Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
January 28, 1808
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 28
Additional Source Text:
Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), 5 Feb 1808 adds: "This splendid publication is altogether of American manufacture, except the 12 copperplate engravings."
Notes:
Barlow's Columbiad was published by the firm of Fry and Kammerer in Philadelphia in 1807. John Bidwell has written: "The publication of The Columbiad in 1807 was the graphic arts event of the decade. It was the first American made deluxe book to be manufactured on a cost-is-no-object basis -- or, if not that, it was a tremendous expense to all concerned. Nearly a thousand copies were printed at a cost of $10,000, and they were not to be sold for less than $20." / https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44517717.pdf
Robert Fulton had helped Barlow arrange and finance the engravings, a debt that Barlow repaid by dedicating the poem to Fulton as well as to his wife Ruth Baldwin Barlow (1755-1818). Selected Papers, 2, pt. 2: 1057-1058
Title Information:
The Columbiad. A Poem
Imprint Information:
Philadelphia, 1807
Repository:
Library Company of Philadelphia, call no. *Am 1807 Bar (1)2905.Q (Mrs. J.B. Burnett)
