Kite's Town and Country Almanac, for the Year 1816. Being Bissextile, or Leap Year
Philadelphia: Printed by Lydia R. Bailey for Benjamin and Thomas Kite, [1815]. Original Wrappers. Fair binding. Item #7553
12mo. [36] pp. illus. Stitched into self wrappers; title vignette and anatomical illustration. Final leaf is missing the bottom third of the leaf; otherwise generally worn with many folded corners; ragged page edges; early tidelines; some insect spotting, but complete except for this final leaf.
This is an early almanac printed by Bailey, who took over her husband Robert Bailey's print shop after his death in 1808 and ran in until she retired and closed the shop in 1861. Karen Nipps in her biographical sketch writes, "Bailey was the master printer of a shop that at its peak was one of the largest in the city, employing more than forty workers. . . . [S]he transformed her husband's floundering business into one of the busiest printing establishments in Philadelphia. Although previous generations of printers' widows had continued their husbands' careers, they had done so only long enough to remarry, have a mature son take over, or fold the business; Lydia Bailey made the business a success and never relinquished control of it" (Oxford American National Biography). For better than a half a century Bailey was a force with which to reckon. An imperfect, but important imprint that captures the mainstay of her print-shop's output. Shaw & Shoemaker 51508; Drake 11094; Nipps Checklist, 125.
Price: $75.00