![Item #771 Catalogue of Books in the Gardner [Mass.] Agricultural Library. Supplied by John Raynolds, Office and Depository, Main Street, Concord, Mass. Office in Boston,--at Counting Room of the "New England Farmer," 13, Commercial Street. (Caption title). John Library Catalogue. Raynolds.](https://desimonecompanybooksellers.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/771.jpg?width=768&height=1000&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1614779556)
![Catalogue of Books in the Gardner [Mass.] Agricultural Library. Supplied by John Raynolds, Office and Depository, Main Street, Concord, Mass. Office in Boston,--at Counting Room of the "New England Farmer," 13, Commercial Street. (Caption title).](https://desimonecompanybooksellers.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/771_2.jpg?auto=webp&v=1614779556)
Catalogue of Books in the Gardner [Mass.] Agricultural Library. Supplied by John Raynolds, Office and Depository, Main Street, Concord, Mass. Office in Boston,--at Counting Room of the "New England Farmer," 13, Commercial Street. (Caption title).
Boston: [ca. 1855]. Item #771 Broadside printed on blue paper. 330 x 205 mm., [13 x 8 inches]. Printed in two columns on light blue paper. Numerous horizontal folds, some with separations in margin, otherwise about very good. John Raynolds, the publisher (with Joel Nourse) of The New England Farmer conceived a plan for creation of subscription agricultural libraries around 1850. Raynolds would supply a core collection of books at a price to be met by selling shares within the community. The caption title in this broadside is followed by an alphabetical list of approximately 120 titles, including well-known American authors like Lewis F. Allen, Samuel W. Cole, A. J. Downing, Edward Hitchcock, Charles M. Hovey, James. F. S. Johnston, Bernard McMahon, Moses Quinby, Henry Stephens, and William Youatt. Also included are a number of encyclopedias and periodicals published for the farm and agricultural community. OCLC Cat records a similar broadside "Catalogue of Books" supplied by Raynolds to the towns of Topsfield, Worcester, and Groton, as well as a printed form to be used as a stock certificate. A related broadsheet indicates how the plan was to work in Malden, Massachusetts printed in 1857. It reads in part: Mr. John Reynolds of Concord, formerly connected with the publication of the N.E. farmer at Boston, came into town in March, and obtained the signatures of eighty of our citizens to an agreement to pay the sum of $2.50 each for the purchase of a catalogue of books attached, relating to rural affairs, for the purpose of establishing the books in the town as an agricultural library. . . This broadside also includes a Constitution of the Malden Agricultural Library and a list of rules and regulations governing its use. All of the (five) documents alluded to above are recorded by single copies at the American Antiquarian Society. In addition to the places mentioned, a library on Raynold's model was also established in Deerfield, Mass. See, Lewis Glazier's History of Gardner (1999) which confirms that there was a circulating agricultural library being established in Massachusetts before 1860.
Price: $550.00