This very rare book from 1847 covers Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, and Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. Since the binding is still very tight, we duely hesitated to scan it, but we wish to share it. The text is generally clean and bright, as are most of the engravings. All the original tissue guards are still present. There is some scattered marginal foxing and some staining to the upper margin of the last few plates. The binding is in excellent condition, nice and tight, no torn or loose pages, light rubbing to the leather at tips, a copy of a very scarce book in a wonderful early American Goat Morocco Binding. Contains approximately 110 pages. To see a full size scan, please choose a picture.
I personally collect minister's diaries. It fascinates me to read about how they lived their lives and what they did in the course of their work. Some are very interesting, while others are right to the point. The one I am going to show you here illustrates one of the interesting ones. It belonged to Reverend H.M. Short who by his own notes, was a minister for the Methodist Episcopal Church in Illinois during 1870-1880. He traveled extensively, all over Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and other places. He kept records of all of the marriages and burials that he did, as well as all church members in each city that he preached in. Some of the pages are lined with his own poetry, how he spent his money, what he preached on a particular day, and so on.
What makes this particular diary such a fantastic find is the hidden newspaper clippings located in a hidden compartment in the back. It tells of what he did whenever he appeared within the newspaper, it tells of his marriage to Mattie, and so much more. If you browse through some of the pictures, some have been darkened for readability, for some was written in very light pencil and such. This Reverend fascinates me, and I have been trying to research him, but alas, I cannot find any reference to him anywhere. I simply wish to know where he is buried, and perhaps obtain a picture of him so that I may place the face with the writings. I hope you find him as fascinating as I do.
