonathan. First Edition of Gulliver’s Travels Originally entitled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. (1726)
The Jonathan Swift novel was found with a Christmas card inside indicating that it was a gift to Armistead Peter, Jr. from his wife Nannie Peter in 1922.
Morrison, William H. Morrison’s Stranger’s Guide for Washington City (1882)
