
AMERICANA
AFTER 1820
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AMERICAN BIBLES PART
II
POST-1820 ORDERED
BY DATE
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First Published Complete Bible Translation by a WOMAN
The “Julia Smith” Bible
Bible. English. 1876. Smith. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; translated literally from the original tongues. Hartford: American Publishing Co., 1876. 8vo (25.5 cm, 10"). [2], 892, 276 pp.
$6500.00
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First and only edition of this interestingly nonconformist translation, done by a vocal suffragist known for protesting the taxation of unenfranchised women. Julia Evelina Smith (1792–1886), one of the five celebrated, talented siblings sometimes referred to as the “Marvelous Smith Sisters of Connecticut,” became a member of the Sandemanian sect after much independent religious study. She chose to have her private labor of love published to serve as a public demonstration of the intellectual capabilities of women, rebuking one dubious banker with the comment that she “thought it just as well to spend money to print this Bible as to put it into a thousand-dollar shawl” (New York Times, 9 March 1886).
Smith endeavored to provide an extremely literal, word-for-word rendition to enhance her and her sisters' understanding of the text. Regarding the rather tangled results, she notes in her preface that “readers of this book may think it strange that I have made such use of the tenses . . . It seems to me that the original Hebrew had no regard to time, and that the Bible speaks for all ages.”
Herbert 2002; Hills 1918; Rumball-Petre 201; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 234–35. On Smith, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 383 (under entry for Smith, Abby Hadassah). Publisher's pebbled brown cloth, title and translator's name simply gilt-stamped within blind-stamped panel; recently rebacked and original spine reapplied (spine slightly rumpled), one corner restored, other corners mildly rubbed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with affixed newspaper clipping on the Smith sisters. One page with short tear from lower edge, not extending into text; pages clean.
A nice copy of a very desirable Bible. (27574)

Conant's Diglot Matthew “Baptizein” in Appendix
Bible. N.T. Matthew. Greek & English. 1860. The Gospel by Matthew. The common English version and the received Greek text; with a revised version and critical and philological notes, prepared for the American Bible Union by T. J. Conant, D.D. New York: American Bible Union; Louisville, Ky., Bible Revision Association, 1860. 4to. xxix, 171 pp.
$125.00
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“The Greek text is from Bagster's edition of Mill's reprint of Stephens' third edition (1550). The Common Version is printed from the edition prepared by the Committee of the American Bible Society.” The revised version referred to in the title “is not . . . a new translation, but a revision of the common English version.”The three versions are printed in triple-column format with notes below.
The appendix is Conant's The meaning and use of baptizein, New York, 1860, with its own title-page and pagination.
Publisher's textured brownish-green cloth, spine sunned. Light wear to board edges. Ex-library: paper call number label on spine, bookplate on front pastedown, perforation-stamps, inked accession(?) number, charge pocket (at rear). A very clean copy, the paper very good. (27442)

Ivy-Leaf Bible — Two-Color Frontispieces
Bible. English. 1866. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. Philadelphia: John E. Potter & Co., 1866. 4to (29.7 cm, 11.7"). 576, [4], 767, [1] pp.(lacking appended Psalms and concordance); 2 plts. (of 6).
$250.00
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Potter and Company published several editions of this Bible, with “text conformable to the standard of the American Bible Society.” The text is printed in double columns, the New Testament has a separate title-page, and each Testament has a two-color engraved frontispiece with architectural border.
Provenance: The family register leaves record that one Peter Paul Shank, presumably the Bible's original owner, outlived three wives (born in 1833, he married in 1857, 1896, and 1903, and died in 1913 in Mineral Springs, NY). The birthdates of Shank and his wives are all listed, but no offspring are recorded.
Binding: Publisher's deluxe embossed brown roan in imitation of morocco, covers with central medallions surrounded by ivy motifs, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled knotwork and floral decorations.
Hills 1796. Not in Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks. Binding as above, minor rubbing to joints, edges, and extremities. 64 pp. of appended material (index, concordance, metrical Psalms) lacking, with Biblical text and index complete; four plates (of six) lacking, with no indication of their ever having been present. Sewing loosening; first few leaves partially separated. Pages age-toned with some foxing. Front free endpaper torn from outer edge; one leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into text without loss.
(24453)

First Roman Character
Micmac Gospels
Printed
by “Megumagea'
Ledakun-Weekugukemkawa
Moweome”
in “Chebootook”
(i.e., Halifax)
Bible. N.T. Matthew. Micmac. Rand. 1871. Pela Kesagunoodumumkawa tan tula uksakumamenoo westowoolkw Sasoogoole Clistawit ootenink. Chebooktook: Megumagea Ledakun-weekugemkawa moweome, 1871. 12mo (16.1 cm, 6.3"). 126, [2 (blank)] pp. [with] Bible.. N.T. John. Micmac. Rand. 1872. Wooleagunoodumakun tan tula Saneku. Megumoweesimk. Chebooktook: Megumagea' Ledakun-weekugemkawa moweome, 1872. 103, [1 (blank)] pp.
$875.00
First editions thus, revised from the first published Micmac translations of Matthew and John, which originally appeared in 1853 and 1854. Printed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the texts here are entirely in Micmac given in roman characters with diacritical marks (except for chapter headings and running titles in English). The translations were done by Silas Tertius Rand, a Canadian Baptist missionary who also published the first Micmac dictionary and grammar.
Neither work is tremendously common in United States institutional collections, but John in particular is reported by only eight U.S. institutions.
Matthew: Darlow & Moule 6788. John: Darlow & Moule 6789. Both: Pilling, Algonquian, 420; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 296. Contemporary pebbled brown cloth, front cover detached, spine sunned. Pages age-toned. First two leaves of John each with short tear from upper margin, not touching text. (26209)
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