1823 ARITHMETIC CIPHERING BOOK TOWN FEMALE TEACHER SIGNED DUDLEY MA THOMPSON CT For Sale

ITEM DESCRIPTION

Today we are pleased to offer this substantial American manuscript arithmetic and ciphering book belonging to Abilene Town, accompanied by five loose manuscript pieces, including two signed certificates qualifying her to teach school. The front cover bears the ownership inscription “Abilene Town’s Book,” and the mathematical text includes the dates 1823 and 1824. The volume contains 256 unnumbered manuscript pages, or 128 leaves, excluding the covers and loose papers. It is housed in plain brown flexible covers over a sewn text block, with its contents written in ink and supplemented by pencil calculations and annotations.

The extensive mathematical contents combine practical arithmetic with commercial calculations. Subjects include compound subtraction, multiplication and division; Troy, avoirdupois and apothecaries’ weights; cloth, dry, wine, long and land measures; time and circular motion; federal money; fractions and decimals; the direct and inverse Rule of Three; tare and tret; simple and compound interest; commission, brokerage, insurance, discount and annuities; barter, loss and gain; and partnership calculations under the heading of fellowship. Further sections address powers, square and cube roots, alligation, progressions and questions intended to exercise ingenuity. Large calligraphic headings, carefully arranged columns, ruled calculations and pen flourishes give the manuscript considerable visual character.

The two teaching certificates provide particularly valuable identification and local associations. The first, dated Thompson, Connecticut, May 28, 1826, records the examination of Miss Abilene Town and finds her qualified to teach the school in District No. 9 during the coming summer. The second, dated Dudley, Massachusetts, August 9, 1827, certifies that her literary attainments qualified her, according to law, to teach an English school. Both documents carry manuscript signatures, and the Dudley certificate includes the clearly written signature of Abiel Williams. These are substantive records of teaching qualifications rather than simply school attendance or ownership inscriptions.

The other three loose pieces broaden the personal interest of the group. A penmanship exercise repeatedly copies “Charity and humility purchase immortality,” with practice letters alongside the lines, as well as a few other pages of exercises attached. A fragmentary family register names Abilene Town and Jason Phipps and preserves portions of birth and marriage entries. A separate sheet contains a lengthy religious mourning poem on both sides, offering consolation following the death of a woman named Lucy; its concluding attribution reads “Abilene Town’s Verses 1823.” Together, these papers add handwriting practice, family record-keeping and memorial verse to the mathematical and teaching material.

Ciphering books served as personal handwritten collections of arithmetic rules, worked examples and practical problems. Their combination of calculation and careful penmanship makes them useful records of education as well as manuscript artifacts in their own right. This example has added interest because the named owner’s arithmetic work is accompanied by later documents establishing her qualifications as a teacher in two New England communities. The group brings together women’s education, Connecticut and Massachusetts school history, practical mathematics, commercial arithmetic, calligraphy, genealogy and American mourning verse.

The covers have extensive rubbing, scuffing, surface abrasion, darkened handling soil, scattered stains and losses to the outer covering. The edges and corners are rounded, chipped, split and frayed, with portions of the underlying coarse woven binding material exposed. The rear cover has a pronounced dark brown stain near the lower spine-side edge, together with smaller scattered stains and additional surface wear. The spine covering is heavily worn, and the page edges are uneven, rippled and splayed, with bent corners and projecting worn edges. The binding should be handled gently. The large script headings inside are a topping feature.

The manuscript leaves have age toning, scattered foxing and spotting, handling soil, creases, waviness, edge wear and occasional small tears or paper losses. Ink strength varies, with lighter passages, corrections, pencil additions, offsetting and show-through in places. Prominent dark brown tide-mark stains extend through a substantial run of later leaves, principally along the outer margins, and obscure portions of the writing. The terminal leaves have heavier staining, worn edges and folded lower corners. The loose papers are toned and spotted, with fold creases, edge nicks, short splits and chipping; the family-register fragment has substantial paper loss that truncates its entries, and the verse sheet has losses along its lower edge.

Make sure to see the photos above for complete details.

256 unnumbered manuscript pages (128 leaves), plus five loose manuscript pieces: two teaching certificates, one penmanship sheet, one family-register fragment and one two-sided verse sheet; calligraphic headings, worked mathematical tables, pen flourishes and small pencil sketches

This measures approximately 12 12 inches tall by 8 inches wide by 1 inch thick.

KEYWORDS

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