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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
From the time the first American edition issued forth from the pioneer Cambridge press of Stephen Daye in 1639, the almanac was destined to play a significant role in the education of the American people. Indeed, an almanac had played a not inconsiderable supporting role in the discovery of America itself, as it was one of the chief navigational aids of one Christopher Columbus.
1. Although no longer extant, the first almanac printed in America was in 1639, according to the Winthrop Journal. It was calculated for New England by Captain William Pierce, Mariner. (Marble, Anne R., “Early New-England Almanacs,” New-England Magazine, N.S., XIX [1899], 549.)Google Scholar
2. Morison, Samuel Eliot, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942), p. 478.Google Scholar
3. Morison, Samuel Eliot, Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936), I, 133.Google Scholar
4. Nichols, Charles, “Notes on the Almanacs of Massachusetts,” American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, N.S., XXII (1912), 22.Google Scholar
5. Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Intellectual Life of Colonial New England (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1961), p. 230, paperback.Google Scholar
6. T. S. [Shepard, Thomas], An Almanack for … 1656 (Cambridge, Mass.: Printed by Samuel Green, 1656).Google Scholar
7. Morison gives credit to Zechariah Brigden for presenting “… the earliest extant scientific essay by a Harvard graduate….” (Morison, , Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century, I, 216.)Google Scholar
8. D. R. [Russell, Daniel], An Almanack of Coelestial Motion … 1671 (Cambridge: S.G. and M.J., 1671).Google Scholar
9. Russel, N., Cambridge Ephemeris. An Almanack of Coelestial Motion, Configurations, etc. for the year … 1684 (Cambridge, Mass.: Printed by Samuel Green, 1684).Google Scholar
10. Atkins, Samuel, Kalendarum Pennsilvaniense, or American Messinger. Being an Almanack for … 1686 (Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by William Bradford, 1685). Bradford was one of the busier Colonial Americans, printing the first almanac outside of New England as well as the first newspaper in Philadelphia (The American Weekly Mercury) in 1719. He also founded the first paper in New York (The New York Gazette) in 1725. In his spare time, he established a coffeehouse and an insurance company.Google Scholar
11. Lodowick, C., The New-England Almanack for … 1695 (Boston: Printed by B. Green for S. Phillips, 1695). An example of the medical advice offered to the unfortunate reader stricken with “Pyles” is the following remedy: “Take … powder of Earthworms, incorporate it exactly with as much hensgrease as will serve to make it up into an ointment, which apply to the part affected, whose pains it usually mitigates.” Google Scholar
12. H. B., Boston Almanack for the Year … 1692 (Boston: Printed by Benjamin Harris and John Allen, 1692).Google Scholar
13. The common plantain was of considerable value in preventing “griping of the guts” as well as the “bloody flux,” according to Leeds, Daniel (Leeds, Daniel, The American Almanack … 1713 [New York: Printed and Sold by William Bradford, 1713]).Google Scholar
14. For the curious, all that an intrepid “bed-bugg” hunter had to do to catch the wily beasts was to “… use Indian Bean leaves and lay them rough side upward on his pillow.” The “buggs” would adhere to the sticky leaves and be thus entrapped. Sic semper tyrannis! (Leeds, Daniel, The American Almanack … 1704 [New York: Printed and Sold by William Bradford, 1704]).Google Scholar
15. Rossiter, Clinton, The First American Revolution (New York, 1956), p. 207, paperback.Google Scholar
16. Tobler, John, The Pennsylvania Town and Country-Man's Almanack for … 1758 (Germantown: Printed and Sold by C. Sower, 1758).Google Scholar
17. Ibid. Google Scholar
18. Ibid. Google Scholar
19. Ames, Nathaniel, An Astronomical Diary, or, An Almanack for … 1758 (Boston: Printed and Sold by J. Draper, for the Booksellers, 1758).Google Scholar
20. The “Spelling Bee” was sponsored by Franklin as early as 1750 as a public competitive game for much the same reason of dispelling (no pun intended) aristocratic pretensions and linguistic-based social stratifications. (See Boorstin, Daniel, The Americans: The Colonial Experience [New York: Random House, Inc., 1964] p. 285, paperback).Google Scholar
21. Tobler, , op. cit. Google Scholar
22. Ibid. Google Scholar
23. Ibid. Google Scholar
24. See Franklin's lamentations in his “Observations Relative to the intentions of the original founders of the Academy in Philadelphia” (1789). (Best, John H. [ed.], Benjamin Franklin on Education [New York: Teachers College Bureau of Publications, 1962] p. 172, paperback).Google Scholar
25. This distaff article was written by Mrs. Martha Logan, and entitled “Directions for Managing a Kitchen-Garden every Month of the Year, Done by a Lady.” (Tobler, John, The South Carolina Almanack for … 1756 [Germantown: Printed by Christopher Sower, 1756].)Google Scholar
26. More, Roger, Poor Roger, 1761. The American Country Almanack for … 1761 (New York: Printed and Sold by James Parker and Company, 1761).Google Scholar
27. Ibid. Google Scholar
28. Aguecheek, Andrew, The Universal American Almanack for … 1762 (Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by W. Bradford and A. Steuart, 1761).Google Scholar
29. Trueman, Timothy, The Burlington Almanack for … 1772 (Burlington: Printed and Sold by Isaac Collins, 1772).Google Scholar
30. Ibid. Google Scholar
31. Ibid. Google Scholar
32. Tobler, John, The South Carolina and Georgia Almanack for … 1774 (Charleston: Printed for the Editor, 1774).Google Scholar
33. Aitken, R., Aitken's General American Register and the Gentlemans and Tradesmans … Calendar for … 1774 (Philadelphia: Printed by John Crukshank for R. Aitken, 1774).Google Scholar
34. Trueman, Timothy, The Burlington Almanack for … 1774 (Burlington: Printed and Sold by Isaac Collins, 1774).Google Scholar
35. McLuhan, Marshall, Chapter Two: Media Hot and Cold, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1966), paperback.Google Scholar
It might be interesting to contrast the almanac, a “hot” media in high definition, with other Colonial agencies of noninstitutional education representative of “cool” media (sermons, for example).
